Years before Bosch got into the business of producing radio equipment by acquiring the Berlin company Ideal-Werke (later Blaupunkt) in 1932, the company had shown interest in the new technology. And this work was conducted even though the company’s founder, Robert Bosch, had at first taken a skeptical view of the new medium.

Later, though, the company’s founder gave researchers free rein. After all, radio technology appeared to have huge developmental potential, and the first research into its potential was launched in 1925. The focus was placed both on the technology and the creation of a new business field. The decision soon paid off. And this payoff came at just the right time for the company, which had seen its automotive supply business suffer as the result of the crisis that had been rocking the auto industry since 1926. As a result of these problems, the company was forced to find new areas of business.

But the field of radio technology was not an easy one. Several companies had already attained a certain amount of success with the new technology, and had protected their new discoveries and innovations through numerous patents. Nonetheless, Bosch began producing radio parts at the end of the 1920’s. In the process, the company, already the market leader in magnetos, could rely on its decades of experience in the production of capacitors used in high-voltage ignition systems.

The shield of success

The first successful research with radio technology was conducted in aviation. The new planes were outfitted with radio equipment that contained both receivers and transmitters, and these were disrupted by the operation of adjacent electrical parts like the ignition and lights. Through intensive research, a system of shields was created to eliminate these interference fields.
In 1929, Bosch achieved its true breakthrough in the production of radio parts when a contract was signed by Robert Bosch AG in Stuttgart and Bosch Magneto Corporation of Springfield, Massachusetts, in the United States. The American company was actually a former Bosch subsidiary that, together with the “Bosch” name, was expropriated after the First World War. In the contract, Robert Bosch AG not only reached an agreement on the use of the company name but also on coordinating the exchange of production know-how. The American company had been working on radio equipment for years. The German company could now use this knowledge and build on it.

In 1929, Germany’s economic situation had become so bad that Bosch had no customers for its radio parts. A solution had to be found in order to prevent layoffs. Bosch then contacted a company in Berlin, “Ideal – Werke für drahtlose Telephonie.” The company, which had already earned a solid reputation, obtained individual parts through suppliers. In 1930, Bosch succeeded in concluding a contract with Ideal-Werke that enabled the Stuttgart company to become Ideal’s sole parts supplier.

But it was not until two years later that the public learned of the company’s radio-parts activities. That occurred in August 1932, when Bosch set up a stand for the first time at a Berlin radio exhibition.
The next step toward achieving the major goal was taken in 1933 when Bosch acquired Ideal-Werke. From that point on, the company was known as “Blaupunkt” and became world renowned.