The IFA or Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (International radio exhibition Berlin, aka 'Berlin Radio Show') is one of the oldest industrial exhibitions in Germany. Between 1924 and 1939 it was an annual event, but as from 1950 it was organized on a two yearly basis until 2005. Since then it has become an annual event again, held in September. Today it is one of world's leading trade shows for consumer electronics and home appliances.
It offers the opportunity to exhibitors to present their latest products and developments to the general public. As a result of daily reporting in almost all the German media, the radio exhibition achieves a large spreading of the information – and advertising messages and has also become international. In the course of its history, a large number of world innovations were first seen at the exhibition.[1] The next IFA will be held from August 31, to September 5, 2012 in Berlin.
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German physicist and inventor Manfred von Ardenne gave a public demonstration of a television system using a cathode ray tube for both transmission (using flying-spot image scans, not a camera) and reception, at the 1931 show.[2]
In 1933 The Volksempfänger (VE 301 W),[3] a Nazi-sponsored radio receiver design, was introduced. Ordered by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, designed by Otto Griessing, sold by Gustav Seibt, it was presented at the tenth Berliner Funkausstellung on 18 August 1933[4] its price fixed at 76 Reichsmark (RM). 100,000 units were sold during the exhibition. The importance of radio as a mass medium for the dissemination of propaganda and entertainment throughout Germany had long been clear to Goebbels.
In 1938 the DKE 38 (Deutscher Kleinempfänger 38, i.e. German miniature receiver 1938) followed, the price fixed at 35 RM.
AEG, founded in 1883 by Emil Rathenau, showed the first practical audio tape recorder, the Magnetophon K1, at the August 1935 show.[5][6]
In 1939 the exhibition was called Grosse Deutsche Funk- und Fernseh-Ausstellung (Great German Radio and Television Exhibition). The Einheits-Fernseh-Empfänger E1, a TV set designed to be affordable for everybody, was introduced. The physical display size was 7.68" × 8.86". Plans for large-scale manufacture were thwarted by the outbreak of WWII. Color TV was also introduced (a prototype), based on an invention by Werner Flechsig (cf. shadow mask).
Multinational Dutch electronics corporation Philips introduced the compact audio cassette medium for audio storage at the 1962 show.[7][8][9]