Max Grundig

Who was Max Grundig?

Max Grundig was the founder of electronics company Grundig AG. He was raised by his parents in Nuernberg where he delayed his final school exams and completed training as an electrician. In 1930 he and a colleague opened a store selling radios under the name Fuerth, Grundig & Wurzer, generating one million Reichsmark in sales by 1938. After World War II business expanded with a successful range of consumer electronics. In 1972 the company became a corporation and was sold to Philips in 1984.

His company was one of the first to produce FM radios, cutting out static interference for clearer reception. In 1952, it was one of the first European companies to start producing TV sets.

Grundig built his company up after World War II to become a market leader in home entertainment products and a symbol of West Germany's Wirtschaftswunder. It was only in the late 1970s that it began to lose some of its marketshare as it came under increasing pressure from lower priced Japanese products, and in 1980 the company recorded its first losses.

Grundig's answer to the Asian competition was to form EURO, a common front of European manufacturers. It did not stave off the challenge, however, and the company was forced to close eleven plants and cut its workforce from thirty-five thousand to twenty-nine thousand workers. In 1984, the Dutch Philips group bought out nearly a third share and took over the management.