PM&M / Resources / Vocabulary :

Volkseigener Betrieb

(singular) or Volkseigene Betriebe (plural) are both abbreviated as V.E.B.. The term is best translated as people-owned enterprise[s] and describes state-owned businesses and factories in the former German Democratic Republic.

During the various phases of expropriation following the founding of the German Democratic Republic, all single factories or former companies that had been nationalized became so-called V.E.B. units. These were then grouped in larger ⇒V.V.B. units that were named after the largest or most influential of the included V.E.B. units which then also operated as responsible head office.

The prefix V.V.B. was dropped a few years later and replaced by the term ⇒Kombinat. For example the V.V.B. Feinkeramik Kahla later became the Kombinat V.E.B. Porzellanwerk Kahla. While both of those names described the whole group of production units, the name V.E.B. Porzellanwerk Kahla alone (without the Kombinat addition) only described the single factory on Kahla.