The Interesting Exhibit of the Month for October is dedicated to recalling the everyday life of interwar Lithuania and the technological progress that has shaped our modern society.
The photograph shows a PHILIPS radio warranty certificate, preserved in the collections of the Lithuanian Museum of Education.
“Hello, hello – Lithuanian Radio – Kaunas.”
These first words, which became legendary, were spoken by announcer Petras Spaitis on June 12, 1926, in Kaunas. They were broadcast from a brand-new radio station built by the French in Žaliakalnis.
At that time, the number of registered radio subscribers in Lithuania was still very small—only a few hundred—but soon the ranks of listeners began to grow rapidly. The supply of radio receivers quickly met the increasing demand: in 1926, the first major international radio manufacturers established their representative offices in Kaunas, including the German companies Telefunken and Dr. Georg Seibt. Their number continued to grow.
Lithuanians also actively founded their own companies, particularly emigrants returning from America, who sold American-made devices in Lithuania. The network of firms selling radios in Kaunas continued to expand, and by 1940, around 50 different international and local manufacturers were offering radios there—not counting small merchants who sold them occasionally.
By that time, Lithuanian Radio was already broadcasting a wide range of programs—from various themed hours to radio theatre performances.
The museum object shown in the photograph is a warranty certificate issued by the Dutch company PHILIPS, which operated in Lithuania. It was granted to Mr. Jonas Paulaitis, who in 1937 purchased a PHILIPS model 696B radio receiver. The company’s representative office was located in Kaunas, at what is now Laisvės Avenue 31. In case of malfunction, Mr. Paulaitis was to send his radio there for inspection.
Whether the radio served him faithfully or the warranty was ever used, we do not know. However, around that same time, the PHILIPS office in Kaunas already employed Jan Zwartendijk, a Dutch businessman who would later become the Consul of the Netherlands in Lithuania and be honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for saving thousands of Jews in Kaunas during World War II.
Text prepared by Povilas Mikalauskas, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Collections at the Lithuanian Museum of Education.
