In 2018 I bought some self-ballasted mercury blended lamps in France.
They were General Electric and PHILIPS lamps.



The lamps from PHILIPS already had the ellipsiode outer bulb shape, but the lamps from General Electric still have the old spherical outer bulb shape.



I was surprised that the GE lamps were made in Germany.



Thanks to James' information, I now know that OSRAM was very closely involved with GE in the 1960s.
These GE lamps probably come from the OSRAM factory in Berlin-Charlottenburg.
For comparison two pictures of a lamp OSRAM HWLS 250, manufactured in April 1972.





Additions and hints are always welcome.


Regards

Olav

Interesting details Olav.  Indeed, both Osram and GE were controlled by IGE in the period leading up to WW2, and even afterwards the Americans owned a significant share of both and supplied them with technical know-how and cash to buy their submission.  During the 1970s GE came very close to increase its shareholding in Osram to 100% and around that time there was a push to establish the GE brand outside Americas, which the company had always refrained from doing because previously it would not have strengthened GE’s financial domination of the global lamp industry.  At the last minute the deal did not proceed, and instead Siemens took control of Osram.  But the work to establish the GE brand in Europe had already been done, and up to the mid 1980s it was not uncommon to still see GE-branded Osram lamps.  I remember as a child taking holidays in France during the 1980s, and being surprised to see French-made GE incandescent lamps with American-style etches, that had obviously been made by Osram Molsheim.

There are very few documents that discuss GE’s covert control of the global lamp industry, often riding along the fringes of legality, but today I came across another fascinating paper on this subject.  It can be viewed freely at here.

That‘s a nice find Olav. Speaking about GE. I found a bunch of used GE F65W T12 fluorescent tubes in a factory. They were all made by Osram around 1980 but bear the GE logo.

Interesting...didn't know that GE had a partnership with Osram, let alone that they almost bought them out.