Groma Kolibri: The Ultra-Slim Typewriter

Artwork by Rob Bowker

I seldom have cause to regret being the catalyst for somebody acquiring a typewriter. Take for example Tino, of Melbourne, who initially, back in the middle of May, wasn’t sure whether to thank me or blame me for him buying a Groma Kolibri.

Tino read about the Kolibri in my book, The Magnificent 5: And 250 Other Great Things About Portable Typewriters. “You just HAD to mention Groma Kolibris in your book, didn't you?” he mused. “Thanks to that little snippet and a recent viewing of The Lives of Others, I am now the proud (and slightly poorer) owner of a metallic green Groma Kolibri.”

It's a beauty, too (below):

So I doubt if Tino has had any real regrets in the intervening seven months. One can clearly read into his post just how much he loved getting that machine. See http://teeritz.blogspot.com/2011/05/groma-kolibri-man-its-slim-typewriter.html

As well, Tino has had some “Der TypenKasten”-Lives of Others-style fun on his Teeritz Agenda blog. See http://teeritz.blogspot.com/2011/05/der-typenkasten.html

I am not going to go into any detail here about the Kolibri, or the leading role this typewriter plays in that brilliant 2006 German language movie The Lives of Others.

Look how well the manufacturers packed everything in so tightly. And what a dinky little mainspring, right under the carriage!

Instead, I will direct you to Georg Sommeregger’s posts, where he does a magnificent job of covering both machine and movie (including stills of the vital typewriter scenes) - as well as including a YouTube video of the Kolibri in use (and I suspect Georg might well be owner of the deft touch-typing hands).
The posts are at http://sommeregger.blogspot.com/2008/11/groma-kolibri-typewriter.html and http://sommeregger.blogspot.com/2011/10/schreibmaschinen-im-kino-das-leben-der.html

Here is a trailer of the movie:
For those who don’t know, The Lives of Others involves the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police.

It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

As all typewriters owned in East Germany were registered, a playwright uses a Kolibri smuggled in from West Germany, which he hides under the floorboards of a doorway between two rooms of his apartment.

NOT a Kolibri on the cover!

Featured above are two of my Kolibris. The third one, a brown and black two-tone, is still being reassembled. I may have to use it now for other purposes, as one might be able to pick from these typecasts:

The missing "T" typeslug

By the way, in case you're wondering if such a thing exists, I do own an all-red typewriter ribbon!