Conquerors, Culture, and Communication: The Intellectual Roots of Post-war German Broadcasting
This chapter focuses on the establishment of public service broadcasting in post-war Germany. Or, perhaps more accurately, it is about the intellectual history within which that history is embedded. The Allied powers were haunted by their inheritance, the shattered remnants of a gangster state, the ultimate abuse of centralised power. Their thinking, however, was also much influenced by a sense of the pressures which political parties had placed on broadcasting before Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Despite its great artistic achievements, German broadcasting had not then been in a healthy condition. The regional broadcasting organisations were grouped together under the Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft, in which the Post Office held the majority of shares. The Reith of German broadcasting, Dr Hans Bredow, spoke of how the dead hand of party political control led to colourless reporting, a lack of actuality, and an unnatural neutrality towards the events of the day.
Keywords: broadcasting, Germany, Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft, Hans Bredow, intellectual history, broadcasting organisations, political parties, Post Office
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