Aktuelle Kamera
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Aktuelle Kamera | |
---|---|
Starring | See Hosts below |
Country of origin | East Germany |
Original language | German |
No. of episodes | over 12,000 |
Production | |
Running time | 30 minutes (per episode) |
Original release | |
Network | DFF |
Release | 21 December 1952 31 December 1991 | –
Aktuelle Kamera ("Current Camera") was the flagship
Editorial line
Originally, Aktuelle Kamera was (at least by
Schedule and popularity
Aktuelle Kamera's main edition was initially scheduled at 20:00 before being moved to 19:30 in the 1960s, so as not to coincide with the major
Starting in the mid-1970s, another 30-minute edition was presented on DDR2 (launched on 3 October 1969) around 21:30. Prior to that, both channels aired Aktuelle Kamera simultaneously at 19:30, then repeated the following day when DDR1 signed on around 9:30 (later 8:30), before airing school-oriented programming, co-produced by the DDR-FS and the GDR Education Ministry.
News summaries were added as the transmissions increased during the day. There was a bulletin at the end of the morning programs (i.e. between 12:00 and 13:00) and another, the afternoon news update, at 17:00 on DDR1. DDR2's evening schedule always began with the news at 18:45 (later 17:45 and 18:55). Late newscasts didn't appear until the 1970s when DDR1 screened a headline update following the magazine programs, around 22:00. From the 1980s, Aktuelle Kamera's final round-up was the last scheduled program at the end of the day.
In fact, television audiences largely ignored Aktuelle Kamera, preferring to watch West German newscasts, like the
East Germans responded by buying PAL decoders for their SECAM television sets. Eventually, the government in East Berlin stopped paying attention to so-called Republikflucht via Fernsehen, or "defection via television" and from 1977 onwards permitted the sale of dual standard (PAL/SECAM) sets; the SECAM standard stopped being used in East Germany after reunification, instead using PAL as it had been in the West.
Aktuelle Kamera served as an example for the Estonian newscast Aktuaalne kaamera that was first aired in Eesti Televisioon on 11 March 1956. Aktuaalne Kaamera, even after several changes in format and Estonia restoring its independence, still airs as a daily newscast there today.
Coverage during the last days of GDR
Starting in October 1989 almost a month before the fall of the Berlin Wall (9 November), Aktuelle Kamera loosened its fidelity to the party line and began presenting fair reports about the events transforming East Germany at the time. On 16 October, it showed its first pictures of the massive opposition rallies taking place every Monday in Leipzig. Within two days of its historic coverage of the Monday demonstrations in East Germany, AK broadcast highlights of the dramatic October SED plenum that saw the mass removal of the party leadership and of several members of its Central Committee.
On 30 October 1989, Aktuelle Kamera on DDR2 was rebranded as AK Zwo.[3] Three months later, long after the Berlin Wall fell but before German reunification, AK Zwo's theme and graphics were carried over to Aktuelle Kamera versions on the DFF1 (the former DDR1) on 12 March 1990. The 12:50 newscast was from then known as AK am Mittag ("CC at Midday") and the main broadcast at 19:30 became AK am Abend ("CC Evening"). News summaries received the generic name of AK-Nachrichten (simply "CC-News") or AK-Kurznachrichten.[4]
The 1990 editions featured highlights of the events on the eve of national reunification (2–3 October) and on the day itself.
Fate after reunification
The last AK am Abend was anchored by Wolfgang Meyer on 14 December 1990 at 19:30,[5] while the last newscast as Aktuelle Kamera was anchored by Petra Kusch-Lück at 1:00 on DFF1. The following day, DFF's newscasts were re-titled Aktuell ("Current"). East German television was reduced to one channel, after DFF1 folded, its transmitters becoming part of the Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen (now Das Erste) network.
On 1 January 1992 at 0:00 (midnight), the former DFF2 was regionalised and incorporated into the ARD as the regional channel ("Dritte Programme" – "Third programme") for the "New Länder" under the names of Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Fernsehen (Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia), ORB-Fernsehen (Brandenburg, later merged with Sender Freies Berlin to form Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg on 1 May 2003) and N3 (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern).
In October 1999, the AK news broadcasts were re-run on a daily basis to mark 10 years to the events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification. The news programs were broadcast one a day, corresponding to their original broadcast date a decade earlier. The rebroadcasts provided a daily contrast between the reunited Germany of 1999 and the last months of the DDR in 1989 by giving a daily window into the past.
In popular culture
The 2003 film
Hosts
Aktuelle Kamera's principal presenters from 1952 to 1990:
- Herbert Köfer
- Klaus Feldmann
- Elisabeth Süncksen
- Hans-Dieter Lange
- Angelika Unterlauf
- Wolfgang Meyer
- Wolfgang Lippe
- Matthias Schliesing
- Renate Krawielicki
- Anne-Rose Neumann
- Peter Kessel
- Christel Kern
- Klaus Ackermann
- Heidrun Schulz
See also
References
- ^ Patterson, Sue. "LibGuides: VCE English: Stasiland Study Guide: Chapters 2-14". libguides.marymede.vic.edu.au.
- ^ "TV in the GDR - Screening Socialism - Loughborough University". www.lboro.ac.uk.
- YouTube
- ^ "DRA: Sendereihen des DDR-Fernsehens". 1989.dra.de. Archived from the original on 2014-09-04. Retrieved 2013-02-12.
- YouTube
External links
- Aktuelle Kamera at IMDb