Incorporation | |
Industry | Consumer Electronics |
Founded | 1923 |
Headquarters | Kronach, Germany |
Key people
|
Mark Hüsges, CEO, Dr. Boris Levin, Michael Pedersen, CTO, |
Products | TVs, Blu-ray players, audio equipment, and multiroom solutions |
Website | loewe.tv |
Loewe Technologies GmbH (pronounced [ˈløːvə]) is the parent company of the German Loewe group. The Loewe group develops, manufactures and sells a wide variety of electronic, electrical and mechanical products and systems, and specialises in the field of consumer and communication technology. The company was founded in Berlin in 1923 by brothers Siegmund and David L. Loewe. The company has its headquarters and sole production facilities in Kronach, Franconia. Today, the range has expanded to include televisions, Blu-ray players, DVD recorders, hard disk recorders, multiroom systems, speakers and racks. The trend is shifting from individual products to complete home entertainment systems. Loewe is also represented internationally by sales partners and subsidiaries. These include subsidiaries in the Benelux countries, France, Italy, Switzerland and the UK. There are exclusive Loewe Galeries acting as flagship stores in many cities around the world, including Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Amman, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Rome and Vienna.
It all began in 1923 in Berlin, when Dr Siegmund Loewe and his brother David Ludwig Loewe established a radio manufacturing company called Radiofrequenz GmbH. Their work with the young physicist Manfred von Ardenne in 1926 led to the development of the triple tube, which was first used in the Loewe OE333 radio receiver. This tube prompted Loewe’s multi-tube production and is today lauded as the world’s first integrated circuit.
Television development began at Loewe in 1929. The company worked together with British television pioneer John Logie Baird. In 1931, Manfred von Ardenne presented the world’s first fully electronic television to the public on the Loewe stand at the 8th Berlin Radio Show.
When Hitler came to power in Germany, Siegmund Loewe had to emigrate to the USA in 1938, where he developed friendship with yet another forced emigrant, Albert Einstein.
In 1949, Siegmund Loewe regained possession of company property and took over as chairman of the supervisory board. In the 1950s, Loewe began producing the Optaphon, the firstcassette tape recorder, and manufacturing televisions in Kronach. 1961 saw the first European video recorder, the Optacord 500, enter mass production.