Ozone (TV show)

Television broadcast
Original title	OZONE OZONE on the go
Country of production	Germany
original language	German
Year (s)	1989-2016
Production company	Broadcasting Berlin-Brandenburg
length	30 minutes
genre	magazine
First broadcast	November 21, 1989 on GDR television

OZON was an environmental and science broadcast by Rundfunk Berlin Brandenburg (RBB). Since April 1990 she has moderated Hellmuth Henneberg . In May 2010, the OZON series started as a monothematic reportage program under the name OZON on the go .

history

OZON was one of the oldest German-language environmental and science programs and was an achievement of the protests in the GDR in 1989. The first OZON program entitled “Air to Breathe” was broadcast on November 21, 1989 at 9:00 pm on GDR television and moderated by Harro Hess , science journalist at Radio DDR . It was about the release of environmental data, the bad air in cities like Magdeburg and Dresden and the Potsdam Environment Night . Studio guests were Matthias Platzeck , engineer for communal hygiene in Potsdam, Reimar Gilsenbach , writer from Brodowin, Rolf Caspar, secretary of the Society for Nature and Environment in the Kulturbund , Prof. Knoch, environmental medicine in Dresden, and Sigrid Rothe, member of the environmental group "Oase", of the Evangelical Church of Erfurt.

The broadcast of the program was a reaction of the journalistic management of GDR television to a protest article published by the newspaper Bauernecho on November 9, 1989, before the Wall came down. In it, the Berlin-Hellersdorf district board of the farmers' party demanded that the forbidden series “Circles” be reintroduced into the program and turned into a real environmental program. The article was launched by agricultural scientist Reiner Sermann after contacting the editorial team.

Since 1978, under the liberal editor-in-chief Hans Günther, a small alliance of non-party “green” journalists had emerged in the agriculture sector of GDR television. Among them were the editors Riamara and Hartmut Sommerschuh and the cameraman Werner Peter. In a secret alliance with critical scientists and conservationists such as Michael Succow , Otto Rindt , Erna Kretschmann and Kurt Kretschmann , they gradually succeeded in opening a window for ecological issues.

Although they were eyed with suspicion, films about the recultivation problems of the brown coal landscapes, about alternative energies, about the lack of humus in agriculture and the nature conservation pioneers of the GDR were shown in good evening seats.

Previous consignment loops

At the end of 1983, the agricultural magazine “Circles” appeared in the second program on GDR television. Here, too, the same journalists pushed through environmental issues. Over 40 articles were made on ecological problems in GDR agriculture. This included articles on wind and water erosion , eutrophication of watercourses, harmful compaction of the soil, the drainage of moors or overly large arable land.

Hartmut Sommerschuh's contacts to the opposition environmental movement, his participation in the eco-fair in Köpenick and the meeting of urban ecology groups around Matthias Platzeck under the patronage of the Society for Nature and the Environment in Potsdam were registered by the State Security as “extremely harmful to GDR television ". In August 1989, after a broadcast by the authors Ernst-Alfred Müller and Jochen Wieczorek about the forest damage in Thuringia and the Ore Mountains, political bureau member Werner Krolikowski banned it. Although the editorial team was dissolved, the editors Uta Greschner, Martina Hasselmann, Hartmut Sommerschuh, the cameraman Werner Peter and the director Peter Schaaf sent a concept for an environmental series to the People's Chamber of the GDR. Calls for help were also sent to the Association of Journalists, the Association of Film and Television Professionals and the ADN news agency . From 1990 OZON ran on German television . From 1992 the director of the newly founded Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg (ORB), Michael Albrecht, took OZON into his program as one of the few series.

Other environmental broadcasts

In addition to GLOBUS , Natur & Umwelt (ARD), ZDF.umwelt and OZON, other environmental magazines appeared on television after the 1992 Riogipfel. At the end of January 1992 the private broadcaster Sat.1 started five to twelve with Petra Kelly as the presenter and Deutsche Welle launched Noah magazine. In 1993 “weed” began on Bavarian radio. By 1997 the WDR environmental magazine Dschungel with Jean Pütz was added to West 3 and Biotop at MDR .

After 2003, many of these rows disappeared again. The jungle and the hobby counter with Jean Pütz were also deleted. In 2004, W for knowledge was decided and Globus was removed for it. Although since 2000 the magazine for research and the environment has moved away from “alarmism” and into “encouragement”, has broken away from old enemy images, was often “refreshingly positive” and the quota demanded by ARD was right to the end.

Until the 1990s, environmental journalism created political pressure on legislators and industry, supported by a broad eco-protest movement ( Greenpeace ) and a growing political lobby (Die Grünen). Topics such as forest dieback , climate change , alternative energies , sustainable forestry and agriculture were brought into society and placed on the political agenda.

The science and environmental journalists who were influenced by the 1970s and 1980s such as Horst Stern , Hans Lechleitner from Bayerischer Rundfunk and Alfred Thorwart from WDR saw themselves as ARD political journalists. They had a hard time with smooth, high-quota infotainment. Their magazines did not follow the trend towards ecotainment , according to a scientific study by the Institute for Journalism at the Free University of Berlin in 1997. Like Volker Angres from the ZDF.Umwelt series, Hellmuth Henneberg as moderator of OZON and the responsible editors Heiderose Häsler and Hartmut Sommerschuh followed this example.

Repeated rescue through protests

In 1993, the ORB also saw for the first time that environmental issues could be covered by other programs. However, accidental award ceremonies repeatedly saved the program OZON from cancellation ideas. With the merger of the Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) and the ORB to form RBB Fernsehen in 2003, the question arose of how to proceed with the two science series Einstein (SFB), Wissenschaftsmagazin (ORB) and the environmental magazine OZON (ORB). It was decided to start over from scratch. But the publication of these plans sparked a chain of protests for the preservation of OZONE. At the end of November 2003, the Brandenburg State Members' Assembly of the Berlin Green League published an appeal to the new RBB. Almost all other German environmental organizations followed. But artists 'associations, the Protestant Church, the Berlin Tenants' Association, scientists, institutes, the Brandenburg Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment, nature conservationists and individuals also joined. Ultimately, the RBB decided to keep OZON and broadcast it as a new magazine for science and the environment.

On November 30, 2004, the old environmental series said goodbye and started on January 12, 2005 as a magazine for science and the environment on a new slot on Wednesdays at 9:45 p.m. Hellmuth Hennberg remained a moderator. The gain in scientific topics enriched the profile, but was also at the expense of critical contributions. At the end of 2009, the RBB announced the discontinuation of the programs Berliner Nacht-Taxe, Filmvorführer and the magazine Ozon because of the excess of magazines. Again there was public protest. This time, the alliance of Potsdam's scientific institutions PRO Wissen, but also the Brandenburg Research Minister, in addition to the environmental associations , demanded that OZON be retained. On May 3, 2010 OZON started with the episode Sleepless around Schönefeld - how sick does aircraft noise? now on the move as the monothematic format OZON. Since then, the half-hour program has been broadcast once a month on Mondays at 10:15 p.m. However, in September 2016 it was replaced by the new rbb Wissen series.

Awards

• 1992 Journalist Award of the BUND The Green Branch
• 1994 Journalism Prize from the German Environmental Foundation
• 1997 Hans Klose Prize from the Alfred Toepfer Foundation FVS Hamburg to editor-in-chief Hartmut Sommerschuh
• 2000 Bruno H. Schubert Prize for the film "Forbidden Wilderness" about the return of nature to the disused Lusatian opencast mines
• 2002 DUH Environment Media Prize
• 2003 Environmental Journalist Prize from NABU Brandenburg
• 2004 German Monument Preservation Prize for the three-part series “Rescue of the field stone, clay and brick houses” in Brandenburg
• 2008 Honorary Prize from the Berlin Nature Conservation Foundation
• 2011 Audience Award of the Brandenburg Festival Ökofilmtour 2011

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung: Politicians and scientists protest against the format change of the RBB magazine "Ozon" at prowissen-potsdam.de, January 21, 2010
2. ↑ Press release of the Green League: For the preservation of the science and environmental magazine Ozon - against a change of the transmission format ( Memento of the original from March 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Information Service Science: Film about BfN - Research projects receives the Bruno H. Schubert Prize
4. ^ Honorary award from the Berlin Nature Conservation Foundation for the magazine "OZON - From Science and Environment" , rbb-online