Pre-war In 1922, the
Deutsche Stunde, Gesellschaft für drahtlose Belehrung und Unterhaltung mbH (German Society for Wireless Instruction and Entertainment Limited) was formed to promote the new science of radio
broadcasting and
reception. This institution began broadcasting on 29 October 1923 from
Berlin. In 1933,
German broadcasting was brought under
Nazi state control and the station became
Reichssender Berlin, part of the national
Großdeutscher Rundfunk, controlled by
Joseph Goebbels. The station was closed by the
Allies at the end of the
Battle of Berlin that brought the
End of World War II in Europe.
Post-war of SFB, photographed in 1975. This test card was also used by
SDR and SWF in southwest Germany, and
Sjónvarpið in Iceland. In the post-war
four-power occupation of Germany, the British Control Commission appointed
Hugh Greene to restart German broadcasting in the
British Zone. The first station on-air was
Radio Hamburg. This was followed by the setting up of
Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) as the broadcasting corporation for the entire British Zone and for Berlin. Similarly, the
United States created
Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor (RIAS) for their zone in Berlin. In 1948, NWDR was transferred to German control (RIAS remained American-controlled). In 1950, NWDR began two second radio services in its area on
FM, NDR2 in the north and WDR2 in the west. In 1952, NWDR pioneered the launching of
625-line television broadcasting in (West) Germany.
East German uprising In June and July 1953, a strike by construction workers in the
German Democratic Republic (GDR) led to an
uprising of the people of the communist state which was violently put down by
Soviet forces and the
Volkspolizei. The government of the GDR accused RIAS of fanning the flames of the uprising and reporting inaccurately. This led to calls for West Berlin to have its own independent broadcaster as in the other
Länder. A law was passed to establish this new broadcaster, which came into force on 12 November 1953, separating West Berlin from NWDR. The new
Sender Freies Berlin began broadcasting two services, SFB1 and SFB2 on 1 June 1954, and joined the
ARD in September 1954. SFB began broadcasting the ARD's television service in 1958. SFB's radio and television signals as well as covering West Berlin were receivable in many parts of
East Germany; similarly, East German
radio and
television were receivable throughout West Berlin.
Third Programmes On 1 October 1962 SFB and
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) began broadcasting the high-culture and classical music
Drittes Programm (Third Programme), modeled on the
British BBC Third Programme. This was joined by a service for immigrant workers on 1 June 1973, and became a separate service known as SFB3 on 1 April 1979. On 4 January 1965, a third public television service was started, joining ARD (
Das Erste) and
ZDF. SFB and
Radio Bremen both relayed the service provided by NDR –
Nord 3 (later
N3). The best known programme on Nord 3 was
"KONTRASTE", a political magazine that concentrated on developments in the
Eastern bloc. N3's
teletext service,
Nordtext (later NDR-Text), carried information for West Berlin.
1989–2003 With the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989, and the subsequent
German reunification in 1990, Berlin was left with duplicate broadcasting outlets from the two administrations – SFB from the west and
Berliner Rundfunk (radio) and
Fernsehen der DDR (DDR, later DFF) (television) from the east. On 1 January 1992, SFB became the public broadcasting company for the whole of reunited Berlin. However, SFB had long had a significant audience in East Berlin for some time before reunification. The
radio station SFB1 became
Berlin 88,8 (later
88acht and now
radioBerlin 88,8). In October 1992, N3's frequency was replaced by SFB's full-fledged service for the capital,
B1 (Berlin Eins), later
SFB1. The GDR's national television service was closed and replaced by four ARD regions: an expanded NDR in the north; the continuing SFB in Berlin; and the new
Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) in the south and
Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB – East German Broadcasting – Brandenburg) in the east. On 22 February 1993, the SFB began a joint venture with the new ORB to create
Radio BZWEI, a news and information service for the east of the country aimed at 25 to 50-year-old listeners. On 1 March 1993, the two broadcasters launched
Fritz, a radio station for young people. On 18 September 1994, SFB launched
RADIOmultikulti (SFB4), a service for foreign nationals and immigrants to Germany. This was joined by
InfoRADIO, a SFB/ORB joint venture news station, on 28 August 1995. In 1995 the
Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg in coalition with the Sender Freies Berlin started their
Internet radio streaming service
Info-Radio on Demand. On 3 October 1997, SFB and ORB launched
RADIOkultur, a cultural station taking up much of the programming of SFB3, with an emphasis on classic, world, jazz and new music and politics.
Merger Having co-operated on many of services, SFB and ORB merged on 1 May 2003 to form
Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB). ==SFB stations==