Telefunken
German radio and television apparatus company / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) ("General electricity company"). Prior to World War I, the company set up the first world wide network of communications[1] and was the first in the world to sell electronic televisions with cathode ray tubes, in Germany in 1934.[2][3]
Industry | Electrical industry |
---|---|
Founded | 1903 |
Defunct | 1967 merger with parent company AEG to AEG-Telefunken (1996 merger with Daimler-Benz and sale/dissolution various company parts), 2005 rename of the last former Telefunken division |
Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
Parent | Gordon Brothers |
Website | telefunken |
The brand had several incarnations:
- Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegraphie m.b.H., System Telefunken, founded in 1903 as a joint venture between AEG and Siemens & Halske
- Telefunken, Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegraphie m.b.H., in 1923; since 1941 as subsidiary of AEG alone
- Telefunken GmbH, in 1955
- Telefunken Aktiengesellschaft (AG), in 1963
- Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft AEG-Telefunken, created in 1967 through a merger between Telefunken and AEG
- AEG-TELEFUNKEN AG, in 1979
The company also had several subsidiaries and spin-offs of its own:
- TELEFUNKEN Fernseh und Rundfunk GmbH, formed in 1972 in Hanover as a subsidiary of AEG-TELEFUNKEN
- Telefunken electronic GmbH, a spin-off of AEG-Telefunken and DASA
- TEMIC TELEFUNKEN microelectronic GmbH [de], since 1992
- Telefunken USA, in 2001; Telefunken Elektroakustik, since 2009
- Telefunken Semiconductors GmbH & Co. KG [de], formed in Heilbronn in 2009
- Telefunken Lighting technologies S.L., since 2009
The company Telefunken USA was incorporated in early 2001 to provide restoration services and build reproductions of vintage Telefunken microphones.[4]
In 2023, Telefunken brand was acquired by the advisory and investment firm Gordon Brothers.[5]