Albis

The Albis name on radios and components points to a Swiss industrial history older than domestic broadcasting. Protos Telephonwerke, which moved from Glarus to Albisrieden in 1916, also made Pupin loading coils to compensate for losses in telephone cables. Siemens & Halske acquired the struggling company in 1922, making this Zurich district its first production site in Switzerland. The company became Telephonwerke Albisrieden AG in 1924 and Albiswerk Zürich AG, often shortened to AWZ, in 1935. The continuity of the plant does not make these names interchangeable: Protos, Albiswerk and the later Siemens-Albis were different phases of a business in which telephony remained central.

Radio production grew in the same area, but through distinct licensing and sales arrangements. Siemens began making radio equipment in Zurich in the early 1930s; in 1933 Telefunken Zürich AG established licensed production at Albisrieden. The first superheterodynes included Mozart, for long and medium waves, and Parsifal, which added shortwave reception: they corresponded to sets marketed under different names in Germany. Many parts were made locally, but resistors, capacitors and valves were excluded from that description of in-house production; Siemens handled sales in Zurich. From 1935–1936 production is recorded at Albiswerk Zürich AG alongside telephone selectors, relays and exchanges. Locally developed Telefunken-Albis sets followed, including models 71, 72 and 73 of 1936–1937; a receiver named Echophone was made for Frank/APCO. The Telefunken-Albis name on a radio therefore does not prove that every valve inside it was made at Albisrieden.

In 1941 the local activities separated from Telefunken; new sets bore the Albis name and, in smaller lettering, Siemens to indicate the sales network. It is in this period that the valve story becomes more precise: Siemens's chronology places the start of tube development and production in a new Zurich vacuum-technology laboratory in 1942. Some types of switching and telephone tubes are documented for 1945, while others came from Britain's Mazda. This does not justify treating every valve in an Albis radio as an in-house product. Albiswerk also built military equipment: the Swiss army's portable SE-210 shortwave station was designed by Telefunken and manufactured by the Zurich company; the origin of the set must be distinguished from that of its twelve battery valves.

After the war, radios also carried the Siemens-Albis emblem and were aimed mainly at the Swiss market. Some models featured a fine-tuning 'magnifier' for shortwave; sets with built-in gramophones and FM adapters attachable to the back were also offered. 1953 was the final year of radio production. In 1954 Albis, Dewald and Paillard attempted the Aldepa television, whose name combined the three brands: local sources give production of about 200–300 sets with 14- and 17-inch screens, without lasting commercial success. Telefunken Zürich AG was incorporated into Albiswerk in 1955; from 1956 the firm no longer built domestic radios, retaining equipment for high-frequency telephone broadcasting. Telephone exchanges, personnel paging systems and equipment for energy, railways, airports, traffic, studios, field communications, infrared and radar remained important. In 1971 Albiswerk Zürich AG and Siemens AG Zürich merged as Siemens-Albis AG, based in Albisrieden; in 1996 the latter became Siemens Schweiz AG. The Albis name thus leaves a dual record: receivers and equipment made in the Swiss network, but also special-purpose tube production that should be attributed only where the documents support it.