Visit to Loewe
Report on a visit to Loewe at Kronach.
A three-year good relationship with the Loewe Company in Kronach, in particular with the Media, Technical and Customer Relations Departments, was deepened by a visit to Kronach on 11th January 2001.
Of major importance was getting to know this important Company personally as well as its employees, Kilian Steiner (Press Officer and Company Archivist) and Bruno Hoderlein (Technical Customer Affairs Officer).
I was accompanied by my wife (who shows a great deal of understanding for my hobby), Gerd Walther (Museum director of the Radio Museum in the town of Fürth) and Klaus Haarbrücker.
After a very friendly greeting we got stuck into the important issue: The theme was the development of Radio technology between the years 1923 and 1968 which was discussed in detail and a revised list of equipment with details of type, year of manufacture, place of manufacture and original retail price was given to Kilian Steiner.
This list which was created in cooperation with Loewe contains all the known production models from the Loewe factories in Berlin, Kronach, Düsseldorf and Küps. Also arrangements were made for the exchange of circuit diagrams, descriptions and related information.
Afterwards Kilian Steiner with his detailed guidance was able to contribute a lot to the development of our knowledge from the small but well organized company archive.
Then came a presentation of the plant management which was led by Jorg Roth (Innovations management) who displayed much specialized knowledge.
The tour began in the Conference room with a detailed presentation of some museum pieces as well as the latest production line range of Television, Audio, HiFi , DVD and Home Multimedia.
Of great interest was the demonstration of the Internet-Ready Television sets ACONDA and VITROS as well as the SPHEROS plasma television. Through innovative technology , clear and attractive design and exceptional functionality Loewe has achieved the highest picture quality.
Jorg pointed to a large market following particularly in the Plasma TV segment in the last few years. Then a viewing of the factory plant gave a complete explanation of the automatic assembly of circuit boards on the assembly line of the automatic and manual testing procedure right up to the robot assisted packing of the completed sets.
The whole process is stored in a data network that is responsible for the control and supervision of the automatic processes, the regulation and requisition of incoming material and lastly for sending to the delivery depot of the railway company.
This is all achieved under the slogan "the highest quality above all else" Very impressive !!
Our visit closed with a meeting with the members of the Loewe Museum working group. The group has set itself the aim of promoting interest in the almost 80 year old history of the firm. This will be achieved by small exhibitions throughout other areas of the company premises. They plan to dedicate the next decade to a history of the company. A long term goal of the work group is to make the museum accessible to the public.
With this a very fulfilling day came to an end.
Thank you for reading.
In the Photo one can see from left to right front: Mr Steiner (Loewe), Mr. Haarbrücker, Me. Mr. Walther. Behind right Mr. Roth Loewe. The other people are from the Loewe workgroup. Behind Mr. Walther stands Mr. Goller.