Lied Der Zeit GmbH

"Lied Der Zeit GmbH" (correctly: "Lied Der Zeit Schallplatten GmbH" or "Lied der Zeit Schallplattengesellschaft mbH")... was founded as a corporation on 3rd of February 1947 in the Soviet occupied zone of Berlin, Germany, by the singer and actor Ernst Busch and his shareholders Gerhard Schwarz and Hans Wolff. On March 18, 1947 the record company was entered in the commercial register of the Berlin Mitte district court. Objective of the company was the manufacturing and distribution of records and music sheets. Since 1950 a music publisher belonged additionally to the record company. The basis for it's predecessor LIED DER ZEIT was created in August 1946 by getting a soviet licence to press records at the behest of the Soviet cultural officer. In October 1946 the Soviets decided to hand over the record business to Ernst Busch exclusively in the artist club “Die Möwe”. Later the Soviet military administration took an administrative first step towards creating material structures by transferring the "TEMPO" record factory in Babelsberg near Potsdam, which had produced dance music records for cheap sale in department stores before the war, to Ernst Busch and his company Lied Der Zeit GmbH. Hence in Babelsberg, the TEMPO factory was restored as "Plant I" and a new pressing plant had also being set up as "Plant II" in Ehrenfriedersdorf, Saxony. The latter closed in 1958 - when the VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin had been in charge already. On 01. April 1953 the company was transferred to public ownership and renamed to "VEB Lied der Zeit". In the year 1954 the record company and music publisher were separated. Simultaneously the department for publishing and music sheets was segregated and rebranded in "VEB Lied der Zeit Musikverlag". From then on, the record company operated as VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin.