Post-war The pre-war
Reichssender stations, under the control of
Joseph Goebbels'
Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda as
Großdeutscher Rundfunk, were either destroyed by the
Wehrmacht or closed by the
Allied occupation 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. 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 Star-Spangled Banner," "
God Save the King," and "
La Marseillaise" followed by greetings from
Joseph Stalin,
Winston Churchill, and
Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the next few days the station focused on playing
classical music by German and Russian composers such as
Ludwig van Beethoven and
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky alongside news. The station was controlled by the
Ulbricht Group politicians Hans Mahle, Matthaus Klein,
Wolfgang Leonhard, and
Markus Wolf. The station began to become more ideological in tone after the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany performed poorly in the
1946 Berlin state election. From December 1945 it was meant to cover the north-eastern part of the
Soviet occupation zone (territory of former Reichssender Berlin), while
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk 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 broadcast was launched by
Landessender Dresden in 1948, continued by Berlin in 1952 and by
Bezirkssender Cottbus in 1957. As a third channel the East German
Deutschlandsender 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 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 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 outlet) and
Sender Freies Berlin (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 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 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's transmitters") to encourage young people to remove or turn away
aerials pointing at
Ochsenkopf Transmitter in Bavaria, West Germany. In 1964 most
Bezirkssender shared frequencies with
Radio DDR 2, the districts adjacent to Berlin (
Potsdam and
Frankfurt/Oder) with
Berliner Rundfunk. Special regional broadcasts included
Ferienwelle during summer holiday season from
Rostock and
Messewelle twice a year during
trade fair from
Leipzig. 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. 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,
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". 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 until merging with
RIAS to constitute
DeutschlandRadio Berlin in 1994. ==Broadcast hours==