Max Grundig (; 7 May 1908 – 8 December 1989) was the founder of electronics company

Grundig AG Grundig (; ) is a German consumer electronics manufacturer owned by the Turkish Arçelik A.Ş., the white goods (major appliance) manufacturer of Turkish conglomerate Koç Holding. The company made domestic appliances and personal-care produ ...

Early life

Grundig was raised by his parents in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

where he delayed his final school exams (''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen ye ...

'') and completed training as an electrician. Grundig's father died when he was 12 and his mother had to support her five children on a factory wage. Young Grundig started his working life as a plumber's apprentice.

Career

In 1930, Grundig and a colleague opened a store selling radios under the name Fürth, Grundig & Wurzer (RVF), generating one million

Reichsmark The (; sign: ℛℳ; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until 20 June 1948 in West Germany, where it was replaced with the , and until 23 June 1948 in East Germany, where it was replaced by the East German mark. The Reich ...

in sales by 1938. After World War II, business expanded with a successful range of

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic ( analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usuall ...

. In 1972, the company became a

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

and was sold to

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

in 1984. His company was one of the first to produce FM radios, cutting out static interference for clearer reception. In 1952, it was one of the first European companies to start producing television sets. Grundig built his company up after World War II to become a market leader in home entertainment products and a symbol of West Germany's ''

Wirtschaftswunder The ''Wirtschaftswunder'' (, "economic miracle"), also known as the Miracle on the Rhine, was the rapid reconstruction and development of the economies of West Germany and Austria after World War II (adopting an ordoliberalism-based social ma ...

''. It was only in the late 1970s that it began to lose some of its market share as it came under increasing pressure from lower-priced Japanese products, and in 1980 the company recorded its first losses. Grundig's answer to the Asian competition was to form EURO, a common front of European manufacturers. It did not stave off the challenge, however, and the company was forced to close eleven plants and cut its workforce from 35,000 to 29,000 workers. In 1984, the Dutch

group bought out nearly a one-third share and took over the management. Colleagues described Grundig as a workaholic who made decisions alone and took interest in the minutest details of his business. "Order is holy to him; it means as much as half", was an official company description of him.

Personal life

At the age of 21, Grundig married Berta Haag, daughter Inge was born 1930. After this birth the marriage was divorced. In 1938 he married soprano Anneliese Jürgensen. In 1981 he married his third wife Chantal Grundig. They had daughter Maria-Alexandra. He received the Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor from the German Eduard Rhein Foundation in 1982.

References

External links

* Engineers from Nuremberg German company founders 20th-century German businesspeople Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Baden-Württemberg 1908 births 1989 deaths {{Germany-engineer-stub