Brocke
I know about this machine, as I was the one to inform my friend about this ebay auction and I was more than happy that he could really get it.
Brocke was one of the many manufacturers in the Westfalen part of Germany (where so many metal companies are, think of the Zwilling knives in Solingen or of WMF stainless steel tableware)
(Miele in Gütersloh is the only one remaining of the washer trade).
Brocke and Cordes are companies of their own (they have long gone), EBD (Erwin Bonn in Duisburg) is still around but they are now part of the "Foron" corporation cluster (formerly Foron was the East German "VEB Schwarzenberg" company, which produced the notorious WM 66 impeller machine, a landmark of GDR back then. People would even simmer sausages in it at garden parties).
Today those Westfalen-brands like EBD and "Frauenlob" (literally: "Ladies' approval") are all melted down into the huge "Foron" pot, when communist washer manufacture turned to western capitalism.
Cordes and Brocke didn't make it and are extinct (so the machines are very rare and a goodie for any collector). Although similar in design, they have no connection to Asko. The Bauknecht machines of that age looked almost like Askos as well, even here: no connection.
Admitted: AEG Lavamat double-door machines were the ones to promote this double-door scheme to the widest extent (probably because THEIR inner door was TV tube shaped, just a guess, and AEG had the most aggressive marketing in the 50s and 60s (look at my profile pic, the drove those VW vans all over the country to live-demo the fully automatics in any village. Once bought and delivered, an AEG service guy would come to the owner and "wash it in" = give a short lesson about all cycles and congratulate the housewife, not forgetting to check correct installation).
I remember a grand-aunt having a 1955 Brocke impeller machine with a hydraulic wringer press: In the 50s, many customers were afraid of accidents with wringer rollers (the yellow press adding well to that fear).
So Brocke came out with this "presser bag unit":
You hang sort of a vessel up into slots of the main machine unit.
Inside is a sturdy rubber bag. You lift the washed clothes from the machine tub in the bag, lock the lid in clockwise direction (very much like on a pressure cooker).
Then fresh water from the mains line is fed in under the rubber bag until all wash items get squeezed upwards against the lid. Through the grooves on the edge and a funnel ring, the soapy suds flow back in the wash tub.
Once you have the feeling, not much more will come out, you turn the water valve at the bottom 90° and the water pressure is released, off and out into some floor drain.
At the same time this valve could be turned in the third way, then acting as a Venturi-type jet pump, sucking the suds out of the washing machine.
(You couldn't pay for any of this today, comparing nowaday's water prices).
This old Brocke machine was a beauty: Chromed all over the place, this typical Jukebox/fridge-type lettering "Brocke" on it, huge red glowing lightbulbs just as an indicator and lovely bakelite impeller. Pure FUN!
Other brands had similar presser pots, some using a floating bottom plate with a gasket instead of this rubber bag.
That is all I know, all persons I know to know more about Brocke, are unfortunately no longer on this planet.
