[R-390] The story of Grundig

[Harry Joel]

Any review of vintage radio offering on the e-Place will have a good number of vintage Grundig table model superhets. You may not know how Grundig grew to be the German equivalent of IBM+SONY. Before the start of WWII, in my beloved birthplace, Fuerth, Bavaria, I remember seeing a whole-in the-wall radio sales and repair shop run by a gentleman named Grundig. It was stuck between the one and only seafood store and an Italian ice cream emporium. During the war Grundig received many army contracts to fabricate transformers and sub-asemblies for army communication gear. The army supplied all raw materials and the government supplied assembly buildings and the work force made up of Eastern Europe countries forcefully expatriated and kept in primitive living quarters within the assembly compound.  Unlike other contractors, Grundig treated this work force with compassion and respect and managed to get extra food rations for them. Then came the end of WWII. During the next few months, the expatriated workers of other contractor went on a revenge binge of looting. The Grundig crew however posted guards at all entry points and kept looters away.
Thus Grundig had a stash of radio components at his disposal being the de-facto owner.
There was a big demand for new radios, with pre-war models going bad. The US provisional government had put in effect a law which banned any manufacturing of radios. Grundig used a loophole in this law by offering radio KITS. The where simple regenerative receivers using two 12P2000 MIL style pentodes, selenium rectifier, transformer, and all other bits and pieces including a simple cabinet and of course instructions. The kits were flying off the shelves and Grundig used the profits to set up a development lab and was thus ready with a really super good line of receivers when the ban on manufacturing was lifted. Soon his line included TV's, tape recoders and many other electronic items. So goes the story about turning human compassion into an electronic empire.