AEG appliances history spans over 100 years,from the founding of AEG with the purchase of the German license for Edison patents to the first AEG appliances created by Peter Behrens, the father of design.
AEG started with the light bulb. Emil Rathenau, founder, bought the German licence for the Edison patents and in 1883 founded the German Edison Society in Berlin, which was renamed General Electricity Society (Allgemeine Elektrizitaets-Gesellschaft) in 1887. In 1889, this company went public in Berlin with an exhibition of the first electrical heating units. On show were items such as curling tongs, cigar lighters, irons and tea kettles. The 1896 catalogue already contained 80 different products, among them hotplates, coffee machines and egg cookers. Already at that time, the technology as well as the designs were impressive. At the beginning of the century, AEG was the first industrial company that employed a designer. This was the architect Peter Behrens who in 1907 was commissioned not only to design new factories but also appliances.