Figure 1.--A popular television series made during the 1980s was "Heimat 1". It was more sophisticated than the formulistic Heimat films of the 1950s.

We know very little about German television. Presumably like in Britain and America there was some preliminary work done in the 1930s, but we have no information. After World War II, television developed along very different lines in East and West Germany, but we have no information on early German programming. In today's unified Germany, Das Erste (ARD) is the German National TV-network. There is also the German RTL TV-network. Another German national tv-network Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen (ZDF). HBC has little information on these German television networks or on German TV programming. We do remember an epic TV series called Heimat, which covered town life over several decades and accurately depicted children's and adult clothing. A German reader tells us about " Schwarzwaldhof 1902 ". It is about a German family travels from Berlin which travels to the South of the Black Forest (village of Münstertal) on a special kind of holiday.

Chronology

We know very little about German television.

NAZI Germany

As in Britain and America there was some preliminary work done in the 1930s. In fact the Germans appear to have been ahead of both Britain and France. There were German TV broadcasts by 1935. I am not sure when they began or the nature and extent of the programming. News broadcasting seems to have been important and one journalist reports a special process by which film taken from trucks could be quickly developed and broadcasted. The Berlin Television Station "ultra-short waves" had a broadcast range of 80 kilometers. Beginning in late 1934, the the Berlin Television Station broacasted what a journalist referred to as "interesting programs" daily, but provided no details. TV sets were expensive, $250-500--a considerable amount for a German working family. We do not know how many Berliners had television sets, but believe that the number was limited. [Schrage] Presumably German TV was closed during World War II as the production facilities for TV sets would have been needed for military production.

Post-war Germany

After World War II, television developed along very different lines in East and West Germany, but we have no information on early German programming.

Unified Germany

There are two main public channels. One is Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen (ARD). This includes regional channels e.g SWR, (South Germany), HR (Hesse), MDR (for East Germany), BR (Bavaria), N 3 (North Germany) ORB (Brandenburg, Thuringia) SFB (Berlin) WDR (West and Middle Germany). In addition there is Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF). Each of the regional channels do broadcast also independently. Since the late 1980s several private channels have appeared, mostly earning their money with advertising, and thus every film is cut in several with ad pauses. E.G. Sat 1, super RTL (showing mostly childrens programmes) RTL, VOX, Kabel 1, Pro 7, Neun Live. There’ are also 3sat that is a joint channel with ARD and ARTE the French German culture channel. There is also music channels Viva, VIVVA 2 and MTV (original from UK). And the childrens’ channel KIKA made by ARD and ZDF. In addition there are two sport channels Deutsches Sportfernsehen (DSF) and Eurosport.

Individual Programs

HBC has little information on German TV programming. Unlike American television programs which are broadcast all over the world, German programd do not appear in America. Presumably they do appear in other European countries, although I have not noted them in Britain. As a result, we know next to nothing about German television prigrams. We know a good bit about German movies, but almost nothing about television programs. For some reason our European readers including German readers have provided us few details on television programming. we are not sure why this. There may less programming than American or even British television, but surely there is some programming of interest.

Sources

Wilhelm E. Schrage, "German Television" Radio News, July 1935.

Created: January 11, 2003
Last updated: 12:59 AM 12/9/2004