The microwave

Bosch's microwave MG 52 from 1978. (Source: BSH Corporate Archives)

In the beginning there was popcorn

U.S. engineer Percy L. Spencer (1894–1970) discovered by chance while constructing radar systems that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted. His presumption was that the microwave radiation from the magnetron was an important component of the radar. He decided to use corn next to test his theory and watched as it turned to popcorn following exposure to the radar. In 1946, he constructed his first "radar oven". The "Raydarange" had water cooling, was just under 1.80 metres high and had an output of 3000 watts. In the same year, he patented the invention in the USA.

Microwaves oscillate at an extremely high frequency, which causes the water molecules in the food to vibrate, thus generating heat. In contrast to the conventional oven where heat is transferred to the food from the outside, the microwave heat develops in the food itself.

Tough start on the German market

The early microwave appliances were scarcely affordable for private users and were used primarily in catering owing to their size and weight. Siemens began producing microwave ovens for the German market in 1957. The first German microwave weighed two hundred pounds, however, required a water cooler and cost 7,000 deutschmarks. The appliance was therefore not considered a practical option and plans were quickly shelved again. Manufacturer Neff also began integrating microwave technology in its ovens in 1957 and presented Europe's first combined microwave oven or electron oven – the microwave – to the public at the Cologne trade fair for home appliances. Yet the appliances still failed to make the breakthrough initially. It was only in the 1970s that the popularity of the microwave began to grow rapidly in the U.S. and Japan. It was to take a little longer in Germany. The Germans remained skeptical about the microwave oven for a long time. Many feared that the appliances were not radiopaque and were therefore a health hazard. Manufacturers like BSH tried for years to dispel this misconception. BSH trained consumers in its microwave studios, published specific recipes for the microwave oven, provided information for journalists at large, or opinion leaders as they were called internally, etc.

Breakthrough with the fall of the Berlin Wall

It was only in the 1980s that the microwave began to blaze a trail of success in Germany. At the beginning of the decade, only one percent of households in the Federal Republic had a microwave. Success came when an initial drawback of the system was resolved: A crisp crust or a golden yellow browning was not possible with a pure microwave oven on its own. When BSH offered combined appliances, business began to gain momentum. The universal cooker, the Meisterkoch, was launched on the market in 1981, a universal built-in cooker that was extremely successful thanks to the combination of microwave, grill, top/bottom heat, convection and self-cleaning with pyrolysis. 100,000 microwaves were sold in 1983 by all manufacturers nationwide in Germany, with this figure rising to 200,000 in 1984.

The microwave was hugely important for the German home appliance sector in the 1980s. This was a time when demand for conventional appliances was very weak: Refrigerators, washing machines, blenders and vacuum cleaners were standard appliances in more than 90 percent of all Federal German households, but had generally been purchased only a few years previously and were still so new that there was no market as yet for replacement units. The microwave with its double-digit growth rates saved the sector throughout the lean years.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a new billion figure market opened up for BSH. For the citizens of the GDR or the newly-formed German states, the microwave was a completely new product, apart from a small number of appliances that had reached the GDR as gifts from German citizens on the other side of the wall. In 1990, BSH began collaborating with the state-owned sales and customer service companies, such as VEB Haushaltgeräteservice (HGS), providing support for these companies in the form of training and delivery of customer service vehicles. "The extensive customer service network operated by HGS was also a good starting point for acceptance of our products in the GDR," stressed CEO, Dr. Herbert Wörner, in 1990. This paid off quickly, with Siemens alone immediately selling around 50,000 microwaves in 1990.