Guided Tour
Radio and TV in the German Democratic Republic


Room Selector:   Previous Room    The Beginnings of Radio and the Technology to build on: 1923-1933    The Development of Tubes    Radio Broadcasting in the Third Reich: 1933-1939    From Gramophone to CD    Radio Broadcasting during World War II    Post-War Era    Sender der Post-War Era, UKW    The Fifties    From Magnetophone to Tape Recorder    Radio and TV in the German Democratic Republic    History of Television    From the Sixties to the Present and the Future    Next Room


After World War II, in the Soviet occupied territories, numerous small and even private companies appear on the horizon. However, in the fifties at the latest, private entrepreneurs are pushed from the market. In addition, the owners of the traditional names such as Körting, Mende, AEG and Loewe from Saxonia and Berlin are emigrating to the West. Their factories are dismantled and moved to the Soviet Union, or their companies are now trading under the name »Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaften SAG« (Soviet Joint Stock Co. SAG). After their return to the GDR, they are converted into national owned companies.

Stern-Radio Sonneberg, one of the largest factories, is one example. In 1944 created as an out-sourced factory of AEG, dismantling was started after the war. In December 1945, the company is converted into a SAG whose profits are sent to the USSR as part of reparation. In 1952, the company is returned to the Soviet occupied zone and converted into a national owned company. Even the Sachsenwerk Radeberg, where the TV set »Leningrad« has been built since 1950, has become a SAG.

 GDR Radio Set 'Sonneberg'

GDR Radio Set 'Friendship'

Whereas in the beginning of the GDR and the FRG the state of the development is practically comparable, the gaps in development between the two countries are widening in the course of time. TV was introduced in the GDR before this happened in the FRG. But a second TV station and colour television do not materialise until 1969 (in both countries). »Color 20« was the name of the first colour TV in the GDR commemorating the birth of the GDR in 1949 - built in the TV Factory Stassfurt.

Insufficient supplies as well as lack of quality are part of the problems in an economy focusing on mass production. Furthermore, high-quality products are rather exported to capitalist countries abroad to bring in foreign currency.

Attempts by the GDR governments to push back the influence of Western media are not very successful.

With the break-up of the GDR, the production of items of entertainment electronics comes to a halt with only very few exceptions. The remaining companies cannot compete with the superior technology of their competitors on the world-market, and, to top it all, the »freed« population prefers products from the West.

 GDR Combined Radio/TV Set


Room Selector:   Previous Room    The Beginnings of Radio and the Technology to build on: 1923-1933    The Development of Tubes    Radio Broadcasting in the Third Reich: 1933-1939    From Gramophone to CD    Radio Broadcasting during World War II    Post-War Era    Sender der Post-War Era, UKW    The Fifties    From Magnetophone to Tape Recorder    Radio and TV in the German Democratic Republic    History of Television    From the Sixties to the Present and the Future    Next Room


Home