Braun.
Designed for what matters.

We believe that good design can make lives better - 100 years ago, now and in the future.

For 100 years, Braun has kept to three important principles, inspired by people: Good design is simple, useful and built to last. Until today, people all over the world turn to us because Braun products make life better. They trust in our brand when it counts the most: Whether they want to prepare that special dinner for a first date, iron their best shirt for an important job interview or prepare a vast breakfast for the whole family.

From inventor’s workshop to global brand

Ingenious.

In the early 1920s, engineer Max Braun founds a machine-building workshop in Frankfurt am Main. On the strength of its groundbreaking inventions for the emerging radio broadcasting industry, the firm opens its own factory building with 400 employees in 1928.

Helpful.

During the postwar period, Braun expands its product range with newly developed devices that simplify everyday life. In 1950, simultaneously with the first foil shaver, the Multimix food processor makes its market debut, inaugurating the company’s household line.

Visionary.

After the sudden death of Max Braun, his sons take the company helm in the early fifties. They lay the groundwork for a people-focused corporate culture that extends to all areas of the company – from its letterhead to its exhibition stands, its health service to its whole-foods cafeteria.

Less, but better.

Under the aegis of design legend Dieter Rams, Braun’s radical new Bauhaus-inspired, functional product design sets a new style standard. The company won a rapid succession of national and international prizes and awards for its products. Braun became world-famous as a design brand, and the company became the first to introduce “good design” to the mass market.

Innovative.

Braun reaches the limits of a family-run firm. In the late sixties, Gillette takes over the successful enterprise with its 5,700 employees. This opens up new markets and distribution channels to Braun. Investments increase the company’s innovative strength and broaden its product range, which soon grows to include coffeemakers and electric irons. Characteristic German design, quality and engineering prowess bolster Braun’s standing against cheaply produced competing products.

Today.

Procter & Gamble’s takeover of Gillette in 2005 makes Braun one of twenty-four global brands of the largest consumer-product group in the world. P&G transfers the rights to the Braun brand in the area of household appliances to De’Longhi S.p.A. in 2012. Along with the corresponding patents and production facilities, De’Longhi acquires a large part of Braun’s employees, thereby ensuring that Braun household appliances will continue to offer distinctive design, technological innovation and reliable quality far into the future.

Braun produced the KM 3 food processor for more than three decades.

Here you can see the KM 3-31 model from 1957. The development of the KM 3 began with the construction of a test model to determine the most suitable rotational speed for the drive. After extensive mixing and kneading trials, the development team designed the drive unit. When it came to the form of the KM 3, the design department developed various models of the base plate, bowl, mixing arm and motor base that were combined with the technology until the first preproduction model, the wistar, emerged.

The 10 Principles of Good Design by Dieter Rams

Hired as an architect for redesigning Braun’s office Dieter Rams became one of the leading designers, who developed Braun’s memorable design language and defined the 10 principles of good design, a design manual that is still relevant today.

1 Good design is innovative.

The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design.

2 Good design makes a product useful.

A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasises the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

3 Good design is aesthetic.

The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

4 Good design makes a product understandable.

It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.

5 Good design is unobtrusive.

Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.

6. Gutes Design ist ehrlich.

Sie macht ein Produkt nicht innovativer, leistungsfähiger oder wertvoller, als es wirklich ist. Es versucht nicht, den Verbraucher mit Versprechungen zu manipulieren, die nicht eingehalten werden können.

7 Good design is long-lasting.

It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years - even in today’s throwaway society.

8 Good design is thorough to the last detail.

Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

9 Good design is environmentally friendly.

Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimises physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

Braun Design is environmentally friendly.

10 Good design is as little design as possible.

Less, but better - because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with nonessentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Take a video tour through the Braun Museum in Kronberg, near Frankfurt.

The Braun Museum showcases the great history of Braun with many insides and interesting facts and figures about products from the past and today.

We're building for a better life - back then, now and in the future.

1953 | Braun Factory

Braun Multimix Blender

The 50's established the milkshake as a western staple, enabled in part by the Multimix, the state-of-the-art blender with a detachable mixing glass container. It cuts ingredients with industrial-grade efficacy. Still widely in use today.

1957 | Gerd Alfred Müller

KM3/31

A hugely influential blender or “food processor” as it was known that birthed a whole new product category: “kitchen machines” or appliances. With its hyper-reduced, simple and useful design one of the most influential industrial products of all time.

1963 | Reinhold Weiss

KSM 1/11

Design doesn’t get much more minimalistic than this: a coffee grinder so purpose-built it needed just one, centrally placed button to operate. Finely ground beans were just a finger click away.

1963 | Reinhold Weiss

HT 2

Das schlanke, kompakte Design dieses Toasters inspirierte den renommierten Künstler Richard Hamilton so sehr, dass er eines seiner Werke (passenderweise mit dem Titel „Toaster“ betitelt) darauf gründete. Oh, und auch das Brot wurde perfekt gebräunt.

1972 | Florian Seiffert

KF 20

Mit seinem gestapelten, vertikalen Design, war der KF 20 als Aromaster bekannt. Diese Kaffeemaschine verlieh dem alltäglichen morgendlichen Filterkaffee einen Hauch des Außergewöhnlichen.

1972 | Jürgen Greubel, Dieter Rams

MPZ 22

Dieser elektrische Entsafter, auch bekannt als Citromatic, war Grundnahrungsmittel in Küchen auf der ganzen Welt. Es dauerte über zwei Jahrzehnte, bis Braun entschied, das Design zu aktualisieren.

1981 | Ludwig Littmann

MR 6

Als Vorläufer des weiterentwickelten MR 500 war der MR 6 robust und widerstandsfähig, d.h. er konnte Lebensmittel pürieren, die andere Produkte nicht verarbeiten konnten. Ein wichtiger Schritt auf dem Weg zur Perfektionierung des Handmixers.

1984 | Hartwig Kahlcke

KF 40

Diese Kaffeemaschine war innerhalb der Firma Braun recht umstritten, da sie aus kosteneffizientem Polypropylen und nicht aus robusterem Polycarbonat. Die gewellte Oberfläche der KF 40 stellt somit eine Designlösung dar, die Dieter Rams überzeugt hat.

2016 | Markus Orthey, Ludwig Littmann

MultiQuick 9

An all-round food blender that condensed the functionalities of devices many times its size into a simple, handheld 'wand'. The definition of reduced design: compact, yet powerful.

Eine kurze Einführung in die Geschichte der Braun Haushaltsprodukte.

Der heutige Erfolg der Braun Haushaltsprodukte basiert auf einer Firmengeschichte voller exzellenter Wissenschaft und durchdachter Entwicklung. Wir haben einige von Brauns führenden Lichtschöpfungen von den Anfängen bis heute zusammengestellt. Beim Besuch des Virtuellen Braun-Museums erwarten Sie weitere Zeitreisen und ein spannendes Online-Erlebnis.

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Braun.
Designed for what matters.

We believe that good design can make lives better - 100 years ago, now and in the future.

From inventor’s workshop to global brand

Ingenious.

Helpful.

Visionary.

Less, but better.

Innovative.

Today.

Braun produced the KM 3 food processor for more than three decades.

The 10 Principles of Good Design by Dieter Rams

Take a video tour through the Braun Museum in Kronberg, near Frankfurt.

We're building for a better life - back then, now and in the future.

Eine kurze Einführung in die Geschichte der Braun Haushaltsprodukte.

Food preparation

Cooking

Breakfast

Bügeln

Kollektionen

Sustainability

Service

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Food preparation

Cooking

Breakfast

Garment Care

Get inspired

Support

Food preparation

Cooking

Breakfast

Garment Care

Get inspired

Support

Braun.Designed for what matters.

We believe that good design can make lives better - 100 years ago, now and in the future.

From inventor’s workshop to global brand

Ingenious.

Helpful.

Visionary.

Less, but better.

Innovative.

Today.

Braun produced the KM 3 food processor for more than three decades.

The 10 Principles of Good Design by Dieter Rams

Take a video tour through the Braun Museum in Kronberg, near Frankfurt.

We're building for a better life - back then, now and in the future.

Eine kurze Einführung in die Geschichte der Braun Haushaltsprodukte.

Food preparation

Cooking

Breakfast

Bügeln

Kollektionen

Sustainability

Service

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Braun.
Designed for what matters.