“Dear people present and absent! When you listen to the radio, think about how people came into possession of this wonderful tool for communication” – with these words Albert Einstein opened the radio exhibition in Berlin in 1930. To this day, this is probably the greatest highlight in the now 100-year history.
The medium of radio was still relatively new at the time, especially on the mass market. Einstein, quite euphorically, demonstrated the potential. When the IFA officially opens its doors to the public next Friday, a good dose of nostalgia will waft through the almost 150,000 square meters of exhibition space because of its 100th anniversary. While more than 1,800 exhibitors from all over the world are expected this year, the first edition was even more manageable. In 1924, exactly 242 exhibitors presented innovations such as detector devices and the first tube radio receivers – on an area of 7,000 square meters. Exciting: According to the archives, 180,000 visitors were attracted in the premiere year. This figure is also the target this year.
1939: The “People’s Television”
The radio exhibition became large and important because of its role as a pacesetter, as the midwife of a wide range of technologies. It was the IFA where the world’s first train telephone was presented. And it was the IFA where one of the first television broadcasts took place in 1928. A good ten years later, the first TV set for the masses was presented in Berlin. At that time, Nazi propaganda was in full swing, and the E1 was called the “people’s television”. From 1940 to 1949, the IFA, which was usually held annually or twice a year, did not take place.
When the IFA opened its doors for the first time after the war in 1950, this time in Düsseldorf and in front of more than 200,000 spectators, the first ultra-short wave radios (VHF) celebrated their premiere. The Optaphon also saw the light of day, probably the first cassette tape recorder. Three years later, a television with a 43-centimeter picture tube caught the attention of the public and more than 300,000 visitors. It was the technology par excellence and symbolic of the pulse of the times. Television broadcasting began in Germany in December 1952, followed three years later in Austria. Initially, however, only in black and white.
That changed in Germany in 1967 – and again the premiere took place at the radio exhibition. The first German program to be broadcast in color was a speech by Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor Willy Brandt. He symbolically pressed a large red button to start color television. This was an ineffective dummy, of course; the real changeover took place in the background. This did not go unnoticed by part of the world public, who saw the button being pressed in color because a nervous technician switched too early.
Loss of significance and reorientation
While the “wild 70s” were dominated by the first home computers and the advent of the CD – and the radio also moved into kitchens – the first games consoles appeared at the IFA in the 1980s. A technology called mobile communications also began to become relevant. In 1986, the first flicker-free televisions came onto the market thanks to 100-hertz technology, and three years later the Game Boy visited the radio exhibition.
In the mid-1990s, the first DVD players were introduced, and flat-screen TVs caused a stir. At the start of the 2000s, the IFA trade fair shifted its focus from multimedia to radio, and the reception technologies DVB-S (satellite TV) and DVB-T (terrestrial antenna TV) were introduced. In the last two decades, household appliances became a mainstay. At the same time, the IFA gradually lost its role as a technological pacesetter. Of course, its historical significance can no longer be denied. Especially not in its anniversary year. Happy birthday, radio exhibition!
