Listening behind the curtain: BBC broadcasting to East Germany and its Cold War echo

Abstract

This is the first study of the BBC's East German Programme, a radio broadcast to the GDR. It traces the origins of the section from the Second World War, before analysing some of the output, above all the satirical Two Comrades programme which poked fun at apparatchiks, and the ‘Letters without Signature’ feedback programme from East German listeners. The piece therefore tries to close the transmitter–receiver loop, as well as suggesting ways in which audiences influenced broadcasters as well as vice-versa in the generation of public opinion in an (almost) closed system.

Notes

Patrick Major is Professor of Modern History at the University of Reading and is currently writing a history of Cold War Berlin, as well as researching into Hollywood's images of the Germans from World War to Cold War. [email protected]

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 2 Walter Hixson, Parting the Curtain: Propaganda, Culture and the Cold War (Houndmills: Palgrave-Macmillan, 1997), 29–55.

 3 Michael Nelson, War of the Black Heavens: The Battles of Western Broadcasting in the Cold War (London and Washington, DC: Brassey's, 1997); George R. Urban, Radio Free Europe and the Pursuit of Democracy: My War within the Cold War (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1998); Arch Puddington, Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (Lexington, KY: Kentucky UP, 2000); Richard H. Cummings, Radio Free Europe's “Crusade for Freedom”: Rallying Americans behind Cold War Broadcasting, 1950–1960 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010).

 4 A. Ross Johnson, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty: The CIA Years and Beyond (Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2010).

 5 Wolfgang Bauernfeind, Tonspuren: Das Haus des Rundfunks in Berlin (Links: Berlin, 2010).

 6 Petra Galle, RIAS Berlin und Berliner Rundfunk 1945–1949: Die Entwicklung ihrer Profile im Programm, Personal und Organisation vor dem Hintergrund des Kalten Krieges (Münster, 2003).

 7 Schanett Riller, Funken für die Freiheit: Die U.S.-amerikanische Informationspolitik gegenüber der DDR von 1953 bis 1963 (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2004).

 8 Herbert Kundler, RIAS Berlin: Eine Radio-Station in einer geteilten Stadt (Berlin, 1994), p. 109.

 9 Information Research Department/United States Information Agency, ‘The Impact of Western Broadcasts in the Soviet Bloc’, Mar. 1959, pp. 6 and 30, TNA, FO 1110/1240.

10 Bernhard Wittek, Der britische Ätherkrieg gegen das Dritte Reich. Die deutschsprachigen Kriegssendungen der British Broadcasting Corporation (Münster: Fahle, 1962).

11 J.F. Slattery, ‘“Oskar Zuversichtlich”: A German's response to British radio propaganda during World War II’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 12 (1992), 69–85: 76.

12 Uwe Naumann, Zwischen Tränen und Gelächter: Satirische Faschismuskritik 1933 bis 1945 (Cologne: Pahl-Rugenstein, 1983); Robert Lucas, Teure Amalia, vielgeliebtes Weib!: Briefe des Gefreiten Adolf Hirnschal (Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer, 1984); Bruno Adler, Frau Wernicke: Kommentare einer “Volksjenossin” (Mannheim: persona-verlag, 1990).

13 Gary D. Rawnsley, Radio Diplomacy and Propaganda: The BBC and VOA in International Politics, 1956–64 (Houndmills, 1996); Alban Webb, ‘Constitutional Niceties: Three Crucial Dates in Cold War Relations between the BBC External Services and the Foreign Office’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 28 (2008), pp. 557–67.

14 In the 1950s it was referred to as the External Service, but I use the more familiar, later term.

15 Nicholas J. Schlosser, ‘Creating an “Atmosphere of Objectivity”: Radio in the American Sector, Objectivity and the United States’ Propaganda Campaign against the German Democratic Republic, 1945–61’, German History, 29 (2011), pp. 610–27.

16 BBC German Listener Research, n.d. [1948], BBC Written Archive Caversham (BBC-WAC), E3/275/3.

17 BBC German audience report, 6 June 1946, BBC-WAC, E3/275/1.

18 Cited in Carl Brinitzer, Hier spricht London: Von einem der dabei war (Hamburg: Hofmann & Campe, 1969), p. 303.

19 Cited in Carl Brinitzer, Hier spricht London: Von einem der dabei war (Hamburg: Hofmann & Campe, 1969), p. 303Ibid., p. 310.

20 Peter B. Johnson, ‘Working as the BBC's German Service Representative and News Correspondent in West Berlin, 1965–1970’, in Charmian Brinson and Richard Dove (eds), ‘Stimme der Wahrheit’: German-Language Broadcasting by the BBC (Amsterdam: rodopi, 2003), p. 218.

21 Listeners’ report, 15 Jan. 1962, BBC-WAC, E3/208/2.

22 Jennifer Taylor, ‘The Propagandists’ Propagandist: Bruno Adler's “Kurt und Willi” Dialogues as Expression of British Propaganda Objectives’, in Charmian Brinson, Richard Dove and Jennifer Taylor (eds), ‘Immortal Austria’?: Austrians in Exile in Britain (Amsterdam: rodopi, 2007), pp. 19–31.

23 ‘Two Comrades’, 22 Oct. 1962, BBC-WAC microfilm collection.

24 ‘Two Comrades’, ‘The Permanent Crisis’, 10 July 1961, ‘Two Comrades’, 22 Oct. 1962, BBC-WAC microfilm collection

25 Listeners’ report, 15 June 1960, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

26 Webb, ‘Constitutional Niceties’, 561–2.

27 J.A.L. Morgan minute, 2 Feb. 1961, TNA FO 1110/1240.

28 Alfred Starkmann, ‘Changing the Guard: The Transition from Emigrés to Recruits on the Staff of the BBC's German Service’, in Brinson and Dove (eds), ‘Stimme der Wahrheit’, p. 187.

29 British Military Government Berlin report, 30 Apr. 1957, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

30 Ralph Murray, ‘Broadcasting as a Cold War Factor’, 4 Feb. 1959, National Archives-UK (NA-UK), FO 1110/1240.

31 Ralph Murray, ‘Broadcasting to East Germany’, 29 May 1959, NA-UK, FO 1110/1240.

32 Listeners’ report, 4 Oct. 1972, BBC-WAC, E3/208/2.

33 Steven Lawrie, ‘“Ein Urviech und eine Seele von Mensch”: Erich Fried at the BBC’, in Brinson and Dove (eds), ‘Stimme der Wahrheit’, pp. 128–31.

34 In Gunda Cannon, ‘Hier ist England – Live aus London: Das Deutsche Programm der British Broadcasting Corporation 1938–1988’ (London: BBC External Services, 1988), p. 84.

35 Monika Pater in Adelheid von Saldern and Inge Marßolek (eds), Zuhören und Gehörtwerden II: Radio in der DDR der fünfziger Jahre – Zwischen Lenkung und Ablenkung (Tübingen, 1998), p. 297.

36 Riller, Funken, 126–7.

37 Maral Herbst, Demokratie und Maulkorb: Der deutsche Rundfunk in Berlin zwischen Staatsgründung und Mauerbau (Berlin: Vistas, 2002), pp. 206 ff.

38 BBC (German Audience Research), ‘Berlin Industrial Fair Soviet Zone Listening Survey’, 10–25 Sept. 1960, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

39 Michael P. Hensle, Rundfunkverbrechen: Das Hören von ‘Feindsendern’ im Nationalsozialismus (Berlin, 2003), pp. 99–132.

40 Listeners’ report, 11 Apr. 1972, BBC-WAC, E3/208/3.

41 These in: BBC-WAC, E3/345/1.

42 Brinitzer, Hier spricht London, p. 305.

43 BBC External Broadcasting, Audience Research report on German Service, 1953, BBC-WAC, E3/275/4.

44 Albert O. Hirschman, Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970).

45 Brinitzer, Hier spricht London, p. 305.

46 ‘Massnahmen zur Verbesserung der Versorgung der Bevölkerung mit Konsumgütern’, 1 Dec. 1960, SAPMO-BA, DY 30, IV 2/6.08/10, fos. 218–27.

47 Brinitzer, Hier spricht London, p. 310.

48 Listeners’ report, 31 Aug. 1959, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

49 BBC External Broadcasting (Audience Research), ‘Berlin Fair Interrogation’, 25 Sept. to 10 Oct. 1954, BBC-WAC, E3/208, vol. 1.

50 Listeners’ report, 31 July 1960, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

51 Listeners’ report for 1953, BBC-WAC, E3/275/5.

52 Listeners’ report, 15 Nov. 1961, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

53 Listeners’ report, 31 May 1960, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

54 Listeners’ report, 30 Nov. 1961, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

55 Listeners’ report, 31 Aug. 1959, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

56 Listeners’ report, 31 Aug. 1960, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

57 Listeners’ report, 31 July. 1960, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

58 Listeners’ report, 15 Dec. 1961, BBC-WAC, E3/208/1.

59 Michael Meyen and Katja Schwer, ‘Credibility of Media Offerings in Centrally Controlled Media Systems: A Qualitative Study Based on the Example of East Germany’, Media, Culture & Society, 29 (2007), pp. 284–303.