Funkerberg
The Funkerberg (formerly Windmühlenberg ) is an up to 67.5 meter high, partly wooded elevation in the northwest of Königs Wusterhausen in today's German state of Brandenburg . From 1911, the telegraph force of the German Army built extensive transmitter systems and a radio barracks on the approximately 130 hectare area .
On December 22nd, 1920, Germany's first radio program was broadcast here with a Christmas concert , which earned the Funkerberg the title of “cradle of radio”. In 1993, in memory of this event, the Königs Wusterhausen radio technology museum moved into one of the transmitter houses . Most of the buildings and technical facilities are listed . The team building and riding arena have been converted into the “Am Funkerberg” residential complex since 2014.
history
Beginnings as a radio station
In 1911, an airship and telegraph battalion began testing radio technology on what was then Windmühlenberg . The first mobile transmitters were set up on horse-drawn carts - and the necessary antennas were held in the air by balloons . In the course of 1911 it was decided to set up a first radio station. Huge antenna systems and a radio barracks were built here between 1913 and 1916. In addition to a large team building, the latter comprised various functional buildings for the stationed radio operators and the maintenance of the transmission systems, including a riding hall, horse stables, forge , vehicle hall and workshop. The architect of the building is not yet known by name.
The transmitter house 1 on the Funkerberg in Königs Wusterhausen is the oldest transmitter house in Germany. In 1916 it was put into operation as the "Central Radio Station of the Army". After the end of the First World War , the Deutsche Reichspost took over the first transmitter house in Germany in September 1919 and set up the main radio station for the Deutsche Reichspost here. A “business radio” was set up very quickly, with numerous stations broadcasting weather and stock market news as well as telegrams throughout Germany. Officials and employees of the Post moved into the former team building of the radio barracks with their families.
Funkerberg as the "cradle of broadcasting"
In addition to this commercial use, the Reichspostbeamten, at the suggestion of Dr. Hans Bredow made his first attempts at radio transmission in the summer of 1920. These reached their temporary climax with the broadcast of the historic Christmas concert on December 22nd, 1920. For the first time, speech and music were broadcast in a Christmas concert - radio was born. Since that day, the Funkerberg in Königs Wusterhausen has been known as the "cradle of broadcasting" in Germany.
Transmitter house 2
Due to the rapid development of radio at the beginning of the 1920s, new premises were quickly required on the Funkerberg. On this occasion, transmitter house 2 was put into operation in 1923. In the first few years, telegraph transmitters in particular with outputs of up to 50 kilowatts were operated here.
However, the transmitter house 2 became known through the transmitter 21 . This transmitter is a 100 kilowatt medium wave transmitter from the Telefunken company from 1932/1933, which was originally put into operation in Berlin-Tegel and broadcast the “ Berliner Welle ” program there .
After the end of the Second World War, the station came into Soviet possession, but was on French territory. He was the first radio station to broadcast the “Berliner Rundfunk” program. This was increasingly a thorn in the side of the western powers, and so the antenna of the transmitter was blown up under the pretext of building the airport in Tegel in December 1948. Previously, the French military administration approved three days to dismantle the transmitter - so the transmitter could be completely dismantled and brought to Königs Wusterhausen under great time pressure.
Only three and a half months later, the system - now as Sender 21 - resumed broadcasting, which was considered a great achievement. The performance was of high quality, because the transmitter was in operation at this point until 1992 and could thus be fully preserved and taken over into the museum's collection - placed under monument protection.
Transmitter house 3
Shortly after the completion of the transmitter house 2, the Reichspost began in 1924 with the construction of the transmitter house 3 on the terrain part B of the radio mountain in Königs Wusterhausen. After completion, the transmitter house received 3 high-performance telegraph transmitters to ensure the business broadcast and press broadcasting. Contemporary witnesses are the power supply systems with their marble panels that are still preserved today. With the construction of transmitter house 3 and the numerous new antenna systems around the 243-meter central tower, the spatial capacity of the radio mountain was reached, so that further development took place in the Zeesen transmitter station a few kilometers away .
The transmitter house 3 experienced major changes after the Second World War . At the end of 1945 the first 10-kilowatt long-wave transmitter was put into operation, broadcasting the Berlin radio program. In August 1946, a 100-kilowatt long-wave transmitter built by the Telefunken company went into operation and broadcast the “ Deutschlandsender ” program . This transmitter was operational until 1997 and is now - fully preserved - a listed building.
The transmitter 36 is located in transmitter house 3. This 70-kilowatt long-wave transmitter for frequencies around 100 kHz is practically self-made. The technicians of the radio office in Königs Wusterhausen built this transmitter with the support of the Central Radio and Television Office in Berlin (RFZ). In 1964 it was handed over for use and broadcast until 1992. This transmitter, which is unique in the world, is today an original contemporary witness.
From 1945 until the fall of the Berlin Wall
After the Red Army initially occupied the buildings and transmitters in 1945, the buildings were transferred to Deutsche Post in 1949 . In 1990 Deutsche Telekom took over the Funkerberg; Until 1997 the broadcasting was stopped for reasons of economy and environmental protection ( electrosmog ), the buildings were partly empty afterwards.
Königs Wusterhausen becomes "Broadcasting City"
One of the goals of the friends and supporters of the Königs Wusterhausen radio history was also to inseparably connect radio history with the name of the city. In particular, the persistent work of the “Sender Königs Wusterhausen” e. It is thanks to V. that the city council of Königs Wusterhausen took up the idea of founding member Peter Manteuffel and implemented it on August 25, 2008 with resolution 10-08-093.
In order to express the connection between Königs Wusterhausen and the development of broadcasting in Germany, the city council decided on August 25, 2008 to give Königs Wusterhausen the nickname “Broadcasting City”. On September 6, 2009, Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck and Mayor Stefan Ludwig chose Königs Wusterhausen as a broadcast city during the Brandenburg Castle Day.
Renovation and conversion of the barracks buildings
The team building and the former riding arena had been empty since 2000 and were left to decay. In 2011 the company Terraplan from Nuremberg, which specializes in the renovation of architectural monuments and is represented by business graduate Erik Roßnagel, acquired the building in order to convert it into 71 condominiums under the brand name "Am Funkerberg" . The riding arena was given the new house name " Quadrillenhalle " to remind of the importance of the formation ride at the army riding schools around 1900. The work was completed in 2016.
The Berlin architectural office raumwandler.de, the office for green planning Oehm & Herlan from Nuremberg and the Berlin interior designer Eugen Gehring are entrusted with the planning. Construction began in May 2014 and is expected to be completed in September 2015. The renovation of the former chamber building, the wash house and the workshops are also planned for the future .
Architecture and technical systems
Barracks building
The former radio barracks is located in the west of the Funkerberg area. Riding arena , team building, wash house , blacksmith shop, workshop and horse stables enclose a trapezoidal inner courtyard. As usual for the reform architecture of the time around 1900, the planners borrowed from historical architectural styles, in this case classicism . The buildings were designed uniformly: They received a clinker base ; the masonry above was provided with trickle plaster .
Crew building
Although it was a barracks complex, great importance was attached to a representative effect in the design of the building: three symmetrically arranged wings and over 100 meters wide longitudinal facades give the team building the appearance of a mansion or castle . The middle risalit is crowned by a flat triangular gable, the silhouette of the side wings enlivened dormers and dwelling houses . Details such as pilasters , cornices , entablature and portals were traced back to their basic geometric shapes and the monumentality of the building was thereby enhanced.
The plans envisage converting the inner courtyard into a park area and a recreation garden with a children's playground and to include the old deciduous trees as much as possible. As in 1915, the roofs of the buildings will again be covered with a beaver-tail crown , and the facades will be partially provided with balconies. The stairwells of the team building with tiles and parquet floors from the construction period are being restored; the other rooms, which were fundamentally changed after 1945, will be redesigned for residential use. In cooperation with the neighboring radio technology museum, the client is equipping the common rooms with exhibits on radio history such as historical radio sets .
Quadrille hall
The former riding hall of the barracks was given a roof with Polonceau-Wiegmann girders made of steel. The construction, developed independently by Camille Polonceau and Rudolf Wiegmann , has been popular in the construction of train stations and factories since the 1830s. With it it was possible to bridge large ceiling spans without supports. In riding arenas like on the Funkerberg this was of particular importance, as supports in the room would have irritated the horses during training.
As part of the renovation, the riding arena will be freed from the numerous additions and modifications made after 1945 and the historic Polonceau - Wiegmann trusses of the roof will be repaired. The milestones in engineering are intended to enrich the attic apartments as visible evidence of building history.
Antennas
The first antennas on the Funkerberg were held in the air with balloons. After the decision to build a permanent transmitter station on the Funkerberg, the construction of permanent antenna supports was soon started.
As early as 1916, five 150-meter-high steel truss masts were erected around transmitter house 1. A complicated foundation construction was used, through which the masts could be aligned with the help of turnbuckles. Just a few years later, this technology was outdated and the foundations that are still preserved today are the only witnesses of this technology. The antenna feed to transmitter house 1 was via four so-called counter towers, 30 meters high. In its heyday, there were over twenty transmission masts and transmission towers on the Funkerberg. The Königs Wusterhausen central tower deserves special attention.
Around the central tower were six transmission masts 210 meters high. After the collapse of the central tower, these 210-meter masts were practically unusable because the respective distances between them no longer matched the antennas used with the respective wavelength. So all the others except one mast were removed by blasting. The only transmission mast still standing is today the oldest relic of German broadcasting history - mast 17.
In 1994 a 67 m high cell phone tower was erected in precast concrete. Since September 1, 2005, a VHF transmitter has been added here with HitRadio SKW on 105.1 MHz (0.8 kW transmission power) . Today the tower is the only active transmitter location on the Funkerberg.
Transmitter and radio technology museum
On October 18, 1993, the association "Sender Königs Wusterhausen" was founded. V. with the aim of preserving the broadcasting history of Königs Wusterhausen and making it tangible for future generations. The cooperation with Abekom gGmbH, a company for employment promotion measures, began as early as 1994. The first result of this collaboration was presented in January 1996 - the first part of the transmitter and radio technology museum was opened in transmitter house 1. In the following years the museum was continuously expanded.
In 2005, the entire Funkerberg was owned by Deutsche Telekom AG . In addition to some DTAG operating rooms, the transmitter building 1 housed the transmitter and radio technology museum, which has grown significantly in recent years. In the transmitter houses 2 and 3 there was especially historical technology, but no longer an active radio transmitter. Another active use of the Funkerberg by Deutsche Telekom was not foreseeable.
The transmitter and radio technology museum had previously paid operating costs for the space used, but it was impossible to take on additional costs due to the income situation. So the lease expired in July 2005 and the museum had to be closed. This was followed by negotiations between Deutsche Telekom and the city of Königs Wusterhausen, as a result of which the city of Königs Wusterhausen took over the entire Funkerberg. In July 2007, the transmitter and radio technology museum was able to reopen. As of autumn 2009, the transmitter and radio technology museum has the following exhibition areas:
- Former broadcasting hall - 200 m² of broadcasting history, chronological presentation of the development of radio technology far beyond the borders of Königs Wusterhausen
- the Funkerberg model - the aerial forest of Königs Wusterhausen on a scale of 1: 300
- the transmitter SM8 / H1, a 250-kilowatt medium-wave transmitter, built at Funkwerk Köpenick
- the tube exhibition with a one-off collection of transmitter and receiver tubes, mostly German made from 1915 onwards
- Deutz VMA266, an operational 1000 HP diesel engine, built in 1935, the last of its type in the world
- Lorenz test room with transmitter 13 - a 20/5 kilowatt shortwave transmitter from C. Lorenz in a closed construction
- GWN 200-10 - the functional private branch exchange of the former radio office in Königs Wusterhausen
- the Hörby transmitter - a 100 kilowatt double output stage from Telefunken that is unique in the world
- Machine room with historical crane system, is used for events and traveling exhibitions
literature
- Kurt Adamy (Ed.): Königs Wusterhausen. An illustrated local and city history . Arenhövel, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-922912-40-0 .
- Wolfgang Buddrus: radio operator training at the radio school Königs Wusterhausen . 2009 ( ruegen-radio.org [PDF]).
- Konrad Dussel : German radio history. Radio in the Weimar Republic . 3. Edition. UVK, Konstanz 2010, ISBN 978-3-86764-231-6 .
Web links
- Entry in the monument database of the state of Brandenburg: Funkamt Königs Wusterhausen
- Entry in the monument database of the state of Brandenburg: Medium wave transmitter 21
- Entry in the monument database of the state of Brandenburg: Officer's casino
- Radio technology museum Königs Wusterhausen
Individual evidence
- ↑ bldam-brandenburg.de ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) List of monuments of the state of Brandenburg. District of Dahme-Spreewald. As of December 31, 2016.
- ^ Franziska Mohr: Life in the old barracks . In: Märkische Allgemeine . May 28, 2014 ( maz-online.de ).
- ↑ Quadrille Hall
- ^ A b Franziska Mohr: Barracks on Funkerberg becomes a residential building . In: Märkische Allgemeine . November 29, 2014 ( maz-online.de ).
- ↑ Funkerberg on the HitRadio SKW website, accessed on June 3, 2016
- ↑ Arne Wiechern: Königs Wusterhausen - entry at senderfotos.de, accessed on June 3, 2017
Coordinates: 52 ° 18 ′ 17.8 " N , 13 ° 36 ′ 46.8" E