Television electronics factory
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Laboratory, design office and testing facility Oberspree Oberspreewerk Telecommunication plant Plant for television electronics (WF) Samsung Electronic Components GmbH |
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| legal form | |
| founding | 1945 |
| resolution | 2005 |
| Seat | Berlin - Oberschöneweide , Germany |
| Number of employees |
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| Branch | electronics |
The factory for television electronics (WF), newly founded in 1946, was a producer of electron tubes in Berlin-Oberschöneweide . He was the only manufacturer of picture tubes in the GDR . The work emerged from the former Oberspree tube factory (RFO) of AEG, which had moved to the building on Ostendstrasse built by Peter Behrens for NAG in 1938 . In the 1980s, the WF belonged to the Trademark Association for Broadcasting and Telecommunication Technology (RFT).
Company history
prehistory
Around 1900 numerous companies settled in Berlin-Oberschöneweide, including a. the AEG . In 1913, the AEG cable factory in Oberspree began producing electron tubes. From the 1930s, Telefunken produced transmitter systems in Oberschöneweide. In 1938, AEG's tube production was combined in the AEG tube factory in Oberspree . This took as a production facility in 1917 for the National Automobile Company built the building in possession.
Development in the Soviet Zone / GDR
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany founded in 1945 in the premises of the former tube factory of AEG, the laboratory, design office and pilot plant Oberspree as scientific industrial company. After just one year, this company had over 2,000 employees. 230 employees were brought to the Soviet Union with their families in 1946 to set up a corresponding production line there. In 1946 the company was converted into a Soviet stock corporation (SAG) and was now called Oberspreewerk . In 1950 it merged with other companies and was renamed the Telecommunications Plant . On May 1, 1952, the Oberspreewerk became a state- owned company (VEB). In connection with the emergence of German television broadcasting and the television sets required for the population, a picture tube factory was put into operation in the factory halls in 1959.
In 1960 the name was changed to the factory for television electronics . When large-scale combines were formed in the 1970s, the WF was assigned to the Microelectronics Combine in Erfurt . In 1983 the production of black and white picture tubes was stopped and in 1984 the production of color picture tubes was started, for which a new production facility was built on Ostendstrasse.
Development after the reunification
Starting in 1990, tube and semiconductor production were gradually discontinued because the corresponding products were available more cheaply on the world market. The WF was converted into a GmbH and the workforce was reduced from around 9,000 to around 1,400. In May 1990, the company's own Museum Technik im Turm opened in Behrensbau , which presented its own development.
In 1993, Samsung SDI took over the WF. The company name was now Samsung Electronic Components GmbH . The museum in the tower was closed and its holdings were put into storage. In 1994 the Samsung Research Center opened with great public attention in part of the former factory building and had big plans for the future.
In the early 2000s, with the advent of LCD screens, demand for picture tubes fell sharply worldwide. The WF's production facilities were therefore shut down in 2005 and the research center abandoned. Samsung, as the owner, planned to sell the building complex in 2009. The halls have been largely empty since then (as of the end of 2018), and the Behrensbau has now been converted into an office center. Parts of the holdings of the museum in the tower are shown by the Schöneweide industrial salon . However, some areas of the WF went independent with niche products; This is how Iris GmbH , for example , specializes in practical applications of sensor technology. Shortly after reunification, several former WF employees founded Silicon Sensor GmbH , which in 2018, under the name First Sensor AG, based in Oberschöneweide, generated sales of over 155 million euros.
Production profile
The WF mainly produced special and transmission tubes, picture tubes and optoelectronics (e.g. LEDs, phototransistors, optocouplers, light shaft components, alphanumeric displays). On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the GDR in 1974, the digital living room clock caliber 44-03 was produced and mainly given away to deserving employees. One of the exotic products was the EKI 1 electronic organ . During the campaign that every major company had to provide consumer goods, the WF brought barbecue tongs onto the market.
- Products from the WF (selection)
Beam pentode type 6V6 with the logo of the Oberspreewerk (OSW)
Center: Pentode with American (6AC7) and Soviet (6Ж4) type designations
Glow stabilizer type StR 70/6
Two Dekatrons : Z582S (left, with display from top) and Z572S (right, to control digital display tubes )
Thyratron 5 kV / 6 A, type S5 / 6i
Endikon type F 2.5 M3a; 2.5 cm diameter, magnetic deflection
SRW317 transmitter tube in the German Museum of Technology
Center: Germanium photodiode type GP122
Optocoupler type MB111
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Social facilities of the WF
During the GDR era, the WF maintained its own cultural center in the Oberschöneweide district (see picture) and a company holiday camp at Lake Frauensee near Gräbendorf .
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Kulturhaus remained the property of the WF and was to be converted and operated with financial support from the Berlin Senate into an open catering and cultural facility (e.g. senior citizens' meeting place, district library , event location). However, all related plans and tenders failed. But the building is on the Berlin list of monuments.
In order to maintain the holiday camp as a recreational property after the fall of the Wall, 10 people founded the Frauensee Children's Recreation Association in 1991 and reopened it as the Frauensee Children's Recreation Village . That was a success, the facility now has annual sales of several million euros.
See also
Web links
- The WF at www.radiomuseum.org , accessed on January 27, 2017
- History of the WF on a private website
- Our best women in the VEB factory for television electronics , article by Annett Gröschner on the Heinrich Böll Foundation's website, from September 2, 2014, accessed on January 27, 2017.
- Our best on youtube.com (4:24 minutes) with some views of the Peter-Behrens-Bau and an interview with 28 women from the WF that were previously awarded, as part of an art project by Susanne Schleyer and Michael Stephan, to be seen in the Schöneweide industrial salon.
Movie
Individual evidence
- ↑ Samsung opened research center in Neues Deutschland , (full article is chargeable); accessed on December 26, 2018.
- ^ Website of the Schöneweide industrial salon
- ↑ Iris GmbH website , accessed on December 26, 2018.
- ↑ Information with the corresponding object to user: 44Penguins .
- ↑ Architectural monument, Wilhelminenhofstraße 66/67, former workers welfare building, built in 1913 according to plans by Felix Lindhorst
- ↑ Which plans for the Kulturhaus are known to the Berlin Senate and how does it assess the situation? Minor question from MP Norbert Pewestorff to the Senate in March 1996; accessed on December 26, 2018.
- ↑ Kiez support association celebrates its 25th anniversary , accessed on December 26, 2018.