1960 Nordmende Rigoletto E15 All-Wave Radio Restored Pristine
German Table Radio in Beautiful and Working Condition
In a Nutshell
Proverbial high-quality German Economic Miracle workmanship and engineering excellence
Introduction:
In 1923 Hermann Mende and Rudolf Müller founded the "Radio H. Mende & Co. (GmbH)" in Dresden, which was totally lost during WWII. After the war the Sovjets carried the factory over into the "Volkseigenen Betrieb" VEB Funkwerk Dresden (FWD), whereas at the same time Martin Mende and Hermann Weber founded "Norddeutsche Mende-Rundfunk GmbH" in West-German Bremen-Hemelingen. Nordmende was one of the many German radio manufacturers, that after WWII actively participated in the "Deutsches Wirtschaftswunder", the German Economic Miracle, a period of post-war prosperity under chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his minister of economics Ludwig Ehrhard. Soon most of the factories also started exporting "Made in Germany" radios around the world.
Here is a Nordmende table model Rigoletto E15 (ref.1), produced for the domestic market in 1960. It is almost identical with the Turandot of the year before. The radio has 6 tubes and 2 speakers, plays the wavebands AM/BC, long-wave, short-wave and FM (up to 100 MHz), and has various inputs for other devices. It uses already early printed circuit boards instead of point-to-point wiring. I cannot answer the question, why the Rigoletto (but not the Turandot!) has louvers on both sides, but no speakers behind.
About my radio:
The radio is in pristine as new condition, the cabinet has its original hard polyester piano finish without any crazing. All parts, including knobs, speaker and speaker cloth, the back plane, are original too. A new old stock (NOS) new in box (NIB) EM84 magic band tube has been installed and the caps and tubes tested to be good. All moveable parts have been treated with contact spray. The radio plays fine on all bands, as shown in a youtube video (ref.2 or click on thumbnail 32). Please e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.
