I was wondering if the countries of Eastern Europe relied on imports of Heros and Wing Sungs or did they produce pens of their own. What East German pens were produced, if any? Any thought you might share with a new guy very much appreciated.

A lady I work with came back from Poland last year with a bunch of Heros after her father passed away.

OK, my memory from growing up in Poland is sketchy. Most of my pens were a type that look like the more contemporary Reforms (70's/80's style.) I'm guessing they were made in Poland or East Germany. They took short cartridges, and worked very well. The nib looked and wrote a lot like the Reform 1745, which I'm sure is a familiar reference point for many FPN'ers

Also had a couple of Chinese pens, one with a hooded nib and one with an exposed one. Both had an aerometric filler. The Chinese pens were considered a premium step-up, but I preferred the cheap local ones because the nibs were soft and smooth.

One of the more known East German pen producers is Cleo Skribent. They make pens even today. I suggest an article by Jim Mamoulides on penhero.com

Thank you, it's very interesting.

I have a Markant 165 that I think was produced in the DDR. It's an Aerometric style filler with a hooded nib, plated steel nib it appears.

Interesting question. Hoping to read more answers.

--Doug

As for Czechoslovakia, I encountered several Centropen fountain pens. I don't really believe they'd be of a high quality. But still, the ones I saw were thirty to forty years old so go figure.

I can't give you any names, but I'm sure there would have been some domestic makers. I remember seeing a Russian Parker 51 clone on eBay some months ago, complete with red star.

As well I'm sure that any pen factories that survived WWII would have been encouraged to keep producing, if only to support the domestic economies, in much the same way that the Carl Zeiss factory at Jena became one of the world's leading optics factories.

I'm under 30 so I remember only using Heros and then Parker Vectors in 1980s here in Poland.
But there were Polish pens produced by local factories. Like these pens from 1960s:
Polish INCO pen
Polish INCO M 58 pen
Polish INCO No. 9 pen

(sorry if the links expire, but that auctioning site hosts its listings only for 2 months)

[edited to add one more pen]

There was another Polish brand Kawuska, take a look here: www.kem.adn.pl