Orenstein & Koppel - East Germany

East Germany

After the end of the war, the locomotive plant in Nordhausen went idle. Under the German Democratic Republic, O&K changed its name to the VEB Company, and resumed heavy mechanical manufacturing at Nordhausen, producing cable-operated excavator shovels, among other things.

By 1946, the Babelsberg factory resumed production of locomotive boilers, and one year later the plant delivered its first postwar locomotive.

The German Democratic Republic nationalised the railroads and rolling stock manufacturers. The O&K plants in Babelsberg were renamed the LOWA Lokomotiv Plant Karl Marx (LKM). The LKM became the sole manufacturer of diesel locomotives for the GDR, such as the large DRG V180. In the late 1950s, the plant developed steam and diesel engines for the Deutsche Reichsbahn narrow-gauge railways, building approximately 4,160 engines.

Construction of steam locomotives ended in 1969, leaving diesel-hydraulic locomotives as the company's priority. The company's last diesel locomotive was the DB Class V 60D, manufactured until 1976. Over the course of 30 years as LKM, the company produced approximately 7,760 locomotives; about a third of that number were manufactured for export.

By 1964, the company had expanded into air-conditioning and refrigeration technology.