The I.F.H.B.
Thank you for your interest in the IFHB and its activities. We are pleased to inform you about the intention and tasks of our non-profit association.

Computer, laser printer, and networks are the today's tools for office work. Not long ago, these terms were completely unknown. There were teletypers and phones with dial plate. Letters and documents were created by a typewriter, and calculations were performed with help of a mechanical adding machine ... But even that was already a technical revolution in the office, because the clerks in the office had previously only pens or simple computing tools on hand.

The IFHB was founded in 1981 and explores the social and technological changes in the office. To this end we collect information about office machines like calculators and typewriters, and we publish it in two journals: the HBw - "Historische Bürowelt", which appears 4 times a year, and the "HBw-Aktuell", our periodical appearing 11 times a year and dealing with dates, auctions, collectors meetings, sales and other society activities. The members get contact to other collectors, and they can publish want ads or sold notes for office machines for free. Meetings with swap meets and collective museum visitations establish contact between the members.

The international circle of members of the IFHB consists of more than 300 collectors of old office machines, as well as technical museums, libraries, institutes and academics all over the world, which share their interest in the history and development of the office and the office machines. Honorary members of the IFHB are Konrad Zuse (†), builder of the first working programmable computer in the world, as well as Curt Herzstark (†), designer of the legendary Curta calculator.

You can choose between the following memberships (annual subscription from January 1st to December 31st):

  • (53 €) Digital membership: including digital subscription (PDF) of HBw and HBw-aktuell via the club's internal website (i.e. no printing and mailing of HBw and HBw-aktuell)
  • (80 €) Standard membership: like "digital membership", plus printing and mailing of the HBw (4 x per year)
  • (120 €) Premium membership: like "Standard Membership", plus printing and mailing of HBw-aktuell (11 x per year)
For questions and further information on our association, please feel free to contact us!