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Blaupunkt was a European manufacturer of (mainly) receivers, headphones,
car audio and car navigation systems, founded in 1923 in Berlin (Germany) under
the name Ideal Radiotelefon- & Apparatefabrik GmbH. During WWII,
the company mainly produced equipment for the Wehrmacht.
After WWII, the company returned to its core business — automotive equipment —
and became one of the biggest and most successful companies in the industry.
The 1970s and 1980s were arguably the most successful years in Blaupunkt's
history, with more than 13,000 employees. 2008 marked the start of the decline
of the company, when owner Robert Bosch GmbH
sold part of the company to investment fund Aurelius.
Blaupunkt was officially dissolved in 2016, but many of its former products
are still being produced by a range of (mainly European) companies today.
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The company was founded in 1923 in Berlin under the name Ideal
Radiotelefon- & Apparatefabrik GmbH. In the early years, the company
produced detector receivers with accompanying headphones. All products were
impressed with a blue dot, as an indication of quality control. This
quality control stamp eventually evolved into a the brand name Blaupunkt
in 1924. From 1932 onwards, all products appeared under the name Blaupunkt [1].
In 1930, the company was transformed into a Holding with its legal seat
in Lichtenstein, and was secretly taken over by
Robert Bosch AG
(now: Robert Bosch GmbH).
In 1933, Ideal (Blaupunkt) became a full daughter of
Bosch. The reason for this covert take-over was the fact that, due to
licencing agreements with Telefunken, Ideal was not allowed to supply
to other companies.
In 1932, Blaupunkt was the first European company to introduce a car radio,
the so-called Autosuper AS 5. It was suitable for the reception of
the LW and MW bands, but was large and expensive.
It occupied 10 litres of space and had a price tag of
RM 465, which was about 17.5% of the price 1 of a car at the time.
In 1939, the company had about 2600 employees.
During WWII (1939-1945), the production of radio and television equipment
was largely replaced by the production of equipment for the German Armed
Forces (Wehrmacht), such as single and double headphones
(under the name IDEAL) and a target camera for guided missiles
(together with Bosch GmbH). Towards the
end of the war (1944) the company had about 4100 employees.
After WWII, Blaupunkt became one of the biggest European manufacturers
of car radios, with a very good track record. During the 1970s, the
company had 13,700 employees [1]. Apart from radios, the
company also specialised in car navigation systems and in-car entertainment
systems.
In 2008, Bosch
sold Blaupunkt to financial investor Aurelius, but kept
its navigation and car entertainment business. Production of the remaining
activities was subsequently moved to Malasia and later to India and China.
Nevertheless, Blaupunkt's turnover kept declining. In 2010, Aurelius sold
Blaupunkt's antenna business to Kathrein. In 2014, Aurelius sold the
remaining assets to a British investment fund, but kept the rights to
the Blaupunkt brand name.
In 2015, the company was no longer able to pay its debts. Several activities
were sold off to companies in various countries. The remaining activities were
shut down and its staff was layed off.
The company was officially dissolved in 2016.
Today, Blaupunkt only exists in name,
with GIP Development SARL (an Aurelius daughter) looking after the legal
aspects of the brand name.
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Indexed and converted into today's currency (2017) this would be EUR 1760.
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1923 Ideal Radiotelefon- & Apparatefabrik GmbH 1926 Ideal-Werke Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telephonie mbH 1927 Ideal-Werke AG für drahtlose Telephonie 1938 Blaupunkt-Werke GmbH
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Sunday 08 October 2017. Last changed: Sunday, 08 October 2017 - 14:47 CET.
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