Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg
Encyclopedia
Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB – East German Broadcasting Brandenburg), based in Potsdam
, was the public broadcaster for the German federal state
of Brandenburg
from 12 October 1991 until 30 April 2003. It was a member organization of the consortium of public-law broadcasting organizations in Germany, ARD
.
ORB merged with the Berlin
public broadcaster Sender Freies Berlin
(SFB) on 1 May 2003 to form Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
(RBB).
, ARD expanded its membership to include public broadcasters in the territory of the former German Democratic Republic
(GDR). Four public-broadcasting organizations replaced those of the former GDR: the already existing Hamburg
-based Norddeutscher Rundfunk
in the north; the already existing West Berlin
-based SFB, now covering all of the city; the new Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
for the states of Thuringia
, Saxony
, and Saxony-Anhalt
; and the new Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg.
Created on 12 October 1991, ORB joined ARD on 27 November and formally took over from the former Rundfunk der DDR on 1 January 1992.
ORB had originally planned to call itself Ostdeutscher Rundfunk (ODR - East German Broadcasting) on the pattern of the already existing Norddeutscher Rundfunk
(NDR - North German Broadcasting), Süddeutscher Rundfunk
(SDR - South German Broadcasting), and Westdeutscher Rundfunk
(WDR - West German Broadcasting). However, faced with the criticism that the designation ODR could be taken as implying that the new organization covered the whole of the former "East Germany", a more specific name was chosen in the autumn of 1991.
ORB television was broadcast from the former studios of the official GDR film company, Deutsche Film AG, whilst the radio services originated in the Funkhaus Nalepastraße, the former headquarters of the GDR's broadcasting service.
s.
On 22 February 1992, ORB and SFB began a joint radio station, radioBZWEI, aimed at 25 to 50-year-old listerners.
On 1 March 1993, a further ORB/SFB joint station, Fritz, replaced Rockradio B.
A further ORB/SFB station, the news-based infoRADIO, began on 28 August 1995.
On 3 October 1997, SFB and ORB launched RADIOkultur, a cultural station taking up much of the programming of SFB3, with an emphasis on classic, world, jazz and new music and politics.
launched in ORB's area - 1 January 1992.
The third network mostly carried ARD programming for cost reasons. ORB broadcast news programmes at 1900 and 2045. However, the main evening news in the GDR had long been at 1930, and this was the preferred time for most viewers.
On 1 May 1992, the schedules were radically altered to account for the habits of the viewers, with the main local news being moved to 1930 - a position it keeps on RBB's successor service. Additionally, more locally-derived programming was added to the schedule.
ORB's television networks were:
, Frankfurt (Oder)
and Perleberg.
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
, was the public broadcaster for the German federal state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
from 12 October 1991 until 30 April 2003. It was a member organization of the consortium of public-law broadcasting organizations in Germany, ARD
ARD (broadcaster)
ARD is a joint organization of Germany's regional public-service broadcasters...
.
ORB merged with the Berlin
Berlin
Berlin 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...
public broadcaster 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...
(SFB) on 1 May 2003 to form Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg is an institution under public law for the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, situated in Berlin and Potsdam...
(RBB).
History
Following German reunificationGerman 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...
, ARD expanded its membership to include public broadcasters in the territory of the former German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
(GDR). Four public-broadcasting organizations replaced those of the former GDR: the already existing Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
-based 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...
in the north; the already existing 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...
-based SFB, now covering all of the city; the new Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt...
for the states of Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
, Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
, and Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...
; and the new Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg.
Created on 12 October 1991, ORB joined ARD on 27 November and formally took over from the former Rundfunk der DDR on 1 January 1992.
ORB had originally planned to call itself Ostdeutscher Rundfunk (ODR - East German Broadcasting) on the pattern of the already existing 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...
(NDR - North German Broadcasting), Süddeutscher Rundfunk
Süddeutscher Rundfunk
The Süddeutscher Rundfunk was a German radio and television station operating in the northern part of the state of Baden-Württemberg. It existed from 1949 to 1998, when it was merged with the then Südwestfunk to form the Südwestrundfunk....
(SDR - South German Broadcasting), and Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk is a German public-broadcasting institution based in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia with its main office in Cologne. WDR is a constituent member of the consortium of German public-broadcasting institutions, ARD...
(WDR - West German Broadcasting). However, faced with the criticism that the designation ODR could be taken as implying that the new organization covered the whole of the former "East Germany", a more specific name was chosen in the autumn of 1991.
ORB television was broadcast from the former studios of the official GDR film company, Deutsche Film AG, whilst the radio services originated in the Funkhaus Nalepastraße, the former headquarters of the GDR's broadcasting service.
Radio
On commencing broadcasting on 1 January 1992, ORB had three radio stationRadio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
s.
- Antenne Brandenburg - begun by the former GDR in May 1990. This became the ORB's pop music and information station.
- Radio Brandenburg - a culture and news station.
- Rockradio B - a youth station, broadcasting on the former frequencies of the GDR's youth station DT64.
On 22 February 1992, ORB and SFB began a joint radio station, radioBZWEI, aimed at 25 to 50-year-old listerners.
On 1 March 1993, a further ORB/SFB joint station, Fritz, replaced Rockradio B.
A further ORB/SFB station, the news-based infoRADIO, began on 28 August 1995.
On 3 October 1997, SFB and ORB launched RADIOkultur, a cultural station taking up much of the programming of SFB3, with an emphasis on classic, world, jazz and new music and politics.
Television
ORB started broadcasting its own "third" television station on the same day the ARD Das ErsteDas Erste
Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen , marketed as Das Erste , is the principal publicly owned television channel in Germany...
launched in ORB's area - 1 January 1992.
The third network mostly carried ARD programming for cost reasons. ORB broadcast news programmes at 1900 and 2045. However, the main evening news in the GDR had long been at 1930, and this was the preferred time for most viewers.
On 1 May 1992, the schedules were radically altered to account for the habits of the viewers, with the main local news being moved to 1930 - a position it keeps on RBB's successor service. Additionally, more locally-derived programming was added to the schedule.
ORB's television networks were:
Joint operations
- Das ErsteDas ErsteErstes Deutsches Fernsehen , marketed as Das Erste , is the principal publicly owned television channel in Germany...
- ARD joint channel - Phoenix - ARD and ZDF joint events channel
- KI.KAKI.KAKI.KA is a public non-commercial free television channel based in Erfurt, Germany. It is a joint venture of national public television channels ARD, and ARD's constituent broadcasting institutions – BR, HR, MDR, NDR, Radio Bremen, RBB, Saarländischer Rundfunk, SWR, WDR and ZDF, and is targeted at...
- ARD and ZDF joint children's channel - ArteArteArte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
- French-German culture channel - 3sat3sat3sat is the name of a public, advertising-free, television network in Central Europe. The programming is in German and is broadcast primarily within Germany, Austria and Switzerland .3sat was established for cultural...
- ARD, ZDF, ORF, and SRG joint highbrow channel
Studios
The main studios of ORB were in Potsdam. Other studios were located in CottbusCottbus
Cottbus is a city in Brandenburg, Germany, situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree. As of , its population was .- History :...
, Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
and Perleberg.
Productions
ORB contributed to the series Polizeiruf 110 - a crime drama strand originally produced from 1971 by GDR television and taken up by Das Erste after reunification. ORB also created the popular magazine programme Polylux, which has been continued by RBB and is now shown on Das Erste.External links
- Official site of Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (Redirect to RBB)