Skip to content
Get in touch
  1. Home
  2. Insights
  3. The revenue lexicon
  4. Brunsviga

Glossary

Brunsviga

Subject areaArtificial intelligence

Also known asBrunsviga calculator

Brunsviga is the brand of mechanical calculators built by Grimme, Natalis & Co. of Braunschweig, Germany, and takes its name from the Latin form of the city.

They are pinwheel calculators: at the end of the nineteenth century the company licensed the design of Willgodt Theophil Odhner, and its engineer Franz Trinks improved it until it was fit for large-scale production.

In 1921 the company became a joint-stock company, and the Brunsviga name covers a family of models found in German and European offices for much of the twentieth century. Among them:

From 1922 to 1927 the neighbouring Rema Patent maker, also from Braunschweig, effectively merged into the firm, and some of its models were sold under the Brunsviga brand. It is one of the best-known European names among mechanical technologies of intelligence.

Source: Wikidata Q994100; Rechnerlexikon e John Wolff's Web Museum (Calculating Machines), citati nella scheda tecnica del modello aggiornata al 09/08/2026.

An example

The case below is constructed, because the term does not yet appear in the articles. A German bank in the 1930s calculates interest on accounts at the end of the quarter: every clerk has a crank calculator on the desk, and the word Brunsviga on the cover is enough to name the type of machine, as would later happen with the name of a computer brand.

cc$BY-NCEnrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com

Spotted an inaccuracy or something that needs updating? Write to info@enricogiubertoni.com and help make this glossary a better place.

What are your business challenges?

Tell us about your priorities and the objectives you want to reach.
You will receive a free, targeted answer within one working day.