Speaking of Soviet products, are you familiar with these?
What sounds like a German music festival, is actually the name of a genius east German glass invention, a glass which could last up to 15 times longer than normal glass. The origins of Superfest, literally SuperHard – were twofold. East Germany was always a frugal country with a mindset of not wasting the limited resources it had, and it was driven by technological advances.
But then…
Despite their commercial success in East Germany, the production plant in Schewpnitz was shut down on the 1st of July, 1990. After German reunification, the plant was sold off and scrapped piece by piece – as no manufacturer had any interest in the technology, or in a product which would actually “slow down” sales. And that’s (just one of many small) tragedies of German reunification. Superfest was an invention that maybe could have only been made under a “socialist” system – it was a product that solved a problem, but wasn’t dependent on inflated sales figure due planned obsolescence.
I hadn’t heard of that one. But it reminds me of Pyrex, which isn’t actually Pyrex anymore. It’s just a brand name, now, and the glass they use for the dishes is shit and has none of the durability or temperature tolerance of real Pyrex.
They have certain lines that use the borosilicate glass which is the good kind
Superfest, literally SuperHard
It gets the point across but Supersolid would probably be a better translation.
There’s a few interesting stories like this, I read a few articles about Christa Petroff-Bohne where she talks about designing every day objects for the GDR. Stuff like making sure service items for the food industry stack well and are made out of materials you can polish scratches out of.
It gets the point across but Supersolid would probably be a better translation.
Whether Supersolid or Superhard, it’s like something a communist Billy Mays came up with and thinking about this is really stirring my imagination.
Interestingly enough – the name Ceverit was phased out before production began and replaced with “Superfest (Super Hard), as someone noticed that “Ceverit” was a conjugated form of the Latin word “cevere”, which translates to “wiggling your butt while having sex”. Opportunity missed in my opinion.
Lol!
