In August 1939,
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
introduced the Einheits-Fernseh-Empfänger E1 (i.e. ''Unitary-TV-receiver E1''), also called Volksfernseher (i.e. ''People's TV''), a
441-line, 25 interlaced
frames per second
A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent.
Frame and FRAME may also refer to:
Physical objects
In building construction
*Framing (co ...
(or more correctly 50 fields per second)
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
system. The TV was presented to the public in the 16th
International radio exhibition Berlin.
History
The project started in 1938, associating the
Reichspost
''Reichspost'' (; "Imperial Mail") was the name of the postal service of Germany from 1866 to 1945.
''Deutsche Reichspost''
Upon the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the break-up of the German Confederation in the Peace of P ...
and several companies, including
Bosch,
Blaupunkt
Blaupunkt GmbH () was a German manufacturer, producing mostly car-audio gear and other electronic equipment. Owned by Robert Bosch GmbH from 1933 until 1 March 2009, it was sold to Aurelius AG of Germany. It filed for bankruptcy in late 2015 ...
,
Loewe,
Lorenz
Lorenz is an originally German name derived from the Roman surname Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum".
Given name
People with the given name Lorenz include:
* Prince Lorenz of Belgium (born 1955), member of the Belgian royal family by h ...
, TeKaDe and
Telefunken
Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the ''AEG (German company), Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ("General electricity company").
Prior to ...
. The objective was to produce 10,000 units, but the start of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
caused only about 50 devices to be installed in military hospitals and various government departments. The
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
transmitter was destroyed by Allied bombing in November 1943.
Like British televisions of the era, the Einheitsempfänger could receive only one channel with its
frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...
pre-tuned at the factory to reduce construction costs.
Surviving sets
Only a few surviving and functioning units are known:
* Museum for Communication Berlin (Telefunken)
* Museum for Communication Berlin (Blaupunkt, incomplete)
*
Museum of Communication in Frankfurt (Telefunken, with a new speaker, otherwise completely preserved)
* Private collection of August-Peter Nehrig (Telefunken, completely preserved)
*
German Museum of Technology
(German Museum of Technology) in Berlin, Germany is a museum of science and technology, and exhibits a large collection of historical technical artifacts. The museum's main emphasis originally was on rail transport, but today it also features ...
, Berlin (reproduction without original chassis and a new speaker fabric)
*
University of Mittweida (Blaupunkt, with a new speaker material, condition unknown)
* Fuerth Radio Museum (original chassis with power transformer in the exhibition)
* Fuerth Radio Museum (functional, for demonstration)
Technical data for a typical set
* Case dimensions (W×H×D): 65 cm × 37 cm × 38 cm
* Image size: 19.5 cm × 22.5 cm, 29 cm diagonal; aspect ratio 15:13 (approx 3.46:3)
* Power consumption: 185 W in television reception mode, 60 W in radio reception mode
See also
*
History of television in Germany
References
*
* ''Fernsehen und Tonfilm'', (i.e. ''Television and Sound film'', journal) October 1939
{{DEFAULTSORT:Einheitsempfanger
Television sets
History of telecommunications in Germany
German inventions of the Nazi period
1939 introductions