Körting Radio Works

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Körting Radio Werke GmbH
legal form Company with limited liability
Seat Grassau , Germany
Branch Consumer electronics

Logo of the Dr. Dietz & Ritter GmbH from an advertisement for radio receivers from the 1930s

The Körting Radio Werke GmbH was a manufacturer of radio and television equipment based in Grassau in Chiemgau . Its origins go back to a Leipzig lighting company founded in 1889 , with whose capital investment in 1925 the company Dr. Dietz & Ritter was founded, which began in 1932 with the construction of radio receivers under the Körting brand . Often praised for the high quality of its products, Körting was also one of the pioneers of color television in Germany.

From 1954 to 1978 Körting was the house supplier of Neckermann-Versand, which was important at the time . The company was then taken over by the Yugoslav household appliance manufacturer Gorenje . After the resulting company went bankrupt in 1983, the Körting brand was still used in various Eastern European countries for some household appliances.

history

Company foundation in Leipzig

Signet by Körting & Mathiesen (approx. 1920)

The arc lamp factory Körting & Mathiesen

In 1889 Max Körting and Wilhelm Mathiesen founded the arc lamp factory Körting & Mathiesen AG in Leipzig . The company later moved to Leutzsch just outside the city. In 1901 the company changed its name to the special lighting factory Körting & Mathiesen AG . In 1914, "Kandem" was chosen as the brand name. At that time, the company was already set up internationally and, for example, had an agency in New York . The product designers included the Bauhaus artist Marianne Brandt , whose lamp design for a Kandem table lamp in two sizes, which she developed in 1928 together with Hin Bredendieck, became a design classic. Other Kandem lights were also made by Brandt.

In 1946 the company was expropriated, the plant was dismantled and taken to the Soviet Union as a reparation payment . In 1948 the son of the founder Fritz Körting, who had been on the board since 1930, reorganized the company as Kandem - Apparate- und Leuchtenbau GmbH , which today belongs to the Philips Group, in Limburg an der Lahn .

Körting & Mathiesen AG was the market leader in the manufacture of arc lamps for street lighting. From 1923, it also began manufacturing small transformers , inductors and power supply devices for radio and broadcast technology .

Dr. Dietz & Ritter - factory for radio products and transformers

With the participation of Körting & Mathiesen founded in 1925 two former employees of the company, the merchant Oswald Ritter and the technician William Dietz, in Leipzig Stötteritz the Dr. Dietz & Ritter GmbH, factory for radio products and transformers . The company headquarters were the former premises of the Graphic Art Institute Dr. Trenkler & Co. in Eichstädtstraße 11. The managing directors were Ritter and the technical director Dietz each with 40 percent of the GmbH shares , Körting & Mathiesen gave permission to use the “Körting” brand and held 20 percent. The company initially produced transformers , power amplifiers and dynamic loudspeakers under license from the American company Magnavox .

Radio receivers , initially straight-ahead receivers , expanded the product range in 1932. As early as 1933, the company, now under the company Körting Radio, Dr. Dietz & Ritter GmbH , with the models Cyclo-Super and Hexodensuper, his first superheterodyne radios , also known as superimposition receivers . In the radio equipment trade, the Körting brand achieved a market share of 5.2% as early as 1933, which rose to 7.35% in the following year.

In 1934, the superheterodyne models were Cyclo-Selector , Cyclo-Royal and included in the program further and the dual circuit - Reflex receiver novelty sold in several variants very good.

D & R's radios, such as the Ultramar from 1935 with nine circles , soon gained an excellent reputation. The eight-circle Super Transmare with 12 electron tubes was the first radio with motor tuning and push-button transmitter selection. The device with 20 station buttons won two Grand Prix at the Paris World Exhibition in 1937 in Class 15 (radio) and Class 49 (musical instruments). The selling price was 745  Reichsmarks (RM) - for comparison: the Körting Volksempfänger VE301Wn was available in 1937 for 76 RM. Adjusted for inflation, these prices correspond to € 3,230 or € 330 in today's currency

As part of the armament of the Wehrmacht , D & R built radio sets for the Air Force on behalf of the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) under license from Telefunken and Lorenz from 1935 . For this purpose, the company set up a second location not far away at Melscher Strasse 7. Oswald Ritter succeeded in acquiring the share of the business still held by Körting & Mathiesen. In 1938 Körting Radio was one of the leading manufacturers in the market and employed 3,000 people.

Due to differences with the Army Weapons Office , the development and production of military technology was placed under RLM supervision and, on November 1, 1939, was outsourced to the Reich's own Leipzig Funkgerätebau GmbH . The two shareholders and managing directors Dietz and Ritter lost their posts. Wilhelm Dietz, who was already in conflict with Ritter because of his interference in the technical affairs of the company, had his 40 percent share in the GmbH paid out and died in July 1944.

Körting Radio Works

The Leipzig radio equipment manufacturing facility was affiliated to the Berlin Löwe Radio AG in April 1941 as Löwe Radio AG, Leipzig plant . From August 1, 1942, the Löwe branch in Melscher Strasse operated in line with the parent company Opta Radio AG, Leipzig plant . With the financial means from the outsourcing of his Wehrmacht production, Ritter continued the production of radio receivers as the sole owner of the old factory at Eichstädtstraße 11 (today Untere Eichstädtstraße) under the name of Körting-Radio-Werke Oswald Ritter .

After the war: re-establishment in the west

In 1948, the factory in Leipzig was expropriated, and it became the VEB Funkwerk Leipzig in the Manufacturers' Association of Broadcasting and Telecommunication Technology in the GDR . The now 70-year-old Oswald Ritter and some employees left for Marquartstein in Upper Bavaria in 1949 and built a radio factory in Schloss Niedernfels .

With the help of a government loan to promote refugees of DM 5 million  , he finally acquired Belwe GmbH in Grassau am Chiemsee in 1951 , a manufacturer of irons, toasters and small lamps, and expanded production there to include radios and loudspeakers as well as, at times, electrical medical devices. On a factory site of 26,000 square meters, a new factory hall with a floor area of ​​2,500 m² and an administration building with 1,500 m² of office space - a complex that could accommodate around 1,500 workers.

As early as May 1951, Körting was setting up a department for the development and construction of televisions. However, the beginning was delayed due to the lack of availability of special equipment and qualified personnel. In the case of radio sets, after an initial variety of types, there was a restriction to three models plus a few export versions in 1952, which made it possible to improve profitability and offer competitive products. “When designing the models, especially the cheapest […], great emphasis was placed on excellent sound and high FM performance. The 300 DM model also gave real FM quality thanks to the built-in, innovative tweeter. "

With Körting's launch on the West German market, which was delayed compared to its competitors, there were nevertheless considerable problems in sales, possibly also due to the model policy. In early 1953, the house bank commissioned Gerhard Böhme to carry out the renovation. He found 26,000 unsold radios. Oswald Ritter resigned as a partner in the summer of 1953 and Böhme took over management of the company. In 1955 Ritter was to leave the company entirely and died on October 2, 1959 after a long illness.

Nevertheless, the development department worked successfully and the Syntektor 54W equipped with Syntektor VHF circuit attracted attention at the 1953 radio exhibition in Düsseldorf with its excellent selectivity and interference or amplitude modulation suppression.

Cooperation with Neckermann

Böhme finally reached far-reaching agreements with the once very important mail order company Neckermann in Frankfurt am Main . Neckermann now accepted all Körting radio and television sets. Körting replaced while the in Dachau based apparatuses of Bavaria , in 1953, a similar arrangement was made of the sales of radio receivers respect. A "piano key super with FM, medium and longwave section", developed jointly by AWB Neckermann and sold for DM 187  , was introduced, which [became] a "sensational sales success, which brought the Neckermann name beyond the company's refugee and rural population made known to the general public. ”The Körting devices sold by Neckermann now also bore the Neckermann logo. Körting's name disappeared completely from the products for a short time, but soon returned as Neckermann-Körting . It was only manufactured for export under its own name.

In the fall of 1954 Neckermann took a Körting television world view for 648 DM on the market, then a "sensational price" of the announced pre-war price of the popular television fell short of 650 Reichsmarks for the first time. In 1955 a world view with a 43 cm picture tube was already on the market for 548 DM and at that time it was “the cheapest device of its kind”. At that time, the cooperation between Neckermann and Körting made a decisive contribution to ending the price fixing of the second hand for televisions on the German market, which had made margins of 41 percent and thus 25 percent margin possible for retailers .

From 1957 Körting also manufactured devices for other manufacturers, which they then sold under their brands. However, due to the low margins of the business model, the company did not get rich. Körting continued to do successful development work. In 1957, Körting launched the Dynamic 830 W as the world's first radio with a dynamic expander .

From 1952 to 1964 sales increased sevenfold. In 1963 and 1964, Körting was forced to significantly expand its capacities due to the increasing sales. In quick succession, branch plants in Grödig near Salzburg, Möbelwerke Wallerstein and Körting-Italiana in Pavia were founded, which together later employed 1,700 people.

Color television

At the start of color television based on the PAL system in West Germany in August 1967 - television broadcasting in the GDR followed in October 1969 with the SECAM process - Körting brought the cheapest color television, a device with 14 tubes plus picture tube , onto the market. The Weltblick Color Supermatic was already available from Neckermann for 1,990 DM, which was below the general wholesale price of other manufacturers of around 2,000 DM including sales tax of 10% at the time. Adjusted for inflation, this amount corresponds to € 3,860 in today's currency. Anyone who ordered the device from Neckermann before it began broadcasting on August 25, 1967, paid a subscription price of only DM 1,840 (equivalent to € 3,550). In general, the retail price of color televisions at that time, when there was still price maintenance between manufacturers and dealers, was around DM 2,400, which today corresponds to a purchasing power of € 4,630. For comparison, it should be noted that the VW 1200, marketed as the “Sparkäfer” in 1967 , was available for DM 4,525 (equivalent to € 8,740 today). The Körting color television set was selected by the Central Telecommunications Office (FTZ) of the Deutsche Bundespost , which at the time was the supervisory body for radio and television technology, as the reference device for compliance with the regulations. Another pioneering achievement was that the Körting color devices from the second generation in 1968 onwards only had seven tubes plus a picture tube and one color signal part with plug-in modules.

Last expansion and decline

In 1970, Körting signed an extensive know-how contract with the Yugoslav state company Gorenje with the aim of building up the production of color television sets at their headquarters in Velenje , Slovenia . In 1973 Körting achieved a turnover of 320 million DM and employed 2,300 people in the main factory.

Körting exported around 40% and 30% of the production went to German customers such as Kuba-Imperial , Elac , Blaupunkt and Siemens . Körting built the cheapest chassis in Germany. In order to be able to cover the increasing demand for printed circuit boards , the Körting Electronics subsidiary (today part of AT&S ) was founded in Fehring in Styria in 1974 with 290 employees .

In 1975 Böhme died after a serious illness. His son Klaus Böhme took over the management. From 1975 onwards, sales in the radio and television industry generally declined, which also had a strong impact on Körting.

After Cuba had already stopped production in 1972, Elac was split up in 1978 and, more importantly, Neckermann was taken over by Karstadt . Karstadt did not continue working with Körting. Körting himself had to file for bankruptcy.

Takeover by Gorenje

Not least as a result of the longstanding cooperation, Gorenje took over the main plant in Grassau on September 1, 1978. The newly founded Gorenje Körting Electronic GmbH & Co. KG continued to be successful in exports and tried in the following years to rebuild the domestic sales channel via specialist dealers under the Körting brand . However, given the persistent economic weakness and the differentiated behavior on the part of the specialist trade, the domestic sales volume targeted by Körting was not achieved.

At the end of March 1983 Gorenje Körting Electronic went bankrupt and the location in Grassau was given up. The Körting brand and all other association, patent and trademark rights passed into the ownership of the parent company Gorenje and its group. The Körting brand is still used by Gorenje in some Eastern European countries for various household appliances such as washing machines and dishwashers.

Günter F. Abele wrote in volume 1 of his book Historische Radios, a chronicle in words and pictures : “From 1932 to 1982 Körting built radios. If you were to advertise a competition today to see who has brought the world's best receivers onto the market in these 50 years of broadcasting - Körting Radio-Werke would in any case be shortlisted. "

literature

  • Ernst Erb: Radio Catalog (Volume 1). M + K Computer Verlag, Lucerne 1998. ISBN 3-907007-21-2 ( Helveticat )
  • Körting Radio Werke Oswald Ritter GmbH Grassau / Chiemgau: Be loyal to the good old man. Advertisement with photo of Oswald Ritter in: Das Beste aus Reader's Digest , September 1952, Stuttgart.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Logo taken from advertising brochures (PDF) Jogis Röhrenbude
  2. ↑ Sabine Grunwald: Bauhaus lights? CANDEM LIGHT! An illuminating exhibition. guest contribution from May 6, 2003 on AVIVA-Berlin .de, accessed on May 1, 2020.
  3. ↑ Kandem Lamps - History. www.kandem.de, accessed on December 18, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Cyclo-Selector S4340GL on radiomuseum.org, accessed on January 20, 2016
  5. ↑ Novum (38) GB2207GW on radiomuseum.org, accessed on January 20, 2016
  6. ↑ Ultramar SB7360W at radiomuseum.org, accessed January 20, 2016
  7. ↑ Transmare 38 SB7440W on radiomuseum.org, accessed January 20, 2016
  8. ↑ Ralf Kläs: Antik Radio Homepage Körting. Retrieved May 29, 2011 .
  9. ↑ a b c d These figures are based on the template: Inflation determined, rounded to a full 10 euros and refer to the previous January.
  10. ↑ a b Funkschau , No. 16, 1952
  11. ↑ exhibition. Weltblick 5931 item no. 105/10. (No longer available online.) Deutsches Rundfunk-Museum e. V. , Berlin, formerly in the original ; Retrieved May 29, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.drm-berlin.de  
  12. ↑ International Electronic Rundschau, Volume 13, p. 403
  13. ↑ radiomuseum.org: Syntektor 54W. Retrieved January 20, 2016 .
  14. ↑ a b Catalogs against cartels . In: Der Spiegel . No. 44 , 1955 ( online ).
  15. ↑ radiomuseum.org: world view deluxe 113/14. Retrieved January 20, 2016 .
  16. ↑ Neckermann started . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1955 ( online ).
  17. ↑ radiomuseum.org: Weltblick record 113/15. Retrieved January 20, 2016 .
  18. ↑ radiomuseum.org: Dynamic 830W. Retrieved January 20, 2016 .
  19. ^ Radiomuseum.org: Weltblick Color-Supermatic. Retrieved January 20, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Black channels . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1967 ( online ).
  21. ↑ Ulrich von Pidoll: The VW Beetle and its German competitors . ( Memento from August 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) IG Historische VWs Braunschweig (accessed April 20, 2011)
  22. ↑ radiomuseum.org: color television set 59313 837/857. Retrieved January 20, 2016 .