E. Germany Enters Computer Age Despite Handicaps

East Germany is pushing its aging factories into the computer age, but its bid to rival Western domination of high technology faces several handicaps.

Chief among them are tough Western sanctions and a drain on components to the Soviet Union.

Nevertheless, Communist Leader Erich Honecker made his priorities clear at Leipzig International Trade Fair in March by opening the show at the micro-electronics pavilion.

Pride of place here went to East Germany’s first high-speed 16-bit small computer for offices and factories.

Production Next Year

Officials concede that the machine, produced by the state-owned Robotron company in Dresden, will not go into serial production until autumn 1986. Cooperation with Western firms would have brought forward many deadlines.

But the tardy arrival of these more advanced electronic brains should help fill the ranks of the country’s modest army of industrial robots.

East Germany says it has some 40,000 such robots installed. Western experts say most fall far short of Japanese wizardry, but investment is clearly being stepped up rapidly.

Roland Winckler, head of the export firm Elektrotechnik, told reporters that Western sanctions were disruptive but would not stop the state developing as a key East Bloc computer producer.

“We will work together more closely with those countries which are interested in joint development,” he added.

East Germany is the victim of its hard currency needs and reliance on Soviet imports. Its microelectronic devices and computer components are drained off as payment to Moscow for raw materials and oil.

Further production is siphoned off to the lucrative hard currency Western markets, where East Germany is hoping for breakthroughs with its home and small computers.

Chasing Their Goals

“The computer range was generally very good,” one Western visitor to the Leipzig Fair commented.

“They’ve hoisted the technical level of their components and small computers a long way in the last six years and seem to be chasing their goals with German thoroughness and grit,” he said.

The drive to rival the West, a goal still out of sight, began in the late 1970s with the expansion of Robotron, the fusion of smaller units and the opening of a new plant in Erfurt, about 150 miles from Berlin.

This came just after Western countries formed a coordinating committee (COCOM) limiting technology transfers to eastern Europe.

Erfurt last year produced the first 500 East German home computers although few are expected to find their way into private homes as playthings. According to officials, most will be seconded to offices, youth clubs and schools.

Erfurt representatives also aim to sell them in the West.

The nearby Carl-Zeiss Jena plant, working for the Soviet space program, operates in isolation with large areas shielded behind high security fences.

Another Boost Expected

The industry now employs 450,000 people out of a population of less than 17 million. Recent statements by top party officials suggest it will get a further boost in next year’s new five-year plan.

Bold steps are needed if East Germany is to come anywhere near its dreams to introduce full computer systems on the railroads, in banking and other key areas.

Progress is being slowed drastically by its weighty export commitments towards the Soviet Union and the West.

But Moscow, concentrating on larger-scale computers and drawing big deliveries of computer parts and microelectronic devices from East Germany, has at least promised more cooperation in research.