Telefunken 1903

Gesellschaft für drahtlose Telegraphie System Telefunken, better known as Telefunken, is a German radio and television company, founded in 1903, in Berlin, as a joint venture of two large companies, Siemens & Halske (S&H) and the Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG) (the General Electricity Company) following the advice of Emperor Wilhelm II. Telefunken engineers laid the foundations for radio in Germany during the 1920s and in the 1930s was substantially involved in the development of the electronic television. In 1941 Siemens transferred its Telefunken shares to AEG who thus became sole owners with Telefunken as a subsiduary (known as Telefunken GmbH from 1955 and Telefunken AG from 1963). The company merged with AEG in 1967 becoming AEG-Telefunken. During the 1960s they developed PAL colour television system widely used in Europe. AEG was bought by Daimler in 1985 and Telefunken was dropped from the company name and had effectively ceased to exist as an independant company by 1997. However the brand name "Telefunken" is still marketed by Daimler in Europe.