German label
Founded 1958 in Freiburg, Germany, by Rudolf Ruby as "Harmonia Mundi" without the nomenclature "Deutsche".
Shortly after founding the label built a collaboration with the independently founded French label Harmonia Mundi "with exactly the same name and a similar concept. A period of cooperation began that included sharing the same artists, exchanging material and using the same distributor".
Therefore many recordings exist with identical content, while having separate labels, under the same name.
The special working areas have been early music and contemporary classical music.
A special relationship via Dr. Alfred Krings with the Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) enabled members of the Cappella Coloniensis and "Collegium Musicum des WDR" to set up the label's own ensemble: Collegium Aureum. With this early music ensemble the label grew their classical and romantic repertoire up to Schubert. The company behind the label printed on the back cover and the record label itself changed during the 1960's. First it was Fono-Verlagsgesellschaft; from about 1963 it was Discophon Schallplattengesellschaft, from 1965 it was Harmonia Mundi Schallplattengesellschaft. But it is possible to find "hybrid" records, combining the cover of a later release with the vinyl LP from an earlier version. From 1971 the label was distributed by BASF. Stock records received a sticker with the new distribution number. Distributed by EMI Electrola from 1976 onwards, the label was given the new designation "Deutsche Harmonia Mundi". Since 1992 a BMG label, it then came under the umbrella of Sony BMG Music Entertainment in 2005, now part of Sony Classical.