AUTHOR Dirk Dose
PUBLISHED 21. FEB 2025
Busch-Jaeger Elektro GmbH
A company of the ABB Group, Freisenbergstraße 2, 58513 Lüdenscheid, Germany
www.BUSCH-JAEGER.de
The company history of the brothers Hans-Curt and Georg Jaeger, who founded a metal goods factory in Lüdenscheid, began in 1879, and the age of electrification began when the first ‘light bulb’ was lit in 1880.
The 1881 World Exhibition in Paris proved to be a trailblazer. It was here that Hans-Curt Jaeger witnessed the introduction of the Edison lamp. The founding fathers of Busch-Jaeger were quicker than others to recognise the opportunities offered by this new technology: from the tip of a walking stick to a lamp socket!
Thanks to the experience gained from their own lampholder turning shop, the so-called SWAN socket for Edison lamps was quickly developed. Just six years later – in 1887 – production at the Schalksmühle factory was expanded to include DC switches, sockets, toggle switches, plugs and sockets and lamp holders. The switch industry became established.
1892 The Jaeger brothers acquire a pressing plant for the production of insulating materials.
Almost at the same time, the factory of Julius Bergmann and Friedrich Wilhelm Busch was established. Military effects such as uniform buttons, buckles and belt buckles were produced here. A little later, the first electrical items were added.
1899 The Busch eccentric switch conquered the market at home and abroad. For the first time, light could be switched safely by turning a light switch to the left or right: Light in the twinkling of an eye!
From 1906: the first safety regulations are drawn up and the results published shortly afterwards. VDE test centres were not established until the 1920s.
In 1925, the Jaeger brothers acquired a disused charcoal and vinegar factory in Aue (Bad Berleburg). This was the beginning of the modern production of electrical and insulating materials. Today, the assembly, plastics processing and toolmaking divisions are based here.
In 1926, the Jaeger brothers obtained the oldest ‘SCHUKO®’ property right as a utility model.
In the same year, the companies Jaeger Bros. and F.W. Busch AG merged. The newly founded company traded under the name ‘Vereinigte Elektrotechnische Fabriken F. W. Busch und Gebr. Jaeger AG’, headquartered in Lüdenscheid, Gartenstraße.
Comfort of the 1930s: Development of the first toggle switches. ‘Compensation goods’ such as heating and hotplates were produced at the end of the 1940s.
At the beginning of the 1950s, innovative new developments increased living comfort. Toggle switches enable convenient operation and become the standard. The economic miracle reaches Lüdenscheid.
In the 1960s, the first light bulb dimmers came onto the market. Dimming fluorescent lamps also became possible.
In 1969, the company was given its current name, Busch-Jaeger Elektro GmbH. Under the umbrella of BBC (Brown, Boveri & Cie. AG, Mannheim – today the ABB Group), the company now focussed on electrical installation technology, electronics and building systems technology.
In 1977, the company moved into the new plant in Lüdenscheid, Freisenberg. It comprises production, design, development, quality assurance, administration, dispatch and a customer training centre.
Source Busch-Jaeger