Domestic Broadcasting in Wartime Nazi Germany, 1939-1944: The First Five Years

The book provides an account of German domestic broadcasting in the period from September 1939 to August 1944. It is the product of extensive research in German and British archives and constitutes a case-study into a broadcasting service in a dictatorship in wartime. Its principal focus lies in radio policy and tactics, as echoed in the conferences held in the Radio Department of the Propaganda Ministry, the programmes themselves, and the response of German listeners to both programmes and broadcasting policy. Descriptions of shows such as Wünschkonzert (’Request Concert’) and the magazine Zeitspiegel (’Mirror of the Times’) are included. Detailed attention is paid to two obstacles hampering the entire broadcasting effort: reception problems; and the illegal practice of tuning into enemy and neutral stations. Both grew in the same degree as Nazi fortunes diminished. The Stalingrad debacle in winter 1942-3 unleashed a time of almost uninterrupted setbacks, compelling Nazi domestic radio to fight an uphill battle on an increasingly slippery slope, with reality increasingly at odds with the picture painted by the media. Continuity and ’normality’ now took on a vital role. Moreover, with the growing intensity of Allied bombing, broadcasters had to cope with a matter uppermost in the minds of urban populations faced with a nightly struggle for survival. The period covered ends with the western Allies and the Red Army approaching the frontiers of the German Reich, thereby ushering in a wholly new situation.

Gerald Kirwin’s professional career consisted of lecturing in history in Germany and freelance radio work for both domestic and external German radio stations. He has published three articles dealing with retaliation propaganda before and during the V1 and V2 attacks on London in 1944-5, Nazi propaganda’s treatment of the Allied bombing campaign, and a more recent account of German radio in the final months of the Second World War.