Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR; ''Northwest German Broadcasting'') was the organization responsible for
public broadcasting
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
in the German
Länder
Länder (singular Land) or Bundesländer (singular Bundesland) is the name for (federal) states in two German-speaking countries. It may more specifically refer to:
* States of Austria, the nine federal subdivisions of Austria
* States of Germany ...
of
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
,
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...
,
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...
and
North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...
from 22 September 1945 to 31 December 1955. Until 1954, it was also responsible for broadcasting in
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
. NWDR was a founder member of the consortium of public-law broadcasting institutions of the Federal Republic of Germany, the
ARD.
On 1 January 1956, NWDR was succeeded by
Norddeutscher Rundfunk
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR; ''Northern German Broadcasting'') is a public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster, based in Hamburg. In addition to the city-state of Hamburg, NDR broadcasts for the German states of Lower Saxony, M ...
(NDR) and
Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (''West German Broadcasting Cologne''; WDR, ) 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 conso ...
(WDR).
History
Pre-war
Broadcasting in what was to become NWDR's post-war transmission area was initiated in the early 1920s:
* On 2 May 1924, Nordische Rundfunk AG (NORAG) began broadcasting from Hamburg; the company was renamed Norddeutsche Rundfunk GmbH in November 1932.
* On 10 October 1924, Westdeutsche Funkstunde AG (WEFAG) began broadcasting from Münster; the company was renamed Westdeutsche Rundfunk AG (WERAG) in 1926 and moved its base of operations to Cologne.
* Both of these stations contributed programming to the national
Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft
The Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG; ''Reich Broadcasting Corporation'') was a national network of German regional public radio and television broadcasting companies active from 1925 until 1945. RRG's broadcasts were receivable in all parts o ...
(RRG), founded on 15 May 1925, in which the
Deutsche Reichspost (post office) became the principal shareholder in 1926.
* In 1933 the RRG was fully nationalized by the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
government and from 1 April 1934 the two stations broadcast as, respectively, the Reichssender Hamburg and the Reichssender Köln.
Reichssender Hamburg
From 1934 the north German station operated, under the name of Reichssender Hamburg, as an integral part of the national broadcasting organization RRG – now controlled by
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
's
Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
The Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (; RMVP), also known simply as the Ministry of Propaganda (), controlled the content of the press, literature, visual arts, film, theater, music and radio in Nazi Germany.
The ministry ...
and known from 1 January 1939 as Großdeutscher Rundfunk.
Externally, the Reichssender Hamburg transmitted
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
material to listeners overseas – in particular to those living in the British Isles – and, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, broadcast regular programming aimed at sapping the morale of the civilian population of the United Kingdom. Its most famous wartime broadcaster in English was
William Joyce
William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an American-born fascist and Nazi propaganda broadcaster during the Second World War. After moving from New York to Ireland and subsequently to England, J ...
(popularly known, from his accent and speaking-manner, as "
Lord Haw-Haw
Lord Haw-Haw was a nickname applied to William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to the UK from Germany during the Second World War. The broadcasts opened with "Germany calling, Germany calling", spoken in an affected upper-class English acc ...
").
The Reichssender Hamburg was the last
short-wave
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...
station to remain on the air in wartime Germany. Its substation in
Flensburg
Flensburg (; Danish, Low Saxon: ''Flensborg''; North Frisian: ''Flansborj''; South Jutlandic: ''Flensborre'') is an independent town (''kreisfreie Stadt'') in the north of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg is the centre of the ...
, known as the Reichssender Flensburg, broadcast the last announcements from the headquarters of the German army,
OKW, over local
cable radio
Cable radio or cable FM is a concept similar to that of cable television, bringing radio broadcasting into homes and businesses via coaxial cable. It is generally used for the same reason as cable TV was in its early days when it was "community ...
and announced the
death of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler, chancellor and dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, died by suicide via gunshot on 30 April 1945 in the in Berlin after it became clear that Germany would lose the Battle of Berlin, which led to the end of World War II in Eur ...
to the German people on 1 May 1945.
Post-war
All radio broadcasting ceased at the end of World War II and implementation of the
Allied occupation of Germany
Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...
.
In the
British Zone of occupation, the military authorities quickly established a station known as "Radio Hamburg" to provide information to the population of the area. On 4 May 1945, transmission started with the announcement: "This is Radio Hamburg, a station of the Allied Military Government". The British Control Commission appointed
Hugh Carleton Greene
Sir Hugh Carleton Greene (15 November 1910 – 19 February 1987) was a British television executive and journalist. He was director-general of the BBC from 1960 to 1969.
After working for newspapers in the 1930s, Greene spent most of his later ...
, on secondment from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, to manage the creation of public service broadcasting in their Zone. On 22 September 1945, Radio Hamburg became Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR), the single broadcasting organisation of the British Zone. The army unit allocated to run the station was part of REME
In February 1955, the Länder of the NWDR's area decided to look again at the regulation of broadcasting. North Rhine-Westphalia decided to establish its own broadcaster, whilst Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein continued with the existing system. To this end, the NWDR was split into two broadcasters -
(NDR) in the north and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) in North Rhine-Westphalia.
NDR continued to operate out of Hamburg, whilst the WDR was established in
. The split was effective from 1 January 1956, although the station NWDR1 remained a joint operation with regional opt-outs.
The NWDR television service also remained a joint operation, from 1 April 1956 under the name '' Nord- und Westdeutscher Rundfunkverband'' (North and West German Broadcasting Federation - NWRV). The NDR and the WDR launched separate television services for their area in 1961.
In 1955, the NWDR had three radio stations:
* NWDR1 - a station for the whole NWDR area, broadcast over FM and
.
* NWDR2 (or NWDR North) - a regional station on FM for north Germany, broadcast from Hamburg.
* NWDR3 (or NWDR West) - a regional program on FM for North Rhine-Westphalia, broadcast from Cologne.
NWDR was also the most active participant in ARD
* Hans-Ulrich Wagner, Return in Uniform. Walter Albert Eberstadt and the Beginning of Radio Hamburg, in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History, August 7, 2017.
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