I gained a treasure this weekend. My folks found this SABA Wildbad radio for me at a yard sale. For free.
My vintage radio collection isn’t huge but I have several pieces, picked up as bargains along the way but none of them were free and none are German.
There’s not a lot available on the internet but I did figure out that it’s a fifties era model and that the company began by making watches in the Black Forest in 1835. The founder’s grandson moved the company to Villingen in 1918 to begin making headphones and radio components. By 1931, they were producing radio units with loudspeakers. This model has three loudspeakers.
They also were the first to develop automatic fine tuning in all bandwidths and, in the sixties, they had a short stint as a record label. Today they are known for televisions, home security systems and home appliances.
Too bad I don’t read German. I did figure out that the Ein-Aus button is On-Off!
This weekend has been busy so there’s been little time to research it but, if nothing else, it’s a great conversation piece. So I plan to clean it up a bit and give it a creative place to live. Someday I’ll circle back around to researching it.
Anyone have experience with mid-century German electronics?
For free? That was great!
Completely free. They just wanted rid of it. Can you believe it?
Very nice find. 🙂
I have a Telefunken Kavelier. I suspect it is a little smaller than yours. I’m doesn’t have as many shortwave bands, but it does do FM. Looks like this one here. https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-telefunken-kavalier-multi-band-transistor
They did great but, for some reason, thought I might not want it. Can you imagine?
And yours is a very nice one as well!
I have had to force myself to not collect radios. An old German set like this would be high on the list I work very hard not to keep in my head!
The Google Translate app lets you aim the in-app camera at things and it will translate them.
My collection started with one radio purchased at a flea market while I was in college. It still works, is a beautiful red and was just too cool to leave behind. Then there were two acquired at a yard sale because they also were beautiful and were like $5 each and then…. Well, it got out of hand.
Now I limit my buying to just the ones I truly love and the price has to be just right. No online shopping. It has to be a treasure hunt out in the wild!
Great find!
It was!!