Wireless service AG

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The Drahtloser Dienst AG (Dradag) was a journalistic service provider for radio in the Weimar Republic , which was largely under the influence of the Reich Ministry of the Interior . It supplied the radio stations with political news. It was founded in 1923 and became part of the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG) in 1932 .

history

The Dradag emerged in October 1923 from the book and press company . While the literary and musical performances of the German hour , society for wireless instruction and entertainment should be responsible, it was the task of Dradag to produce and distribute the journalistic content. The two organizations were the only ones that initially received permission to send from the Reichspost . The Reichspost made a 51 percent stake in the respective regional broadcasting company a condition for further licenses. Behind the Dradag stood the Ministerialrat Kurt Häntzschel and the left-wing democratic politician Ernst Heilmann . The Reich Ministry of the Interior initially had no formal influence on Dradag, rather it relied on the goodwill of Häntzschel and Heilmann. The matter became a political issue and discussed at the highest level. In 1924, the Reich Minister of the Interior, Karl Jarres , demanded in the cabinet that the various possibilities of broadcasting "to use it to politically influence broad sections of the population" require a regulation that excludes abuse. On October 23, 1924, the cabinet agreed that the majority of Dradag's shares had to be held by the Reich Ministry of the Interior and that they had to hire an editor who was responsible for the Reich government . The Reich Ministry of the Interior received 51 percent of the shares. After several disputes, the remaining 49 percent went to various press organizations ( Reichsverband der Deutschen Presse : 12.4 percent, Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau : 12 percent, Telegraphen-Union : 12 percent, Rudolf Mosse publishing house : 6.3 percent and August Scherl publishing house : 6 , 3 percent).

The Supervisory Board had 26 members and was composed as follows:

  • Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG) (1 seat)
  • Reich government (2 seats)
  • Countries (8 seats)
  • Parties (7 seats)
  • Minority shareholders (8 seats)

On October 14, 1926, the board of directors elected the center politician Josef Räuscher as the responsible editor-in-chief . He began his service on December 1, 1926. In the course of the restructuring in the course of 1932, which should oust private influence from German broadcasting, Räuscher was dismissed on September 30, 1932. His successors were Walther Beumelberg as head of the wireless service and Hans Fritzsche as head of the news department. A decree of the Reich Ministry of the Interior Wilhelm von Gayl (DNVP) of September 24, 1932 dissolved the Dradag on October 1 of the same year. From then on it was only a department within the RRG. In addition to the procurement of news, the wireless service was also responsible for "the preparation and dissemination of lectures and other communications on the radio which the Reich Government considers appropriate and necessary to explain its goals and inform the public about its activities." The nationalization of the radio organizations at the end of the Weimar Republic made it easier for the National Socialists to quickly turn radio into a means of propaganda after the transfer of power on January 30, 1933 . The wireless service reported on January 30th: "The leader of the National Socialists, Adolf Hitler , has just been appointed Reich Chancellor by the President of the Reich , based on a lengthy meeting that the President had this morning with Mr. Hitler and Mr. von Papen ."

program

The Dradag delivered five newscasts a day. Not all of these were taken over by the individual regional broadcasting companies. In the late 1920s, none of the broadcasters broadcast more than three Dradag news programs. In addition, the news was only broadcast during the low-listening hours at noon and after 10 p.m.

See also

literature

  • Rainer Krawitz: The history of the wireless service AG 1923-1933 , dissertation, University of Cologne 1979
  • Ulrich Heitger: From time signals to political means of leadership. Development tendencies and structures of the news programs of the radio in the Weimar Republic 1923-1932. LIT Verlag, Münster 2003. ISBN 3-8258-6853-2

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dussel, Konrad (2010): Deutsche Rundfunkgeschichte. 3rd revised edition. UVK, Konstanz, p. 34.
  2. ↑ See Dussel, Konrad (2010): p. 35.
  3. ↑ Quoted from: Lerg, Winfried B. (1980): Rundfunkpolitik in der Weimarer Republik. dtv, Munich, p. 480.
  4. ↑ See Konrad Dussel, 2010, p. 71.
  5. ↑ Quoted from: Diller, Ansgar (1980): Rundfunkpolitik im Third Reich. dtv, Munich, p. 56.
  6. ↑ See Dussel, Konrad (2010): p. 52f.