Technology pioneer: This is how Manfred von Ardenne made his career in the GDR – with the largest private company under socialism

This article is an acquisition from Capital, Capital’s premium digital offering. For you as a stern PLUS subscriber, it is available exclusively here for ten days. It will then be available again exclusively for Capital subscribers at www.capital.de/plus. Like stern, the business magazine Capital belongs to RTL Deutschland.

It began at the end of 1922 in the basement near the Halleschen Tor in Berlin: in an electronics store, a high school student spoke to the radio pioneer Siegmund Loewe. From then on, 15-year-old Manfred von Ardenne was allowed to sit in on the entrepreneur’s laboratory. A year later the boy dropped out of school.

Access to all STERN PLUS content and articles from the print magazine

ad-free

Already registered?