Television, first tested in 1925, became widespread only in the second half of the 20th century. However, TV channels began to appear in the 1930s and 1940s. Hitlerite Germany was the first state in which regular electronic broadcasting began. Nazi television has existed for 9 years.
First broadcasts
The Berlin-based Deutscher Fernseh-Rundfunk (DFR) television channel began broadcasting pre-recorded programs in 1934. And in 1936, he made the first live broadcast, showing in real time the events of the Berlin Olympics.
For this, the unique Olympia-Kanone television camera, produced by Telefunken, was used. Unlike other early cameras, it was suitable for work not only in the studio, but also in the stadium.
The picture from the Olympics was broadcast to three dozen receivers installed in free "television rooms" at the post office in Berlin, Potsdam and Leipzig. With their help, 150 thousand people were able to see and hear the competition. It is noteworthy that the farther from the mechanical television set the viewers sat, the better they could distinguish the image - the transmitted frames had such a low resolution.
Television under the thumb of Goebbels
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In the system of Nazi propaganda, the position of the new media was contradictory.
In 1935, Eugen Hadamowski, a leading employee of Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda, declared that television was intended to "perpetuate the image of the Fuehrer in the heart of every German."
As Vladimir Zvorykin, the inventor of the electronic television tube, wrote later, "the German government was more interested than others in the development of television." High-ranking officials from Hitler's circle were looking for meetings with the Russian engineer, but Zvorykin refused them. Perhaps, with the help of the technology he invented, the Nazis were looking for an opportunity to reduce the cost of television sets, which at first stood only in a few hundred households in the Reich capital, including the top of the party. By 1943 it was planned to make the FE1 people's TV part of the life of every German family, but the events of the Second World War prevented this.
At the same time, Goebbels himself disliked television - he was shocked by his own image, since the television screens exaggerated the physical shortcomings of the short and lame NSDAP functionary.
Broadcasting grid
For technical reasons, DFR broadcasts were only recorded on film. Thanks to this, we have a very good idea of what German viewers of the pre-war and war era saw on the screens.
Each broadcast began with a greeting "Heil Hitler". Political chronicle took up a lot of space. However, it was very different from the one that was shown in cinemas, since the frames were transmitted with little or no processing. Cameramen filmed Hitler in a "live" setting, showing, for example, how he gets into the car. There were many programs of jingoistic patriotic themes. News and reports from the events were shown live. There was advertising, including social. For example, in one of the programs, a smiling blonde girl, beaming, talked about the National Socialist organization "Strength through Joy", which organized leisure activities for ordinary workers, tours and cultural events.
However, as the researcher Elena Kormilitsyna writes, the former postmen and yesterday's radio commentators who worked in the television studio did not always successfully cope with "serious topics."
Over the years, TV content has shifted towards entertainment genres. There were especially many songs, dances and movie clips when the situation on the Eastern Front deteriorated. Oddly enough, this did not cause irritation. A mesh like this was the best fit, for example, for wounded soldiers watching TV in hospitals. These viewers can be called the first true fans of German television in the 20th century.
Deutscher Fernseh-Rundfunk stopped broadcasting in 1943 or, according to other sources, in 1944, when Allied bombs destroyed the Berlin TV center.
Timur Sagdiev