Directional radio network of the party

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The party's directional radio network , also known as the narrowband radio network or simply RFN , was superimposed in the GDR as a radio relay network over the wired telecommunications connections used by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). It existed independently of all Deutsche Post facilities . Erected in two network levels, all district and district leaderships of the party were recorded in the network. The communication network emerged as a result of the popular uprising on June 17, 1953 in the GDR. Radio link devices with a small number of channels (bandwidth up to 24 channels) from the VEB RAFENA plant in Radeberg secured the connections in all organized directions. It was designed, calculated, built and operated under the responsibility of the SED. A party-owned company , Fundament GmbH, was used to set it up. It was neither a network of the Ministry of the Interior nor the National Defense Council of the GDR . Most of the technical staff was trained at the technical school of the telecommunications department of the Central Committee of the SED in Brandenburg an der Havel .

Structure of the network

The network was GDR-wide, from the SED Central Committee in Berlin to the last rural district . Network level 1 recorded all district leaderships, network level 2 all district leaderships of the party. For each district of the GDR, a district radio control center was set up, away from city centers and industrial conurbations . The district radio control centers were institutions of the respective district leadership of the party. The management and technical staff were their employees. In the phase of its establishment there was no cooperation with the NVA . Connections to Berlin, to the district management and to the districts were organized by the district radio control centers. The existence of the network was subject to the strictest secrecy. All towers were fenced in and guarded by armed workers from the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR. The telecommunications department of the Central Committee was responsible for the network.

Installation of the district radio control centers (BzRFuZ)

Former district radio control center Halle (Saale) of the party

Initially in makeshift facilities, from the end of the 1950s in the so-called A towers . All BzRFuZ were designated as A1 objects. The assignment of the district key number defined its affiliation to the district, e.g. B. the BzRFuZ Halle (Saale) with the number 08A1. In addition to the towers for the BzRFuZ, further towers for relay stations were built within a district . It was not possible to establish direct connections to the remote stations in all directions due to the radio range or the lack of a quasi-optical view . In such areas (e.g. Thuringian Forest ) the so-called passive directional radio diversion was also practiced.

Numbering of the radio relay stations

A uniform system for numbering the radio relay stations was implemented in the network. It recorded all district radio control centers (A1 objects), the directional radio terminals at the party's district management, manned and unmanned relay stations. A district key number was assigned to each property depending on the location. Thus z. B. from the A1 property on the Petersberg the district radio control center Halle (Saale) with the identifier 08A1. All objects within a district had the same district key number. They differed only in the letter and the assigned consecutive number, 08A2, 08A3… n. The 08A2 was z. B. a manned relay station, the 08B2 an unmanned (only technically secured) and the 08C2 a passive radio relay. Subsequent users of the network were included in this system.

Co-users of the network

Principle scheme (excerpt) of the RFN of the party and the NVA

In the second half of the 1960s, the National People's Army (NVA) appeared as a co-user on the network. An agreement between the Central Committee of the SED and the Ministry of National Defense (MfNV) made this possible. Changed leadership structures and the realignment of tasks of the territorial organs in a possible war required an adjustment of the leadership and above all the leadership connections down to the bottom. Extensive investments by the NVA served this purpose . New A-towers were built, e.g. B. on the Sorgeberg near Machern, on the Keulenberg near Usadel and the object of the radio station built in 1936 in Stülpe was rebuilt. Deutsche Post was no longer interested in this property; the " Petkus " radio tower was available to it. Investments were made in structural extensions of the party's BzRFuZ; directional radio, adaptation and switching technology was provided in its towers. In addition to the party's network, a network of the NVA went into operation at the end of the 1960s. The inventory consisted of directional radio links that were organized in a star shape from the main radio control center Stülpe, the area radio control centers north at Usadel and south near Machern to the district radio control centers of the party and to special objects of the NVA. The latter were bars of associations , the military districts and commands from covered prepared implementing agencies and military district commands. One of the special objects was the MfNV with a terminal, installed in the main message center of the Ministry of National Defense . The military district commands use the access to the radio relay network via the district leadership of the party.

In both networks, telephone and telex connections were automatically established by the authorized subscribers dialing appropriate numbers. Synchronized numbers made dialing easier. In the NVA's directional radio network in particular, in addition to the dial-up connections, a defined number of channels were switched between the management levels of prepared command posts (special objects). The channels were in constant readiness for use as encrypted connections. The transition from one network to the other was technically prepared and based on the exchange of signals.

Enlightenment of the networks

Already in the mid-1960s began communications intelligence of the army of the Bundeswehr with the clarification of the networks. The exchange of information was carried out in an open regime. Encryption technology was not used. The recorded signals of the networks prompted the creation of so-called UHF recording sets to "cut". These activities did not go unnoticed and led to the use of the networks being severely restricted. The number of authorized users has been significantly reduced. With the establishment and expansion of the "integrated staff network of the party and state leadership and the armed organs of the GDR", the so-called special network 1 (S 1), the directional radio networks lost their importance in daily communication for radio stations. Preferably they made their connections in S 1. According to a party resolution, the networks were handed over to Deutsche Post free of charge on January 1, 1984. The continued use of a relatively high number of switched reserve channels to prepared command posts of the NVA was secured through an agreement between the NVA and Deutsche Post . They were used to transmit encrypted information in higher levels of combat readiness .

A new directional radio network planned for the second half of the 1980s for the central control areas using encryption technology and high bandwidth (up to 1200 channels) was postponed by the National Defense Council to the first half of the 1990s due to the difficult economic situation. The planned total investment in basic funds and construction investments in the amount of around 40 million marks of the GDR was made available to the economy. However, this would only have been the NVA part of the planned expansion of the radio link network. In total, the budget for the reconstruction of the RFN amounted to around 510 million GDR marks.

After reunification

With the reunification of Germany , the networks and all real estate went to the Deutsche Bundespost . In the course of the modernization of the telecommunications networks in the new federal states, work in the radio relay networks was stopped. The A-towers were cleared out, gutted and put to new use. Operating rooms and antenna carriers became facilities for the providers of cellular networks .

photos

  • from the former directional radio networks of the party and NVA

  • Operating building of the main radio control center (HptRFuZ) of the NVA

  • Antenna carrier in the HptRFuZ of the NVA

  • Socket plate with information on the directional radio directions operated in the HptRFuZ of the NVA

  • Telecommunication tower (A tower) of the party's former district radio control center in Dresden-Gompitz

  • Former job of the dispatchers in the party's district radio control centers

  • Telephone exchange and carrier frequency technology of the NVA in a district radio central of the party

  • The former area radio control center north in the directional radio network of the NVA

  • The former Suhl district radio control center of the party (SED) on the Schneekopf

  • Extract from the measurement protocol of a radio link from 1979

literature

  • Joachim Kampe: Wostok - the news center in the center of the military power of the GDR. ISBN 3-932566-60-2
  • Hans-Werner Deim, Hans-Georg Kampe, Joachim Kampe, Wolfgang Schubert: The military security of the GDR in the Cold War , ISBN 978-3-932566-80-6
  • Walter Paduch: Essays on the history of the National People's Army. News and air traffic control troops 1956–1990 , Interest Group History of the Strausberger Workers' Movement e. V., self-published by Dr. Horst Klein, Strausberg.
  • Patrick Wagner, Peter-Hermann Rentsch: On behalf of the SED - Research on the history of the radio network of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , self-published, 2019, ISBN 978-9-463982-41-2 .

Web links

Commons : Directional radio network of the SED  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ministry for National Defense of the GDR / main news center: Annex to the telephone directory of the Strausberg location VVS-No .: A 594 942 from March 1, 1989 (for telephone subscribers with long-distance dialing and radio relay authorization) pp. 7–8.
  2. ↑ Table of Contents