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Burgstädt
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TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Leading Digital TV Industry Publication
— 01-02/2015
—
TELE-audiovision.comlowed the number of rooftop antennas to
be reduced.” In the end, law enforcement
officers never noticed whether western
signals were also picked up from anten-
nas, amplified and distributed to indi-
vidual flats. “Even state employees made
use of that method, since it allowed them
to watch channels from West Germany
without an antenna on their roof giving
the slightest hint.” TV channels – and
later also FM radio stations – from West
Germany provided a welcome change
from the GDR’s own frequently drab and
uninspired offering. Western media were
much more colourful and also broadcast
many shows and films from the United
States and other countries, something
the GDR media stubbornly avoided.
VEB EGB originally emerged from a
company by the name of Häberle, which
was founded in 1945 and manufactured
a variety of electro-technical products.
In 1949 Häberle began to offer medium
wave radios and 1952 saw the launch of
their first VHF (FM) radios. Two years lat-
er, in 1954, the company started to pro-
duce antenna amplifiers which were ini-
tially meant for FM radio. It was in 1955
that the first TV antenna amplifiers from
Häberle hit the market. Things changed
in 1972, when the hitherto privately-run
business was nationalised and became
one of many nationally-owned enterpris-
es, its name being changed to VEB EGB.
Most items on display in the museum of
Thomas Kruger and Gunter Wunsch date
back to the period after 1972.
Günter Wünsch was employed by VEB
EGB right from the beginning in 1972. He
had always shown great interest in radio
technology and worked in the research
& development department. Thomas
Krüger joined VEB EGB in 1975, initially
as an intern during his university studies.
From 1985 he was also employed at R&D.
Walking down memory lane he recalls
that “the company had a staff of roughly
100, with 20 engineers in the develop-
ment department alone.” The reason for
this high proportion of R&D staff was the
fact that at that time imports from west-
ern countries were not allowed. “We vir-
tually had to start from scratch and re-
invent technologies that had been readily