I also have a completed grid, and found the first and fifth thematic entries without too much difficulty - and with a great deal of help from this forum have managed to get the second and fourth filled. However, like others here, I'm still stumped by the middle one. I'm wondering whether the missing cells might be filled by symbols or key-names on a computer keyboard, which would allow all four so far identified. It's a long, long shot, but one of these computer key-names applied to the third thematic entry yields up the brand name of an optical device manufactured by a company whose first name is a Germanic form of the name identified by the extra letters. I can't imagine that this is really the answer sought, though!