Snapshot (radio play)

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Snapshots were a series of short radio plays on radio in the GDR that were around ten to fifteen minutes long and often related to current social events. In the program since 1970 , the snapshots have taken on an increasingly broad space over the years. They also include many radio plays written by listeners that a state competition for short radio plays produced.

Listener competition

In 1972 , a competition for “short radio plays by listeners” took place for the first time under the title Password: Snapshot . Announced in the sense of a consistent implementation of Bertolt Brecht's radio theory from 1930 , in which it says, “the radio would be the greatest conceivable communication apparatus in public life (...) if it knew not only to transmit but also to receive, that is not only hear the listener, but also make them speak (...). The radio would (...) have to come out of the supplier structure and organize the listener as a supplier ”.

In the first year, a total of 900 “radio play authors from the people” took part in the competition. Forty of the short radio plays submitted were selected, produced and also broadcast.

Short radio plays on GDR radio

Short radio plays have been broadcast on radio in the GDR with increasing frequency since the early 1970s . Since they were not tied to fixed evening dates like longer radio plays, but could also be broadcast in magazine programs, in the morning or afternoon programs, they reached a larger audience than the full-length audiences, which at that time were mostly only consumed by enthusiasts due to the competition from television Radio drama.

The popularity of the snapshots was also reflected in the fact that listeners felt encouraged to write short radio plays themselves and send them to the radio, which gave rise to the aforementioned competition in 1972. The radio plays of the award winners were staged under professional radio conditions under the leadership of experienced dramaturges and directors, often with well-known speakers, and broadcast on the radio. Some were later published on records of the GDR label for educational means SCHOLA .

It emerged u. a. the short radio plays The General Comes (first broadcast: July 2, 1973) by Horst Dembny, then a carpenter, Das Duell (first broadcast: June 3, 1972) by Peter Löw, former overhead line fitter, and ... that I am understood (first broadcast: 8 June 1972) June 1972) by Gerhard Dallmann , in which the voices of the workers and the common citizen are convincingly loud and which - as is typical for most of the radio plays from this series - represent their concerns in a straight line without elaborate flourishes or struggles for originality.

The Password: Snapshot competition later became a permanent feature of the GDR radio. The last production series of “Short radio plays by listeners” went on air in 1989 under this title .

It is unclear to what extent the snapshots created by listeners can give a picture of the actual realities and attitudes to life in the GDR and to what extent the state radio - even if it is only through the selection of the pieces to be broadcast - also uses or responds to the listener competition for propaganda purposes. abused.

literature

  • Peter Gugisch : "Password: snapshot. Experiences with the short radio play on radio in the GDR". In: Rundfunk und Fernsehen (Prague), 1978, issue 3, pp. 3–5.