Primarily British broadcasters aided by German exiles
Ownership
Owner
BBC European Service
Sister stations
Radio Belgique Radio Londres
History
First air date
27 September 1938 (1938-09-27)
Last air date
26 March 1999 (1999-03-26)
Links
Website
official website (archived)
The Londoner Rundfunk (English: German Service) of the BBC was a German language radio service running from 1938 until 1999 as part of the wider BBC European Service. It began operating during the Second World War and continued running until after the dissolution of the GDR and the end of the Cold War. With a broadcast time that never exceeded a few hours a day[better source needed] what was first conceived as a propaganda broadcast became a source for reliable information on the state of the war, and later the 'voice of the free world' to those behind the iron curtain.
The station first broadcast on 27 September 1938. Regular programming began on 27 January 1939 and was expanded in April, after the complete occupation of Czechoslovakia. The first Head of the BBC German Service was Hugh Greene. Other early leadership included Lindley Fraser, formerly professor of philosophy at Aberdeen, as well as Richard Crossman and Patrick Gordon Walker who would move on to become leading figures in of the Labour Party.
During the war many prominent German exiles contributed to the program, including Thomas Mann, Walter Rilla and Bruno Adler. The Nazi Regime came to call it the number one enemy broadcast.
Throughout the years of the iron curtain, programs such as Briefe ohne Unterschrift (Letters without signature) would give a voice to the east of the republic. The East German Stasi extensively investigated, tracked and persecuted all involved; the extent of which became clear only after the reunification of Germany and only because of the extensive records kept.
The broadcast ceased operations in 1999 due to financial reasons, and because listener-polls showed that 90 per cent of listeners would be able to follow the English BBC World Service.
and 28 Related for: BBC German Service information
The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception...
(English: GermanService) of the BBC was a German language radio service running from 1938 until 1999 as part of the wider BBC European Service. It began...
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established...
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a...
begins. 27 September – German, French and Italian programmes begin. November – The Empire Service is renamed the BBC Overseas Service. 1939 14 May – Afrikaans...
the name BBC Television Service, which was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution. It was renamed BBC TV in 1960...
Intelligence Service (German: Bundesnachrichtendienst, pronounced [ˌbʊndəsˈnaːχʁɪçtnˌdiːnst] ; BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly...
in German, he became friendly with Ernst Röhm, who arranged for him to interview Adolf Hitler in 1931. As an announcer for the BBCGermanservice in 1939...
a former BBCGermanservice announcer recruited by PWE in 1940, and claimed to be an illegal radio station operating within Nazi Germany. The callsign...
is governed by the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund), founded in 1900. Between 1949 and 1990, separate German national teams were...
led-government in East Germany, German reunification saw the former East German states join the Federal Republic of Germany on 3 October 1990. Germany has been described...
the BBC World Service, accompanied by its website, which served as a news portal and provided online access to radio broadcasts. The radio service was...
station should be awarded to the BBC. Prior to its launch, the new BBC2 was promoted on the BBC Television Service: the soon-to-be-renamed BBC1. The...
BBC Mundo (Spanish for BBC World), previously known as the BBC Latin American Service, is part of the BBC World Service's foreign language output, one...
"'Plain, unvarnished news'?: The BBCGermanService and Chamberlain's propaganda campaign directed at Nazi Germany, 1938–1940". Media History. 21 (4):...
French and German programmes were interwoven with the main output in English. The French service closed in 1995, and the BBC'sGermanservice in 1999, and...
the US launch of BritBox, a streaming service operated by BBC Studios and ITV plc. On Sunday, April 25, 2021, BBC America unveiled a redesigned logo and...
BBC Persian (Persian: بیبیسی فارسی) is the Persian language broadcast station and subsidiary of BBC World Service which conveys the latest political...
The Wartime Broadcasting Service is a service of the BBC that is intended to broadcast in the United Kingdom either after a nuclear attack or if conventional...
British businessmen active in Germany for intelligence about German industrial production. For intelligence on German military plans, MI6 largely depended...
was seconded in 1941 to the BBC as supervisor of radio productions broadcasting to Germany as part of the BBCGermanService (Londoner Rundfunk). He made...
[1] BBC'sGermanService goes off air, BBC News, 27 March 1999. [2] 75 years BBC World Service – A History. "Channel 4 wins rights to home Tests". BBC News...
BBC Chartering GmbH, owned by the Briese Schiffahrt Group, is an international shipping company based in Leer, Germany. With over 160 vessels in their...
British Forces Broadcasting Service (Germany) – der britische Militärrundfunk in Deutschland. Göttingen (1996) [in German] ISBN 3-89588-632-7. Oliver...
documents BBC News Bellingcat BuggedPlanet (V2) BuzzFeed News (V2) Current Time TV DeepDotWeb (defunct) Deutsche Welle Die Tageszeitung – German daily Doxbin...
through the merger of the BBC's commercial production arm and the BBC's commercial international distribution arm, BBC Worldwide. BBC Studios creates, develops...
Until German reunification, the German Democratic Republic mined for uranium in the Ore Mountains (see also: SAG/SDAG Wismut). Energy in Germany is sourced...
Erich Fried's Works (German), pp. 100–107 Oliver, Emily (3 July 2019). "A Voice for East Germany: Developing the BBCGermanService's East Zone Programme"...