Cowboy Songs from a Cold War Adversary: Listening to RIAS as Portrayed in the East German Press

Abstract

For much of the Cold War, East Germany attempted to prevent Western media content from reaching its populace. The US government–run radio station Radio in the American Sector (RIAS), broadcasting from West Berlin, emerged as a significant threat in the view of the East German regime. However, analysis of the East German press's treatment of East Germans listening to RIAS during the early postwar period indicates that the coverage was far from uniform. RIAS appeared initially as a competitor to East German radio before being cast as an enemy broadcaster by the early 1950s, revealing shifts in official East German attitudes toward outside propaganda messages. Such attitudes—competing with enemy media, counterpropaganda, educating citizens about propaganda, or blocking messages seen as threatening—remain relevant today.

Notes

1 Nicholas J. Schlosser, Cold War on the Airwaves: The Radio Propaganda War Against East Germany (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2015), 2.

2 “Gegen die Sorglosigkeit,” Neues Deutschland, January 27, 1950, 1.

3 “Verstärkter Kampf gegen Sabotage,” Neue Zeit, January 27, 1950, 2; “Der Beschluß der Regierung,” Neues Deutschland, January 28, 1950, 4.

4 See, for example, Schlosser, Cold War on the Airwaves, chapter 5.

5 “Feder-Funk an der ‘Plumpe,’” Berliner Zeitung, September 5, 1947, 4.

6 “Heute auf dem Herthaplatz,” Berliner Zeitung, October 23, 1948, 4.

7 “Die tägliche Lüge,” Neues Deutschland, November 6, 1948, 2.

8 Patrick Major and Rana Mitter, “East Is East and West Is West? Towards a Comparative Socio-Cultural History of the Cold War,” in Across the Blocs: Cold War Cultural and Social History, edited by Rana Mitter and Patrick Major (London: Frank Cass, 2004), 9.

9 James Schwoch, Global TV: New Media and the Cold War, 1946–69 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2009).

10 For example, Donald R. Browne, “RIAS Berlin: A Case Study of a Cold War Broadcast Operation,” Journal of Broadcasting 10 (Spring 1966): 119–135; Richard L. Merritt, “Divided Airwaves: The Electronic Media and Political Community in Postwar Berlin,” International Political Science Review 7, no. 4 (1986): 369–399.

11 Richard H. Cummings, Cold War Radio: The Dangerous History of American Broadcasting in Europe, 1950–1989 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009); Patrick Major, “Listening behind the Curtain: BBC Broadcasting to East Germany and Its Cold War Echo,” Cold War History 13, no. 2 (2013): 255–275. See also Airy Curtains in the European Ether, edited by Alexander Badenoch, Andreas Fickers, and Christian Henrich-Francke (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2013).

12 Herbert Kundler, RIAS Berlin: Eine Radio-Station in einer geteilten Stadt, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 2002).

13 Schlosser, Cold War on the Airwaves.

14 Petra Galle, RIAS Berlin und Berliner Rundfunk 1945–1949 (LIT Verlag, Münster, 2003).

15 For example, Schanett Riller, Funken für die Freiheit: Die U.S.-amerikanische Informationspolitik gegenüber der DDR von 1953 bis 1963 (Trier: WVT, 2004).

16 Amy C. Beal, “The Army, the Airwaves and the Avant-garde: American Classical Music in Postwar West Germany,” American Music 21 no. 4 (2003): 474–513; Douglas A. Boyd, “Broadcasting Between the Two Germanies,” Journalism Quarterly 60, no. 2 (1983): 232–239; Bryan T. Van Sweringen, Kabarettist an der Front des Kalten Krieges: Günter Neumann und das politische Kabarett in der Programmgestaltung des Radios im amerikanischen Sektor Berlins (RIAS) (Passau: Wissenschaftsverlag R. Rothe, 1989).

17 See, for example, Kundler, RIAS Berlin, 16–40.

18 Kundler, RIAS Berlin, 45. Drahtfunk means “wire broadcasting.”

19 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, 1945–1961,” German History 29, no. 4 (2011): 610–627.

20 Schlosser, Cold War on the Airwaves, 7.

21 Kundler, RIAS Berlin, 99.

22 Michael Nelson, War of the Black Heavens: The Battles of Western Broadcasting in the Cold War (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 113; Schlosser (2015).

23 Siegfried Lokalis, Heimliche Leser in der DDR: Kontrolle und Verbreitung unerlaubter Literatur (Berlin: Christoph Links Verlag, 2008), 43.

24 Michael Meyen and Ute Nawratil, “The Viewers: Television and Everyday Life in East Germany,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television 24, no. 3 (2004): 362.

25 Schwoch, Global TV, 35.

26 Meyen and Nawratil, “The Viewers,” 362.

27 Konrad Dussel, Deutsche Rundfunkgeschichte (Konstanz: UVK, 2004), 150.

28 Lokalis, Heimliche Leser in der DDR, 44–50.

29 Aristotle A. Kallis, Nazi Propaganda and the Second World War (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), 130–133.

30 Institute for Propaganda Analysis, “Father Coughlin: Priest and Politician,” Propaganda Analysis 2 (June 1939): 1–8.

31 See, for example, Michael Meyen and Anke Fiedler, Die Grenze im Kopf: Journalisten in der DDR (Berlin: Panama Verlag, 2011); Anke Fiedler and Michael Meyen, “The Steering of the Press in the Socialist States of Eastern Europe: the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as a Case Study,” Cold War History 15, no. 4 (2015): 449–470.

32 Colin H. Good, Zeitungssprache im geteilten Deutschland: Exemplarische Textanalysen (Munich: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1989).

33 “Die Freiheit der Presse, des Rundfunks und des Fernsehens ist gewährleistet.” Article 27, Constitution of the German Democratic Republic, 1974 (Verfassung der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik), http://www.documentarchiv.de/ddr/verfddr.html.

34 Cited in Colin Good, Zeitungssprache im geteilten Deutschland (Munich: R. Oldenbourg, 1989), 19–20.

35 Ibid., 34–35.

36 Randall L. Bytwerk, “The Failure of the Propaganda of the German Democratic Republic,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 85 (1999): 400–416.

37 “Freund und Vorbild im publizistischen Kampf,” Neue Zeit, February 23, 1951, 4.

38 Michael Meyen and Anke Fiedler, Die Grenze im Kopf: Journalisten in der DDR (Berlin: Panama Verlag, 2011), 11, 31, 36.

39 Good, Zeitungssprache im geteilten Deutschland, 12–13.

40 In a major project funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), the complete contents of the aforementioned three main GDR newspapers were scanned and digitized, and they were made available in their entirety in 2013. See http://zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/ddr-presse/informationen-zum-projekt/.

41 Because strict keyword searches can generate results within certain limitations, an additional data-gathering step included page-by-page examination within key date ranges. This data collection centers on the timeframe between the establishment of RIAS in 1946 and the onset of intense jamming of RIAS signals in 1953—the latter point signaling a clear East German position against any reception of the American station in the East. The searches resulted in a total of seventy-one items for analysis. Passing references to RIAS were excluded from the search results. Digital scans of the newspaper pages were downloaded and examined in their original presentation, and related articles on the same or adjacent pages were identified. This procedure also enabled relevant images to be included. It also allowed analysis of articles in the context of placement in relation to other elements on the newspaper pages. Items were analyzed with respect to the following: (1) Tone: Did the use of assertions and quotes render the item supportive, neutral, or negative (or some combination thereof)? (2) Balance: Were assertions and quotes from one source or multiple sources, and what were those sources, if identifiable? (3) Proactive or reactive: Did the item specifically respond to RIAS-initiated activities or messages?

42 See, for example, Alexander Badenoch, Voices in Ruins: West German Radio Across the 1945 Divide (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

43 Schlosser, Cold War on the Airwaves, 16.

44 Galle, RIAS Berlin und Berliner Rundfunk, 292–294.

45 “RIAS auf Welle 477,” Neue Zeit, December 20, 1947, 3.

46 “Neue amerikanische Musik: ‘Stimmen der Völker,’” Berliner Zeitung, April 22, 1947, 3.

47 “Die alte Jungfer und der Dieb,” Berliner Zeitung, July 1, 1947, 3.

48 Werner Fiedler, “Amerikanische Kunst in Berlin/Ein Rückblick,” Neue Zeit, July 19, 1947, 2.

49 “RIAS-Sendung über die Ernährungslage,” Neue Zeit, July 17, 1947, 4.

50 For example, “Um die Versorgung der Bizone,” Neue Zeit, July 18, 1947, 2.

51 Schlosser, Cold War on the Airwaves, 30–31.

52 “Oberst Textor und die ‘blauen Limousinen,’” Neues Deutschland, November 30, 1947, 3.

53 Schlosser, Cold War on the Airwaves, 5.

54 Hans Teller, Der kalte Krieg gegen die DDR: Von seinen Anfängen bis 1961 ([East] Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1979), 162.

55 Karl Maron, “Kann RIAS hellsehen?” Neues Deutschland, December 18, 1947, 3.

56 “Rundfunk und Demokratie,” Neues Deutschland, January 13, 1948, 1.

57 Galle, RIAS Berlin und Berliner Rundfunk, 117.

58 “Schwarze Liste, die dem Guten dient,” Neue Zeit, October 28, 1948, 1.

59 “Rundfunkdiskussion,” Neue Zeit, March 17, 1948, 2.

60 “RIAS unter freiem Himmel,” Neue Zeit, July 7, 1948, 3.

61 Galle, RIAS Berlin und Berliner Rundfunk, 119–120; 395.

62 “Das versteht Bärchen nicht: Schaltpause im Berliner Sender,” Berliner Zeitung, January 30, 1949, 6.

63 “Die Flut der Proteste,” Neues Deutschland, December 18, 1948, 1.

64 “Sprenganschlag auf Sendetürme,” Berliner Zeitung, December 17, 1948, 1.

65 R. Stephen Craig, “Medium-wave Frequency Allocations in Postwar Europe: US Foreign Policy and the Copenhagen Conference of 1948,” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 34, no. 2 (1990): 119–135.

66 Teller, Der kalte Krieg gegen die DDR.

67 “Amis verletzen Kopenhagener Wellenplan,” Neues Deutschland, March 26, 1950, 2.

68 “Warum ist der Empfang so schlecht?” Berliner Zeitung, January 26, 1950, 6.

69 “Musik des Sonntags,” Neue Zeit, June 14, 1949, 4.

70 “Ein Stilfehler,” Neue Zeit, May 3, 1949, 1.

71 Hermann Weber, DDR: Grundriß der Geschichte 1945–1990 (Hannover: Fackelträger-Verlag, 1976 [1991]), 38.

72 Good, Zeitungssprache im geteilten Deutschland.

73 “Was die Partei sagt, gilt!” Neues Deutschland, March 17, 1950, 4.

74 “Objektivismus—Parteinahme für den Gegner,” Neues Deutschland, June 9, 1950, 2.

75 Maria Rentmeister, “Das Vorbild in der Familie,” Neues Deutschland, January 25, 1950, 3.

76 See, for example, Sigrun Richter, “Die Volkskorrespondenten im Pressesystem der DDR,” Presse in der DDR (2011), http://pressegeschichte.docupedia.de/wiki/Volkskorrespondenten_Version_1.0_Sigrun_Richter.

77 “Ein Volkskorrespondent fordert: Gebt ihnen keine Chance,” Neues Deutschland, August 1, 1950, 8.

78 Gerhart Eisler, “Über das Abhören feindlicher Sender,” Neues Deutschland, March 11, 1952, 2.

79 For example, “Einmal wieder in einem Bett schlafen,” Berliner Zeitung, February 10, 1953, 2; “Drei, die auf die Lügen des RIAS hereinfielen,” Neue Zeit, February 11, 1953, 3.

80 “So vegetieren 200 Rias-Opfer,” Berliner Zeitung, March 6, 1953, 2.

81 For example, “Wer dem RIAS ins Netz geht,” Neue Zeit, January 25, 1953, 1.

82 “‘Hier kann sich jeder überzeugen,’” Berliner Zeitung, February 3, 1953, 2.

83 “Genau hinsehen,” Berliner Zeitung, June 18, 1953, 2.

84 Working Paper Prepared in the Eastern Affairs Division, Berlin Element, HICOG, June 25, 1953. Document 762B.00/8-1053, State Dept. Office of the Historian, US Department of State, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v07p2/d719.

85 “Der Funken fliegt ins eigene RIAS-Auge,” Neue Zeit, March 21, 1962, 3.

86 Kundler, RIAS Berlin, 176.

87 See, for example, Merritt, “Divided Airwaves,” 380–385.

88 Weber, DDR.

89 Kenneth Osgood, Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006), 37.

90 Jonathan Grix, “Non-conformist Behaviour and the Collapse of the GDR,” in East Germany: Continuity and Change, edited by Paul Cooke and Jonathan Grix (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2000), 73.

91 Harald Wessel, “Carl von Ossietzkys Erbe und die Friedenspflicht moderner Medien,” Neues Deutschland, September 30, 1989, 10.

92 “Qualität setzt sich durch,” Berliner Zeitung, November 21, 1989, 1.