Rundfunk der DDR (, 'GDR Broadcasting'; from about 1948 to 1972 Deutscher Demokratischer Rundfunk, 'German Democratic Broadcasting') was the collective designation for
radio broadcasting
Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...
organized by the State Broadcasting Committee in the
German Democratic Republic
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
(GDR) until
German reunification
German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the int ...
in 1990.
History
Post-war
The pre-war ''
Reichssender'' stations, under the control of
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...
'
Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda as ''Großdeutscher Rundfunk'', were either destroyed by the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
or closed by the
Allied occupation forces upon Germany's surrender in May 1945. On 13 May 1945, the
Soviet Military Administration in Germany
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany (; ''Sovyetskaya Voyennaya Administratsiya v Germanii'', SVAG; , SMAD) was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin- Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone in German ...
(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
West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...
.
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 State Anthem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the national anthem of the Soviet Union and the regional anthem of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1944 to 1991, replacing "The Internationale". Its original ...
," "
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written by American lawyer Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814, after he witnessed the bombardment of Fort ...
," "
God Save the King
"God Save the King" ("God Save the Queen" when the monarch is female) is ''de facto'' the national anthem of the United Kingdom. It is one of national anthems of New Zealand, two national anthems of New Zealand and the royal anthem of the Isle ...
," and "
La Marseillaise
"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. It was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by the First French Republic against Austria, and was originally titled "".
The French Na ...
" followed by greetings from
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
,
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
, and
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
. In the next few days the station focused on playing
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
by German and Russian composers such as
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...
and
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...
alongside news. The station was controlled by the
Ulbricht Group politicians Hans Mahle, Matthaus Klein,
Wolfgang Leonhard, and
Markus Wolf
Markus Johannes Wolf (19 January 1923 – 9 November 2006), also known as Mischa, was a German spymaster who served as the head of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (), the foreign intelligence division of East Germany's Ministry for Sta ...
. The station began to become more ideological in tone after the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...
performed poorly in the
1946 Berlin state election
The 1946 Greater Berlin City Council election (''Stadtverordnetenversammlung von Groß-Berlin'') was held on 20 October 1946 to elect all 130 members of the City Council. It was the only all-Berlin election in the period between the end of the Seco ...
.
From December 1945 it was meant to cover the north-eastern part of the
Soviet occupation zone
The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...
(territory of former Reichssender Berlin), while ''
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
(; "Central German Broadcasting"), shortened to MDR (; stylized as mdr), is the public broadcaster for the federal states of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt in Germany. Established in January 1991, its headquarters are in Leipzig, wi ...
'' 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
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
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
Cottbus () or (;) is a university city and the second-largest city in the German state of Brandenburg after the state capital, Potsdam. With around 100,000 inhabitants, Cottbus is the most populous city in Lusatia. Cottbus lies in the Sorbian ...
in 1957. As a third channel the East German ''
Deutschlandsender
Deutschlandsender (, ''Radio Germany''), abbreviated DLS or DS, was one of the longest-established radio broadcasting stations in Germany. The name was used between 1926 and 1993 to denote a number of powerful stations designed to achieve a nat ...
'' 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
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
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
A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions ...
.
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
The United States Information Agency (USIA) was a United States government agency devoted to propaganda which operated from 1953 to 1999.
Previously existing United States Information Service (USIS) posts operating out of U.S. embassies wor ...
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
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using radio frequencies in the shortwave bands (SW). There is no official definition of the band range, but it always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (app ...
broadcasts from international broadcasters such as the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...
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
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
'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
Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
and
Frankfurt/Oder) with ''Berliner Rundfunk''. Special regional broadcasts included ''Ferienwelle'' during summer holiday season from
Rostock
Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...
and ''Messewelle'' twice a year during
trade fair
A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific Industry (economics), industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest Product (business), products and se ...
from
Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
. 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
The fall of the Berlin Wall (, ) on 9 November in German history, 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions we ...
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
ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...
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
East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
(1945–1952, 1955–1991).
*
DT64 – the station for young people (1981–1993).
*
Sorbischer Rundfunk –
Sorbian language programme (1948–1991).
* – a holiday radio service broadcast on the
Baltic
Baltic may refer to:
Peoples and languages
*Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian
*Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...
coast from May to September (1967–1993).
* Messewelle – a West-oriented station broadcast during the week-long
Leipzig Trade Fair
The Leipzig Trade Fair () is a major trade fair, which traces its roots back for nearly a millennium. After the Second World War, Leipzig fell within the territory of East Germany, whereupon the Leipzig Trade Fair became one of the most importan ...
in March and September (1971–1991?).
International
*
Radio Berlin International – the foreign-language service (1955/59–1990).
*
Deutschlandsender
Deutschlandsender (, ''Radio Germany''), abbreviated DLS or DS, was one of the longest-established radio broadcasting stations in Germany. The name was used between 1926 and 1993 to denote a number of powerful stations designed to achieve a nat ...
– the "all-German" service (1948–1952, 1953–1971 and 1990–1993).
* – the eastern service for West Berlin (1958/59–1971).
* – "Voice of the GDR", the
German language
German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...
international service, formed from Deutschlandsender and Berliner Welle (1971–1990).
Clandestine stations
* – "German Liberty Radio", aimed at West German listeners (1956–1971)
* – "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)
* – 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
In radio, longwave (also spelled long wave or long-wave and commonly abbreviated LW) is the part of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave (MW) broadcasting band. The term is historic, dati ...
. The Soviet foreign service was broadcast from East Germany on 1323 kHz
mediumwave
Medium wave (MW) is a part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM broadcasting, AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. Duri ...
. ''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
Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF; German for "German Television Broadcasting") was the state television broadcaster in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) from 1952 to 1991.
DFF produced free-to-air terrestrial television programmin ...
Television service
*
Eastern Bloc information dissemination
Eastern Bloc media and propaganda was controlled directly by each country's communist party, which controlled the state media, censorship and propaganda organs. State and party ownership of print, television and radio media served as an important ...
*
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 Berlinwebsite (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
Radio stations in Berlin
1991 disestablishments in Germany
Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra