History of television in Germany
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The first regular electronic
In 1941 Kurt Wagenführ established the "Institute for Broadcasting Studies and Television" ("Institut für Rundfunkkunde und Fernsehrundfunk") at the University of Berlin with support from the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.[1]
1950s
After World War II, it took several years to resume television transmissions. Immediately after the war, newspapers and radio were the only available mass media and they were under direct control of the Allied government, and were more likely to be in English or French than in German. In the West, the United States, the United Kingdom and France had founded the ARD, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten Deutschlands (Cooperative association of the public broadcasters in Germany). In the East, the Soviet Union founded its own radio and later TV stations, known as Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF). Many parts of Germany (particularly the GDR) received programming from both services.
The common aim of the Western Allies was to prevent the future abuse of broadcasting by the German government. Thus, the different regional networks were placed under the control of the
In 1948 the British occupation forces authorized
Other regional networks also started to launch television in their own areas; HR and SWF in June 1953, and BR and SDR in November 1954. The companies in the American occupation zone were more determined to promote TV as a "window to the world", rather than mere "pictured radio", an attitude NWDR shared with its role model, the BBC. The BR, HR, and SDR were the German regionals that introduced American program techniques to Germany; they were the first to dub American material into German and, in 1956, when they felt they were ready, they were the first to introduce a few minutes of commercials, presented in the early evening.
Meanwhile, the GDR was launching its own television service, based on the Soviet model. As in the West, there was a test phase, begun on June 3, 1952, with regular programming officially started on March 3, 1956.
In the early days, few West Germans and even fewer East Germans owned a TV set. Most Germans still preferred to go to the movies. One of the events that enhanced the popularity of TV among the West Germans was the broadcast of the 1954 football world cup finals from Bern, which many followed on TV screens in shop windows; another was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II a year before.
In 1954 a regular schedule began through the cooperation of all ARD members. During this time the basic television genres in the central areas of entertainment, information and enlightenment were established, and television plays developed as the medium's own specific art form.
Improvements in technology and programming, as well as reduced prices, led to a steady increase in license holders, and the number of licenses passed 1 million in October 1957.
This success and new, unused frequencies motivated West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer to increase his influence by opening a second channel called Das Freie Deutsche Fernsehen (The Free German Television), to be financed by the industry with the central goal of presenting government opinions. But the Länder (states) fiercely objected to these activities, and they were finally stopped by a court order in 1961.
NWDR had initially been awarded service of West Berlin simply because its main transmitter was in the British sector of that city. But the East German uprisings in the summer of 1953 brought about the need for West Berlin to have its own ARD member station. Accordingly, Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) was established on June 1, 1954, independent of NWDR. Since SFB was serving a city under joint allied occupation, it had to combine the broadcasting practices of all three occupying countries. In so doing, SFB established the basic standard of the ARD network.
At about this time complaints arose from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which objected Hamburg having too much control over West German programming, especially as North Rhine-Westphalia had more people than the other three NWDR Länder combined. So on January 1, 1956, the NWDR was split into WDR, based in Cologne, and NDR, which continued out of Hamburg. But they continued to carry a common television program until 1961.
The basic ARD network was completed in 1959 when
1960s - 1970s
In the 1960s West German television came into its own. In the early part of the decade, some of the larger ARD companies started to further regionalize themselves by launching branch stations. NDR opened branches in Hanover (for Lower Saxony) and Kiel (for Schleswig-Holstein); WDR operated a sub-channel in the Wupfong district of West Bonn (for the North Rhine) and another in Dortmund (for Westphalia); HR opened a branch in Kassel; SDR in Mannheim; and BR in Nuremberg. These opt-out branches diverged from the main stations to present specific local programs for the branch areas, generally for an hour daily.
Then, on April 1, 1963, the long-promised second TV network, the
In 1967, vice chancellor Willy Brandt started the era of color TV in West Germany. Also, beginning in 1964, several member networks of the ARD started broadcasting third television programs, known colloquially as Die Dritten (The Third Networks). There were five of them, from North to South:
- Nord 3 (shared by NDR, SFB and Radio Bremen), opened January 4, 1965.
- West 3 (WDR), opened December 17, 1965.
- Hessen 3 (HR), opened October 5, 1964.
- Bayern 3 (BR), opened September 22, 1964.
- Südwest 3 (shared by SDR, SWF and SR), opened April 5, 1969.
These channels were devoted to educational and cultural programs as well as local information.
In 1969 East Germany started DFF2, and introduced color programming on both channels. In 1972, the DFF was renamed, dropping the pretense of being an all-German service and becoming Fernsehen der DDR (GDR Television) or DDR-FS. Its two channels became known as DDR1 and DDR2.
1980s
Until the early 1980s, the average West German TV viewer could choose only between usually three TV channels, financed through license fees. In regions bordering neighboring countries, however, viewers were typically also able to get foreign stations via antenna, e.g. those being broadcast from East Germany or the
1990s-2000s
After reunification, the TV stations of the
As the millennium approached, Germany began airing new channels. The early private programmes (RTL and Sat 1) gained a large stake in viewer ratings, others like
and other pan-European or Asian-African channels.See also
- Television in Germany
- Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow was a television station in Germany (1933–1945)
References
- ^ Hans Bohrmann, Arnulf Kutsch: Rundfunkwissenschaft im Dritten Reich, Part 3 (Rundfunkkunde an den Universitäten Berlin und Leipzig). In: Rundfunk und Geschichte, 1976, H. 1, P. 17–21, esp. p. 17.
- ^ a b c James A. Coleman and Brigitte Rollet, Television in Europe (Intellect Books, 1997) p49
- ^ "AGF - TV-Daten - TV-Markt - Marktanteile". Archived from the original on 2009-02-03. Retrieved 2009-02-03. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Fernsehforschung: Marktanteile 2007 (in German)