Telefunken

Telefunken is a German radio and television company, founded in 1903, in Berlin, as a joint venture of two large companies, Siemens & Halske (S & H) and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft ("General Electricity Company"). The name "Telefunken" appears in:
* the product brand name "Telefunken";
* AEG subsidiary as Telefunken GmbH in 1955;
* AEG subsidiary as Telefunken AG in 1963;
* company merged as "AEG-Telefunken" (1967–1985);
* and the company "Telefunken | USA" (2001).

The company "Telefunken|USA" (www.telefunkenusa.com) was incorporated in early 2001 to provide restoration services and build reproductions of vintage Telefunken microphones.

Description

The company "Telefunken AG" (earlier "Telefunken GmbH") was founded on May 27, 1903 as "Telefunken society for wireless telefon" of Siemens & Halske (S & H) and the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft ("General Electricity Company") as joint undertakings for radio engineering in Berlin. It continued as a joint venture of AEG and Siemens AG, until Siemens left in 1941. In 1911, Kaiser Wilhelm II sent Telefunken engineers to West Sayville, New York to erect three 600-foot (180-m) radio towers there. Nikola Tesla assisted in the construction. A similar station was erected in Nauen, creating the only wireless communication between North America and Europe.

In 1939 it had a staff of 23,500. In 1941 AEG bought out the shares of S&H and continued to lead Telefunken as a subsidiary (starting in 1955 as "Telefunken GmbH" and from 1963 as "Telefunken AG").

In 1967, Telefunken was merged with AEG, which was then renamed to AEG-Telefunken. During this era, Walter Bruch developed the PAL color television for the company, in use by most countries outside the Americas today.

When AEG was bought by Daimler in 1985, "Telefunken" was dropped from the company name. The brand name "Telefunken" is still marketed by Daimler in Europe.

By founding the firm, S&H and AEG combined their knowledge and activities in civilian navigation to develop military and intercontinental transmission of news radio, which marked the beginning of the age of radio and communications technology. Starting in 1923, Telefunken built broadcast transmitters and radio sets. In 1932, record players were added to the product line. During the Second World War Telefunken was a supplier of vacuum tubes, transmitters and radio relay systems, and developed radar facilities and directional finders, aiding the war efforts of the Third Reich. During the war, manufacturing plants were shifted to and developed in West Germany or relocated. Thus, Telefunken, under AEG, turned into the smaller subsidiary, with the three divisions realigning and data processing technology, elements as well as broadcast, television and phono. Telefunken had substantial successes in these markets during the time of self-sufficiency and also later in the AEG company.

The economic difficulties of AEG forced a separation of business units, the participation third in divisions and/or the later sales starting from approximately 1970. Particularly due to AEG's settlement proceedings (August 1982 to October 1984), substantial core spheres of activity were delivered. Some spheres of activity of Telefunken have resumed successfully in follow-up enterprises, others have been readjusted completely.

In 2000, Toni Roger Fishman (born in Hartford, Connecticut on February 26, 1969), acquired The Diamond Shaped Logo & The Telefunken Brand Name for use in North America. The company "Telefunken|USA" [http://www.telefunkenusa.com] was incorporated in early 2001 to provide restoration services and build reproductions of vintage Telefunken microphones. In 2003, Telefunken|USA won a TEC Award for Studio Microphone Technology for their exact reproduction of the original Ela M 250 / 251 Microphone system. Telefunken|USA has since received several TEC Awards nominations for the following microphone systems: the Telefunken|USA M12 or C12 (originally developed by AKG), the R-F-T M16 MkII, the and AK47. The Historic Telefunken Ela M251 microphone system entered the MIX foundation's Hall of fame in 2006. Telefunken|USA also sponsors a Motor Sports Racing Team active with the Connecticut Valley Region, Porsche Club of America.

In 2005, Telefunken Sender Systeme Berlin changed its name to Transradio SenderSysteme Berlin AG. The name "Transradio" dates back to 1918, when Transradio was founded as a subsidiary of Telefunken. A year later, in 1919, Transradio made history by introducing duplex transmission. Transradio has specialized in research, development and design of modern AM, VHF/FM and DRM broadcasting systems.

Business fields

In the works of Telefunken and in the departments changed over to AEG-TELEFUNKEN, an extensive product spectrum of devices and systems was developed and produced from 1903 to 1996. Common characteristics are the authority for high frequency and communications technology and the construction unit and infrastructure technology necessary for it. Among other things:

* Analogue computer
* Voucher recognition, pattern recognition and letter sorting
* Data communications networks
* Digital computer for exchange technique, air traffic control, scientific, military applications
* Electrical elements
* Electro-acoustic plants and studio equipment
* Flight guidance systems
* Guidance and weapon deployment systems
* Radio and data communication for applications of military
* Radios for authority and operating radio
* Semiconductor, circuits, solar cells, infrared modules
* Mobile radio engineering
* Direction finder and detection
* Phono and tape decks, videodisc
* Radar facilities for soil, flight and ship monitoring
* Radio and TV home receiver
* Vacuum Tubes
* Radio relay link and satellite technology
* Records
* Sending and receipt tubes, travelling field tubes, color image tubes
* Transmitter for broadcast and television, DAB transmitter
* Speech recognition
* Telephone, long-distance traffic, cable technology

Locations and manufacturing plants

Into the 1930s years, production was made after a distributor in the workshops of the two parent companies. The company headquarters was in Berlin Kreuzberg, Hallesches Ufer.

Starting from 1936, manufacturing plants were established or converted in Berlin Zehlendorf, Görzallee and Berlin Moabit, Sickingenstr.

During the Second World War, there were further manufacturing plants in the Berlin area, in Thuringia, Saxonia, Mähren, Schlesien, on Rügen. In addition, in occupied areas of the Baltic and in Poland at Tallin, Riga, Krakau, floats and Łódź works were established also with forced laborers. The tube mill Łódź was shifted in 1944 with the staff from Ulm.

After the Second World War, new firm locations for development and production were established. The company headquarters was in Berlin Kreuzberg, Mehringdamm, Berlin Charlottenburg (... Reuter place).

Production in:

* Backnang: Long-distance traffic and cable technology
* Berlin-Moabit, Sickingenstr.: Broadcast and television transmitter, mobile communication
* Berlin-Moabit, Sickingenstr.: Tubes
* Berlin-Reinickendorf, Schwedenstr.: Phono and tape decks
* Eiweiler: High-frequency engineering
* Hanover: Broadcast and television sets
* Heilbronn: Semiconductor, circuits, solar cells, infrared modules
* Konstanz: Computer technology, letter sorting system, character recognition technology, air traffic control, Studio tape decks, cash dispensing devices
* Offenburg: Long-distance traffic technology
* Ulm, Danube valley: Television picture tubes
* Ulm, Elisabethenstrasse: Radar, pinpointing, detection plants, Sprech-und of radio data transmission devices, Forschungsinstitut
* Ulm, Söflinger Strasse: Tubes
* Wolfenbüttel: Electroacoustics

Enterprise history

Around the turn of the century, two groups of researchers worked on the development of techniques to the wireless transmission of news in Germany. The one group, around Adolf Slaby and George Count von Arco, developed on behalf of the German navy for the AEG; the other one, under Karl Ferdinand Braun, on behalf of the German army for Siemens.

When the two companies began to argue about the patents, Kaiser Wilhelm II merged the companies. On his command, both companies created, on May 27, 1903, the company "Gesellschaft for wireless telegraphy Ltd.", which received the contentious patents and techniques. This was then renamed on 17 April 1923 as the "Firmierung in Telefunken, Gesellschaft for wireless telegraphy". Telefunken was the telegraph address of the society. The first technical director of Telefunken was George Count von Arco.

In the Second World War, Telefunken was a prominent supplier of radar devices. Telefunken was for many decades, with the subsidiary company Teldec (a joint venture with Decca Records until Teldec was sold to WEA in 1988), also one of the largest German record companies.

In 1959, Telefunken established a modern semiconductor work in Heilbronn, where in April 1960 production began. The work was expanded several times, so in 1970, by a 6-story new building at the northern edge of the area. Here approximately 2500 people worked at the beginning of the 1970s.

The models TR 4 and TR 440 were developed at Telefunken, in Konstanz Grossechenanlagen, and were in use at many German university computing centres in the years 1970 to nearly 1985. The development and manufacturing of large computers was separated in 1974 to the Computers Society Konstanz (CGK). The area of the middle computers and process computers was integrated into the automatic control engineering of the AEG.

In the year 2005, Telefunken SenderSysteme Berlin AG changed its name to Transradio of SenderSysteme Berlin AG. The history of the name "Transradio" can be retraced up to the year 1918. With the introduction of the duplex traffic with radio communications in the year 1919, the company Transradio attained world-wide acknowledgment. Transradio has specialized in research, development and construction of TO, VHF/CFM and DRM transmitters.

In August 2006, it acquired the Turkish enterprise Profilo Telra, one of the largest European manufacturers of TV-devices, with Telefunken GmbH licensing the trademark laws at the mark Telefunken and producing televisions under the label name of the tradition company.

References in popular culture

Frank Zappa refers to the Telefunken U 47 microphone at the end of the song "Crew Slut" and in the song "Sy Borg" on his album Joe's Garage. "It looks just like a Telefunken U 47." He apparently owned and used a significant collection of vintage German microphones, and the U 47 was one of his favorites. The microphone was actually made by Neumann and was distributed by Telefunken with replacement nameplate, in addition to being sold under the Neumann name.

The Chad Mitchell Trio song "Twelve Days" refers to a "Telefunken H-bomb," stating that it is "just like an ordinary Telefunken radio."

Notes

References

* M. Friedewald: Telefunken and the German ship radio 1903–1914. In: Magazine for enterprise history 46. No. 1, 2001, P. 27-57.
* M. Fox: George von Arco (1869–1940) - engineer, Pazifist, technical director von Telefunken. A Erfinderbiographie. Publishing house for history of the natural sciences and the technology, Berlin and Munich Diepholz, 2003.
* L. And Scholl: Marconi versus Telefunken: Drathlose telegraphy and their meaning for shipping. In: G. Bayerl, W. weber (Hrsg.): Social history of the technology. Ulrich Troitz to 60. Birthday. Waxmann, Münster 1997 (Cottbuser studies to the history of technology, work and environment, 7).
* Telefunken transmitter technology GmbH: 90 years Telefunken. Berlin, 1993.
* E. Thiele (Hrsg.): Telefunken after 100 years: The inheritance of a German world brand. Nicolai, Berlin, 2003.
* Pure hard small Arendt: The radio station Nauen with Berlin. In: Ulrich van the Heyden, Joachim Zeller (Hg.) „… Power and portion of the world domination. “Berlin and the German colonialism. Unrast publishing house. Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-024-2.

External links

* [http://www.telefunken.de/en/index.html Telefunken]
* [http://www.telefunkenusa.com Telefunken | USA ]
* [http://www.broadcast-transradio.com Transradio SenderSysteme Berlin AG]
* [http://www.telefunken-id-systems.com TELEFUNKEN ID Systems]