Swiss company sleeve · Telefunken records pressed in Switzerland

Telefunken “Schweizer Fabrikat”

A buff Telefunken company sleeve for Swiss-made records, with a large printed disc, the slogan “Schweizer Fabrikat” and “Made in Switzerland”.

Dating at a glance

Printed: By late 1939
later use is not ruled out
In use: Late 1930s and wartime; we have not proved a last date
Confidence: Medium for the design being in use by the end of 1939. We cannot date Simon’s copy within the design’s run
Basis: A photograph of this design with a blue Telefunken label, associated with a record recorded in May 1939 and issued in the A 10000 series that began at the end of 1939; and Telefunken pressings marked “Made in Switzerland”

The sleeve

Buff or orange-yellow paper, printed in brown, with a large disc drawn in radiating grooves around the centre hole. TELEFUNKEN is arched across the upper half of the disc in heavy cream block letters with a drop shadow. A ribbon banner below the hole reads SCHWEIZER FABRIKAT (“Swiss made”), with a small printed ornament between the two words. We have not identified the ornament; it may be a monogram or only decoration. In small type at the foot is the English line Made in Switzerland. There is a thumb cut at the top. No address or printer’s imprint is visible.

This is a different design from Simon’s German Telefunken “Künstler von Weltruf” artist sleeve. Only the printed face of this copy was photographed; we have not seen the back.

Buff Telefunken company sleeve with a large brown printed disc, TELEFUNKEN in arched cream letters, a ribbon reading SCHWEIZER FABRIKAT, and Made in Switzerland at the foot. — Simon’s sleeve, printed face. Select the image for a larger view.

The evidence

DocumentedNot before 1932. The Telefunken record label was launched when Telefunken took over Ultraphon in 1932, so a Telefunken company sleeve cannot be earlier than that.
DocumentedSwiss pressing was established in the 1930s, and grew in the war. Turicaphon, founded in 1930, was pressing records in Switzerland from the early 1930s and took over a plant at Riedikon, near Uster, in 1936. After the outbreak of the Second World War, imports of foreign records into Switzerland almost stopped, demand for Swiss-made records rose, and Turicaphon also took international pressing work. We have not found a source that names the plant which pressed Telefunken-labelled Swiss records. Turicaphon at Riedikon is the obvious candidate, but that is not proved here.
DocumentedTelefunken records marked “Made in Switzerland”. On the grammophon-platten.de Telefunken forum, a contributor in April 2022 reported a Greta Keller disc, Telefunken A 1922 (a 1936 recording), with a “Made in Switzerland” stamp, and noted a later version that had those words printed on the label from the start. The Swiss issue dates of those copies were not established.
DocumentedThe A 10000 series began at the end of 1939. Telefunken’s popular A series moved to numbers from A 10000 at the end of 1939, generally with blue labels (the cheaper red Musikus series having been dropped). Walter Kaluna’s By By Blues / Waikiki, Telefunken A 10052, was recorded in Berlin on 6 May 1939 (matrices 24246 and 24247). A German pressing of that issue, labelled “Telefunken / Die deutsche Weltmarke”, is in the Internet Archive.
ObservedThis design photographed with a blue Telefunken label, and associated with A 10052. A collector photograph shows this exact layout — the arched TELEFUNKEN lettering, grooved disc, SCHWEIZER FABRIKAT ribbon and Made in Switzerland — holding a blue Telefunken label. The listing that accompanies the photograph identifies the record as Walter Kaluna, By By Blues / Waikiki, with matrices SCH 24246 and SCH 24247, and dates it 1939. The image is small, and we could not read the catalogue number from it ourselves. The Internet Archive copy of A 10052 is a German pressing, not a Swiss one, so it does not itself prove the pairing.
ObservedA dealer described this sleeve type with a Swiss pressing of a 1933 recording. Amsel Platten (platten-laden.ch) listed Barnabás von Géczy, Telefunken A 1438, Tango Mio / Tomo Y Obligo (matrices 19193 and 19195; a 1933 recording), as a Swiss pressing “in SCHWEIZER FABRIKAT-Telefunken-Lochhülle”. The product page was no longer live when checked on 13 November 2026, so the photograph referred to as “Foto 2” could not be re-examined. The 1933 date is the recording; the Swiss pressing, and this sleeve, could be later.
InferredSo, in use by late 1939, and meant for Swiss-made Telefunken records. A company sleeve printed Schweizer Fabrikat and Made in Switzerland belongs with Swiss Telefunken pressings, which are documented, rather than with the ordinary German issues. If the 1939 pairing is right, the design was already in use at the end of 1939 or shortly after, when the blue-label A 10000 series began. The English line Made in Switzerland also appears on other Swiss 78s of the period (for example Elite Special), so it need not mean a post-war export sleeve. Nothing on Simon’s copy shows whether it is a wartime printing or a later one of the same design. Leftover stock, or the design kept in use after 1945, cannot be ruled out; we have not found a clearly post-war record in this sleeve.

Sources

Freies Radio Kassel, programme notes for 31 December 2017 (Walter Kaluna, Te A 10051 and A 10052, Berlin, 6 May 1939): https://www.freies-radio-kassel.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Programminfos_28_06_2016_bis_06_01_2018.pdf
Internet Archive, Walter Kaluna, Waikiki, Telefunken A 10052, matrix 24247, 1939 (German pressing): https://archive.org/details/78_waikiki_walter-kaluna-henry-kallimai_gbia7023940b
Photograph of this sleeve with a blue Telefunken label, listed as the Kaluna issue (a collector image; the catalogue number is not readable on the copy we have): https://mp3.houserock.ru/118011/hawaiiansolist-walter-kaluna-by-by-blues-download-mp3.html
grammophon-platten.de, “Zeitliche Einordnung von Telefunken-Etiketten” (A 10000 series from the end of 1939, blue labels): https://grammophon-platten.de/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?50088=
grammophon-platten.de, Telefunken label thread (Greta Keller, A 1922, “Made in Switzerland” stamp and a later printed-label version): https://grammophon-platten.de/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?3737.76=
Turicaphon, company history (founded 1930; Riedikon plant from 1936): https://turicaphon.ch/uber-uns
Frank Erzinger, history of the Wädenswil / Riedikon plants (wartime halt of foreign record imports): https://baukultur-waedenswil.ch/anhang-jsw-1994-von-frank-erzinger.html
SchweizHeute, interview with Hans Ludwig Oestreicher (Turicaphon took international pressing work during the war): https://www.schweizheute.ch/wirtschaft/einzige-schweizer-plattenfabrik-ld.188647
Amsel Platten listing of Telefunken A 1438 as a Swiss pressing in a Schweizer Fabrikat Telefunken sleeve (page no longer live when checked, 13 November 2026): https://platten-laden.ch/products/barnabas-von-geczy-mit-orchester-tango-mio-tomo-y-obligo
Tangopedia, Telefunken A 1438 dated 1933: https://tangopedia.app/labels/telefunken

What we could not find

A first or last official printing date for this design.
Independent confirmation of the catalogue number in the 1939 sleeve photograph.
The Swiss pressing date of A 1438, and a still-live copy of the dealer photograph.
Which Swiss factory pressed Telefunken-labelled records.
The printer, and the meaning of the small ornament on the ribbon.
The back of Simon’s copy.
A clearly post-1945 record in this sleeve, or proof that the design stopped in 1945.

Researched 13 November 2026 from Simon’s photograph.