Radio and telecommunications technology
Rundfunk- und Fernmelde-Technik ( RFT ) was the name of a manufacturer association of various telecommunications companies in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
RFT Radio- und Fernmelde-Technik was therefore not a company name, but a trademark signet or logo of a trademark association in the GDR for "radio-related products", to which companies in the broadcasting and television technology industry and the communications and measurement technology industry belonged. It was created in 1946, long before the GDR was founded, and was taken over by the VVB (Association of People's Own Companies) Radio and Telecommunications Technology and later by the Kombinaten . Later it was also said that RFT is the abbreviation for “ R epresentant F ortvanced T echnik”.
Under the single name RFT firmierten in the 1980s combine radio and television technology , which combine communications electronics and the VEB industrial distribution radio and television, with its commercial operation, the workshops and the antenna construction. But also individual companies of the combine Robotron Dresden , Meßelektronik Dresden , Mikroelektronik Erfurt and the combine device and control plant Teltow belonged to the trademark association.
Ultimately, however, RFT was the unified brand under which everything was sold that GDR communications technology had to offer, from electronic tubes , transistors , microchips , capacitors , antenna systems to complete shortwave transmitters in the 250 kilowatt range.
history
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A large number of originally independent smaller and larger equipment and apparatus manufacturers were nationalized in the course of the history of the GDR. This also included parts of the former companies Siemens , AEG and other large companies; however, some smaller private companies did not exist until the 1970s. From some of these companies the VVB RFT Radio and Telecommunications Technology Leipzig was formed, from which the VEB RFT Kombinat Nachrichtenelektronik later emerged. The products were manufactured under the uniform brand RFT. In the GDR almost everything that had to do with communications technology was given this designation, including, but not limited to, in the private consumer sector. Therefore, the company's history is extraordinarily diverse and complicated. The combines in the GDR grew steadily over the years through the integration of further companies and even smaller combines. So was z. B. 1979 the Dresden combine RFT Meßelektronik , which meanwhile combined almost the entire production of measuring devices, was transferred to the Robotron combine . Some of the measuring devices were still manufactured under the RFT brand and not under the Robotron brand.
By amalgamating several combines, the RFT Radio and Television Technology Combine was finally founded in 1980 . In 1990 it employed a total of 23,000 people. Likewise, the production of communications technology has been combined in the communications electronics combine.
research
For the manufacturers of RFT products, several central laboratories worked on research into the development of new technologies and new products. Two of these laboratories should be mentioned , one in Berlin responsible for telecommunications technology in Treptow-Köpenick and one for radio and television reception technology in Dresden . Initially, Bernhard Vinzelberg and Kurt Freitag worked in this . Vinzelberg set up a laboratory for magnetic storage technology together with Friedrich Kniehauer, an engineer who left the GDR in 1961 and switched to SEL , which was the basis for the early production of reel tape recorders in the GDR.
Home electronics
Radio works in Leipzig
The origin of all businesses that produced in Leipzig radios, was in 1925 by the merchant Oswald knight and the technician William Dietz founded Dr. Dietz & Ritter GmbH, factory for radio products and transformers . Both were former employees of the arc lamp factory Körting & Mathiesen in Leipzig, which held 20 percent of the shares and gave permission to use the Körting brand for the products. Dietz and Ritter each owned 40 percent of the GmbH shares. Production was in the former premises of the Graphic Art Institute Dr. Trenkler & Co. in Eichstädtstrasse 11 (today Untere Eichstädtstrasse) in Stötteritz . The company initially produced transformers , power amplifiers and dynamic loudspeakers under license from the American company Magnavox .
From 1932 radio receivers were added to the product range and the company in Körting Radio, Dr. Dietz & Ritter GmbH changed. With the models Cyclo-Super and Hexodensuper their first, also came superheterodyne receiver mentioned, superheterodyne receiver on the market. Körting Radio achieved a market share of 5.2% as early as 1933, which was increased to 7.35% in the following year. In the course of arming the Wehrmacht , D & R built radio technology for the Air Force under license from Telefunken and Lorenz on behalf of the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) from 1935 . For this purpose, the company set up a second location not far away at Melscher Strasse 7. Oswald Ritter managed to acquire the 20 percent share still held by Körting & Mathiesen. In 1938 Körting Radio was one of the leading manufacturers in the market and employed 3,000 people.
As a result, due to differences with the Army Weapons Office, the development and production of military technology were placed under RLM supervision and, on November 1, 1939, spun off into the Reich's own Leipzig Funkgerätebau GmbH . The two shareholders and managing directors Dietz and Ritter lost their posts. The technical director Wilhelm Dietz, who was already in conflict with Ritter because of his interference in the technical affairs of the company, left with the severance payment for his 40 percent stake and died in July 1944.
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 was called the Leipzig plant, analogous to the parent company Opta Radio AG . 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 "Körting-Radio-Werke Oswald Ritter".
The Opta operation in Melscher Strasse was named Opta-Radio AG, Stötteritz plant with the status of a SAG (Soviet state company) and in 1948 became VEB Stern-Radio Leipzig . In 1952, after an internal profile change, the name was changed to VEB Fernmeldewerk Leipzig , which was now mainly dedicated to the production of telecommunications systems, but also z. B. Manufactured microphones .
Oswald Ritter was not a member of the NSDAP and was temporarily imprisoned in 1939 for objecting (also to the above-mentioned spin-off of the radio equipment manufacturing division ). His company Körting Radio Werke Oswald Ritter in Eichstädtstrasse was expropriated on March 16, 1948. Ritter then went to Bavaria and founded the Körting Radio Werke GmbH with headquarters in Grassau im Chiemgau.
The former Körting Radio Werke Oswald Ritter in Leipzig were initially incorporated into the RFT-Funkwerk Leipzig VEB and in 1964 the VEB Fernmeldewerk Leipzig . With the formation of the Kombinate, this company received the status of the parent company of the VEB RFT Kombinat Fernmeldewerk Leipzig in 1970 . Further Leipzig companies were gradually assigned to this parent company:
- VEB Gerätewerk Leipzig , formed in 1967 , emerged from VEB Funkmechanik Leipzig (1951) - formerly Stöcker & Co. (1945) and VEB Gerätewerk Leipzig (1954) - formerly VEB Meßgerätewerk Leipzig (1948), formerly Dr. Th. Horn (1945).
- 1949–1952 VEB Development and Design Office Leipzig , which was spun off from VEB Fernmeldewerk Leipzig and then transferred to VEB Funkmechanik Leipzig .
Independent of this already complicated corporate development, there were several small businesses. In 1948 VEB (K) Elektrogerätebau Leipzig emerged from these , in 1954 further small businesses were added and in 1965 VEB Elektroakustik Leipzig emerged . a. later manufactured record players under the brand name RFT in the Sternradio Berlin combine . In 1980 VEB Elektrotechnische Werkstätte Rötha , which was established in 1971, expanded and finally the two companies VEB Kombinat Fernmeldewerk Leipzig and VEB Elektroakustik Leipzig merged to VEB Fernmeldewerk Leipzig, the parent company of VEB Kombinat Nachrichtenelektronik . In 1984 the company was renamed VEB RFT Nachrichtenelektronik Leipzig " Albert Norden " , operating the VEB Kombinat Nachrichtenelektronik .
Radio plant in Staßfurt
The city of Staßfurt has a rich history in the production of consumer electronics. In 1928 the Staßfurter Licht- und Kraftwerke AG plant, radio construction department, was founded with the brand name Imperial . It was here that Germany's first superheter “Mikrohet B” (battery operated) was produced in series, and the top-class Staßfurt Imperial receivers were produced in the 1930s . After the war , the company founder was able to open a new company in the western Harz foreland in Osterode in 1948 under the name Continental-Rundfunk GmbH , which went bankrupt in 1957 and was bought by the Kuba company . Cuba later became part of General Electric . The Staßfurt plant was expropriated in 1949 and renamed VEB Stern-Radio Stassfurt . At that time it was already operating as part of VVB RFT Radio and Telecommunications Technology Leipzig . In addition to the Staßfurt operation, there were three other Stern-Radio-Werke in the GDR, including in Berlin, which were organized in their own combine. The most popular product was the Sternchen transistor radio , which had been produced by VEB Sternradio Sonneberg in Thuringia since 1959 and later also in Berlin. TV sets were also manufactured in the Staßfurt plant from 1957 . In 1962 radio production was stopped and the company was renamed VEB Fernsehgerätewerk Staßfurt . It had around 2,500 employees in the 1970s. In 1988 Staßfurt had an annual production of 500,000 devices. Among other things, there was a branch in Halle (Saale) .
The VEB Fernsehgerätewerk Staßfurt remained the largest producer of television receivers in the GDR and the parent plant of the VEB Kombinat Rundfunk- und Fernsehtechnik alongside VEB Robotron-Elektronik Radeberg (formerly VEB Rafena), which resumed production of television sets in the 1970s, after it had already started in 1950 by 1968 a total of 2.7 million were manufactured. Here the focus was on small devices, so from 1975 case devices with a screen diagonal of 31 cm and from 1982 portable devices with 42 cm picture tubes were manufactured.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall , the state-owned company became Rundfunk-Fernseh-Telekommunikation AG Staßfurt , and the production of television sets with the most modern technology could be continued. However, as sales shrank rapidly and markets in the former socialist countries fell away, thousands of people had to leave the plant. In 1993 there were still 650 employees. Finally, in 1998 TechniSat took over the remaining parts of the factory and invested in new production technology; the administration building was abandoned. With the technical modernization, the workforce shrank again; in 2014, 140 people were busy assembling ultra-flat Full HD receivers. The production is around 70,000 devices per year.
VEB Kombinat radio and television technology
The radio and television technology combine, with its parent company "VEB Fernsehgerätewerk Staßfurt", had been the sole manufacturer of home electronics in the GDR since 1980. a. Radios, televisions, stereos and tape recorders.
In 1960 the Central Laboratory for Radio and Television Reception Technology (ZRF) was founded as a central research and development center in Dresden. From 1981 it operated as the VEB Center for Science and Technology (ZWT). For a while, laboratories were also located in the tower of Eckberg Castle , where West German VHF radio stations could sometimes be received (see also West TV ).
In 1990 the Staßfurt plant became the radio-television-telecommunication AG Staßfurt . It was almost completely wound up by 1996. In 1997/98 the RFT-Digital GmbH was founded with 100 employees.
Communications engineering
Companies outside the combine
Professional industrial receivers, transmission and amateur radio systems were produced in the RFT VEB Funkwerk Köpenick in Berlin . However, this was not a member of the VEB Kombinat RFT Rundfunk und Fernsehen, but was organized in the VEB Kombinat Nachrichtenelektronik . There were z. B. also manufactured the laboratory time switches RFT Exakt . In Berlin-Oberschöneweide there were other institutes that mainly produced laboratory equipment, exclusively under the brand name RFT Nachrichtenelektronik. Other works dealt with antenna system technology, e.g. B. the Blankenburg plant, or the VEB Rafena Werke Radeberg .
VEB Fernmelde-Anlagenbau Rostock also produced ship electronic equipment under RFT .
VEB Kombinat communications electronics
The combine emerged in 1980 from the VEB Kombinat Fernmeldewerk Leipzig. Until 1986, the headquarters of the communications electronics combine was Leipzig. The parent company was VEB Nachrichtenelektronik Albert Norden Leipzig , the former telecommunications plant in Leipzig- Stötteritz . By resolution of the GDR Council of Ministers , the management of the combine was relocated to Berlin on July 1, 1986. VEB Funkwerk Köpenick became the new parent company . The Funkwerk Dabendorf near Zossen was part of the parent company . In 1987 the Institute for Telecommunications in Berlin-Oberschöneweide was formed into the Center for Research and Technology in Telecommunications (ZFTN) and incorporated into the parent company as a further part of the company.
In the 1980s, the combine was the sole manufacturer of u. a. Communication systems, telephones, radios and antennas in the GDR. Until the dissolution of the combine in 1990, the following companies belonged to it:
- VEB communications electronics "Albert Norden" Leipzig (parent company until 1986),
- VEB Nachrichtenanlagenbau Leipzig,
- VEB Funkwerk Köpenick (parent company from 1986),
- VEB Funk- und Fernmeldeanlagenbau Berlin (with the radio and telecommunications plant division Rostock),
- VEB Nachrichtenelektronik Magdeburg
- VEB measuring electronics Berlin,
- VEB Studiotechnik Berlin,
- Institute for Telecommunications Berlin (from 1987 ZFTN),
- VEB Nachrichtenelektronik Greifswald ,
- VEB telecommunications plant Neustadt-Glewe,
- VEB telecommunications cabinet and housing construction Calau,
- VEB Fernmeldewerk Nordhausen,
- VEB Fernmeldewerk Arnstadt,
- VEB telecommunications plant Bautzen,
- VEB Meßgerätewerk Zwönitz and the
- VEB Funkwerk Kölleda .
Tube production
An extensive chapter is the former production of electron tubes in the GDR, the actual nucleus of RFT radio production. Radio tubes were manufactured in the Berlin Oberspreewerk (OSW im Behrensbau in Berlin-Oberschöneweide , from 1951 VEB plant for telecommunications (FW) , from 1960 plant for television electronics (WF) ), in the former Opta-Radio plant in Berlin-Weißensee (from 1948 Phonetika Radio ), in the tube factory in Mühlhausen (up to 1945 tube factory of C. Lorenz ), in the tube factory " Anna Seghers " (formerly Telefunken tube factory Neuhaus ), in the radio factory in Erfurt as well as at other locations. When the production of electronic and special tubes in Western Europe was shut down - only Telefunken still produced special electron tubes in small series in the Berlin-Moabit plant (Sickingenstrasse 70/71) - almost all corporations had the tubes they needed manufactured in the GDR. The Berlin factory for television electronics, which belonged to Samsung until its final closure in 2005 , manufactured the EL34 (dimple top), a post-war development by Philips and Valvo . Production was later relocated to Mühlhausen and sold to the West with Philips expertise. (China, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were competitors who manufactured these and other tubes; in some of the subsequent countries, production is still taking place.)
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Semiconductor technology and electronics trade
Production and trade in electronic components operated under the name RFT-Electronic , the semiconductor production, z. B. in the VEB Kombinat semiconductor technology Frankfurt / O. traded under the name RFT transistors.
Measurement technology was actually a matter for the VEB Meßelektronik combine in Dresden . Nevertheless, from the early days of the GDR z. B. Resistance measuring bridges with the designation VEB RFT Gerätewerk Chemnitz .
Computer technology
The computer technology in the GDR was actually a domain of the VEB Kombinat Robotron. In addition, VEB RFT Mikroelektronik Wilhelm Pieck in Mühlhausen , Thuringia , manufactured home computers and VEB Elektronik Gera also manufactured cassette recorders for data storage. In addition, the MC-80 was mainly produced for industrial controls in Gera .
Sales and services
Goods with the RFT logo were available in all shops (as long as certain items were of course available ↑ Bückware ), the range of which ranged from radios to televisions, record players, cassette players, radio technology to components, etc. This could be department stores, HO branches, consumer stores as well as private stores. However, VEB Industrievertrieb Rundfunk und Fernsehen more and more developed into the main distribution channel . The purpose of this trading company should be direct sales from the manufacturer to the customer according to the industrial shop principle.
At first, industrial sales only belonged to the trademark association RFT. At the beginning of the 1980s it was incorporated into the above-mentioned company as a combine company. Combine RuF incorporated. Initially, the service workshops belonged to an independent company, the VEB Guarantee and Customer Service. (See photo: Schnellreparaturwagen in Dresden, here already with the RFT logo.) The repair branch and antenna construction branch were then assigned to the trading company as parts of the business. The first branch of the trading company of VEB Industrievertrieb RuF was located in Berlin-Friedrichshain on Karl-Marx-Allee since 1964. With its closure, the industrial sales department opened a new main branch in the Flamingo store at Dönhoffstrasse 47 in Berlin-Karlshorst. In the course of the redesign of Alexanderplatz, the House of the Electrical Industry (HdE) was built there as a new building. The now largest branch of industrial sales was opened on the ground floor. In the meantime there were also other branches in the district capitals of the GDR districts (later also in other larger cities). A special feature were the two amateur radio branches in the Bln.-Friedrichshainer Kopernikusstraße 35 and in Berlin Prenzlauer Berg, in the Kastanienallee 87. As the name suggests, the range of radio technology, measurement technology and electronic components was sold here.
The industrial sales also had the task for which CMEC industry as Genex -Auslieferer to act as the gift service GmbH indeed had no own businesses. The radio and television sets they had ordered from western countries were shown to the “gift recipients” in a separate room and then delivered. There were workshops in almost every branch, but also as individual objects. The headquarters of VEB Industrievertrieb was located in the blocks of the former Huguenot quarter, Berlin-Mitte, Friedrichstrasse 129.
The company was closed after reunification.
RFT reinterpreted
After the reunification of Germany , the combines were dissolved and a new brand association was founded under the RFT brand, the RFT Warenzeichenverband Radio & Fernmeldechnik e. V. is called and has its seat in Brandenburg an der Havel . This included a number of producers, service providers and dealers (as of 2014):
- The TechniSat GmbH , a company based in the Eifel, let you work again Staßfurter televisions produce, mainly 100 Hz devices with digital tuners and multimedia -TV devices. The devices in the futuristic design by Luigi Colani are well known . The multimedia devices are designed for broadband cable connection so that they can also be used as computers, with DVD players and IP telephones . Devices with LC displays have also been manufactured since the end of 2005 . The company relies on domestic production, i.e. does not produce abroad using a lower wage level. It produces in two other plants in Vogtland and Thuringia and operates a development department with 150 employees in Dresden .
- RFT Staßfurt global GmbH . Head office in Staßfurt
- RFT 2000 GmbH . Head office in Staßfurt. The company was spun off in 1999; it has specialized in HFC network technology, communication technology and information technology in the service area and also offers training. Close cooperation with the University of Magdeburg
- RFT radio-television Brandenburg GmbH , later renamed RFT kabel Brandenburg GmbH , head office in Brandenburg an der Havel . The company operates a broadband cable network and is a provider of television programs and an Internet provider .
- RFT-Multimedia Hausmann & Partner GbR . Headquarters in Magdeburg. Online dispatch of network and computer technology, security technology and antenna systems.
- The Institute for Telecommunications in Berlin-Oberschöneweide was taken over in 1992 by RFT SEL Nachrichtenelektronik GmbH , which was renamed Alcatel SEL RFT GmbH at the end of 1992 .
- VEB Statron , headquarters in Fürstenwalde / Spree , became Statron elektronik GmbH and in 1995 it was re-established as Statron Geräteechnik GmbH . The company produces power supply technology.
There were still smaller companies that were not members of the trademark association themselves, but sold developments to combines and other companies. These were able to do justice to the consumer goods quota. One example is Musikelectronic Geithain GmbH, Saxony, with chief developer and managing director Joachim Kiesler. He was and is a developer and manufacturer of director speakers, cutting-edge technology for recording studios and broadcasters, and at the time also produced stereo home speakers for RFT. However, due to a lack of capacity, production was soon outsourced to Statron Fürstenwalde, see BR 25 .
List of RFT plants (selection)
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See also
Web links
- Trademark association radio and telecommunications technology
- Friends of Staßfurt radio and television technology
- www.RFT-Hifigeraete.de (Torsten Anter)
- RFT-Sammlung.de (Karsten Schulze)
- Stassfurt Radio Collection
- rft-seite.de - RFT fansite (no longer available online), archive version from October 18, 2015 on archive.org
References
- ^ Ingo Pötschke: The history of the broadcasting industry in the GDR. Funkverlag, Dessau-Roßlau 2006, ISBN 3-936124-19-1 , pp. 83 f and 145 f.
- ↑ Joachim Beckh: Blitz & Anker. Volume 2: Information Technology. History & background. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2006, ISBN 3-8334-2997-6 , p. 64.
- ^ Radiomuseum.org: Mikrohet 1928. Retrieved January 21, 2016 .
- ↑ Dominik Bath: TV from Staßfurt: Tradition lives . www.volksstimme.de; Retrieved July 24, 2015.
- ^ Successor company DKI GmbH
- ↑ Active electronic components. Part 1–3. RFT microelectronics. VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik, Erfurt 1988.
- ↑ according to the imprint on the company website
- ↑ music electronic Geithain. Interview from Studio Magazin. Studio Press, Oberhausen 2002, 4th ISSN 0932-3929