Dating a notebook

A couple of months ago, I was given an older laptop, which I was supposed to backup.
Alongside the laptop was an A4 graph paper notebook with the login details written on the back of the cover.
I didn’t end up needing it (which might be a story for another time), but that did not stop me from inspecting the front cover.

While putting the notebook away, I noticed that the paper looked washed out, giving it an old look. This reminded me of the Atomic Shrimp videos, where he dates items to figure out a time span where they are from. And while this notebook might not be as old, I still really wanted to try.

Before we get started, I have to clarify one thing: As you might have noticed, this post is not about dating romantically but rather about chronological dating, the process where you try to figure out the age of an item.

Barcode

The first thing that jumped out to me was that the notebook had a barcode, which wasn’t really surprising, but it also meant that it had to be made after the creation of barcodes.
This provides us with a starting point.
According to Wikipedia, barcodes were invented in the US in 1952. I’m pretty sure that it took them a couple of years to arrive in Germany, but we can still be sure that the notebook wasn’t made before 1952.
If we want to assume that the barcode displayed is a valid European Article Number (EAN-13) code, Wikipedia tells us that they were introduced in Europe in 1976.
We can also take a closer look at the barcode numbers. The barcode is made up of four components¹: the GS1 prefix, the manufacturer code, the product code, and the check digit.

According to the GS1 Country Code list, the 400 digit is assigned to Germany, which I expected, given that I live in Germany.
We are not going to look at the other barcode segments because the manufacturer code has a variable length, making it hard, if not impossible, to look up.

Made In Germany

Instead, we are going to look at our next indicator.
The Made in Germany text, printed on the front.

My first assumption was that the notebook was printed after 2000, because I thought that English might not have been as present before.
But I was surprised to find out that the Made In Germany label was apparently introduced at the end of the 19th century².

I was surprised to learn that the BRD tried preventing the DDR from selling products with a Made in Germany stamp, but was never able to achieve it.
Instead, a 1973 ruling³ decided that Made in Germany was too vague, as it didn’t indicate which state the item came from, which led to Made in West Germany and Made in GDR being used more often.

Oddly enough, this notebook doesn’t use either of these formulations, even though we assumed that the barcode was only adopted after 1976. So either the notebook is too new, that the formulation was dropped, predates the EAN-13 code, or the company chose to go with Made in Germany instead of being more specific.

Address

Luckily for us, the company address is also printed on the front, informing us that the company headquarters are in Gronau (Leine). By looking at a map, we find out that Gronau was located in West Germany.

But the address doesn’t only give us the city; it also lists a postcode.

I started by reading about the old German postcode system, which explained that before introducing the 5-digit system we use today, in 1993, a different system was used: After reunification in 1990, they prepended the original postcode with W for West Germany or O for East Germany.

The postcode on the notebook only has four digits and starts with D, so it doesn’t match our current system or the interim solution where they prepended the indication letter.

Wikipedia also has a history section for postcodes in the DDR and BRD from which we can learn a lot more.
The four-digit system was introduced in 1961 and specifically reserved digits for east-german areas, assuming a unified Germany.
We already know from the address that the company was located in West Germany, but given that the following ranges were reserved for East German areas, we can confirm that our postcode is a West German postcode: 1001 - 1999, 2500 - 2799, 3600 - 3999, 9000 - 9999.

According to the same Wikipedia article, numbers from 2720 were assigned after 1980. Given that the postcode on the notebook is 3212, I think it is safe to assume that the notebook was printed after 1980.

However, none of this explains the D at the beginning of the postcode.
The only explanation I’ve seen so far is from a 1976 agreement, which specifies that packages sent from the DDR to the BRD should prepend the BRD postcode with D-.

Conclusion

When was the notebook made?
Well, I obviously don’t know - and have no way of confirming it. But I think it is safe to assume that it was made between 1980 and 1990, which I think is pretty impressive.

I loved reading up on all of this.
TBH, I think it is impressive what you can tell about items just from a few key details.
And this is only a notebook.

For those of you who are curious, I also attached a scan of the front of the notebook and of one paper sheet to this, if you want to continue the research.
And if you do find out more, feel free to email me or tag me @comcloudway@gts.ccw.icu.

If you are wondering, I also had a brief look at the company that made the notebook.
I can’t seem to find anything about LANDRE - ROTSIEGEL, but Landre appears to be a part of the Hamelin Brand now.⁴