Rundfunk der DDR
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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 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 ...
organized by the State Broadcasting Committee in the
German Democratic Republic 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 **G ...
(GDR) until German reunification in 1990.


History


Post-war

The pre-war '' Reichssender'' stations, under the control of Joseph Goebbels'
Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und 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 ...
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 ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
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 (russian: Советская военная администрация в Германии, СВАГ; ''Sovyetskaya Voyennaya Administratsiya v Germanii'', SVAG; german: Sowjetische Militäradministrat ...
(SMAG) began a radio broadcasting service to the people of Berlin called ''
Berliner Rundfunk The Berliner Rundfunk (BERU) was a radio station set in East Germany. It had a political focus and discussed events in East Berlin. Today it is a commercial radio station broadcast with the name "Berliner Rundfunk 91.4". History The Berliner ...
'', operating from what would become the British sector of
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 ...
. 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 Soviet Union" 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 lyrics were written b ...
," "
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 on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...
," "
God Save the Queen "God Save the King" is the national and/or royal anthem of the United Kingdom, most of the Commonwealth realms, their territories, and the British Crown Dependencies. The author of the tune is unknown and it may originate in plainchant, bu ...
," and "
La Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du R ...
" followed by greetings from
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
,
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
, and
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
. In the next few days the station focused on playing classical music 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. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
and
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most pop ...
alongside news. The station was controlled by the
Ulbricht Group The Ulbricht Group was a group of exiled members of the Communist Party of Germany (''Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands'', or KPD), led by Walter Ulbricht, who flew from the Soviet Union back to Germany on April 30, 1945. Composed of functionarie ...
politicians Hans Mahle, Matthaus Klein,
Wolfgang Leonhard Wolfgang Leonhard (16 April 1921 – 17 August 2014) was a German political author and historian of the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic and Communism. A German Communist whose family had fled Hitler's Germany and who was educated i ...
, and Markus Wolf. The station began to become more ideological in tone after the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...
performed poorly in the
1946 Berlin state election The election to the Greater Berlin City Council on October 20, 1946 was the only overall Berlin election in the period between the end of the Second World War and the reunification of Germany. The clear winner of the election was the SPD under Otto ...
. From December 1945 it was meant to cover the north-eastern part of the
Soviet occupation zone The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...
(territory of former Reichssender Berlin), while ''
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR; ''Central German Broadcasting'') 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, with regional studi ...
'' 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 of the Soviet occupation zone. A
Sorbian language The Sorbian languages ( hsb, serbska rěč, dsb, serbska rěc) are the Upper Sorbian language and Lower Sorbian language, two closely related and partially mutually intelligible languages spoken by the Sorbs, a West Slavic ethno-cultural mino ...
broadcast was launched by ''Landessender'' Dresden in 1948, continued by Berlin in 1952 and by ''Bezirkssender''
Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exte ...
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 all-Ger ...
'' 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 Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
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. In 1955 an external service was launched, becoming ''
Radio Berlin International Radio Berlin International was the international broadcasting arm for the German Democratic Republic's (GDR) Rundfunk der DDR (Radio of the GDR) broadcasting service. Radio Berlin International (RBI) was one of the major international broadcast ...
'' 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), which operated from 1953 to 1999, was a United States agency devoted to " public diplomacy". In 1999, prior to the reorganization of intelligence agencies by President George W. Bush, President Bil ...
outlet) and
Sender Freies Berlin Sender Freies Berlin (; abbreviated SFB ; ) was the ARD public radio and television service for West Berlin from 1 June 1954 until 1990 and for Berlin as a whole from German reunification until 30 April 2003. On 1 May 2003 it merged with Ostdeu ...
(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 broadcasts from international broadcasters such as the
BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
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 The Geneva Frequency Plan of 1975 (Aka "The Final Acts of the Regional Administrative LF/MF Broadcasting Conference (Regions 1 and 3) Geneva, 1975" or simply "GE75") is the internationally agreed frequency plan which was drawn up to implement th ...
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, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
's transmitters") to encourage young people to remove or turn away aerials pointing at
Ochsenkopf Transmitter The Ochsenkopf Transmitter (german: Sender Ochsenkopf) is a radio and TV tower of reinforced concrete, which was built in 1958 on the summit of the Ochsenkopf mountain, the second-highest mountain in the Fichtelgebirge mountain chain in Northe ...
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, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...
and
Frankfurt/Oder Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
) with ''Berliner Rundfunk''. Special regional broadcasts included ''Ferienwelle'' during summer holiday season from
Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...
and ''Messewelle'' twice a year during
trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and ...
from
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
. 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 Sputnik or MDR Sputnik is a youth-oriented Germany, German radio station, and is part of Leipzig-based public broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, MDR, based in Halle (Saale), Halle. The station, which primarily broadcasts Pop music, pop and Roc ...
''. 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 (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...
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 Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...
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 Radio DDR 2 ( en, Radio GDR 2) was a radio channel in East Germany run by Rundfunk der DDR, created in October 1958. It was a regional service in the morning and at 01:00 local time, broadcast centralized classical music and radio plays produced ...
– culture and education (1958-1990), with regional programmes in the morning (Bezirkssender). *
Berliner Rundfunk The Berliner Rundfunk (BERU) was a radio station set in East Germany. It had a political focus and discussed events in East Berlin. Today it is a commercial radio station broadcast with the name "Berliner Rundfunk 91.4". History The Berliner ...
– station focusing on East Berlin (1945-1952, 1955–1991). *
DT64 Sputnik or MDR Sputnik is a youth-oriented Germany, German radio station, and is part of Leipzig-based public broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, MDR, based in Halle (Saale), Halle. The station, which primarily broadcasts Pop music, pop and Roc ...
– the station for young people (1981-1993). *
Sorbian language The Sorbian languages ( hsb, serbska rěč, dsb, serbska rěc) are the Upper Sorbian language and Lower Sorbian language, two closely related and partially mutually intelligible languages spoken by the Sorbs, a West Slavic ethno-cultural mino ...
programme (1948-1991). * Ferienwelle – 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 originati ...
coast from May to September (1967-1993). * Messewelle – a West-oriented station broadcast during the week-long Leipzig Trade Fair in March and September (1971-1991?).


International

*
Radio Berlin International Radio Berlin International was the international broadcasting arm for the German Democratic Republic's (GDR) Rundfunk der DDR (Radio of the GDR) broadcasting service. Radio Berlin International (RBI) was one of the major international broadcast ...
– 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 all-Ger ...
– the "all-German" service (1948-1952, 1953-1971 and 1990–1993). *
Berliner Welle Berliner is most often used to designate a citizen of Berlin, Germany Berliner may also refer to: People * Berliner (surname) Places * Berliner Lake, a lake in Minnesota, United States * Berliner Philharmonie, concert hall in Berlin, Germany ...
– the eastern service for West Berlin (1958/59-1971). * Stimme der DDR – "Voice of the GDR", the
German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...
international service, formed from Deutschlandsender and Berliner Welle (1971-1990).


Clandestine stations

* Deutscher Freiheitssender 904 – "German Liberty Radio", aimed at West German listeners (1956-1971). * Deutscher Soldatensender 935 – "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) *
Radio Vltava Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
– aimed for listeners in Czechoslovakia (1968-1969).


Soviet broadcasts

The Soviet Union maintained a service for its troops on GDR soil, "
Radio Wolga Radio Volga (russian: Радио Волга) was a radio station for the Soviet armed forces stationed in the former East Germany and Czechoslovakia, broadcasting mainly in Russian. Broadcasting station Based in Potsdam, Radio Volga broadcast from ...
", which broadcast on 261 kHz
longwave 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 ...
. The Soviet foreign service was broadcast from East Germany on 1323 kHz
mediumwave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the dayti ...
. ''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 The German Broadcasting Archive (''Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv''; DRA) is a non-profit foundation supported by the ARD. It was founded in 1952 as "German sound archive". The DRA covers essential aspects of the development of German broadcasting. Today ...
*
Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor RIAS (german: Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor; en, ''Radio in the American Sector'') was a radio and television station in the American Sector of Berlin during the Cold War. It was founded by the US occupational authorities after World War ...
(RIAS) *
Radio Wolga Radio Volga (russian: Радио Волга) was a radio station for the Soviet armed forces stationed in the former East Germany and Czechoslovakia, broadcasting mainly in Russian. Broadcasting station Based in Potsdam, Radio Volga broadcast from ...
*
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 Berlin
website (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 Mass media in Berlin 1991 disestablishments in Germany