Blaupunkt

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Blaupunkt GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1924
resolution 2008
Reason for dissolution sale
Seat Hildesheim , Germany
management Uwe Thomas (Managing Director)
Branch Consumer electronics
Website www.blaupunkt.com

Blaupunkt is a brand for entertainment electronics , household appliances , car multimedia and various other electronics areas. For some time now , e-bikes , e-bike components and products from the e-mobility sector as well as power tools and garden electrical appliances have also been sold under the brand .

The products are developed and sold by 40 (as of 2020) licensees who are mainly based in Germany and Europe and specialize in the respective categories and regions. The brand emerges from the quality seal of a blue point, which is attached to each product to mark the quality test that has been passed. In 1923 the blue dot was finally developed into a trademark and registered in the trademark register. The trademark was registered in 1924. Since then, car radios, entertainment electronics and, in the meantime, equipment for professional sound and TV studios have been sold under the brand.

Blaupunkt detector receiver with the blue dot (approx. 1938)

history

Blaupunkt Stockholm radio receiver (1963/64), 5 tubes , 4 W.
Blaupunkt Stockholm Stereo radio receiver (1965–67)
Blaupunkt receiver STG 2091, built 1971 to 1973
Car radio from the 2010s built into the dashboard
Oversized Blaupunkt tube at the 1930 radio exhibition in Berlin

Foundation of "Ideal Radio" in Berlin

The nucleus of the company was the Ideal Radiotelefon- & Apparatefabrik GmbH Berlin , founded in November 1924 (see also the history of radio in Germany ). Production was initially located in Bollersdorf (since 2001 Oberbarnim ) and manufactured, among other things, detector receivers. The headphones that went with them were given a blue dot as a test mark with a high sound quality, and buyers soon only asked for the “Blaupunkt” headphones. In 1924, the test mark became the Ideal Blaupunkt Radio brand . From 1932 onwards, only the term “Blaupunkt” with the adjacent blue dot was used as a brand. In the 1920s, Ideal also sold electronic tubes for radios under the names Ampladyn, Heliodyn and Superdyn and built radios with a Telefunken license. In December 1926 the company was changed to Ideal-Werke Society for wireless telephony mbH and in August 1927 it was converted to Ideal-Werke AG for wireless telephony .

At the end of 1927, production was initially relocated to Köpenicker Strasse  10 A in Berlin-Kreuzberg , SO 33 (later sales office) and finally in 1930 to Große-Leege-Strasse  97/98 in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen .

Blaupunkt car radios

Even as a (still unofficial) Bosch subsidiary, Ideal-Werke presented the “Autosuper AS 5”, the first car radio developed in Europe, in 1932 . This device for medium and long wave reception had a volume of 10 liters and, at a price of 465  Reichsmarks, was, like the car itself, a luxury item, because in the waning global economic crisis in 1934, for example, B. a 1.3 liter Opel just under 2,650 Reichsmarks. Adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency, this corresponds to approx. 11,900 euros for the car and 2,090 euros for the radio. H. depending on the reference value between 15 and 17.5% of the car price.

After the Second World War, Blaupunkt in Hildesheim developed into the leading German car radio manufacturer and was able to deliver the one millionth device on June 16, 1959. At that time, 6,000 people found work at Blaupunkt in the Bosch / Blaupunkt plant in Hildesheimer Wald , plus almost 4,000 in the Bosch production of starters and alternators for the automotive industry. In April 1964, 3 million car radios were built, followed by the 25 millionth device in mid-1979. In July 1990, the 50 millionth Blaupunkt car radio rolled off the assembly line.

Blaupunkt in the Bosch Group

In that year 1930, Ideal, initially disguised by a holding company in Liechtenstein , was taken over by the Robert Bosch Group (from 1937 GmbH) and finally in 1933 it became an official Bosch subsidiary. The disguised Bosch takeover was due to the fact that the license agreements concluded with Telefunken prohibited other companies from participating in the Ideal production. From 1932 Paul Goerz was head of Ideal-Werke AG . In the fall of 1934, the company acquired in Berlin-Wilmersdorf , a 32,000-square-foot property at the Forckenbeckstraße (then no. 91-93, later no. 9-13), where he built next to the administrative buildings, a 120 x 70 meter production hall with shed roof , the was inaugurated on September 5, 1936. On December 15, 1938, the company was changed to Blaupunkt-Werke GmbH (BPWG).

1939 to 1945

In 1939 Blaupunkt had 2,600 employees. With the beginning of the Second World War, the radio equipment and television technology development were largely replaced by armaments contracts from the Wehrmacht . In addition to the civilian devices that were still being manufactured, Blaupunkt developed and produced the target television camera for the Henschel Hs 293 D glide bomb as well as components for guided missiles, among other things, in cooperation with the Berlin Bosch subsidiary Fernseh AG . Blaupunkt manufactured radio receivers in small numbers in several large German cities and in Vienna. After the destruction of the Wilmersdorf production hall on March 1, 1943 by a British air raid , most of the production was relocated to Reichenberg (then " Reichsgau Sudetenland ") as well as Berlin-Treptow ( East Berlin ) and other locations Occupied Red Army and then as reparations u. a. fell under the administration of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD).

In 1944 Blaupunkt employed a total of 4,100 people. In Küstrin , the production of Blaupunkt “Corfu” radio measuring devices was set up under the code name “Udo-Werke GmbH” (after Udo Werr, an employee of Blaupunkt managing director Paul Goerz ) . Since the Vistula-Oder Offensive of the Red Army also took aim in the region Küstrin, the operation in January 1945 to that in the Hildesheim Forest settled "Trillke-Werke GmbH" (see also Neuhof - ELFI / Trillke plant ) laid one end Bosch subsidiary created in the 1930s as part of the armament of the Wehrmacht .

Company headquarters in Hildesheim

After the end of the war, Trillke / Blaupunkt began repairing radio equipment, followed by the development and production of new equipment. At the end of 1945 Hildesheim became the headquarters of Blaupunkt-Apparatebau GmbH (BPAG), which was newly founded there . Plant II was added later at Römerring 8-10 in Hildesheim, which no longer exists today. Other manufacturing and development facilities, some of which were operated under the name of the parent company Bosch, were in Salzgitter (1960), Herne (speakers, closed at the end of 1992), France, Hungary, Portugal ( Braga , formerly Grundig plant ), Malaysia ( Penang ), Mexico, China and Tunisia.

In the 1960s, the Bosch Group took over the company Akkord-Radio and used its former plant in Landau until around 1974 for the production of Blaupunkt home receivers. Some Blaupunkt devices from 1945 to 2008 are listed in the Milestones section .

In the 1970s, 13,700 people were employed at Blaupunkt. The production of television sets was given up in 1986 in favor of the Grundig acquisition, in return for Grundig to purchase Blaupunkt car radios. After the latter did not materialize, Blaupunkt took over the majority of the Grundig car radio factory in Braga in early 1990 . The company gave up the television, camcorder and video recorder business in 1996 and concentrated entirely on the field of "mobile communications". In 2006 Blaupunkt produced over half a million navigation systems, 6 million car radios and 19 million car speakers and vehicle antennas each year. The turnover was around 1.48 billion euros. In April 2007 Blaupunkt still had over 8,700 employees worldwide, 2,300 of them in Hildesheim.

Milestones

Blaupunkt car radio "VW Alpha" with Autoreverse cassette player

Especially in the field of automotive entertainment electronics, especially in the car radio segment, Blaupunkt is responsible for a multitude of pioneering and innovative technical developments:

  • In 1951 the first Blaupunkt television, the V 52 with a 36 cm picture tube , was shown at the industrial exhibition in Berlin. The price of 1595 DM at the time, adjusted for purchasing power, corresponds to 4,160 euros in today's currency
  • In 1952 Blaupunkt presented the world's first FM car radio , the Auto super A 52 KU with a “self-service push-button selector” for four transmitters (498 DM; corresponds to 1,270 euros today)
  • In 1969 the "Frankfurt Stereo" was presented, the world's first car radio for FM stereo reception.
  • In 1973 the additional decoder SK 1 for displaying the ARI sender identification came onto the market. The Blaupunkt in 1972 together with the ARD - broadcasting  - lead was the Institute for Broadcasting Technology  - developed traffic system in Germany (West) introduced June 1, 1974th
  • In 1979, the Hildesheim-based company introduced the "Dusseldorf stereo CR Super Arimat" car radio with auto-reverse cassette recorder and transmitter announcement identification ( "Super Arimat") and the "Bamberg QTS Super Arimat" ( "quartz tuning system") with quartz-stable PLL master tuning , digital frequency display and standard cassette drive (with forward / reverse without autoreverse).
  • In 1981 the “Bremen SQR 31” car radio with PLL tuning, digital frequency display and auto-reverse cassette drive could be seen at the international radio exhibition in Berlin.
  • In 1988, the “Montreux RDR 49” was the first car radio with a Radio Data System (RDS) to hit the market.
  • In 1989 the "TravelPilot" was presented. It is considered to be the first navigation system ready for series production in Europe.
  • In 1997, a successor to the “TravelPilot” was created with dynamic route guidance that automatically processes current traffic information and thus helps to avoid traffic jams, as well as the first car radio with DAB reception and the first car radio with TMC . In the same year "127 Amsterdam TCM" radio with auto-reverse cassette deck and were in the car radio GSM - mobile phone ( D-network ) combined in one device (radiophone).
  • In 2001, the world's first WAP- enabled offboard navigation system, which can also be used to make phone calls, was presented, as was a digital car radio with an MP3 decoder and MMC slot.
  • In 2003 the first DAB car radio with MP3 decoder that can also record was created.
  • In 2005 there was the first radio for the 1-DIN installation slot (182 × 52 mm) with colored map navigation.
  • In 2006, Blaupunkt developed the first car radio with an external hard drive and integrated SDARS antenna for the Sirius Satellite Radio for the VW Eos .
  • In 2007 Blaupunkt launched the first digital plug-and-play amplifier.
  • In 2008 Blaupunkt enabled the first mobile navigation system (PND) with video navigation and traffic sign recognition as well as the first radio with audio streaming via Bluetooth .

Restructuring 2008

In December 2008, Bosch sold the company to the Munich-based investment holding company Aurelius . The OEM business with around 6,000 employees, which supplies vehicle manufacturers with navigation and multimedia systems ("car radios") and made up around 80% of sales (1.48 billion euros in 2006), remained as an independent Robert Bosch Car Multimedia GmbH at Bosch Group. A turnover of around 200 million euros was expected for the area of ​​retrofittable products sold to Aurelius with around 1,800 employees. Aurelius took over the company headquarters in Hildesheim as well as the production facilities in Portugal, Tunisia and Malaysia.

At the end of 2009, Aurelius announced that it would sell the antenna business with around 250 employees after restructuring as "Blaupunkt Antenna Systems" to Kathrein and concentrate on car radios, audiovisuals and entertainment electronics. This was accomplished in May 2010 with the purchase of Blaupunkt Antenna Systems GmbH & Co. KG by Kathrein. In 2011, Blaupunkt tried to return to its origins as an ideal radio with a series of headphones. The production of the headphones was discontinued. In the same year, Blaupunkt entered into joint ventures in India and China. The new Blaupunkt plant in Penang (Malaysia) was opened in 2012. At the end of 2013, Blaupunkt took over the smart products engineering business from brightONE, including b1 Engineering Solutions GmbH , based in Munich. Blaupunkt Europe has merged with brightONE business unit SPS to form the Blaupunkt Technology Group . In 2014 the engineering services business was bundled in b1 Engineering Solutions GmbH as part of the Blaupunkt Technology Group. At the end of 2014, the joint ventures were founded in South and North America.

In 2014 Aurelius sold Blaupunkt Technology GmbH, which ran the car radio business as an independent company after the sale, to a British fund, but retained the trademark rights. In September 2015, Blaupunkt Technology GmbH filed for bankruptcy. The original equipment business with amplifiers and loudspeakers for cars was sold to the Belgian company PSS (Premium Sound Solutions). The development services division was sold to the Romanian entrepreneur Rasvan Olosu. The non-European shares in the trading business will continue to be operated by the former joint venture partners. For the European trading business with car radios, it was announced on February 15, 2016 that a sale had failed. The notice was given for the remaining 33 employees in Hildesheim. The stocks were sold.

The Blaupunkt trademark rights have since been administered by GIP Development SARL (Luxembourg) and apply to the distribution of various product groups in 95 countries around the world.

Awards

In 2005 Blaupunkt won an iF communication design award in the “digital media” category - selected from 1211 submissions from 31 countries. In 2006 Blaupunkt was recognized as a place in the land of ideas . In 2011, Blaupunkt took first place with 41 points in the large-scale reader survey by “AutoBild” on the subject of “The brands in all classes”, in the “Car HiFi” area and in the “Good value for money” category Sony with 34 points, Panasonic with 30 points and JVC with 27 points. Readers were asked in 14 vehicle classes and 23 marginal automotive areas which manufacturers stand for good quality and a good price-performance ratio.

Blaupunkt today

Licenses have been issued for the use of the brand since 2009. The licensees also include the former car radio joint ventures from India and South America, which are continuing the business independently.

List of current licensees and product categories

category Surname City Country
Germany
Car radio and accessories, folding e-bikes Evo-Sales GmbH Hameln, Germany
Consumer electronics (audio) Globaltronics GmbH Hamburg, Germany
Batteries MaxPower GmbH Frankfurt, Germany
Security systems SBP GmbH Munich, Germany
Motor vehicle and commercial vehicle telematics systems Blaupunkt Tekematic GmbH Pullach, Germany
E-bike motors and components Prophete GmbH Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany
Built-in kitchen appliances HK Appliances GmbH Rödinghausen, Germany
Western and Northern Europe
Electric car charging stations and accessories BLP Systems Aps Odense, Denmark
Small electrical appliances, TV accessories B&M Retail Limited Liverpool, UK
Robot vacuum cleaner SMART LIFE BV Amsterdam, Netherlands
Insect killers and UV cleaning devices Velleman NV Gavere, Belgium
Consumer electronics (audio) Marketmaker SAS Dardilly, France
Power tools and garden tools SKN Lisbon, Portugal
Eastern Europe
Consumer electronics (audio), small electrical appliances, sales of Blaupunkt car radio 2N-Everpol Sp. Z oo Warsaw, Poland
Air conditioners Mateko Sp z oo Warsaw, Poland
Mobile phones HTM Mobile Kft Budapest, Hungary
TV CIS States, Ukraine, Moldova Union distribution sro Prague, Czech Republic
TV Europe UMC Sp z oo Lysomice, Poland
Overseas
Car radio Shagal Ltd. Los Angeles, USA
Consumer electronics (TV) MP3 car audio Cuenca, Ecuador
Car radio BP Technology Americas SA Montevideo, Uruguay
Consumer electronics (audio, TV), household appliances LEL Hong Kong / South Africa
Consumer electronics (TV) Trigur Ltd. New Delhi, India
Consumer electronics (audio) Envent Ltd. New Delhi, India
Car radio India Blaupunkt India Ltd. Mumbai, India
Household appliances, security systems, etc. a. Tian Rui Co. Ltd Hong Kong, China
Car radio BLAPAC SDN BHD Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Household and wellness equipment Wonder Ltd. Taipei, Taiwan
Consumer electronics (TV, audio) Ayonz Ltd. Sydney, Australia

literature

Web links

Commons : Blaupunkt  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] , accessed on July 02, 2020.
  2. ↑ [2] , accessed on July 2, 2020.
  3. ↑ [3] , accessed on July 8, 2020.
  4. ↑ BLAUPUNKT: Success story. Retrieved July 9, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Blaupunkt GmbH: Blaupunkt, the advertising history of a brand . Ed .: Blaupunkt GmbH. 2004.
  6. ↑ Blaupunkt: News from the FAZ on the car radio giant. Retrieved July 9, 2020 .
  7. ^ Stockholm 23 on radiomuseum.org, accessed April 6, 2015.
  8. ^ STG 2091 at radiomuseum.org, accessed on April 6, 2015.
  9. ↑ BERLIN-HOHENSCHÖNHAUSEN, letter 1933, IDEAL-WERKE Ges. F. wireless telephony mbH • EUR 9.99. Retrieved July 24, 2019 .
  10. ↑ These figures were based on the template: Inflation determined, rounded to 10 EUR and apply to the previous January
  11. ↑ Blaupunkt Illustrierte 1959/60, p. 14
  12. ↑ Blaupunkt Illustrierte 1959/60, p. 2.
  13. ^ Overesch: Bosch in Hildesheim . 2008, p. 294 .
  14. ^ Overesch: Bosch in Hildesheim . 2008, p. 293 .
  15. ^ Blaupunkt Illustrierte 1959/60
  16. ↑ Company history
  17. ^ "Ideal" catalog from 1937
  18. ^ Overesch: Bosch in Hildesheim . 2008, p. 279 .
  19. ↑ ELFI / Trillke-Werke at www.zwangsarbeit-bosch.de
  20. ^ Manfred Overesch: Bosch in Hildesheim 1937–1945 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-525-36754-4 .
  21. ^ Overesch: Bosch in Hildesheim . 2008, p. 293 .
  22. ↑ Blaupunkt buys Grundig factory . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1990 ( online - Feb. 26, 1990 ).
  23. ↑ Blaupunkt V 52 on radiomuseum.org, accessed on November 7, 2014.
  24. ↑ a b These figures were based on the template: Inflation determined, rounded to 10 EUR and apply to the previous January
  25. ↑ 1952 car radio program
  26. ↑ Blaupunkt Frankfurt Stereo on radiomuseum.org, accessed on November 7, 2014.
  27. ↑ Traffic information decoder SK1 on radiomuseum.org, accessed on November 7, 2014.
  28. ^ Düsseldorf Stereo CR Super Arimat at radiomuseum.org, accessed on November 7, 2014.
  29. ↑ Bamberg QTS Super Arimat on radiomuseum.org, accessed on November 7, 2014.
  30. ↑ Bremen SQR 32 , identical model on radiomuseum.org, accessed on November 7, 2014.
  31. ↑ Montreux RDR49 on radiomuseum.org, accessed on November 7, 2014.
  32. ↑ a b Bosch sells parts from Blaupunkt. ( Memento of April 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) December 19, 2008.
  33. ↑ Wallstreet Online: Bosch to sell Blaupunkt - financial investor Aurelius takes over
  34. ↑ Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung. December 30, 2009.
  35. ↑ Sale of the restructured Blaupunkt Antenna Systems division to the Kathrein Group completed. Blaupunkt, archived from the original on July 1, 2010 ; Retrieved January 19, 2011 .
  36. ↑ Kathrein opens company headquarters for Blaupunkt car antennas. digitalfernsehen.de, November 22, 2010, accessed on November 17, 2012 .
  37. ↑ Kathrein buys Blaupunkt antenna division. rosenheim24.de, December 18, 2009, accessed November 17, 2012 .
  38. ↑ blaupunkt.com: Merger with the brightONE business unit ( Memento from January 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  39. ↑ Blaupunkt files for insolvency , haz.de, notification from September 20, 2015.
  40. ↑ Handelsblatt: The lights go out in the former car radio empire (15 February 2016)
  41. ↑ Blaupunkt website with internationally renowned IF award ( memento from September 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on blaupunkt.de
  42. ↑ BLAUPUNKT: brand partner. Retrieved July 9, 2020 .

Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 54.7 "  N , 9 ° 53 ′ 55.7"  E