Polyphon
| Polyphon | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1887 |
| Distributor(s) | Self-distributed (worldwide) |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Location | Leipzig, Berlin |
Polyphon is a disc-playing music box, a mechanical device first manufactured by the Polyphon Musikwerke, located in Leipzig, Germany. Invented in 1870, full-scale production started around 1897 and continued into the early 1900s. Polyphons were exported all over world and music was supplied for the English, French and German markets, as well as further afield, with music cataloged for the Russian, Polish and Balkan regions. Polyphon is also a record label as registered by German Polyphon Musikwerke AG in 1908. Polyphon traded under the Polydor label since 1913 with their trademarks Polyphon Musik and Polyphon Record.
The German company was founded in Wahren, Leipzig, as Firma Brachhausen & Riesener by Gustav Adolf Brachhausen and Ernst Paul Riessner in 1887 for manufacturing their new in 1870 invented mechanical disc-playing music box Polyphon. The company was renamed to Polyphon-Musikwerke AG in 1895. Since 1908 Hugo Wünsch was director, but became head of the new subsidiary Deutsche Grammophon AG in 1918. Polyphon-Musikwerke AG acquired 24 April 1917 the record plant Deutsche Grammophon-Aktiengesellschaft from the German government. The German state was taken over DG and British holdings as enemies property during World War I. The factories Deutsche Grammophon and Polyphon-Musikwerke were handled by Polyphonwerke AG and headquarter was relocated in Berlin. The company was called Polyphon-Grammophon-Konzern.
In 1918 Polyphon AG established their head offices in Markgrafenstraße 76 in Berlin. Bruno Borchard became director general. The early owner Joseph Berliner remained as member of the boards until his retirement in 1921. In 1919 the Austrian subsidiary Polyphon-Sprechmaschinen und Schallplatten GmbH was founded in Vienna. It was as renamed Polyphon Schallplatten Ges. mbH. The Danish Nordisk Polyphon A. S. was founded in Kopenhagen. In Stockholm the Swedish subsidiary was called Nordisk Polyphon A. B. The ownership of foreign activities were concentrated in March 1929 into a Swiss holding company the Polyphon-Holding AG. In 1932 this holding was renamed to Polydor Holding AG.
The owner Polyphon Werke AG was merged with Deutsche Grammophon AG in 1932. Soon was the total shutdown of the production in Leipzig. In 1933 DG sold their shares of Polydor Holding. In 1937 DG was renamed to Deutsche Grammophon GmbH. A capital merger operation took place by a consortium of Deutsche Bank and Telefunken Gesellschaft. In 1932 founded Telefunken Platte GmbH got a production plant as it was needed. DGG was sold to the German Siemens & Halske AG electronics company in 1941. In 1954 DGG established a subsidiary in London, Polydor Records Ltd. In 2000 the French mediacompany Vivendi SA acquired the current owner Universal Music Group from Seagram.
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