My first contact with EVVA was at the Leipzig Tade Fair in 1971. You need to know that foreign companies were allowed to exhibit at the fairs, but we as GDR companies were instructed not to collaborate with "these capitalistic companies from the West". However, as private companies in the GDR we were incredibly interested in how Western products looked. The only foreign technology we saw was the occasional Western car. Everything was shielded from the outside world. EVVA wanted to do business with us at the fair and we intended to do the same. But how? One day, the Minister for the Economy happened to pass by the EVVA stand. Ms Vera Manierlich from EVVA's export department immediately followed him, tapped him on the shoulder and said in her charming Viennese accent: “Your Excellency, have a look at our stand, we have the security that you need.” And she actually got him to recognise that there was indeed a need. 260,000 West German Mark per year were provided by the state's highest decision-makers to Eastern German companies installing security technology! That was the beginning of a close relationship that we still have today. Until 1986 we installed EVVA products throughout East Germany – long before the company made a name for itself in West Germany. Often at very low rates to quickly boost EVVA’s brand awareness. The relationship was only brought to an end when the head of an East German company, a big wig in the GDR system, who was supposed to visit EVVA, never returned from his stay abroad. Even though it was not EVVA's fault – he had defected to somewhere in West Germany – we had to end the business relationship. I can still remember it clearly: the last delivery was for the rebuilt Semperoper opera house in Dresden as our 360th EVVA system.

However, the relationship soon started again after the reunification of Germany in 1990. Everyone came to the East and wanted to do business, but EVVA had long been there and everyone was familiar with the brand! To this day we still generate the largest proportion of our turnover with EVVA solutions. My heart has been beating for EVVA since 1971.