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A little article about the infamous label Radiofunken. And - No, this wasn´t a real german Telefunken (export) Label. Just some National Socialists in New York who made pirate records...

With many thanks to this side, as we used a label from the label gallery here. Please apologize the crude translation of this article. English isn´t our native language.

We would be very happy to see some more details and/or documents about this Label here, to integrate them.
Article about Radiofunken: http://grammophon-platten.de/page.php?502

That's an interesting slice of history.
I looked in my discared pile of a stack of discs just recently aquired, an found two such labels. They were of a bland song and a waltz.

Many years ago, I picked a trash pile and came accross the file of a former FBI agent who investigated Nazi sympathizers. One paper detailed a raid and were to locate items that incriminated the persons living at the location.

Thanks for posting the link.

James.

Thank you for this fascinating article and research. I have turned up about four Radiodisque 78 RPM records (all 10 inch) on the green on yellow label, all in San Francisco. I wondered why a French-sounding label was reissuing German language records, and I assumed it was postwar. Your research makes these records much more interesting!

A few musings…

Benny Bell began his own Radio Records (a.k.a. Radio Novelty Records) label in 1937, also in New York City, and continued use this label at least two 1942, according to this site:

http://www.hensteeth.com/bblue.html

I'm certain Mr. Bell would have had no use for the National Socialist sympathizers behind Radiofunken - Radiodisque, and vice versa. It's bizarre that they would have BOTH operated independent record companies named (more or less) Radio Records in the same city at the same time!

I also wonder how Telefunken was able to manage suing these folks in US courts in the middle of World War II!

Finally, I wonder where the Radiofunken - Radiodisque pirates obtain their shellac from in the middle of World War II.

Thanks again, Mark

Here is the label of the one and only "RADIODISQUE" record I have. This was given to me by a friend who had a very German Grandfather, and this record belonged to him along with German selections on "PARLOPHONE ODEON SERIES", "LONDON", "STANDARD INTERNATIONAL", "ELITE RECORD", and "VICTOR SCROLL" labels. I like this German music.
Mike

Thank you all about your contributions!

Mike, your „Radiodisque“ record is a (pirate) dubbing from the German Telefunken record M 6694, (Dance) Orchestra Aldalbert Lutter with Erwin Hartung vocals.


Recorded in Berlin 15.06.1939. This is a „Soldier Song“. Neither Lutter or Hartung had been “Nazis”. Both are very well known in Germany as recording artists with the 1930s. They recorded everything from semi-jazz over hot dance, waltzes, tangos till these march songs.

The other side of the original Telefunken record is also “Erika”, recorded at the same date. So the “Nazi Fraction” in New York pirated the whole record – side by side…

May we use your Label Scan for a further edition of our article? Great that you showed us this record!

Thanks
Uli

Uli,
That is very interesting, thank you for the information. Learning some history about a specific record is rather exciting. My friend, last name Staats, arrived at the house one night with a short stack of 78's, all German music that had belonged to his Grandfather. Not knowing what to do with them, he brought them to me knowing of my collecting. These recordings are very good and I listen to them often.

Yes, use the label scan for whatever you need. Happy to contribute.
Thank you,
Mike

I just acquired these two discs. Note that the (pirate) Hofbauhaus side and the Telefunken disc I also have. James.

I recently acquired a bunch of radiofunken discs, all made in red vinyl. The recordings were all Telefunken matrices by Erna Sack, the famous German soprano. Comparing them with the German Telefunken records I own, I can hear no difference in quality, which indicates that if this radiofunken ran a bootleg business, they had access to the original matrices, just like the Jolly Rogers label in the beginning of the 50s, which sold copies of RCA recordings pressed out of the RCA factory (!). The surprising thing is that Jolly Rogers sold some millions of records before RCA figured out that their employees were running a quite successful moonshine business under their beards.