Braun (company)

Braun GmbH(/braʊn/"brown",German:[bʁaʊn]) is a Germanconsumer productscompany founded in 1921 and based inKronberg im Taunus.The company is known for its design aesthetic from the 1960s through the 1980s, which included products such as electric shavers,radiogramsand record players, movie cameras, slide projectors, clocks, and small kitchen appliances for which "Braun became shorthand for reliable, no-nonsense modernist goods."

Braun GmbH

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	1921(1921)(as Braun AG) inFrankfurt,Germany
Founder	Max Braun
Headquarters	Kronberg im Taunus , Germany
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Ahmed Aboulenein - Ebo,Global Braun Vice President Oliver Grabes,Head of Design Dieter Rams,Head of Design (1961–1995)
Products	Electric razors IPL (Semi permanent Hair removal) appliances Epilators Electric toothbrushes Watches
Owner	Procter & Gamble(brand name & grooming products)
Divisions	Licensees: De'Longhi(small appliances) Kaz Incorporated(thermometers) Zeon Ltd. (clocks, watches & calculators)
Website	braun

Förderkreis Braun Sammlung museum in Kronberg

Company headquarters in Frankfurt am Main (1960)

From 1984 until 2007, Braun was awholly owned subsidiaryofGillette,which had purchased a controlling interest in the company in 1967. Braun is now a subsidiary ofProcter & Gamble,which acquired Gillette in 2005.

History

In 1921,Max Braun(1890–1951), a mechanical engineer, established a small engineering shop inFrankfurt,Germany.In 1923, he began producing components for radio sets. By 1928, the growing company moved to new premises onIdsteiner Strasse.

In 1929, eight years after he started his shop, Max Braun began to manufacture entire radio sets, and his company eventually became one of Germany's leading radio manufacturers. This development continued with the launch of one of the first combined radio andrecord players,called radiograms, in 1932.

In 1935,the Braun brand was introduced, and the original incarnation of thelogotypewith the raised "A"was born. At the1937 World's Fair in Paris,Max Braun received the awardFor special achievements inphonography.In support of the war effort during World War II, Braun discontinued making products for the civilian sector.In 1944, the Frankfurt factories were almost destroyed, and Max Braun began to rebuild his company.

After the war, Braun continued to produce state-of-the-art radios andaudio equipment,and the company soon became well known for its "high-fidelity"audio and record players, including the famous SK line. Braun was the only foreign licensee of theQUADelectrostatic loudspeakerfor a time. In 1954, the company also began producing filmslide projectors,a mainstay of its business for the next forty years. By 1956, the company was marketing the first fully automatic tray film slide projector known as the PA 1.

The 1950s also marked the beginning of the product that Braun is known for today: theelectric shaver.Braun's first electric shaver, known as the S 50, was designed in 1938, butWorld War IIdelayed its introduction until 1951.It featured anoscillatingcutter block with a very thin, yet very stable steel-foil mounted above it.

The 1950s also saw the start of kitchen appliances, like the mixer MX 3 and the kitchen machine (Küchenmaschine or kitchen machine) Braun KM 3. The KM 3 is a family of food processors that started with the model KM 3/31 in 1957. Designed byGerd A. Müller,these machines were built in nearly unchanged form for 36 years until 1993.

In 1962, Braun became Braun AG, a publicly traded company. In 1963, the company started distributing microphones by U.S. manufacturerShurein Germany. Also during the 1960s, Braun created theRams-designed T3 pocket radio. By this time, Braun's film slide projectors were featuring high-quality optics and all-metal construction combined with sleekfunctionaliststyling, and competed with higher-endEastman KodakandLeitzproducts in the global market. Braun also started distributing in Germany high-end medium-formatSLRsystem cameras produced by Japanese camera manufacturerZenza Bronica,as well as Braun-Nizo brand cameras andSuper 8 film cameras(formerly of Niezoldi & Krämer GmbH; purchased by Braun in 1962). In 1967, the Boston, Massachusetts-based conglomerate Gillette Group acquired a majority share of the company.

Erwin Braun, one of Max Braun's sons, took on the sales agency of theLECTRONsystem product line in 1967. He was very interested in making the teaching of electronics approachable to students all over the world. The LECTRON system was a simple but ingenious product that fit the bill perfectly. The LECTRON System was introduced to the German marketplace in 1966 byEgger-Bahn(a company primarily focused on the 9mm toy train sector). An electronic component, such as a resistor, was placed inside a transparent flat cube with a white cover on the top, which had the electronic symbol and its value. The blocks containing different components and types of connections could be put together to form a working circuit with the circuit schematic diagram illustrated by the symbols on the top of the block. The blocks were held together with magnets behind the conductive plates on the sides and bottom of the block. In 1972, due to pressure from Gillette, the LECTRON assets were sold off to Manfred Walter, the manager of the LECTRON product line at Braun. Mr. Walter formed Lectron, GmbH in 1972 to continue selling and developing the LECTRON product line. Mr. Walter retired and gifted the LECTRON assets to the Reha-Werkstatt Oberrad in 2001. The RWO continues to manufacture and sell the LECTRON system to this day.

BraunLectronelements (Design Museum of Barcelona)

By the 1970s, Braun discontinued its film slide projectors and hi-fi products to focus on consumer appliances such as shavers, razors, coffee makers, clocks, and radios. In 1981, the company's audio and hi-fidelity division, which grew out of Braun's former core business of radios, turntables, and hi-fidelity audio products, was spun off into Braun Electronic GmbH, a legally independent Gillette subsidiary. Braun Electronic GmbH put out its last audio-fi set in 1990 before the business was discontinued. Also, in the early 1980s, Braun sold its photographic and slide projector division toRobert Bosch GmbH.

In 1982, Gillette Group moved to integrate Braun with the parent company by taking full control over its operations. In 1984, Braun ceased the production of cigarette lighters. That same year, Braun became a wholly owned subsidiary of Gillette.

By the mid-1990s, Braun held a leading position among the world's home appliance manufacturers, but profitability concerns began to surface. Many of Braun's competitors closely imitated Braun designs and had them produced in low-cost labor countries at lower costs.The litigation commenced by the company to reverse the sales losses and damage to its product image cost Braun substantial amounts of money.

In 1998, Gillette decided to transform Braun AG into a private company before it bought back a 19.9 percent share in its subsidiary The Gillette Company Inc., which Braun had acquired in 1988.The following year, Braun's sales organization was merged with those of Gillette's other business divisions to cut costs. At the end of the 1990s, Braun and Gillette suffered losses in several areas. Looking for ways to return to profitability, Gillette considered the disposal of some of Braun's less profitable divisions, such as kitchen appliances and thermometers, but abandoned the idea a few months later when no buyers were found.Braun's sales in those areas began to recover in 2000.

Braun headquarters inKronberg

Gillette was acquired byProcter & Gamblein 2005, making Braun a wholly owned subsidiary of P&G.In 2006 Procter & Gamble sold Braun's Health Products division toKaz,now a subsidiary ofHelen of Troy Limited,along with licensing the use of Braun's trademark in the specific health products market.In early 2008, P&G discontinued sales of Braun appliances, except certain appliances such as shavers and electric toothbrushes, in the United States market.Elsewhere, however, Braun kept selling all its core categories until 2012, when the Braun product line relating to kitchen appliances was purchased byDe'Longhi,using the Braun trademark under license from P&G.

Products

Micronmodel 5410 shaver (1977)

Braun's products include the following categories:

• Shaving and grooming (electric shaving, hair trimming, beard trimming)
• Oral care (now under theOral-Bbrand)
• Beauty care (hair care and epilation)
• Health and wellness (ear thermometers, blood pressure monitors) (out-licensed)
• Food and drink preparation (coffee makers, coffee grinders, toasters, blenders, juicers) (out-licensed)
• Irons (out-licensed)
• Clocks, watches and calculators (out-licensed)

The company was formerly a manufacturer of food processors, radios, slide projectors, Super 8 film cameras and accessories, and high-fidelity sound systems.

Today, Braun focuses on its core categories (shaving and grooming, beauty, and hair care). Small household appliances, health and wellness categories, as well as clocks and watches are now run by other companies (De'Longhi,Zeon,Kaz) under license.

Design department

Detail of modelT 1000 CDmultiband radio receiver (mid 1960s)

From the mid-1950s, the Braun brand was closely linked with the concept of German modern industrial design and its combination of functionality and technology.In 1956, Braun created its first design department, headed byDr. Fritz Eichler,who instituted a collaboration with theUlm School of Designto develop a new product line.In 1956 the company introduced its famousSK 4 radiogram( "Snow White's Coffin" ), designed by a youthfulDieter Ramstogether withHerbert Lindingerand the pioneer of system design,Hans Gugelot,then lecturer of design at the Ulm School of Design.Rams soon became the most influential designer at Braun.Ramswas a key figure in the German design renaissance of the late 1950s and 1960s. Eventually becoming head of Braun's design staff, Rams' influence was soon evidenced in many products. Braun's audio equipment and the high-quality "D" -series (D25–D47) 35mm slide projectors from this period are some of the better examples ofFunctionalistdesign.

Another icon of modern design, but less well known, is theLE1electrostatic loudspeaker unit (for which technological aspects were licensed fromQUAD). Dieter Rams and Dietrich Lubs are also responsible for the classic range of Braun alarm clocks, collaborating first on the designPhase I, Phase II, and Phase IIIin the early 1970s, and later, the AB 20 in 1975, followed by a number of other models.These designs were discontinued by Braun in 2005.

In the 1970s, a design approach influenced bypop artbegan to inspire Braun products, which included many common household appliances and products. Contemporary Braun design of the period incorporated this new approach in bright colours and a lightness of touch while still clean-lined in keeping withfunctionalistphilosophy.

For nearly 30 years Dieter Rams served as head of design for Braun A.G. until his retirement in 1995, when Peter Schneider succeeded him. Other designers who worked in Braun's design department includeGerd Alfred Muller,Reinhold Weiss,Richard Fischer, Robert Oberheim, Florian Seiffert, Hartwig Kahlcke,Herbert Hirche,Fritz Eichler (Designer),Roland Ullmann,and Ludwig Littmann. Many of the designs that Rams and the Braun design department produced – from coffee makes to calculators and radios to razors – are held in the collections of museums around the world, including theMuseum of Modern Artin New York, thePompidou Centrein Paris, and theMuseum für Angewandte Kunstin Frankfurt.

Recent collaborations with designers such asPaul SmithandVirgil Ablohhave sought to "open up the conversation on the role of design today."

Gallery

• 
  Cosmophonphonograph (c. 1937}
• 
  ModelS 50electric shaver (1950)
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  Multimixblender (early 1950s)
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  Multipressjuicer (1950s)
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  BraunSK 1radio receiver (1955)
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  BraunSK 4"Snow White's coffin"radiogram(1956)
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  BraunTransistor 1radio (1957)
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  ModelKM 3'Küchenmaschine' food processor (1957)
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  ModelHM 6-81radiogram (1958)
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  ModelHF 1television (1958)
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  ModelTP 1portable transistor radio and phonograph (1959)
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  ModelSK 2table radio (1960)
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  ModelD 40straight tray slide projector (1961)
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  Braun tone arm scale (1962)
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  Sixtant SM 2electric shaver (1963)
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  ModelT 580portable radio (1963)
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  Braun KSM 1/11 coffee grinder (1967)
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  Braun Nizo S 55 Super 8 Camera (1968)
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  ModelLE 1loudspeaker
• 
  Braun audio 310 stereo (early 1970s)
• 
  T3table lighter (1972)
• 
  Phase 2digitalflip clock,Model 4934 (1972)
• 
  Braun ET44 andOmron86 calculators (mid-1970s)
• 
  Braun lighter (early 1980s)
• 
  Braun BN0281 wristwatch
• 
  Braun ABW 41 wall clock
• 
  Braun ET66 calculator (1987)
• 
  Braun measuring spoon
• 
  Braun coffee maker
• 
  Braun mixer

See also

• Companies portal

Further reading

• Fiell, Charlotte; Fiell, Peter (2005).Design of the 20th Century(25th anniversary ed.). Köln: Taschen. pp. 130–133.ISBN9783822840788.OCLC809539744.
• Wolfgang Schmittel:Design, Concept, Realisation: Braun, Citroen, Miller, Olivetti, Sony, Swissair,Zurich 1975
• Jo Klatt, Günter Staeffler:Braun+Design Collection. 40 Jahre Braun Design von 1955 bis 1995.Hamburg 1995
• Hans Wichmann:Mut zum Aufbruch. Erwin Braun 1921 bis 1992.München 1998
• Bernd Polster:Braun. 50 Years of Design and Innovationen2009 (German edition, Cologne 2005)
• Less and More: The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams.Catalogue.Design Museum,London 2009
• Bernd Polster:Kronberg Meets Cupertino: What Braun and Apple really have in common.In:Apple Design,Hamburg 2011
• Check reviews of Braun Beard Trimmers onhttps://bestbeardtrimmer2021 /by David Dummit
• Klemp, Klaus (2023).Braun: Designed to Keep.Phaidon.ISBN978-1-83866-389-6.

External links

• Official website