German freedom broadcaster 904

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The German freedom transmitter 904 ( DFS 904 ) was a propaganda radio transmitter of the GDR , which was operated as a secret transmitter from August 17, 1956 to September 30, 1971 on medium wave Burg 904  kHz .

The station was founded in response to the ban on the KPD in the Federal Republic of Germany by the KPD , which had been preparing for this ban for years, "in close association with the East German comrades ... the SED ". The station reported for the first time on the evening of August 17, 1956, the day of the verdict of the Constitutional Court and went with several broadcasts morning and evening the next day to control mode.

history

The name of the station was linked to the shortwave station in republican Spain, Deutscher Freiheitsender 29.8 .

The propaganda station, financed and organized by the GDR, had the first bars of the main theme of Beethoven's Ode to Joy and the slogan "This is the German freedom broadcaster 904 - the only broadcaster in the Federal Republic that is not under government control." Wolfgang Heinz , actor and later director of the Deutsches Theater Berlin . The sender's contact address since 1967 was: Postfach 248, A-1021 Vienna, Austria.

From 1959 to the mid-1960s: editorial office and studio in Berlin-Friedrichshagen

The DFS 904 program was initially produced under conspiratorial circumstances in a screened area of ​​the Nalepastraße radio station . However, the secrecy on the premises of the GDR radio could not be maintained for a long time. Therefore, in September 1956, the transmitter moved to the more remote Funkhaus Grünau , where all the necessary technical equipment was already in place. But even here the station only stayed until 1959 and moved to the new location at the Ravensteinmühle in the forest of Berlin-Friedrichshagen . There was an international journalism school with the appropriate technology. In the mid-1960s, the station moved its domicile from East Berlin to Bestensee near Königs Wusterhausen , where it stayed until it was dissolved in 1971.

The medium-wave transmitter Burg , which radiates into the Federal Republic of Germany , was in the district of Brehm von Burg (near Magdeburg) . An attempt was made to give the listeners the impression that the technical transmission systems were located in West Germany and were operated - illegally - from a mobile truck. Since the broadcasting stations of the Federal Republic of Germany played only little popular music in the 1960s, the station managed to find numerous regular listeners with a program specially aimed at young people. DFS 904, like its sister station, the Deutsche Soldatensender 935 (DSS 935), probably had the most listeners in the GDR itself in the mid-1960s.

Another “gimmick” of the DFS 904 were evening “secret messages” (so-called “lizards”), which were allegedly aimed at communists in West Germany. (Examples: "Message to calendar sheet: 'It's not Sunday every day.'", "Guinea pig: 'Today the eagle threatens.'"). In addition, "unmasked employees of the protection of the constitution " were occasionally mentioned with their name, profession and their addresses. It was later announced that the Ministry of State Security had commissioned these communications .

The first editor-in-chief of DFS 904 was from 1956 to 1958 the later head of the agitation department of the Central Committee of the SED, Rudolf Singer . In order to increase the station's credibility, the speakers used a western accent. The 15 editors, hired as employees of the motor transport, came mostly from the west. Most recently, Heinz Priess ( code name Robert, battalion commissioner elected from 1936 to 1939 for the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War ) headed the station as editor-in-chief for 13 years. In an interview, Priess later described the Deutsche Freiheitsender 904 as politically ineffective: “Nothing was set in motion. Only the music was well received. ”But the technical range of the station was also inadequate, mainly listeners in northern and western Germany were reached, in southern Germany reception of the station was hardly possible.

As early as the beginning of 1969, 30 minutes was broadcast three times a day. Finally, intra-party surveys showed that the audience had shrunk to a minimum. In contrast, there was an expense of over two million marks .

When Max Reimann joined the DKP, which was "newly constituted" in 1968, the illegal KPD had developed into a mere shell for the propaganda to lift the KPD ban, there was no reason to continue the station 904. On September 30, 1971 (DFS 904) and June 30, 1972 (DSS 935) the operation of both secret transmitters was stopped. In the West this was interpreted as a sign of the impending détente and included in the negotiations that had begun on the later basic treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR. The fall of Walter Ulbricht , a great advocate of the KPD , by Erich Honecker on May 3, 1971 , also belonged to the context of the time .

Other DFS employees were: Achim Becker (editor), Adolf Broch (editor), Christa Broch (sound engineer), Hans Canjé (editor), Emil Carlebach (chief spokesman), Erich Glückauf ( code name Rüdiger; representative of the Central Committee of the KPD), Hans Henning (broadcasting technician), Erich Jungmann (broadcasting line), Heinz Kampe (editor), Jupp Mallmann (editorial secretary), Oskar Neumann (responsible for the KPD politburo for the DFS 904), Friedrich Pospiech ( code name "Otto Stein"; editor) and Grete Thiele (editor). In 1962, a total of 22 employees including typists were employed by the DFS 904.

See also

literature

  • Christian Senne: The German freedom broadcaster 904. The voice of the KPD from 1956–1971 . In: Kulturation. 1/2004 ( kulturation.de )
  • Achim Becker, Hans Canjé: Not without a voice. On the day of the KPD ban, the 'Deutsche Freiheitsender 904' premiered. In: Junge Welt , August 21, 2006.
  • We rely on the power of the word. Interview with Hans Canjé. In: Junge Welt , August 26, 2006.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jürgen Wilke: Radio on a secret mission. The German freedom transmitter 904 and the German soldier transmitter 935 as instruments of the Cold War . In: Klaus Arnold, Christoph Classen (ed.): Between Pop and Propaganda, Radio in the GDR . 1st edition. Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-86153-343-X , p. 249-266 .