Using small power stations, his company introduced electrical lighting to cafés, restaurants, and theaters, despite the high costs and limitations.

By the end of the 19th century, AEG had constructed 248 power stations, providing a total of 210,000 hp of electricity for lighting, tramways, and household devices.

According to the 1930 Encyclopedia Britannica: "Prior to 1923 it was the largest electrical manufacturing concern in Germany and one of the most important industrial undertakings in the world.

The company benefited from the use of large numbers of forced labourers as well as concentration camp prisoners, under inhuman conditions of work.

In 1887 the company acquired land in the Berlin-Gesundbrunnen area on which the Weddingsche Maschinenfabrik (founded by Wilhelm Wedding) was previously located.

This success marked one of beginnings of the general use of alternating current for electrification in Germany, and showed that distance transmission of electric power could be economically useful.

In the same year the Stadtbahn Halle/Saale (City railway Halle–Saale) opened the first electric tram system (of notable size) in Germany.

[chron 6] Tropp Paul began his work for the AEG 1889/90 until 1893, and Franz Schwechten designed the facades of the Acker- und Hussitenstraße in 1894–95.

By 1889 AEG were known as specialists in the construction of industrial portable drilling machines, some of these were driven by flexible shafts from electric motors.

[10] In 1903 the competing radio companies AEG and Siemens & Halske merged, forming a joint subsidiary named Telefunken.

In the first decades, the company had many factories in and around Berlin: A number of other notable events involving AEG occurred in this period: On 20 June 1915, founder Emil Rathenau died at age 77.

[chron 13] AEG donated 60,000 Reichsmarks to the Nazi party after the Secret Meeting of 20 February 1933 at which the twin goals of complete power and national rearmament were explained by Hitler.

They joined with other large companies, such as IG Farben, Thyssen and Krupp, in their support of the Nazis, especially in promoting re-armament of the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, and Kriegsmarine.

[17] AEG was a major supplier of grips for P38 pistols manufactured by Walther Arms, Mauser, as well as on the early wartime Spreewerk P38s.

[19] In 1945, after the Second World War, the production in the factories in the western sectors of Berlin - what today is the building of the headquarters of DW (TV)Deutsche Welle - and Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Mulheim an der Ruhr resumed and further new works were erected, among others an Electric meter plant in Hameln.

The cable plant (Draht-, Kabel- und Metallwerk Oberspree) and apparatus factory (Apparatefabrik Treptow) and other facilities also lay in East Germany and became Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaft (SAG) (Soviet joint stock companies).

The company was burdened by, among other things, unsuccessful projects such as an automated baggage conveyor system at Frankfurt Airport and nuclear powerplant construction.

In particular, the nuclear power plant at Würgassen, the commissioning of which was delayed by several years due to technical problems cost AEG hundreds of millions of DM.

A banking consortium provided an administrative loan of DM 1.1 billion to the AEG Group until June 1983; 400 million of which only to be available on a guarantee by the federal government.

When the Federal Republic of Germany began implementing AC propulsion systems AEG found itself in competition with Brown, Boveri & Cie.

Only after German reunification and the adoption of the LEW plant in Hennigsdorf did AEG's name return to whole locomotive manufacturing, but only for a short time.

It had a wingspan of 17.5 m (57 ft 5 in); was powered by an eight-cylinder engine producing 75 hp; unloaded weight was 850 kg; and could attain a speed of 65 km/h (40 mph).

This aircraft was powered by four 260 hp (190 kW) Mercedes D.IVa engines linked to a combination leather cone and dog clutch.

During the Second World War AEG produced machines for reconnaissance purposes, including a helicopter platform driven by an AC motor.