Repatriated Germans and ‘British Spirit’

Abstract

Following the end of the Second World War, the ideals of public service broadcasting that had first been exemplified by the BBC came to lay the groundwork for a new type of broadcasting system in Northern Germany. This led to intensive discussions between British Military Officers and their German counterparts about the principles of public service broadcasting. Repatriated Germans came to play a crucial role. Having worked for the BBC German Service during their years of exile, some of them helped to nurture a new generation of democratic journalists. Focusing on these men, this article reveals the difficulties in transferring and adapting public service ideals. Making use of a wide range of sources, we highlight the multifaceted roles of the repatriated Germans, as both intermediaries and transmitters of public service broadcasting. We show how many of them came to play a pivotal role in resisting pressure from conservative forces in West German society.

KEYWORDS:

• BBC German Service
• media in post-war Germany
• public service broadcasting
• emigrants
• repatriated Germans
• transfer

Notes

1. Briggs, The Birth of Broadcasting, 325ff.; Scannell and Cardiff, “Public Service Broadcasting”.

2. Reith, “Introduction”.

3. Chignell, BBC handbooks.

4. Scannell and Cardiff, “Public Service Broadcasting”; Hilmes, Network Nations, 47–62.

5. Nicholas, The Echo of War, 4.

6. Nicholas, The Echo of War, 1.

7. For example, Briggs, Sound and Vision.

8. Briggs, The War of Words; Nicholas, The echo of war; Baade, Victory through Harmony.

9. Dove, “Introduction”, X.

10. Richter, Political Warfare Executive.

11. For example, BBC External Services, ‘Hier ist England’ – ‘Live aus London’.

12. Brinson and Dove, ‘Stimme der Wahrheit’. Despite the popular slogan quoted in the title of the volume, the editor declares in his introduction: ‘Wartime broadcasts by the BBC were a crucial contribution to the British war effort’ (Dove, “Introduction”, X).

13. Concerning German broadcasting history between 1924 and 1932, see Leonhard, Joachim-Felix, ed., Programmgeschichte des Hörfunks in der Weimarer Republik, München: Deutsche Taschenbuchverlag, 1997; concerning especially Goebbels and broadcasting in the ‘Third Reich’ see: Mühlenfeld, Daniel. “Joseph Goebbels und die Grundlagen der NS-Rundfunkpolitik.” Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 54, no. 5 (2006): 442–467.

14. Kutsch, “Unter britischer Kontrolle”, 85–96; Clemens, Britische Kulturpolitik in Deutschland 1945–1949.

15. Tracey, Das unerreichbare Wunschbild; Goergen, “Der britische Einfluß”; Roelle, “Der britische Einfluß”; Kutsch, “Unter britischer Kontrolle”; Brüning, “Die BBC als Vorbild“; Wagner, “Das Ringen um einen neuen Rundfunk”.

16. Biller, Exilstationen; Krohn and von zur Mühlen, Rückkehr und Aufbau nach 1945; Wagner, Rückkehr in die Fremde?; Clemens, “Remigranten in der Kultur- und Medienpolitik der Britischen Zone“; Wagner, “Über alle Hindernisse hinweg”.

17. How the CCG/BE dealt with the lack during the first months revealed the files in: The National Archives (TNA), Public Record Office (PRO), Foreign Office (FO) 898/401.

18. Bruce Lockhart to Secretary of State, 23 February, 1945. TNA, PRO, FO 898/401; see also Richter, Political Warfare Executive, 378ff.

19. Bayer, How deas is Hitler?; Eumann, Der Deutsche Presse-Dienst.

20. “By contrast to the American, the arrangements in the British Zone are still woefully incomplete (…). I urged Brigadier Neville to consider making Hamburg the basic centre of a prototype news service both for radio and newspaper”, quotations from: Delmer, Sefton. Report. 1 June, 1945. TNA, PRO, FO 898/401.

21. So the report on a meeting at Bush House, 3 September 1945. TNA, PRO, FO 898/401. This need was also expressed in various reports and letters of officers between May and December 1945. TNA, PRO, FO 1050/791; 1056/25; 1056/26.

22. Leighton-Langer, X steht für unbekannt.

23. Birke et al., Akten der britischen Militärregierung in Deutschland.

24. Richter, Political Warfare Executive, 403.

25. Eberstadt, Whence We Came, Where We Went, 333.

26. Jacobmeyer, “Politischer Kommentar und Rundfunkpolitik“.

27. Telephone interview of the author with Walter Albert Eberstadt, 2003; Walter Albert Eberstadt. [obituary for Peter von Zahn], 6 August, 2001. Research Center Media History, Hamburg (subsequently cited as RCMH).

28. Telephone directory of the NWDR. Effective July 1946. RCMH; Press releases of the NWDR 1945–1947. RCMH. The best way to study Maaß’ strategy derives from a corpus of correspondence, 15 letters from Alexander Maaß to Ernst Hardt as well as 16 letters from Ernst Hardt to Alexander Maaß. These letters have been preserved at the Deutsches Literaturarchiv (DLA) in Marbach am Neckar. Quotations follow the original documents. The correspondence was published by Mira Đorđević (Đorđević, “Pioniere des deutschen Rundfunks”). Wagner’s study of so-called ‘first letters’ is based on this correspondence (Wagner, “Wir müssen hart bleiben”).

29. Pütter, Rundfunk gegen das “Dritte Reich”.

30. Alexander Maaß to Ernst Hardt, 14 December, 1945. DLA. Literary remains Ernst Hardt.

31. Alexander Maaß to Ernst Hardt, 14 November, 1945. DLA. Literary remains Ernst Hardt.

32. Greene, Entscheidung und Verantwortung, 46–47 (author’s translation).

33. Harding, “The Past and Future of Staff Training”, 29.

34. Harding, “The Past and Future of Staff Training”, 32.

35. Schwarzkopf, Ausbildung und Vertrauensbildung.

36. [Press releases] “Eine Rundfunkschule des NWDR.” Die Ansage, Mitteilungen des NWDR, 22–28 December, 1946: 1; “Ab 20. Januar Rundfunkschule.” Die Ansage, Mitteilungen des NWDR, 29 December, 1946–4 January, 1947: 4. The applications have been preserved in the Staatsarchiv Hamburg (StA HH), 621-1/144. 191 and 192. Within the research project on the NWDR, a study on the ‘Training School’ was undertaken by Dietrich Schwarzkopf (Ausbildung und Vertrauensbildung).

37. Archival sources on the NWDR “Training School” have been preserved at the StA HH, 621-1/144, 191, 192, 229.

38. Ruge, Unterwegs: Politische Erinnerungen, 49 (author’s translation).

39. A series of interviews with alumni of the ‘Rundfunkschule’ were conducted at the RCMH between 2001 and 2007. Hildegard Stallmach, Gerd Ruge, Hans Joachim Werbke, Helga Boddin, Wolfgang Jäger and Hans Scholz referred to the BBC, when they remembered discussions about democratic principles and the societal role of journalists at the ‘Training School’.

40. PR/ISC Group to Political Division, February, 7th, 1946. TNA, PRO, FO 1049/498.

41. Lt.Col. N.G. Annan, Political Division, ‘an alle Gentlemen’, 4 February, 1946. TNA, PRO, FO 1049/498.

42. Appelius, Heine.

43. TNA, PRO, FO 1049/502.

44. Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv. Frankfurt/Main. A 15. Hans-Bredow-Archiv.

45. Memorandum of 30 November, 1946. TNA, PRO, FO 1049, 502.

46. In the US-American Zone, each parliament of the states Hessen, Bavaria, and Württemberg-Baden had to pass a law on a public service broadcasting system widely according to the NWDR-‘Statut’. See e.g. Rasack, “Parteieneinfluß und Rundfunkaufsicht”.

47. Amtsblatt der Militärregierung Deutschland. Britisches Kontrollgebiet, No. 22, 656–660.

48. “Correspondence Hugh Carleton Greene.” Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) Köln. Historical Archive (HA), 4264.

49. Bundesarchiv Koblenz. Z 2. Zonenbeirat. 1946–1949. See Quellen zur Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien. Vierte Reihe: Deutschland seit 1945. Band 9/I. Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag 1993–94.

50. [Press release] “Ueberreichung des NWDR-Statuts.” Die Ansage, Mitteilungen des NWDR, 30 December, 1948; Greene’s speech on 30 December, 1948, has been preserved at the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Sound Archive; Greene, “Anfänge des NWDR”.

51. Konrad Adenauer on a public rally on 21 May, 1950. Sound document. Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Sound Archive (quotes translated by author).

52. Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, Denkschrift über Verfassung und Programmgestaltung des NWDR (author’s translation).

53. In memoriam Walter D. Schultz (August 1964) [obituaries]. Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Department “Recherche, Presse und Buch”.

54. Jacobmeyer, “Politischer Kommentar und Rundfunkpolitik”, 378–383.

55. Wallace, “‘Lob der Emigration’: Albin Stuebs”.

56. Stuebs, “Was ist ‘Rundfunkschule’?”, 75 (author’s translation).

57. See e.g. “Platonisch interessiert.” Der Spiegel, 26 January, 1950, 5–6.

58. WDR, HA, 9509.

59. WDR, HA, 9509.

60. “NWDR.” Hamburger Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 November, 1949. The author is anonymous; chief editor of the newspaper at this time was Hans-Georg von Studnitz, a former high-ranked employee of Goebbels’ ministry; see: Asmussen, Nils. “Hans-Georg von Studnitz. Ein konservativer Journalist im Dritten Reich und in der Bundesrepublik.” Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte 45 no. 1 (1997): 75–119.

61. Copies of the correspondence between NWDR and the ‘Hamburger Allgemeine Zeitung’ have been filed by the office of the Chairman of ‘Verwaltungsrat’, Emil Dovifat. RCMH.

62. “CDU-Treibereien um den NWDR. ‘Spanienkämpfer‘ als politische Belastung.” Hamburger Echo, 28 November, 1949.

63. Von Lojewski, Werner. “Führungskrise. Eine Rundfunkkrise als Symptom unserer Zeit.” Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 6 February, 1950; Marein, Josef. “Das Haus der großen Intrigen.” Die Zeit, 8 March, 1951.

64. TNA, PRO, FO 1056/276.

65. TNA, PRO, FO 1056/276.

66. Bösch and Geppert, “Journalists as Political Actors”.

67. Von Hodenberg, “Konsens und Krise“, 460.

68. Hoffmann-Riem, “Rundfunk als Public Service”.