Gleiwitz transmitter

further data about the tower:
Antenna mast height :	8 m
Historic transmitter:
Waveband:	AM station
Broadcast:	MW broadcasting
Start of building:	August 1, 1934
Commissioning :	December 23, 1935
Transmission power :	5 kW
Transmission frequency (–1945):	1231 kHz
other additional data:
Opening museum:	January 1, 2005

Position map

The transmitter Gleiwitz ( Polish Radiostacja Gliwicka ) is a former radio station in Gliwice - Szobiszowice (formerly Gleiwitz-Petersdorf) in the Polish Voivodeship of Silesia . Its 118 meter high transmission tower made of larch wood is the tallest wooden tower in the world today . The transmitter served mainly as a relay station for the Silesian Radio Hour based in Breslau , which was called Reichssender Breslau from April 1934 in the course of the synchronization . Due to the bogus attack on the transmitter on the eve of the Second World War , it is an important Polish place of remembrance . Since 2005, is located in the premises of the radio station, the department of the Museum Gliwice for radio history and media art .

History of the plant

The first radio station in Gliwice went into operation on November 15, 1925 on Raudener Strasse. This used a T-antenna attached to two 75 meter high steel towers . In 1928 the transmission power was increased, but it soon no longer met the requirements. Therefore, from August 1, 1934 to December 23, 1935, a new transmitter was built on Tarnowitzer Landstrasse (today ulica Tarnogórska 129 ).

Local programs continued to be produced in the original building, which were transmitted via an underground cable to the new location about 5 km to the northeast and broadcast from there.

Fictitious attack on the eve of World War II

As part of the Tannenberg operation , SS and SD men staged several border violations by Poland from August 22, 1939, including an attack on the transmitter by Polish soldiers on August 31 . Overall, these served as a propaganda justification for the attack on Poland , which began a few hours after the attack in Gliwice; Contrary to popular belief, this was not explicitly mentioned as a reason for war. Regardless of this, the station in Poland is, alongside the Westerplatte and the Polish Post Office in Gdansk, a place of remembrance for the beginning of the Second World War .

Post-war use

Unlike many others in Germany and the areas occupied by it, the transmitter system survived the war almost unscathed. After the previously German areas east of Oder and Lausitzer Neisse , to which Gleiwitz also belonged, had been placed under the administration of the People's Republic of Poland as a result of the Potsdam Agreement , the plant was put back into operation on October 4, 1945 under the Soviet- controlled Polish government . Until 1950 it served as the main transmitter for the broadcast of Radio Katowice on medium wave, from 1955 still as a reserve transmitter. Then a new transmitter in Ruda Śląska took over this function completely.

In addition, the facility was used until the mid-1950s, against the background of the Cold War and a. to interfere with the reception of Radio Vatican , Radio Belgrade and the Polish program broadcast on medium wave by Radio Free Europe in Holzkirchen .

The interior was later used for the production of radio parts.

The penultimate owner of the property was Telekomunikacja Polska SA , which it sold to the city of Gliwice in 2002. On January 1, 2005, it opened one of the four locations of the Gliwice City Museum - the Muzeum Historii Radia i Sztuki Mediów - Radiostacja Gliwice (Museum of Radio History and Media Art - Transmitter Gleiwitz), which shows, among other things, the transmitter's old radio technology and the documented the staged raid of 1939.

In 2009 the complex was renovated. Between the buildings and the tower a park with u. a. created two water basins and installed an illumination. The area around the building is largely in its original condition. The column decorated with oak leaves in front of the transmitter building and the gate to the transmitter building have also been preserved.

The former studio building from 1925 (today Radiowa Street ) is now used as a hospital.

Transmission tower

Wooden tower (2009)

The transmission tower was built together with the new transmission system in 1935 as a radio tower made of wood . Including the 8 meter high antenna mast, it reaches a height of 118 meters. Since its construction was reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower , it was nicknamed the Silesian Eiffel Tower .

The tower, manufactured by Christoph & Unmack AG in Niesky / Oberlausitz , is made of larch wood and is held together by around 16,000 brass dowels. At a height of 40.4 meters, 55.3 meters, 80 meters and 109.70 meters, it has accessible platforms. The platform at the top, accessible via a ladder with 365 rungs, measures 2.13 x 2.13 meters.

In the tower there is a wire antenna that leads from the top of the tower to the tuning house under the tower feet and was used to transmit on medium wave , the transmission power being 5 kilowatts and the transmission frequency up to 1945 1231 kHz.

After the end of the war, the tower was also used for measurements on the antennas that were manufactured in the transmitter building that had been converted into a production facility, for which it was well suited due to its wooden construction.

Today there are several dozen antennas on the tower, which are used, among other things, for the Gleiwitz emergency call center , mobile network operators and the local VHF radio station Radio CCM. The original antenna is still there; however, the transmitter is no longer functional because its output stage has been dismantled.

Since the 140 m high wooden transmission tower of the Żórawina transmitter (formerly Rothsürben) , built in 1932, was demolished due to disrepair, the transmission tower in Gleiwitz has been the tallest wooden tower in the world and one of the last remaining wooden transmission towers.

literature

Erich Nittritz: Chronicle of the radio station Gleiwitz. In: Gleiwitzer Heimatblatt , year 1964, issue 6/7.
(reprinted in: Rudolf Schlegel: Gleiwitz in old and new times. Dülmen 1985, pp. 154–163.)
Radio amateur , edition 9/2005, p. 900 f.
Gleiwitz transmitter. (Brochure of the Museum Gleiwitz in German) Gliwice 2009. ( online as PDF; 782 kB)
Florian Altenhöner: The man who started World War II. Alfred Naujocks, forger, murderer, terrorist. Prospero Verlag, Münster / Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-941688-10-0 .
Hilmar Thate , Herwart Grosse, Hannjo Hasse, Gerhard Klein: The Gleiwitz case. (DVD) Icestorm Distribution, Berlin 2006.

Web links

Commons : Sender Gleiwitz - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Jürgen Runzheimer , The attack on the Gleiwitz transmitter in 1939 . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , vol. 10 (1964), no. 4, pp. 408–426, p. 418 fn. 82. ( available as pdf ), last checked on May 26, 2011.
^ Krzysztof Sagan: Radiostacja Gliwice. Czarne i białe karty historii. In: radiopolska.pl. August 22, 2014, accessed December 8, 2016 (Polish).
^ Radiostacja w Gliwicach - śląska wieża z modrzewia. Najwyższa na świecie Konstrukcja. In: katowice.wyborcza.pl. May 4, 2016, Retrieved December 8, 2016 (Polish).

[1] Jürgen Runzheimer , The attack on the Gleiwitz transmitter in 1939 . In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte , vol. 10 (1964), no. 4, pp. 408–426, p. 418 fn. 82. ( available as pdf ), last checked on May 26, 2011.

[2] Krzysztof Sagan: Radiostacja Gliwice. Czarne i białe karty historii. In: radiopolska.pl. August 22, 2014, accessed December 8, 2016 (Polish).

[3] Radiostacja w Gliwicach - śląska wieża z modrzewia. Najwyższa na świecie Konstrukcja. In: katowice.wyborcza.pl. May 4, 2016, Retrieved December 8, 2016 (Polish).