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In 1921, engineer Max Braun estab-
lished his company in Frankfurt am
Main, first making radio parts and by
1929 complete power amplifiers and
radio sets. Max Braun was one of the
first manufacturers in Europe to com-
bine radios and record players in a
single unit.
During World War II, Braun was
compelled to more or less abandon
products for the civilian sector, and
in 1944, the Frankfurt factories were
nearly entirely destroyed. With 150
employees, Max Braun began re-
building his company in 1945.
Max Braun died suddenly in Novem-
ber 1951. His sons Artur (26) and
Erwin (30) had to take over compa-
ny management from one day to the
next. As early as 1951, Braun broth-
ers introduced an employee maga-
zine, soon followed by the ground-
breaking Braun Health Center and a
modern cafeteria offering high-quali-
ty, nutritious meals – traditions contin-
ued up until today.
The starting point for the new design
concept was a positive assessment
of the potential shopper: intelligent
and open-minded, someone who
appreciated unobtrusive products
which left him or her ample freedom
for personal fulfilment.
After a landmark speech by design-
er Wilhelm Wagenfeld on industrial
design and the responsibility of the
entrepreneur, Erwin Braun felt so
strongly confirmed in his plans that
he immediately commissioned Wa-
genfeld with a design assignment.
Seeking further designers, Braun in
late 1954 discovered the fledgling
“Hochschule fuer Gestaltung” de-
sign academy in Ulm, which set out
to carry on the work of the Bauhaus
movement disbanded by the Nazis
in 1933.
The Braun logo with the distinctive
raised and rounded “A” in the middle
was born in 1934.
1950 saw the launch of the first elec-
tric shaver, the “S 50”, combining an
oscillating cutter block with an ul-
tra-thin yet stable steel foil clamped
above it. This principle – in further
refined and perfected form – is em-
ployed in Braun shavers up to the
present day.
1921
1944
1951
1934
1950
1954
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