Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF; German for "German Television Broadcasting") was the state television broadcaster in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) from 1952 to 1991.
DFF produced free-to-air terrestrial television programming approved by the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and broadcast to audiences in East Germany and parts of West Germany. DFF served as the main televised propaganda outlet of the SED with censored political and non-political programmes featuring bias towards the Marxist–Leninist ideology of the Eastern Bloc. DFF was known as Fernsehen der DDR (DDR-FS; "GDR Television" or "Television of [the] GDR") from 1972 until German reunification in 1990, and DFF assets were replaced by the West German network before it was dissolved on 31 December 1991.
History Foundation Radio was the dominant medium in the former Eastern bloc, with television being considered low on the priority list when compiling Five-Year Plans during the industrialisation of the 1950s. In Germany, the situation was different as East and West Germany were in competition over available frequencies for broadcasts and for viewers across the Iron Curtain. The West German Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) had made early plans to begin television broadcasts in its area, which originally included West Berlin. The first western test broadcasts were made in 1950.
The GDR authorities therefore also made an early start with television and began construction of a television centre in Adlershof on 11 June 1950. The GDR television service began experimental test broadcasts on 20 December 1951. The NWDR announced plans to begin a regular television service from Hamburg starting with Christmas 1952. This spurred the East German authorities into further action.
A relay transmitter in the centre of East Berlin was built in February 1952 and connected to Adlershof on 3 June. On 16 November, the first television sets were made available to the public at 3,500 East German marks each.
Regular public programming, although still described as testing, began on 21 December 1952 as "Fernsehzentrum Berlin", with two hours a day of programmes. Continuity announcer welcomed viewers at 20:00 and introduced the station's logo – the Brandenburg Gate. Speeches by senior figures in the television organisation followed, then the first edition of the East German national news programme, Aktuelle Kamera, presented by Herbert Köfer.
The policy of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) was to censor the "mass media". As television had a limited audience, it was not classed as a mass medium and therefore Aktuelle Kamera was, at first, uncensored and even critical. This situation changed after the television service reported accurately on the uprising in East Germany on 17 June 1953. From then on, television newscasts took on a similar character to their radio counterparts, and were sourced from official outlets.
Growth Once television was established, the transmitter network grew quickly. 1953: Berlin-Grünau 1954: Berlin-Müggelberg (not completed); Dresden. 1955: Berlin-Mitte, Brocken, Inselsberg (Brocken and Inselsberg had a large footprint in West Germany), Helpterberg, Marlow, Karl-Marx-Stadt 1956: Berlin-Köpenick
Technology and TV studios also extended quickly. In the summer of 1953, Studio I was opened at Adlershof. In 1955, the first mobile transmission unit and a third broadcasting studio were added to the system.
On 2 January 1956, the "official test programme" of the television centre in Berlin ended, and on 3 January the national Deutscher Fernsehfunk (German Television Broadcasting – DFF) began transmitting.
The new television service was deliberately not called "GDR Television", as the intention was to provide an all-German service, as was the case with West Germany's TV channels. However, the geography of Germany prevented this – despite placing high-power transmitters in border areas, the GDR could not penetrate the entirety of West Germany. In contrast, West German broadcasts (particularly ARD) easily reached most of East Germany except for the extreme south-east (most notably Dresden, the area being in a deep valley, leading to its old East German nickname of "Tal der Ahnungslosen", or "Valley of the Clueless") and the extreme north-east (around Rügen, Greifswald, Neubrandenburg and beyond). ARD came to be known colloquially in the GDR as "Ausser Rügen und Dresden" ("except Rügen and Dresden"), in reference to its coverage area.
By the end of 1958, there were over 300,000 television sets in the GDR.
News and political programming on DFF was usually scheduled not to clash with similar programming on Western channels (as most viewers would probably have preferred the western programmes). For example, the main news programme, Aktuelle Kamera, was scheduled at 19:30, between ZDF's heute at 19:00 and ARD's Tagesschau at 20:00. However, popular entertainment programming (such as Ein Kessel Buntes) was scheduled to clash with Western news or current affairs programmes in the hope of discouraging viewers from watching the Western programmes. Other popular items (such as films) were scheduled before or after propaganda programmes like Der schwarze Kanal in the hope that viewers tuning in early to catch the film would see the programme.
From 7 October 1958, DFF introduced morning programmes – repeats of the previous night's programming for shift workers, broadcast under the title "Wir wiederholen für Spätarbeiter" ("We repeat for late workers").
DFF/DDR-FS produced a number of educational programmes for use in schools, including programmes on chemistry, history, local history and geography, literature, physics, civics, and Russian. Also produced was "ESP": Einführung in die sozialistische Produktion ("An introduction to Socialist production") and an English-learners course, English for You. Many of these programmes are archived and are available from the DRA in Babelsberg.
The Berlin Wall
After the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, the GDR began a programme to attempt to prevent its citizens from watching West German broadcasts. The GDR had its diplomatic hands tied: jamming the broadcasts with any degree of effectiveness would also interfere with reception within West Germany (breaching treaties and inviting retaliation). Instead, the Free German Youth, Freie Deutsche Jugend (FDJ), the official youth movement in the GDR, started the campaign "Blitz contra Natosender" – "Strike against NATO's stations" – in 1961 to encourage young people to remove or damage aerials pointing at the west. The term Republikflucht (leaving the country without permission) was sometimes used to describe the widespread practice of viewing Westfernsehen (Western TV). Nevertheless, people continued to watch ARD broadcasts, leading to the development of Der schwarze Kanal.
Attempts to sell televisions that could not receive Western channels failed, as consumers hired electricians to modify the sets for them. By the early 1970s, the party line concerning Western TV had become much more relaxed, and in some cases people got building permits to erect large antenna towers in areas of fringe reception. Strikingly elaborate antennas on building roofs are still a common sight in former East German cities. On the opposite, an official guide to DFF noted that the international overspill covering parts of West Germany (including West Berlin), Denmark and southern Sweden reached out to millions of viewers. Among the communist countries, its infrastructure was touted from both NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries as being first-class.
Colour and DFF2 Colour television was introduced on 3 October 1969 on the new channel DFF2, which commenced broadcasting the same day, ready for the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the founding of the GDR on 7 October. Walter Ulbricht opened the second channel. DFF chose the French SÉCAM colour standard, common in the Eastern Bloc, while West Germany invented and introduced the PAL colour standard. Mutual reception in black and white remained possible as the basic television standard was the same. Colour sets were at first not widely available in the East and many of these were modified to receive PAL as well as SÉCAM. East German manufacturers later made dual standard sets.
The introduction of DFF2 marked an increase in the hours of broadcasting overall.
Year 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1988 1989 Hours broadcast per year 786 3,007 3,774 6,028 6,851 7,704 8,265 9,194 8,900 Hours broadcast per week 15 58 73 116 132 148 159 177 171
On 11 February 1972, the DFF was renamed, dropping the pretense of being an all-German service and becoming Fernsehen der DDR – GDR Television or DDR-FS.DDR-Rundfunk- und Fernsehkomitee. Aufgaben und Geschichte (PDF) The previous name survived in episodes of The Sandman, which were repeated quite often.
Since DFF2/DDR-F2 broadcast only in the evening for most of its lifespan, special transmissions could easily be made in the afternoon for special events.
1980 Summer Olympic Games
The hosting of the 1980 Summer Olympics by Moscow was a source of pride for the Eastern Bloc. However, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 had caused outrage in the West, leading to a boycott of the games by 64 western-aligned nations. During the event, the DFF saw large viewership in West Germany, as no broadcaster in that country, broadcast the event.
Later in the 1980s, Fernsehen der DDR commissioned designer Axel Bertram to develop the custom typeface Videtur, "intended to define the on-screen graphics of East German television for years to come". Set in serif, the typeface was specifically designed for television.
Gorizont: satellite television In 1988, the USSR-built Gorizont satellite was launched, providing television programming to much of Europe and northern Africa, and even eastern parts of the Americas. The programmes of all the Eastern European socialist republics, including DDR-F1, were broadcast on the satellite.
Collapse of the GDR and the Decline of the DFF
In 1989, the GDR made an attempt to bring its young people closer to the state and distract them from the media of the West. A new youth-aimed television show, called Elf 99 (1199 being the postal code of the Adlershof studios) was created as part of this plan.
However, the plan was not successful as the GDR itself began to dissolve under economic and popular political pressure brought about by the reforms in Moscow under Mikhail Gorbachev.
At first, DDR-FS stuck to the party line and barely reported the mass protests in the country that began on 9 September. However, after Erich Honecker was removed from office on Wednesday 18 October 1989 – two days after Aktuelle Kamera showed pictures of the rally that was held in Leipzig the Monday before, without any censorship at all – and the rule of the SED began to break down, DDR-FS reformed their programmes to remove propaganda and to report news freely. The main propaganda programme, Der schwarze Kanal (The Black Channel)which ran West German TV news items with an explanatory commentary informing viewers of the "real" stories and meanings behind the pictures and generally criticising Western media (particularly ARD and ZDF)ended with its final episode on 30 October 1989.