Broadcasting in East Germany
Encyclopedia
Rundfunk der DDR was the radio
broadcasting organisation for the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1952 until German reunification
. The organization was based in the Funkhaus Nalepastraße in East Berlin
.
stations, under the control of Joseph Goebbels
' Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda as the Großdeutsche Rundfunk, were closed by the Allied forces
upon Germany's surrender in May 1945. On 13 May 1945, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany
(SMAG) began a radio broadcasting service to the people of Berlin called Berliner Rundfunk
, operating from what would become the British sector of West Berlin
. The station was controlled by Walter Ulbricht
.
When the three Western occupation sectors in Berlin were established, the American zone gained the station Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor
(RIAS), while the British zone established the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
(NWDR) which also broadcast in their zone. In 1948, control of the NWDR was transferred to the provisional government in West Germany
(later becoming Sender Fries Berlin), while RIAS remained under direct American control.
On 15 September 1952, the SMAG formally transferred control of broadcasting in the GDR to the East German government
.
After the construction of the Berlin Wall
in August 1961, the GDR began a programme to attempt to prevent its citizens from listening to broadcasts from RIAS and Sender Fries Berlin (SFB), the local outlet of the West German broadcasting consortium ARD
. The Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth
), the official youth movement in the GDR, started the campaign "Blitz contra Natosender" - "Lightning against NATO's transmitters" - to encourage young people to remove or turn away aerials
pointing at the west
. The term Republikfluchtigen (Defection by Television) was sometimes used to describe the widespread practice of viewing Westfernsehen (Western TV).
The GDR also instituted a programme of jamming
foreign signals, both shortwave
broadcasts from international broadcasters such as the BBC
and local broadcasts such as RIAS. A network of jamming stations was built covering the entire country. However, attempts to jam broadcasts from West Berlin were soon abandoned as it was found to be impossible to do so effectively without also disrupting reception within West Germany - which was outlawed by treaty - and also ran the risk of counter-jamming of East German stations.
Nevertheless, people continued (or attempted) to listen to RIAS and SFB/ARD broadcasts. In 1981, a further attempt was made to draw GDR radio listeners - especially the young - from western broadcasts by launching a youth radio station, DT64. By 1985 there were 6,646,500 licensed radios in the country, or 39.9 for every 100 persons.
Upon reunification in October 1990, two new public broadcasters (Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg
in the east and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
in the south) were created, and two existing West German public broadcasters expanded their coverage areas (Norddeutscher Rundfunk
from the north of the Federal Republic to the north of the whole country, and Sender Freies Berlin
from West Berlin to the entire city).
In 1994, RIAS merged with the GDR's Deutschlandsender Kultur to become DeutschlandRadio Berlin, which later became Deutschlandradio Kultur
.
", which broadcast on 261 kHz longwave
. The Soviet foreign service was broadcast from East Germany on 1323 kHz mediumwave
. Radio Wolga was closed when the last Soviet troops left German soil.
At Soviet military barracks, Programme 1 of Soviet television was transmitted on low power for the soldiers, in a similar way to the highly localised broadcasts of AFN, SSVC, CFN and the French FFB in the west. The last Russian transmitter was closed in 1994.
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
broadcasting organisation for the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1952 until German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
. The organization was based in the Funkhaus Nalepastraße in East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
.
Post-war
The pre-war DeutschlandsenderDeutschlandsender
Deutschlandsender is one of the longest-established radio station names in German. It was used between 1926 and the end of 1993 to denote a number of powerful stations designed to achieve all-Germany coverage .-1926—1945:The first Deutschlandsender, broadcasting from a powerful transmitter...
stations, under the control of Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
' Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda as the Großdeutsche Rundfunk, were closed by the Allied forces
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
upon Germany's surrender in May 1945. On 13 May 1945, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany
Soviet Military Administration in Germany
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone of Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in October...
(SMAG) began a radio broadcasting service to the people of Berlin called Berliner Rundfunk
Berliner Rundfunk
The Berliner Rundfunk was a radio program set in East Germany. It had a political focus and discussed events in East Berlin. Today it is a commercial radio station broadcast with the name "Berlin Rundfunk 91.4".- History :...
, operating from what would become the British sector of West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
. The station was controlled by Walter Ulbricht
Walter Ulbricht
Walter Ulbricht was a German communist politician. As First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971 , he played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany and later in the early development and...
.
When the three Western occupation sectors in Berlin were established, the American zone gained the station Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor
Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor
RIAS was a radio and television station in the American Sector of Berlin during the Cold War. It was founded by the US occupational authorities after World War II in 1946 to provide the German population in and around Berlin with news and political reporting and was initially only broadcast on...
(RIAS), while the British zone established the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk was the organization responsible for public broadcasting in the German Länder of Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia from 22 September 1945 until 31 December 1955. Until 1954, it was also responsible for broadcasting in West Berlin...
(NWDR) which also broadcast in their zone. In 1948, control of the NWDR was transferred to the provisional government in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
(later becoming Sender Fries Berlin), while RIAS remained under direct American control.
On 15 September 1952, the SMAG formally transferred control of broadcasting in the GDR to the East German government
Ministerrat
The Council of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic was the chief executive body of East Germany from November 1950 until the GDR was unified with the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990...
.
The Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
in August 1961, the GDR began a programme to attempt to prevent its citizens from listening to broadcasts from RIAS and Sender Fries Berlin (SFB), the local outlet of the West German broadcasting consortium ARD
ARD (broadcaster)
ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...
. The Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth
Free German Youth
The Free German Youth, also known as the FDJ , was the official socialist youth movement of the German Democratic Republic and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany....
), the official youth movement in the GDR, started the campaign "Blitz contra Natosender" - "Lightning against NATO's transmitters" - to encourage young people to remove or turn away aerials
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
pointing at the west
Ochsenkopf TV Tower
The Ochsenkopf Transmitter is a 163 metre tall radio and TV tower of reinforced concrete, which was built in 1958 as replacement for a 50 metre tall guyed steel tube TV mast, which collapsed in January 1958 as result of icing, on the summit of the 1024 metre high Ochsenkopf mountain, the second...
. The term Republikfluchtigen (Defection by Television) was sometimes used to describe the widespread practice of viewing Westfernsehen (Western TV).
The GDR also instituted a programme of jamming
Radio jamming
Radio jamming is the transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio. Unintentional jamming occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency without first checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency...
foreign signals, both shortwave
Shortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
broadcasts from international broadcasters such as the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and local broadcasts such as RIAS. A network of jamming stations was built covering the entire country. However, attempts to jam broadcasts from West Berlin were soon abandoned as it was found to be impossible to do so effectively without also disrupting reception within West Germany - which was outlawed by treaty - and also ran the risk of counter-jamming of East German stations.
Nevertheless, people continued (or attempted) to listen to RIAS and SFB/ARD broadcasts. In 1981, a further attempt was made to draw GDR radio listeners - especially the young - from western broadcasts by launching a youth radio station, DT64. By 1985 there were 6,646,500 licensed radios in the country, or 39.9 for every 100 persons.
After the Fall of the Wall
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the radio organisation of the GDR began to shut down as services from West Germany were introduced and the GDR's stations were renamed and refocused in anticipation of the country joining the existing ARD system on 1 January 1992.Upon reunification in October 1990, two new public broadcasters (Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg
Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg
Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg , based in Potsdam, was the public broadcaster for the German federal state of Brandenburg from 12 October 1991 until 30 April 2003...
in the east and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt...
in the south) were created, and two existing West German public broadcasters expanded their coverage areas (Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Norddeutscher Rundfunk is a public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR transmits for the German states of Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein...
from the north of the Federal Republic to the north of the whole country, and Sender Freies Berlin
Sender Freies Berlin
Sender Freies Berlin was the ARD public radio and television service for West Berlin from 1 June 1954 until 1990 and for Berlin as a whole from German reunification until 30 April 2003...
from West Berlin to the entire city).
In 1994, RIAS merged with the GDR's Deutschlandsender Kultur to become DeutschlandRadio Berlin, which later became Deutschlandradio Kultur
Deutschlandradio Kultur
Deutschlandradio Kultur is the culture-oriented radio station of the German national Deutschlandradio service...
.
Broadcast hours
| Year: | 1965 | 1970 | 1975 | 1980 | 1985 | 1988 | 1989 |
| Spoken word | 32217 | 36866 | 32479 | 35435 | 38221 | 46033 | 48428 |
| Music | 31499 | 31131 | 29706 | 31583 | 33804 | 48112 | 48953 |
| Total | 63716 | 67997 | 62185 | 67018 | 72025 | 94145 | 97381 |
| Hours per week | 1222 | 1304 | 1193 | 1282 | 1381 | 1800 | 1868 |
Domestic
- Radio DDR 1Radio DDR 1Radio DDR 1 was a radio channel produced and transmitted by Rundfunk der DDR, the radio broadcasting organization of East Germany . It had a mixed schedule of news and light entertainment, with the emphasis on events in the GDR, and also included regional programming.-History:Radio DDR 1 was...
- information and discussion, with local news opt-outs. - Radio DDR 2Radio DDR 2Radio DDR II was a radio channel in East Germany run by Rundfunk der DDR, created in October 1958. It was a regional service in the morning and at 01:00 local time, broadcast centralized classical music and radio plays produced in Berlin...
- culture and education, with regional programmes in the morning. - Berliner RundfunkBerliner RundfunkThe Berliner Rundfunk was a radio program set in East Germany. It had a political focus and discussed events in East Berlin. Today it is a commercial radio station broadcast with the name "Berlin Rundfunk 91.4".- History :...
- the local station for BerlinBerlinBerlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, focusing on East Berlin. - DT64 - the station for young people.
- Ferienwelle - a holiday radio service broadcast on the BalticBaltic SeaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
coast from May to September. - Messewelle - a West-oriented station broadcast during the week-long LeipzigLeipzigLeipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
trade fair in March and September.
International
- Radio Berlin InternationalRadio Berlin InternationalRadio Berlin International was the international broadcaster for the German Democratic Republic . It started in May 1959 to counter Deutsche Welle, the West German international broadcaster. Much of its output was news reports and information about the GDR. It offered a state-sponsored view on life...
– the foreign-language service. - Berliner Welle – the eastern service for West Berlin.
- DeutschlandsenderDeutschlandsenderDeutschlandsender is one of the longest-established radio station names in German. It was used between 1926 and the end of 1993 to denote a number of powerful stations designed to achieve all-Germany coverage .-1926—1945:The first Deutschlandsender, broadcasting from a powerful transmitter...
– the "all-German" international service, 1953-1971 and 1990. - Stimme der DDR – "Voice of the GDR", the German languageGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
international service, formed from Berliner Welle and Deutschlandsender, 1971-1990.
Propaganda
- Deutscher Freiheitssender 904 – "German Liberty Radio", aimed at West German listeners (closed 1971).
- Deutscher Soldatensender – "German Soldiers Radio", aimed at West German armed forces (closed 1972).
- Voice of the Immigrants – aimed at Greek and Turkish GastarbeiterGastarbeiterGastarbeiter is German for "guest worker." It refers to migrant workers who had moved to West Germany mainly in the 1960s and 70s, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker programme...
in West Germany (closed 197?).
Soviet broadcasts
The Soviet Union maintained a service for its troops on GDR soil, "Radio WolgaRadio Wolga
Radio Wolga was a radio station for the Soviet armed forces in the former GDR .-Broadcasting station:Until 1967 Radio Wolga broadcast from the Königs Wusterhausen radio facility near Berlin. After 1967 the Burg AM transmitter near Magdeburg was used.From 1967 to 1976 Radio Wolga used the 350-meter...
", which broadcast on 261 kHz longwave
Longwave
In radio, longwave refers to parts of radio spectrum with relatively long wavelengths. The term is a historic one dating from the early 20th century, when the radio spectrum was considered to consist of long, medium and short wavelengths...
. The Soviet foreign service was broadcast from East Germany on 1323 kHz mediumwave
Mediumwave
Medium wave is the part of the medium frequency radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. For Europe the MW band ranges from 526.5 kHz to 1606.5 kHz...
. Radio Wolga was closed when the last Soviet troops left German soil.
At Soviet military barracks, Programme 1 of Soviet television was transmitted on low power for the soldiers, in a similar way to the highly localised broadcasts of AFN, SSVC, CFN and the French FFB in the west. The last Russian transmitter was closed in 1994.
See also
- RIASRundfunk im amerikanischen SektorRIAS was a radio and television station in the American Sector of Berlin during the Cold War. It was founded by the US occupational authorities after World War II in 1946 to provide the German population in and around Berlin with news and political reporting and was initially only broadcast on...
- Radio WolgaRadio WolgaRadio Wolga was a radio station for the Soviet armed forces in the former GDR .-Broadcasting station:Until 1967 Radio Wolga broadcast from the Königs Wusterhausen radio facility near Berlin. After 1967 the Burg AM transmitter near Magdeburg was used.From 1967 to 1976 Radio Wolga used the 350-meter...
- Eastern Bloc information disseminationEastern Bloc information disseminationEastern Bloc information dissemination was controlled directly by each country's Communist party, which controlled the state media, censorship and propaganda organs...
- Culture of East Germany
Additional sources
These sources are in English and were used to clarify or extend the translation.- Hancock, Dafydd Fade to black Intertel from Transdiffusion, 2001; accessed 19 February 2006. , Dirk Germany (1980s) Intertel from Transdiffusion, 2003; accessed 19 February 2006.
- Paulu, Burton Broadcasting on the European Continent Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1967