Current camera

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The current camera was the news program broadcast by German television from 1952 to 1990 and from 1972 to 1990 by "Fernssehen der DDR".

history

GDR time

The current camera has been the daily news program since the German television station began broadcasting on December 21, 1952. With just five days ahead of the first edition of the Tagesschau (ARD), it was the oldest German television news program. However, their importance only grew with the increasing spread of receiving devices. Initially, the East German cinema newsreel Der Augenzeuge was the more important news medium.

Like all media in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the broadcast was controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and was an important propaganda tool. The secretary for agitation in the SED central committee basically determined the daily reporting. The content of the broadcast was mostly a detailed report on meetings of the Central Committee, party congresses of the SED, state visits, award ceremonies, visits by functionaries to companies and other official events. In addition, there were very detailed reports on supposed improvements in socialist production in industrial plants and in agriculture, as well as on the social housing program. The focus was always on the fulfillment of the plan .

International reporting was also heavily politicized. Events that the government wanted to conceal (such as the illegal border crossings of prominent GDR citizens) were not mentioned. Reports about non-socialist foreign countries often dealt with social and societal problems such as poverty and right-wing extremist developments, typical was the regular mention of drug deaths in the then Federal Republic or West Berlin .

The linguistic style ( parodied in the feature film Good Bye, Lenin! Among others ) was characterized by listing the titles of the characters involved, as well as extremely long nested sentences, which required good speaking training and technique from the news anchor and concentration from the listener. The messages from the news agency ADN were stylistically rewritten by editors in the television newsroom in order to make them speak, as far as possible.

The editor-in-chief and his six deputies were instructed by the agitation commission of the Central Committee of the SED. The current camera reflected the politics of the SED, but the reality of life in the GDR was insufficient. In addition to the low information content, this was one of the main reasons for the show's low popularity. For more comprehensive information, many GDR citizens - where technically possible - availed themselves of the news broadcasts on “ Westfernssehen ”. As this was known, these were commented on in the weekly program The Black Channel .

The most important broadcast of the current camera began every day at 7.30 p.m. and ended at 8 p.m. The main edition was repeated at 9:30 p.m. in the 2nd program and the next morning at 9:30 a.m. in the 1st program. There were other shorter issues spread over the day. In the first program, with the exception of the repetition of the main edition, only short messages were sent, which were often read out by the program speakers of this channel.

After the turn

The turning point also influenced television in the GDR and the current camera program. Increasingly, the editorial team succeeded in breaking away from the control of state power and reporting more freely. On October 30, 1989, the new late edition AK Zwo started in the second program at 10 p.m. The show differed visually and in terms of editorial design from the other editions of the current camera and was similar in style to the news magazines Tagesthemen ( First German Television ) and heute-journal ( ZDF ). There was no speaker, but a moderator who led through the show. Short messages continued to be read out by the previous speakers for the current camera . Graphic elements such as logo, opening credits, background graphics and studio decoration were designed more loosely. The logo was written in cursive and the studio was shown live in the background in the opening credits. This also created a contrast to the other editions in terms of design, and the program appeared more open. The repetition of the main edition at 9:30 p.m. has been abandoned. The AK Zwo was the first time only 11 days after the premiere broadcast on 3sat repeated for Sendeschluss to document the events of the turn.

When "DDR TV" was renamed "Deutscher Fernsehfunk" again on March 14, 1990, all issues of the current camera took over the design of the AK Zwo program. The main issue at 7.30 p.m. was henceforth AK in the evening. An AK in the morning and an AK at noon were also started later . Shorter editions were called AK Kurznachrichten or AK Nachrichten . On December 15, 1990, the two programs DFF 1 and DFF 2 were replaced by the DFF country chain program. This ended the era of the broadcast. The news program on the new channel was called Aktuell, and its main edition also aired at 7.30pm. Some of the spokespersons for the current camera were still on the air here until this station was also closed on December 31, 1991.

Employee

Chief editor

news reporter

Only for the follow-up program Aktuell of the DFF country chain worked:

Sports announcer

AK correspondents in the district towns

Wolfgang Reichardt interviews young people at the “Ball der Jugend” in the Palace of the Republic, East Berlin 1976

The network of district correspondents was expanded from 1976 on. A number of university graduates who were sent to the districts in the fall of 1976 had experienced reporters as sponsors. In Schwerin they were Jochen Wieczorek, in Dresden AK chief reporter Wolfgang Reichardt, in Cottbus the married couple Renate and Dagobert Löwenberg and in Halle Sergio Günther.

  • Berlin / Potsdam
    • Bernd Hermann
    • Regina Richter
    • Margit Gessner
    • Hardy Kühnrich also reported from Moscow
    • Anett Wundrak
    • Birgit Wednesday
    • Dagmar Mielke
    • Anja Ludewig (today rbb)
  • cottbus
  • Dresden
    • Roland Hermann (AK correspondent) | Roland Hermann
    • Elke Wetzel
    • Bernd Sprafke, correspondent also in the Frankfurt (Oder) district
    • Claudia Sprafke
    • Hans-Dieter Jancker (today free at MDR)
  • Erfurt
    • Manfred Hering
    • Hans-Jürgen Dufft
  • Frankfurt / Oder
    • Margit Gessner
  • Gera
    • Erich Schmidt
    • Joachim Bardohn
  • Halle (Saale)
    • Lutz Johannes
    • Hans-Dieter Jancker
    • Jörg Reichhardt
    • Michael Illner
    • Jan Carpentier (from 1989 Elf 99 , today rbb among other things author contributions for "ZIBB")
  • Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz)
    • Erich Muszinski
    • Jürgen Schmidt
  • Leipzig
    • Hans Thiel
    • Harry Worreschk
  • Magdeburg
  • Neubrandenburg
    • Wolfgang Glatzer
    • Heiderose Häsler
    • Elgin Rocher
  • Rostock
    • Gerd Kruse
    • Michael Schmidt, 1987–1991 (now NDR)
  • Schwerin
    • Hans-Dieter Jancker
    • Marian Riedel
    • Michael Schmidt, 1984-1987
    • Dagmar Mielke, 1987–1991 (today rbb)
  • Suhl
    • Hans-Jürgen Dufft, 1976–1982
    • Michael Schmidt, 1982–1984 (now NDR)
    • Heidi Hasse, 1984-1991

AK correspondents in foreign capitals

  • Bonn, FR Germany
    • Heinz Grote
    • Lutz Renner (today press office in Brussels )
    • Götz Förster
    • Olaf Dietze, then from 1985 Manfred Pohl in Bonn. Pohl was a correspondent in Lisbon in the 1970s
    • Bernd Niestroj
  • Budapest, responsible for Hungary, Austria, Yugoslavia

Production managers

  • Rudi Hochsieder
  • Jürgen Krischollek
  • K.-Heinz Frenzel

Literature and films

  • Jost-Arend Bösenberg: The Current Camera. News from a sunken land. Book accompanying the TV documentation on rbb television. With a foreword by Wolfgang Thierse . Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-86650-067-9 .
  • Jost-Arend Bösenberg: The Current Camera (1952–1990). Control mechanisms on television in the GDR. Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-935035-66-7 ( publications of the German Broadcasting Archive 38).
  • Klaus Feldmann: That was the news. Memories. Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-360-01277-1 .
  • Erich Selbmann: DFF Adlershof. Paths across the TV country. On the history of GDR television. Edition Ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-52-6 ( Red Series ), review .
  • AK correspondent Michael Schmidt remembers (PDF file; 85 kB).

Trivia

A broadcast of the same name has been on Estonian television since 1956 ( Aktuaalne kaamera ). Also, the Ukrainian television had in the 1980s, a news program of the same name ( Актуальна камера ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Examples like this on husfl.net: “Present were Willy Stoph, member of the Politburo and chairman of the Council of Ministers, Horst Sindermann, member of the Politburo and President of the People's Chamber, Heinz Hoffmann, member of the Politburo and Minister for National Defense, Oskar Fischer, member of the Politburo and Minister for Foreign Affairs, the members of the Politburo Hermann Axen, Werner Velve, Egon Krenz, Werner Jarowinsky, Inge Lange, ... as well as other personalities. "
  2. ^ Chronicle of GDR television 1989. German broadcast archive
  3. ↑ Current camera on 3sat in future. Short message in the Hamburger Abendblatt , November 11, 1989.
  4. ↑ German Broadcasting Archive