Otto Griessing (born 19 January 1897 in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
– died 11 November 1958 in
Überlingen
Überlingen is a German city on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Württemberg near the border with Switzerland. After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second largest city in the Bodenseekreis (district), and a cent ...
) was a German electronics engineer. He became known following his design of the so-called
Volksempfänger
The ''Volksempfänger'' (, "people's receiver") was a range of German radio receivers developed by engineer Otto Griessing at the request of Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda of the Nazi regime.
The purpose of the ''Volksempfä ...
(people's receiver), one of the sets on display at the 10th German Radio Show (
Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin
The IFA ( ) or Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (International radio exhibition Berlin, a.k.a. 'Berlin Radio Show') is one of the oldest industrial exhibitions in Germany. Between 1924 and 1939 it was an annual event, but from 1950 it was ...
) in August 1933. He designed the receiver at the request of
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
, the German Propaganda Minister. More Volksempfängers were manufactured in Germany between 1933 and 1945 than any other model. The budget-priced Deutsche Kleinempfänger (German small receiver) was also widely known as the Volksempfänger.
Life
Son of a Bavarian
NCO, Otto Griessing was educated in Munich, enlisting as a volunteer in 1914 and serving as a signaller. He reached the rank of lieutenant and saw active service on the eastern and western fronts. He was posted to the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
and interned following the armistice with Turkey. From 1919 he studied at Würzburg Polytechnic, now the
University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which rou ...
.
Having an interest in radio technology, Griessing started work in Berlin with the firm, Erich F Huth, under the wing of its laboratory chief, Karl Rottgardt. A few years later he transferred to the regional broadcasting station at Munich, which he helped to develop. He was technical director of the private broadcaster ‘Deutsche Stunde’ (forerunner of the present
Bayerischer Rundfunk
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR; "Bavarian Broadcasting") is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...
) when this started its transmissions on 30 March 1924. Between January 1926 and August 1927, during the initial development stage, he was the head and technical director of a firm manufacturing communications equipment in
Toblach
Toblach (; it, Dobbiaco ) is a ''comune''/''Gemeinde'' (municipality) in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located in the Puster Valley about northeast of the city of Bolzano, on the border with Austria.
Geography
As of November 30, 2010, it had ...
, Italy.
From September 1927 he worked in Berlin-Schönenberg at Georg Seibt, soon being promoted to the post of chief designer. In the spring of 1933, at the request of
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
, he began work on the development of a reasonably priced but high-quality broadcast receiver. Competitors were the Berlin firms
Blaupunkt
Blaupunkt GmbH () was a German manufacturer of mostly car audio equipment. It was owned by Robert Bosch GmbH from 1933 until 1 March 2009, when it was sold to Aurelius AG of Germany. It filed for bankruptcy in late 2015 with liquidation proceed ...
(previously "Ideal Radio") and
Telefunken
Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ('General electricity company').
The name "Telefunken" app ...
. The selection committee opted for his Model VE 301. The design of the cabinet was principally the work of
Walter Maria Kersting
Walter Maria Kersting (8 July 1889, in Münster – 5 May 1970, in Waging am See) was a German architect and industrial designer.
Career
In 1928, he published the ''Bilderbuch für Kaufleute'', (‘Picture book for business people’) a publi ...
. The set received high praise at the 1933 radio show (Funkaustellung) and, at , was half the price of an equivalent receiver; by the autumn of that year 200,000 sets had been sold. At the 16th Berlin Radio and TV Show, (Grosse Deutsche Funk-und Fernseh-Ausstellung Berlin) Griessing, wearing
SA uniform, was awarded a prize of over .
Literature
* Kurt Jäger (Hg.): ''Lexikon der Elektrotechniker''. Berlin; Offenbach: VDE-Verlag, 1996.
''The above is a translation based on the article in the German Wikipedia at''
:de:Otto Griessing
Engineers from Munich
1958 deaths
1897 births
{{Germany-engineer-stub