Rundfunk der DDR

Rundfunk der DDR (, 'GDR Broadcasting'; from about 1948 to 1972 Deutscher Demokratischer Rundfunk, 'German Democratic Broadcasting') was the collective designation for radio broadcasting organized by the State Broadcasting Committee in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) until German reunification in 1990.

History

Post-war

The pre-war '' Reichssender'' stations, under the control of Joseph Goebbels' Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda as ''Großdeutscher Rundfunk'', were either destroyed by the Wehrmacht or closed by the Allied occupation 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.

For the most part the station retained staff from the Nazi era. The first broadcast included recordings of the "State Anthem of the Soviet Union," "The Star-Spangled Banner," "God Save the Queen," and "La Marseillaise" followed by greetings from Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the next few days the station focused on playing classical music by German and Russian composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky alongside news. The station was controlled by the Ulbricht Group politicians Hans Mahle, Matthaus Klein, Wolfgang Leonhard, and Markus Wolf. The station began to become more ideological in tone after the Socialist Unity Party of Germany performed poorly in the 1946 Berlin state election.

From December 1945 it was meant to cover the north-eastern part of the Soviet occupation zone (territory of former Reichssender Berlin), while ''Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk'' should transmit to the south-western part (territory of former Reichssender Leipzig). Both networks were put under the control of the ''Zentralverwaltung für Volksbildung'' ("Central Administration for People's Education") and a ''Generalintendant'' (general manager) in 1946 and also provided air time for regional ''Landessender'' in the five states of the Soviet occupation zone. A Sorbian language broadcast was launched by ''Landessender'' Dresden in 1948, continued by Berlin in 1952 and by ''Bezirkssender'' Cottbus in 1957. As a third channel the East German ''Deutschlandsender'' was broadcasting for the whole of Germany.

Early GDR

The ''Funkhaus Berlin'' building was erected in 1951. It was the largest radio station in East Germany and was noted for its excellent acoustics. It was designed by the Bauhaus architect Franz Ehrlich. Because staff were working in the building 24 hours a day, it included a supermarket, an outpatients' clinic and a sauna.

After formation of the GDR in 1949 and dissolution of the states in 1952, the ''State Broadcasting Committee'' subordinate to the East German government was constituted. Originally it produced three central radio programmes called ''Berlin I'', ''II'' and ''III'', but soon the first two channels were named ''Berliner Rundfunk'' and ''Deutschlandsender'' again, while the third channel became ''Radio DDR''. Regional outlets were reintroduced as ''Bezirkssender'' for the new districts.

In 1955 an external service was launched, becoming '' Radio Berlin International'' in 1959. For Eastern Germany ''Radio DDR 2'' started in October 1958.

Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall

In February 1958 a second channel of ''Berliner Rundfunk'' was introduced especially for West Berlin to tackle RIAS (a United States Information Agency outlet) and Sender Freies Berlin (SFB, the local outlet of the West German broadcasting consortium ARD). It was renamed ''Berliner Welle'' in 1959.

The GDR also instituted a programme of jamming foreign signals, both shortwave broadcasts from international broadcasters such as the BBC World Service and local broadcasts such as RIAS. A network of jamming stations was built covering the entire country. However, jamming RIAS broadcasts was discontinued in 1978 due to the Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 signed also by East Germany. The diplomatic prestige gained through recognition by the Western signatories was more important to the GDR leadership than continuing jamming, which furthermore had already been proven inefficient.

Listening to or watching Western broadcasts in itself was legally tolerated, but communicating received content to others or inviting others to common reception could lead to penal sanctions for an offense called "incitement endangering the state" (''staatsgefährdende Hetze''). After the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, the ''Freie Deutsche Jugend'' (Free German Youth), the official youth movement in the GDR, started the campaign ''"Blitz kontra NATO-Sender"'' ("Lightning against NATO's transmitters") to encourage young people to remove or turn away aerials pointing at Ochsenkopf Transmitter in Bavaria, West Germany.

In 1964 most ''Bezirkssender'' shared frequencies with ''Radio DDR 2'', the districts adjacent to Berlin (Potsdam and Frankfurt/Oder) with ''Berliner Rundfunk''. Special regional broadcasts included ''Ferienwelle'' during summer holiday season from Rostock and ''Messewelle'' twice a year during trade fair from Leipzig. In 1968 the State Committee for Television was split from the State Broadcasting Committee whose name was slightly changed to ''State Committee for Broadcasting''. In 1972 ''Deutschlandsender'' and ''Berliner Welle'' were merged to form ''Stimme der DDR'' ("Voice of the GDR").

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, ''Stimme der DDR'' was renamed ''Deutschlandsender'' again, soon merged with ''Radio DDR 2'' to become ''Deutschlandsender Kultur''. The ''Bezirkssender'' were transformed to regional stations for the five newly developing states using the frequencies of former Radio DDR 2. Radio DDR 1 was renamed ''Radio aktuell''.

Upon reunification in October 1990, the first station to cease broadcasting was ''Radio Berlin International''. All other programmes were continued under the roof of the "Institution according to Article 36 of the Unification Treaty".Kai Ludwig:
Vor 20 Jahren: Das Ende der „Einrichtung nach Artikel 36 des Einigungsvertrags“
', in: ''Radio-Kurier'' 1/2012, p. 16-21 In 1992 two new public broadcasters ( ORB in the east and MDR in the south) were created, and two existing West German public broadcasters expanded their coverage areas ( NDR from the north of the Federal Republic to the north of the whole country, and SFB from West Berlin to the entire city). They took over the frequencies of the regional stations, ''Radio aktuell'' and ''Berliner Rundfunk''; ''Berliner Rundfunk'' itself became a local private broadcaster in Berlin. ''DT64'' was continued by MDR until May 1993, ''Deutschlandsender Kultur'' by ARD and ZDF until merging with RIAS to constitute ''DeutschlandRadio Berlin'' in 1994.

Broadcast hours

Stations

Domestic

* Radio DDR 1 – information and discussion (1955-1990/91).
* Radio DDR 2 – culture and education (1958-1990), with regional programmes in the morning (Bezirkssender).
* Berliner Rundfunk – station focusing on East Berlin (1945-1952, 1955–1991).
* DT64 – the station for young people (1981-1993).
* Sorbian language programme (1948-1991).
* Ferienwelle – a holiday radio service broadcast on the Baltic coast from May to September (1967-1993).
* Messewelle – a West-oriented station broadcast during the week-long Leipzig Trade Fair in March and September (1971-1991?).

International

* Radio Berlin International – the foreign-language service (1955/59-1990).
* Deutschlandsender – the "all-German" service (1948-1952, 1953-1971 and 1990–1993).
* Berliner Welle – the eastern service for West Berlin (1958/59-1971).
* Stimme der DDR – "Voice of the GDR", the German language international service, formed from Deutschlandsender and Berliner Welle (1971-1990).

Clandestine stations

* Deutscher Freiheitssender 904 – "German Liberty Radio", aimed at West German listeners (1956-1971).
* Deutscher Soldatensender 935 – "German Soldiers Radio", aimed at West German armed forces (1960-1972).
* " Voice of the Immigrants" - Aimed at "Guest workers" from Greece and Turkey in West Germany/Berlin (1970's)
* Radio Vltava – aimed for listeners in Czechoslovakia (1968-1969).

Soviet broadcasts

The Soviet Union maintained a service for its troops on GDR soil, "Radio Wolga", 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.

See also

* German Broadcasting Archive
* Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor (RIAS)
* Radio Wolga
* Deutscher Fernsehfunk Television service
* Eastern Bloc information dissemination
* Culture of East Germany
* Rolf Gumlich

Bibliography

* Klaus Arnold; Christoph Classen (eds.): ''Zwischen Pop und Propaganda. Radio in der DDR.'' Berlin: Ch. Links, 2004.
Online
* Ingrid Pietrzynski (ed.): ''Das Schriftgut des DDR-Hörfunks. Eine Bestandsübersicht.'' Potsdam-Babelsberg: DRA, 2002.
Online
* Sibylle Bolik: ''Das Hörspiel in der DDR''. Frankfurt .a. Lang, 1994.
Online
* Ingrid Scheffler (ed.): ''Literatur im DDR-Hörfunk. Günter Kunert - Bitterfelder Weg - Radio-Feature''. Konstanz: UVK, 2005.
Online
* Patrick Conley: ''Der parteiliche Journalist. Die Geschichte des Radio-Features in der DDR.'' Berlin: Metropol, 2012.
* Georg Dannenberg: ''Sozialistischer Rundfunkjournalismus.'' 2nd edition. Leipzig: Karl-Marx-Universität, 1978

References

External links

Funkhaus Berlin
website (in English and German)

{{Coord, 52.432, N, 13.540, E, display=title, source:dewiki

Eastern Bloc mass media
Radio in Germany
Defunct radio stations in East Germany
Organizations established in 1946
Organizations disestablished in 1991
1946 establishments in Germany
Mass media in Berlin
1991 disestablishments in Germany