Transmitter Königs Wusterhausen

Transmitter Königs Wusterhausen
The only remaining 210 m transmission mast ("Mast 17") on the Funkerberg
Basic data
Place:	King Wusterhausen
Country:	Brandenburg
Country:	Germany
Altitude :	68  m above sea level NHN
Coordinates: 52 ° 18 ′ 18.7 ″  N , 13 ° 37 ′ 1.2 ″  E
Use:	Telecommunication system
Accessibility:	Transmission system not accessible to the public
Owner :	City of Königs Wusterhausen
Data on the transmission system
Number of towers / masts:	1
Height of the towers / masts :	210  m , 67 m
Construction time:	1916
Operating time:	since 1916
Last modification (antenna) :	2009
Last modification (transmitter) :	Summer 1995
Wavebands :	LW transmitter , FM transmitter
Send type:	Cellular
Further data Historic transmitter: German Army 1916–1919: Use: Military use Call sign: LP German Reichspost 1919–1925: Use: wireless message service ( Telegraphy ), radio special services, wireless telephony , radio stations Call sign: AFL to AFT, AFV, AFW, AFY Waveband: LW transmitter Konigs Wusterhausen transmitter Broadcast: LW broadcast Start broadcasting: December 22, 1920 German Reichspost 1925–1945: Waveband: LW transmitter , MW transmitter Konigs Wusterhausen transmitter , KW transmitter Broadcast: LW broadcast , MW broadcast , KW broadcast after 1945: Waveband (additional): VLF transmitter Konigs Wusterhausen transmitter Start of VLF operation: 1961 Shutdown : Summer 1995 (except cellular)
Position map
Transmitter Königs Wusterhausen

The transmitter in Königs Wusterhausen on the Funkerberg in the north of Königs Wusterhausen in Brandenburg was one of the first broadcasting facilities in Germany . Broadcasting began in 1915 and lasted until the summer of 1995. The technical systems that still exist can be viewed along with other exhibits in a museum that has been set up there since the 1990s .

From the beginning of radio in 1908 to 1932

In 1908 the first radio attempts were made with mobile radio stations from Windmühlenberg, which later became Funkerberg.

In 1916, the Königs Wusterhausen transmitter went into operation as a military radio station with the call sign LP (after the first station leader Rittmeister von Lepel) with four arc transmitters and belonged to the army until the end of the First World War .

In 1917, Dr. Hans Bredow with Dr. Alexander Meißner and Egbert von Lepel first attempts with tube transmitters and feedback receivers on the western front .

Civil use

On September 27, 1919, the Deutsche Reichspost became the owner of the transmission system, which it expanded over the following years for the main telegraph office in Berlin , Oranienburger Strasse 73-76. With four transmitters, the system was now used as the main radio station for the wireless telegram service. It served both domestic and international traffic. In addition to Italy and Austria, the latter included the states of Northeast , East and Southeast Europe . The call signs of the stations were now AFL to AFT as well as AFV, AFW and AFY .

In addition to the telegram service, the main radio station sent weather reports several times a day for all airports and radio stations of the air traffic control service in Germany via its antennas . It also distributed other special radio services : the press broadcast to subscribers in the German Reich and the wireless business broadcast service for business news . In 1922, the launched economic broadcasting service with messages about the markets, price trends, foreign exchange and securities -courses of banking and commercial buildings, large farms, cooperatives of purchase and sale of agricultural products, etc., by the express service for official and private business intelligence (express service) were made available.

Main radio reception center Zehlendorf

The main radio reception center serving Königs Wusterhausen was located in the south-western Berlin district of Zehlendorf (incorporated in 1920) on the Wannseebahn . Both were connected to the main telegraph office in Berlin via telegraph or telephony lines, as were the major radio stations in Eilvese and Nauen (including the Nauen receiving station in Geltow ). The latter served together with Königs Wusterhausen and Zehlendorf as well as the coastal radio stations , the international telegram traffic of Germany.

At that time, frame antennas aligned in the four cardinal directions , supported by 27 m high wooden masts, picked up the telegraphic signals in Zehlendorf . In order to avoid mutual interference, they were then forwarded via goniometer circuits to each of the 20 Audion devices, which were distributed over eight reception houses.

Sunday concerts

The Reichspost first attempted to transmit speech and music from Königswusterhausen at the beginning of 1920 ( wireless telephony on the wavelength of 1300 m, and radio on the wavelengths 2525, 2900 and 4000 m.) The first radio broadcasts were the Christmas concert on May 22nd. December 1920 and the Easter concert on March 23, 1921. Regular broadcasts began with the Sunday concerts, which took place on the initiative of the post office officials, who played pieces of music on their private instruments.

The transfer of the old telephone and radio broadcasts beginning of 1920 happened yet, by the imperial post by the then C. Lorenz AG , provided arc transmission technology because the mail initially was not a separate sound transmitter available. Since the Lorenz company already had such a Poulsen arc transmitter in operation in its Eberswalde test radio station , the Lorenz engineers responsible for the technology (including Felix Gerth and Leo Pungs ) were able to pass on their experience from Eberswalde . After private reception was officially banned in Germany until 1923, the waves for radio for entertainment and instruction opened on October 29, 1923, or as it was later called: entertainment radio .

Expansion from 1925

Construction work on the steel lattice tower (1925)

In 1925, 20 transmitters from different systems were in use, some of them simultaneously. Both in terms of the actual transmission source (either machine , arc or tube transmitters equipped with electron tubes) and the range with the corresponding transmission power (from 0.2 to 50  kW ) everything was included. At the end of the year, the first German broadcaster from Königs Wusterhausen began broadcasting a program via a 5 kW transmitter.

To increase the total transmission power, which had previously been transmitted by radio masts at heights between 100 (2 masts) 150 m (5 masts) and 7 masts of 210 m, a new, much larger radio mast was under construction for 1925. The 243 meter high central tower  - a free-standing steel lattice tower - affectionately called the "fat one" by the locals.

Soon the space on the mountain was no longer sufficient and the Reichspost had additional systems built in Zeesen, about 5 km further south-east, for the Deutschlandsender II with 60 kW and the first shortwave transmitter .

In 1926 the third broadcasting house was built and two 10 kW tube transmitters and three 40 kW machine transmitters for news services and Germany's I station with an output of 5 kW were put into operation. Deutsche Welle's program begins on January 7, 1926.

The transmitter after the Second World War

After the Second World War , all facilities in Zeesen and numerous systems on the Funkerberg had to be dismantled. However, some new transmitters were also installed on the Funkerberg, including a 100 kW long-wave transmitter that went into operation in August 1946 and served as a reserve for the Zehlendorf transmitter until 1992 .

On December 16, 1948, the French occupation forces had the mast of the Tegel transmitter blown up because of the risk to air traffic at the new Tegel Airport . The intact medium-wave transmitter was taken to Königs Wusterhausen by the Soviet technicians and put into operation there on March 20, 1949. Until 1985 the Soviet military program "Volga" was broadcast.

1959 Start of work on the longitudinal wave transmitter, the commissioning of the 20 kW stage took place in 1961 and in 1963 the completion with 70 kW output.

On November 13, 1972, the central tower , which carried a T-antenna together with the 210-meter transmission masts still in place , collapsed during the hurricane in Quimburga .

Technical museum instead of broadcasting since 1995

After reunification , broadcasting was gradually reduced. Since the late 1990s, transmission has only been carried out from a 67 meter high cell phone tower that was built in 1994. A 210-meter-high transmission mast equipped with two long-wire antennas is now a technical monument . The regular broadcasting of the broadcasting station Königs Wusterhausen apart from the mobile radio ended in summer 1995. The remaining technical facilities on the Funkerberg serve as broadcasting museum Königs Wusterhausen . The 210 meter high mast 17 on the Funkerberg was completely overhauled in 2009. In July 2016, the Christmas program from 1920 was awarded a plaque as a technical milestone by the IEEE , which made the system internationally known.

Remarks

1. ↑ not identical to the Zehlendorf transmitter built in Zehlendorf near Oranienburg in the 1930s
2. ↑ later to distinguish Germany station I called
3. ↑ today part of Königs Wusterhausen

literature

• Gerd Klawitter: 100 years of radio technology in Germany - radio stations around Berlin. ISBN 3-89685-500-X , pp. 61-78.

Web links

Commons : radio tower Königs Wusterhausen  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• History of the Funkerberg

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Official brochure of the "Transmitter and Radio Technology Museum Königs Wusterhausen"
2. ↑ Knut Berger: Hello! Hello! Here Eberswalde! The experimental station for wireless telegraphy in Eberswalde (= City of Eberswalde [Hrsg.]: Local history contributions . Issue 4). Eberswalde 1998, p. 55-56 .
3. ^ F. Banneitz (Ed.): Pocket book of wireless telegraphy and telephony . Julius Springer Verlag, Berlin 1927, p. 1045 ff .
4. ↑ Joachim Beckh: Blitz & Anker. Information technology - history & background . tape 1 . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2005, ISBN 3-8334-2996-8 , pp. 353 .
5. ^ German Society for Post and Telecommunication History (ed.): Post and Telecommunication History . tape 4 . Bonn 1998, p. 77 .
6. ↑ ^{a b} The realm of technology. The new radio tower in Königswusterhausen . In: The post from Germany . No. 27/28 , July 11, 1925, pp. 4 ( zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de [accessed on June 8, 2019]).
7. ↑ Funkerberg Königs Wusterhausen becomes a milestone in the history of technology. In: museum.funkerberg.de. Retrieved June 8, 2019 .