The term Kombinat stands for combine; its general use in East Germany changed suddenly. Initially a loose, generic description, it later became part of the rigid East German nomenclature for organisational and operational structures.
Let me add a little background: each nationalised factory was usually called a VEB, and a group of them, e.g. local porcelain factories, were grouped together as a VVB, with the largest or most influential VEB becoming the namesake for - and the leading factory in - the whole VVB group. As this also involved standardising the marks to be used, it caused a number of problems in everyday use and correspondence, as it became impossible to say which specific part of the structure was responsible for a particular product or item.
The term VVB and the useless marking procedure were therefore dropped in favour of the simple VEB, with the prefix "Kombinat" where necessary. For example the VVB Feinkeramik Kahla later became the Kombinat VEB Porzellanwerk Kahla, with both of those names standing for the whole group of production units. The name VEB Porzellanwerk Kahla on its own (without the "Kombinat" addition) on the other hand only described the single production facility in Kahla.
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