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Unique Find - Singer German/Russian Post War

Unique Find - Singer German/Russian Post War

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Old 05-16-2021, 01:25 PM
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Default Unique Find - Singer German/Russian Post War

This machine is a Singer casting with a serial number from the Wittenberg Germany factory. After the Germans were defeated in WWII the Russians confiscated all of the machinery and contents of that factory as war reparations. PMZ (which this one is labeled for) continued making machines with the equipment it seized from Singer, however they were not stamping serial numbers. (This whole paragraph is from what I understand in digging as deep as I could)

Being this machine has been serialized by Singer and has the C prefix, it signifies it was manufactured in Germany.

I'm looking for more insight on this, the history is vague. I'm wondering if this machine was actually made by the Germans, sat in the factory for a bit and then was seized and decorated by the Russians?
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Old 05-16-2021, 07:15 PM
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Here's a blurp from the ISMACs site about the Wittenberg factory. http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_mach...ttenberge.html

And here's some info from a Singer UK site https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/wittenberge

There's a lot of info out there about Wittenberg Singers.

Last edited by cashs_mom; 05-16-2021 at 07:19 PM.
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Old 05-17-2021, 06:48 AM
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I don't think your machine was serialized by Singer, so the Singer database wouldn't apply. I have a similar machine from the Podolsk Mechanical Factory. The serial number of my machine also starts with a C, the decals are different (though the badge is the same as yours), they look very much like the decals for the Singer 101. The factory was originally a Singer factory that was nationalized after the revolution. I determined that my machine was Russian made probably late 30s or early 40s.

The "им. Калинина"at the end of the your badge name puts it after 1923. If you copy/paste the Cyrillic Подольский механический завод (found at the top of the badge) into google it'll turn up a bunch more pictures of these machines. Bring your Google Translate though! 😉

I'll see if I can find links to some of the web pages I used to determine the providence of my machine. But the above Google search I mentioned will get you a lot of information.

Tammy
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Old 05-17-2021, 07:06 AM
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Thanks, Tammy. Good info
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Old 05-17-2021, 08:22 AM
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Welcome to the Board!

I can't tell you anything about your machine, except that I'd love to find something like that.
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Old 05-17-2021, 11:49 AM
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I want to welcome you to the board. Great find.
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Old 05-23-2021, 06:34 PM
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Originally Posted by leonf View Post
I want to welcome you to the board. Great find.
Thanks. Good to be here. Started collecting with my wife only a year ago and we’re really enjoying the hunt and bringing these back to life.
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Old 05-23-2021, 06:37 PM
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Originally Posted by JoeJr View Post
Welcome to the Board!

I can't tell you anything about your machine, except that I'd love to find something like that.
Thanks. I’m in PA and picked it up in NJ. They have another one but to ship would cost a fortune. I see you live a thousand miles away.
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Old 05-23-2021, 06:39 PM
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Originally Posted by ttatummm View Post
I don't think your machine was serialized by Singer, so the Singer database wouldn't apply. I have a similar machine from the Podolsk Mechanical Factory. The serial number of my machine also starts with a C, the decals are different (though the badge is the same as yours), they look very much like the decals for the Singer 101. The factory was originally a Singer factory that was nationalized after the revolution. I determined that my machine was Russian made probably late 30s or early 40s.

The "им. Калинина"at the end of the your badge name puts it after 1923. If you copy/paste the Cyrillic Подольский механический завод (found at the top of the badge) into google it'll turn up a bunch more pictures of these machines. Bring your Google Translate though! 😉

I'll see if I can find links to some of the web pages I used to determine the providence of my machine. But the above Google search I mentioned will get you a lot of information.

Tammy
Thanks. If I find anything more I will of course share the info.
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Old 05-23-2021, 06:41 PM
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Originally Posted by cashs_mom View Post
Here's a blurp from the ISMACs site about the Wittenberg factory. http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_mach...ttenberge.html

And here's some info from a Singer UK site https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/wittenberge

There's a lot of info out there about Wittenberg Singers.
Thanks, those were my go to sites to get started on research.
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