XGRS was a

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

-based radio station broadcasting on both shortwave and

long wave In radio, longwave, long wave or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave broadcasting band. The term is historic, dating from the e ...

which was owned and operated by the German government in Japanese-occupied China 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 opposing ...

. Originally established as a German-language station designed to provide news and information to German residents of China, in 1940 it began broadcasting a multilingual program schedule with alternating broadcasts in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, and

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

. It operated from the Kaiser Wilhelm School. Beginning in 1940

Erwin Wickert Erwin Wickert (7 January 1915 – 26 March 2008) was a German diplomat who, during the 1970s, served as the ambassador to Romania and China. Early life and education Born in Bralitz and raised in Wittenberg, Wickert applied to join the '' Sturmab ...

was the effective manager of the station, occupying the formal post of radio attaché at the German consulate in Shanghai. Peter Waldbauer, an English-speaking Austrian, hosted the program ''A Briton's Point of View'', during which he feigned to be a Briton and would editorialize an anti-Allied perspective. Other on-air staff included Americans Robert Fockler and Herbert May, and Australian John Holland (the latter would, after the war, be sentenced to five years imprisonment as a result of his work for XGRS and, later, a Japanese broadcaster). A typical prime-time, weekday lineup for XGRS included ''Commentary by David Lester'' at 6:15 p.m., ''Light Music'' at 6:25 p.m., ''Asia's Views on the News'' at 6:30 p.m., ''La demi-heure francaise'' at 6:45 p.m., ''Commentary in English'' at 7:15 p.m., ''Shanghai Walla-Walla'' at 7:30 p.m., ''News in English'' at 7:45 p.m., ''American Program'' at 8:00 p.m., ''Commentary by Herbert May'' at 8:30 p.m., ''News in Russian'' at 8:45 p.m., ''Ukrainian Program'' at 9:00 p.m., ''Classical Concert'' at 9:15 p.m., and ''News in English'' at 10:30 p.m. International news was provided by the Trans-Ocean News Service. On 25 May 1945, following the

German surrender The German Instrument of Surrender (german: Bedingungslose Kapitulation der Wehrmacht, lit=Unconditional Capitulation of the "Wehrmacht"; russian: Акт о капитуляции Германии, Akt o kapitulyatsii Germanii, lit=Act of capit ...

, XGRS was seized by Japan who operated it using the call letters XGOO. Following the Japanese surrender it, in turn, passed to Chinese control and was operated as XORA. American and British counterparts of XGRS were XMHA (″The Call of the Orient″, Carroll Alcott), XMHC and XCDN/XGDN (″The Voice of Democracy″). Other foreign stations in Shanghai included XIRS (Italian), FFZ (French), XRVN (Russian), XQHA and XOJB (Japanese). Alltogehter there were about 40 radio stations in Shanghai in 1941.Shanghai Radio Dial 1941
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References

Propaganda radio broadcasts Radio stations in China Germany in World War II 20th century in Shanghai Nazi propaganda organizations {{PRChina-radio-station-stub

See also

References