[R-390] The story of Grundig

[mikea]

On Wed, Jul 21, 2004 at 01:38:37PM -0500, Harry Joel wrote:

> 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.

[snip two paragraphs]

What a really neat story! Thanks _very_ much for some interesting
human (and radio) history I hadn't heard before.

-- 
Mike Andrews
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin