Germany television
The Germany-Fernsehen GmbH was founded in haste holding company to the states at the Free TV company to participate (FFG) and thus an action before the Federal Constitutional Court to avoid.
Legal position
initial situation
Federal Chancellor Adenauer and his cabinet wanted a second television program that would broadcast nationwide and be subordinate to the federal government. It should be the private company Free Television Society . However, the cultural sovereignty lay with the states, so that they could destroy the plan with a successful lawsuit before the Federal Constitutional Court. But there was a gray area: The Deutsche Bundespost - and thus the federal government - had the right to issue broadcasting licenses. It could be argued that the federal government was responsible for broadcasting as a whole, but this was on shaky ground.
Attractants for the countries
In view of the legal situation, it was hoped that countries with a participation in the second program could be prevented from taking legal action. For this purpose, the Deutschland-Fernsehen GmbH was founded, in which the federal states were originally to hold 49% and the federal government with 51%. The FFG should be the most important, if not the only organizer of the program. However, the federal states rejected this approach. Nevertheless, on July 25, 1960, Adenauer as Federal Chancellor and Federal Justice Minister Fritz Schäffer as a private person and trustee for the federal states signed the partnership agreement of Deutschland-Fernsehen GmbH , and on August 1 it was entered in the Cologne Commercial Register. The federal states did not accept Schäffer, and the other ministers were not interested in the position. The statutes were changed on August 25, with the federal government taking over the state's share of DM 11,000.
activities
Broadcast licenses
On August 1, 1960, an application was made to the Deutsche Bundespost to allocate a television network, video and audio lines to January 1, 1961.
financing
The GmbH should finance itself through fees from the program organizer and thus ultimately from advertising income. For the start-up period, DM 23,000 were available from the Federal Chancellor's special disposal fund and DM 80,000 interest-free federal loans.
Court decision
legal action
The SPD-led federal states of Hamburg, Bremen, Lower Saxony and Hesse appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court between August 19, 1960 and September 19, 1960 , because they saw their cultural sovereignty violated. Because the preparations for the second program continued undeterred and the broadcast was due to start on January 1, 1961, an application was also made for an interim order, which the court issued on December 17, 1960. The FFG and with it Deutschland-Fernsehen GmbH were effectively at an end.
Federal Constitutional Court judgment
On February 28, 1961, the Federal Constitutional Court finally announced the verdict, the decisive statement of which was: “Telecommunications only begins with the transmission of the ready-to-broadcast audio and video signals from the radio studio to one or more transmitters (transmission by cables or by radio); it then includes the broadcast of the program and any subsequent technical processes up to the receipt of the program. The telecommunications system within the meaning of Art. 73 No. 7 GG includes the technical requirements, the regulation of which is essential for an orderly operation of the radio stations and the reception of their broadcasts ... "
After that, Deutschland-Fernseh GmbH was unconstitutional because the states are responsible for organizing broadcasting, while the federal government is only responsible for broadcasting technology. Thus, for the first time since the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, a clear dividing line was drawn between the broadcasting area and the organizer. The Federal Cabinet did not expect such a clear judgment; the defeat, together with the clumsy behavior during the construction of the Berlin Wall , contributed significantly to Adenauer's loss of power.
After the judgment, Deutschland-Fernsehen GmbH was dissolved. The total costs of 63,000 DM after the sale of the ready-made broadcast material were booked as an unscheduled expenditure in the federal budget - it was mainly conference fees. This money was not provided in any federal budget.
Initiative of the countries
With the ruling, the prime ministers of the plaintiff countries came under pressure, as a second full program was expected everywhere. One possibility was a second ARD program, which, however, would lead to strong regionalization. In addition, there was no majority in the CDU / CSU parliamentary group for an ARD offshoot. The federal states then decided on a joint second program on March 23, 1961, and on June 6, 1961 they signed the associated state treaty on “a non-profit institution under public law with the name: Second German Television ”. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate bought the Eschborn studio for the future ZDF on December 4, 1961 from the FFG.
From mid-1964 ( Bayerischer Rundfunk ) to the beginning of 1969 ( Südwest 3 ) the broadcasters of ARD set up their second television programs, so to speak, "through the back door" , which they, taking into account the use of the term "two" for ZDF, then called "The Third" . For this purpose, another one was seamlessly attached to the UHF frequency band of the ZDF (UHF band IV to K39) (UHF band V to K60), so that the third ARD television programs without any further modification on the television, with the same UHF converter and via the same antenna as for the ZDF.
Web links
- Audio of the press conference on June 27, 1959 : Federal Minister of the Interior Schröder presented the law establishing Deutschlandfunk, Deutsche Welle and Deutschland-Fernsehen. SWR2 archive radio .
- "28. February 1961: 'Deutschland-Fernsehen GmbH' ban " ( calendar sheet of Deutsche Welle )
Individual evidence
- ↑ "Wolfgang Brenner - The Federal Chancellor was fed up with it" . FAZ of March 27, 2013. Retrieved on March 27, 2013.