Radio Rennes Bretagne (in Breton: ''Radio Roazon-Breiz'') was a

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of 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 land-based radio ...

based in

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

, and the first station to have regular

Breton language Breton (, ; or in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of t ...

programming. However, it was not powerful enough to broadcast to the Breton-speaking western parts of the peninsular. From November 1940 to June 1944 the station broadcast

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

programming by switching over to

Radio Paris Radio Paris was a French radio broadcasting company best known for its Axis propaganda broadcasts in Vichy France during World War II. Radio Paris evolved from the first private radio station in France, called Radiola, founded by pioneering Frenc ...

for one hour each week.La Radio en Langue bretonne. Roparz Hemon et Pierre-Jakez Hélias : deux rêves de la Bretagne, Ronan Calvez, Presses Universitaires de Rennes 2 (PUR), 2000, (thèse soutenue en décembre Established under German patronage during World War II, the station was placed under the care of professor

Leo Weisgerber Johann Leo Weisgerber (25 February 1899, Metz – 8 August 1985, Bonn) was a Lorraine-born German linguist who also specialized in Celtic linguistics. He developed the "organicist" or "relativist" theory that different languages produce different ...

, a linguist from

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

and

Sonderführer ''Sonderführer'' (; "special leader"; in full: , "special leader with military command power"), abbreviated Sdf or Sf, was a specialist role introduced in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany in 1937 for the mobilization plan of the German armed for ...

of the occupying

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

army. Acquired under the guise of the Breton cause, it became a vehicle for collaborationist ideas.

Roparz Hemon Louis-Paul Némo (18 November 1900 – 29 June 1978), better known by the pseudonym Roparz Hemon, was a Breton author and scholar of Breton expression. He was the author of numerous dictionaries, grammars, poems and short stories. He also fou ...

ran the station as Director of Programming. Hemon focused on cultural and intellectual themes, rather than explicitly political issues. Contributors were typically associated with the pre-war journal

Gwalarn Gwalarn ("Northwesterly") was a Breton language literary journal. By extension, the term refers to the style of literature that it encouraged. 166 issues (numbered from 0 to 165) appeared between 1925 and May 1944. The journal was founded by Ropa ...

, which had been set up to promote a literary high culture in Breton. Unlike Radio Paris, Radio Rennes Bretagne never broadcast outright

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 ...

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 ...

. However, racist ideas were subtly inserted into programmes which had high cultural content.

Staff

''Management team'': Leo Weisgerber (Director); Roparz Hemon (Programming Director);

Abeozen François Eliès, born Fañch Eliès Garzanti p. 1 and better known by the pseudonym Abeozen, (1896 Saint-Sauveur, Finistère – 1963 La Baule) was a Breton nationalist, novelist and dramatist who wrote in the Breton language. Abeozen was also ...

, Jean Trécan (Studio Management) ''

Presenter A presenter is a person or organization responsible for the running of a public event, or someone who conveys information on media via a broadcasting outlet. Presenter may refer to: People * News presenter, person who presents news during a new ...

s'' :

Florian Le Roy Florian Le Roy (8 May 1901 – 6 March 1959) was a 20th-century French journalist and writer. Le Roy was secretary-treasurer of the Académie de Bretagne and member of the in 1941. During the Second World War, he worked as presenter for Radio R ...

(French speaker), Abeozen (Breton speaker), André Guellec, Guillaume Berthou,

Youenn Drezen Youenn Drezen (14 September 1899 – 17 February 1972) is the Breton language name of Yves Le Drézen, a Breton nationalist writer and activist. He is also known as Corentin Cariou and Tin Gariou. Youth He was born in Pont-l'Abbé, Finistère ...

, Georges Lemée, Juliette Nizan, Job Jaffré, Yves Levot-Becot, Baillarge, Esnault.

References

External links

100 ans de radio: Radio Rennes Bretagne
{{coord missing, France Breton nationalism Mass media in Rennes Radio stations in France Radio stations established in 1940 Radio stations disestablished in 1944 Defunct radio stations Defunct mass media in France