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Rundfunk der DDR

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Broadcasting in East Germany was owned by the state, and was under its tight control and censorship.

Broadcasting's governing body in East Germany was the Staatliches Komitee für Rundfunk (the National Committee for Broadcasting), a government department directly controlled by the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and modelled after the Soviet Union's broadcasting system.

The committee controlled two overall organisations - Rundfunk der DDR (radio) and Deutscher Fernsehfunk (later Fernsehen der DDR) (television).

Radio

Funkhaus Nalepastraße in East Berlin.

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.

History

Post-war

The pre-war Deutschlandsender 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 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, 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.

The Berlin Wall

The increase in hours of output from Rundfunk der DDR between 1965-1989
Penetration of West German TV reception (grey) in East Germany for channel ARD. Areas with no reception (black) were jokingly referred to as "Valley of the Clueless" (Tal der Ahnungslosen), while ARD was said to stand for "Außer (except) Rügen und Dresden"

After the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, the GDR began an aggressive programme to attempt to prevent its citizens from listening to broadcasts from RIAS and the western ARD. The Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German Youth), the official young persons' 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 RIAS 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 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 in the east and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk in the south) were created, and two existing West German public broadcasters (Norddeutscher Rundfunk expanded their coverage areas 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.

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

Soviet radio broadcasts

The Soviet Union maintained a service for its troops on GDR soil, "Radio Volga", which broadcast on 261 kHz longwave. The Soviet foreign service was broadcast from East Germany on 1323 kHz mediumwave. Radio Volga 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 stations

Domestic

  • Radio DDR 1 - information and discussion, with local news opt-outs.
  • Radio DDR 2 - culture and education, with regional programmes in the morning.
  • Berliner Rundfunk - the local station for Berlin, focusing on East Berlin.
  • DT64 - the station for young people.
  • Ferienwelle - a holiday radio service broadcast on the Baltic coast from May to September.
  • Messewelle - a West-oriented station broadcast during the week-long Leipzig trade fair in March and September.

International

Propaganda

Television

Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF), (from 1972-1990 known as Fernsehen der DDR or DDR-FS), was the state television broadcaster in East Germany.

History

Foundation

Radio was the dominant medium in the former Eastern bloc, with television being considered low on the priority list when compiling Five-Year Plans during the industrialisation of the 1950s. In Germany, the situation was different as East and West Germany were in competition over available frequencies for broadcasts and for viewers across the Iron Curtain. The West German Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) had made early plans to begin television broadcasts in its area, which originally included West Berlin. The first western test broadcasts were made in 1950.

The GDR authorities therefore also made an early start with television and began construction of a television centre in Adlershof on 11 June 1950. The GDR television service began experimental test broadcasts on 20 December 1951. The NWDR announced plans to begin a regular television service from Hamburg starting with Christmas 1952. This spurred the East German authorities into further action.

A relay transmitter in the centre of East Berlin was built in February 1952 and connected to Aldershof on 3 June. On 16 November, the first television sets were made available to the public at 3500 East German marks each.

Opening

Regular public programming, although still described as testing, began on 21 December 1952 - Joseph Stalin's birthday - with two hours a day of programmes. Continuity announcer Margit Schaumäker welcomed viewers at 20:00 and introduced the station's logo - the Brandenburg Gate. Speeches by senior figures in the television organisation followed, then the first edition of the East German national news programme, Aktuelle Kamera, presented by Herbert Köfer.

Party policy in East Germany was to censor the "mass media". As television had a limited audience, it was not classed as a mass medium and therefore Aktuelle Kamera was, at first, uncensored and even critical. This situation changed after the television service reported accurately on the uprising in East Germany on 17 June 1953. The director was removed and news was then sourced from official outlets.

Growth

Once television was established, the transmitter network grew quickly.

Technology and TV studios also extended quickly. In the summer of 1953, Studio I was opened at Adlershof. In 1955 the first mobile transmission unit and a third broadcasting studio were added to the system.

Full service

Hours of television output in East Germany per year.

On 2 January 1956 the "official test program" of the television centre in Berlin ended, and on 3 January the national Deutsche Fernsehfunk (German Television Broadcasting - DFF) began transmitting.

The new television service was deliberately not called "GDR Television", as the intention was to provide an all-German service. However, the geography of Germany prevented this - despite placing high-power transmitters in border areas, the GDR could not penetrate the whole of West Germany; while West German broadcasts easily reached most of East Germany except for the extreme south-east (most notably Dresden, the area being in a deep valley, leading to its old East German nickname of Tal der Ahnungslosen, or Valley of the Clueless) and the extreme north-east (around Rügen, Greifswald, Neubrandenburg and beyond)

By the end of 1958, there were over 300,000 television sets in the GDR.

Morning programmes

From 7 October 1958, DFF introduced morning programmes - repeats of the previous night's programming for shift workers, broadcast under the title Wir wiederholen für Spätarbeiter (roughly translated as "We repeat for late workers").

"The Sandman"

The next day, 8 October 1958, DFF imported "Sandmännchen" (the little Sandman) from radio. Both East and West television ran versions of this idea - an animated film, telling a story and then bidding the children watching good night in order to send then to bed before the programmes for adults began after 7pm. With several generations of children growing up with the Sandman, it has remained a popular childhood memory.

The West version was discontinued by the ARD upon reunification; however, stations in the former GDR continued to play clips from the East's Sandman every night. The character plays an important background role in the popular 2003 tragicomedy film Good Bye Lenin!, symbolising the feelings of loss of the main character played by Daniel Brühl.

Primetime Scheduling and Propaganda

News and Political programming on DFF was usually scheduled not to clash with similar programming on Western channels (as most viewers would probably have preferred the western programmes) For example Aktuelle Kamera was scheduled at 7:30PM While ZDF's Heute was at 7PM and the ARD's Tagesschau at 8PM but popular entertainment programming was scheduled to clash with Western news or current affairs programmes in the hope of discouraging viewers from watching the Western programmes. Other popular items (such as films) were scheduled before or after propaganda programmes like Der schwarze Kanal in the hope that viewers tuning in early to catch the film would see the programme.

Colour and DFF2

Colour television was introduced on 3 October 1969 on the new channel DFF2, which commenced broadcasting the same day, ready for the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the founding of the GDR on 7 October. DFF chose the French SÉCAM colour standard, common in the Eastern Bloc, while West Germany had settled on the PAL standard. Mutual reception in black&white remained possible as the basic television standard was the same and remained that way. However, colour sets were not widely available in the East and when they could be obtained, many people altered television sets to be dual standard and allow reception in colour of West German programming. Later East German manufacturers made dual standard sets.

The introduction of DFF2 marked an increase in the hours of broadcasting overall.

Year 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1988 1989
Hours broadcast per year 786 3007 3774 6028 6851 7704 8265 9194 8900
Hours broadcast per week 15 58 73 116 132 148 159 177 171

Renaming

On 11 February 1972, the DFF was renamed, dropping the pretence of being an all-German service and becoming Fernsehen der DDR - GDR Television or DDR-FS. The previous name survived in episodes of The Sandman, which were repeated often.

Olympic Games

The hosting of the 1980 Summer Olympics by Moscow was a source of pride for the Eastern Bloc. However, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 had caused outrage in the west, leading to a boycott of the games by 64 western-aligned nations.

DDR-FS therefore wished to present colour pictures of the games to West Germany, which was part of the boycott, and a programme of experimental transmissions in PAL was instituted (while dual standard sets were the norm in the East in order to watch Western programmes, the Western population had little inclination to buy dual standard sets to watch Eastern programmes). However, little came of these experiments. By 1985 there were 6,078,500 licensed televisions, or 36.5 for every 100 persons.

Collapse of the GDR

The logo of Deutscher Fernsehfunk in 1990.

In 1989, the GDR made an attempt to bring its young people closer to the state and distract them from the media of the West. A new young-person's programme, Elf 99 (1199 being the postal code of the Adlershof studios) was created as part of this plan.

However, the plan was not successful as the GDR itself began to dissolve under economic and popular political pressure brought about by the reforms in Moscow under Mikhail Gorbachev.

At first, DDR-FS stuck to the party line and barely reported the mass protests in the country. However, after Erich Honecker was removed from office on 18 October 1989 and the rule of the SED began to breakdown, DDR-FS reformed their programmes to remove propaganda and to report news freely. The main propaganda programme, Der schwarze Kanal (The Black Channel) - a retelling of the West German news programmes with an "explanatory" commentary informing viewers of the "real" stories and meanings behind the pictures and generally criticising Western media (Particularly ARD and ZDF) - stopped on 30 October 1989.

By the time the borders opened on 9 November, the main news programme on DDR2 was being produced without censorship or interference, and so it covered the events in full. In recognition of its reliable coverage, the programme was rebroadcast on the West German 3sat channel. DDR-FS joined the 3sat consortium in February 1990. DDR-FS became almost completely separate from the state apparatus, starting a number of new programme strands, including a free and open debate programme on Thursdays, complete with critical phone-in contributions from viewers. At first this had to be handled very carefully, as the Stasi - the state secret police - were still operating and had an office in the studios.

In February 1990, the Volkskammer passed a media resolution defining DDR-FS as a politically independent public broadcasting system. A law passed by the Volkskammer in September 1990 made this a legal requirement. On 4 March 1990, emphasising the change and reflecting the forthcoming reunification, DDR1 and DDR2 were renamed back to DFF1 and DFF2.

With reunification approaching, the former Länder (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia) that had been abolished in 1952 were resurrected and regional broadcasting was slowly reintroduced.

Reunification

Upon reunification on 3 October 1990, the DFF ceased to be the state broadcaster of the former GDR. Because the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany reserves broadcasting as a matter for the German states (Länder), the Federal Government was not permitted to continue to run a broadcasting service. Article 36 of the Unification Treaty (Einigungsvertrag) between the two German states (signed on 31 August 1990) required that DFF was to be dissolved by 31 December 1991 and that the former West German television broadcasting system be extended to replace it.

On 15 December 1990, the ARD's Das Erste channel took over the frequencies of DFF1. Das Erste had regional opt-outs during the first part of the evening, but the former GDR did not have ARD broadcasters to fill these spaces. Therefore, until 31 December 1991, DFF1 continued to provide programmes in these slots:

  • Landesschau for Brandenburg (originally LSB aktuell)
  • Nordmagazin for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
  • Tagesbilder for Saxony-Anhalt
  • Bei uns in Sachsen for Saxony
  • Thüringen Journal for Thuringia

The new ARD broadcasters

The dissolution of DFF and its replacement by Länder-based ARD broadcasters remained controversial throughout the process.

Employees of the DFF were worried about job prospects in the new broadcasters and also had a loyalty to the DFF. Viewers, accustomed to the DFF's programming, were concerned at the loss of favourite shows and the choice most viewers had between West and East channels. The new Länder considered keeping a form of DFF running as the equivalent to the ARD members' "third programme" in other regions. However, political opinion was against centralisation and in favour of the new devolved system brought in from the west.

Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia agreed to pool their broadcasts into Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), an ARD member broadcaster based in Leipzig. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg and Berlin considered pooling their broadcasts into Nordostdeutschen Rundfunkanstalt - Northeast German Broadcasting (NORA). Another alternative was for Brandenburg and Berlin to consolidate and for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to have its own broadcaster.

No agreement could be reached between the three Länder; Mecklenburg therefore joined the existing Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), while the existing Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) expanded to the whole of the city and a new broadcaster, Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB) was launched for Brandenburg. The new organisations began transmissions on 1 January 1992. On 1 May 2003, SFB and ORB merged to form Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB).

Directors of DFF/DDR-FS

  • 1950 – 1952 Hans Mahle (Director-general)
  • 1952 – 1953 Hermann Zilles (Director)
  • 1954 – 1989 Heinz Adameck (Director)
  • 1989 – 1990 Hans Bentzien (Director-general)
  • 1990 – 1991 Michael Albrecht (Director)

Television Programmes

The Monday evening feature film (usually an entertainment movie from the 1930s/40's) was one of the more popular items on DFF.

Programmes for Schools

DFF/DDR-FS produced a number of educational programmes for use in schools, including programmes on chemistry, history, local history and geography, literature, physics, civics and Russian.

Also produced was "ESP" Einführung in die sozialistische Produktion - "An introduction to Socialist production" and an English-learners course, English for You.

Many of these programmes are archived and are available from the DRA in Babelsberg.

A more detailed list of East German Television programmes can be found on the German language Wikipedia article "Deutscher Fernsehfunk"

Technical information

Broadcast system

When television broadcasting started, the GDR chose to use the Western European B/G transmission system rather than the Eastern European D/K system, in order to keep transmissions compatible with West Germany. Although the D/K system was used for early test transmissions.

Colour

However, when colour television was introduced, the SÉCAM system was chosen rather than the West German PAL. The incompatibilities between the two colour systems are small, allowing for pictures to be watched in monochrome on non-compatible sets. (In any case most sets in the GDR were monochrome anyway) Many East Germans had PAL modules fitted to allow colour reception of West German programmes; the official sale of dual standard sets in East Germany started in December 1977. The same applied in West Germany. There were experimental PAL broadcasts most notably during the 1980 Moscow Olympics (Which got little coverage on West German television due to the boycott).

With reunification, it was decided to switch to the PAL colour system. The system was changed between the end of DFF programmes on 14 December 1990 and the opening of ARD programmes on 15 December. The transmission authorities made the (correct) assumption that most East Germans had either dual standard or monochrome sets; those who did not could purchase decoders.

Technical innovations

DDR-FS was the first television broadcaster in Germany to introduce the Betacam magnetic recording system. Betacam was later adopted by all German broadcasters and is still in use by ARD and ZDF.

In 1983 DDR-FS also pioneered the use of Steadicam equipment for live reporting.

Finance

Broadcasting in the GDR was financed by a compulsory licence fee. An annual fee of 10.50 Ostmarks was charged for a joint television and radio licence. A separate radio or car radio licence cost between 0.50 and 2 Ostmarks. (At one time, there was a slightly lower rate for viewers not equipped with the UHF aerials necessary to receive the second channel, however, this arrangement was seen as impractical and abandoned)

In addition, broadcasting was heavily subsidised by the state. For example, in 1982, the GDR realized revenues of 115.4 million Ostmarks through licence fees, while the amount budgeted in 1983 for the television service alone was 222 million Ostmarks.

Advertising

Advertising - in the form of "commercial" magazine programmes - had appeared on GDR television from 1959. However, in a command economy, there was little or no competition between brands, so advertising was limited to a form of reminding viewers what products were available. By 1975, the advertising magazines gave up the pretence of being western-style commercial programmes and converted to being "shoppers guides", listing availability and prices of surplus goods.

With the end of the Communist system, spot advertising was introduced to DFF in order to better cover the system's cost. The French advertising agency Information et Publicité was engaged to produce and sell commercials and airtime on the DFF networks.

Archives

The archives of the GDR radio and television stations are administered by German Broadcasting Archive (Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv - DRA) at Babelsberg in Potsdam.

References

This article is heavily based on two equivalent articles on the German-language Wikipedia - de:Deutscher Fernsehfunk and de:Rundfunk der DDR.

The following are the sources for that article and are, therefore, in German.

Radio

  • Klaus Arnold u. Christoph Classen (Hrsg.): Zwischen Pop und Propaganda. Radio in der DDR. Berlin: Ch. Links, 2004. ISBN 3-86153-343-X
  • Sibylle Bolik: Das Hörspiel in der DDR. Frankfurt [u.a.]: Lang, 1994. ISBN 3-631-46955-1
  • Patrick Conley: Features und Reportagen im Rundfunk der DDR. Tonträgerverzeichnis 1964-1991. 2. Aufl. Berlin: Askylt, 1999. ISBN 3-9807372-0-9
  • Wolfgang Mühl-Benninghaus: "Rundfunk in der SBZ/DDR." In: Rundfunkpolitik in Deutschland, Bd. 2. München: dtv, 1999. S. 795-873. ISBN 3-423-30714-5
  • Ingrid Pietrzynski (Bearb.): Das Schriftgut des DDR-Hörfunks. Eine Bestandsübersicht. Potsdam-Babelsberg: DRA, 2002. ISBN 3-926072-99-7
  • Ingrid Scheffler (Hg.): Literatur im DDR-Hörfunk. Günter Kunert - Bitterfelder Weg - Radio-Feature. Konstanz: UVK, 2005. ISBN 3-89669-478-2

Television

  • Thomas Beutelschmidt: "Alles zum Wohle des Volkes?!?" Die DDR als Bildschirm-Wirklichkeit vor und nach 1989, 1999 (PDF file)
  • Lars Brücher: Das Westfernsehen und der revolutionäre Umbruch in der DDR im Herbst 1989, Magisterarbeit, 2000 ([1])
  • Peter Hoff: Kalter Krieg auf deutschen Bildschirmen - Der Ätherkrieg und die Pläne zum Aufbau eines zweiten Fernsehprogramms der DDR , In: Kulturation, Ausgabe 2, 2003. ISSN 1610-8329 ([2])
  • Hans Müncheberg: Ein Bayer bläst die Lichtlein aus – Ost-Fernsehen im Wendefieber und Einheitssog, In: Freitag 46/2004, Berlin, 2004 ISSN 0945-2095 ([3])
  • Hans Müncheberg: Blaues Wunder aus Adlershof. Der Deutsche Fernsehfunk – Erlebtes und Gesammeltes. Berlin: Das Neue Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 2000. ISBN 3-360-00924-X
  • Christina Oberst-Hundt: Vom Aufbruch zur Abwicklung - Der 3. Oktober 1990 war für den Rundfunk der DDR die Beendigung eines Anfang, In: M - Menschen Machen Medien, 2000 ISSN 0946-1132 ([4])
  • Markus Rotenburg: Was blieb vom Deutschen Fernsehfunk? Fernsehen und Hörfunk der DDR 15 Jahre nach dem Mauerfall. Brilon, Sauerland Welle, gesendet am 9. und 16. November 2004. [5]
  • Sabine Salhoff (Bearb.): Das Schriftgut des DDR-Fernsehens. Eine Bestandsübersicht. Potsdam-Babelsberg: DRA, 2001. ISBN 3-926072-98-9
  • Erich Selbmann: DFF Adlershof. Wege übers Fernsehland. Berlin: Edition Ost, 1998. ISBN 3-932180-52-6 (Selbmann was from 1966 to 1978 the producer of Aktuelle Kamera.) – [6]

Additional sources

These sources are in English and were used to clarify or extend the translation.

See also

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