In 1928, television is exhibited for the first time at the Berlin »Funkausstellung«. The image created with the help of the Nipkow disc is 4x4cm large, has 30 lines at 12.5 frames per second. And then, in 1930, Manfred von Ardenne succeeds in utilising the Braun tube for television. The number of image lines can be increased. When as from 22 March, 1935, the »Deutsche Fernsehrundfunk« (German Television Broadcasting) started to broadcast regular programmes, 180 lines were normal at 25 frames. In 1938, this figure increased to 441 lines.

However, television did not have an audience. In Berlin, so-called TV rooms were made available in some post offices where people could watch the new medium. The Olympic Games in Garmisch and Berlin in 1936 started to arouse the interest - the pictures, however, were small and not clear but they were up-to-date news.

The real start of television in Germany is in December 1952. In 1953, the Queen of England is crowned, in 1954 football world cup-it goes to show that a particularly new medium needs its top events. Thousands stand in front of the shop windows of radio shops, pubs with TV are overcrowded, and those who can privately afford a TV set in the early days, will have many »unexpected« visitors...

More than 625 lines has the average screen of 35cm across. Today, this is typically 70 cm across. Television, at first with one TV station, changed people's lifestyle: More often people stayed at home, and, in consequence, more and more pubs and cinemas closed down. Compared to the old days when people sat around a table, the new sitting room now took the shape of an oval area with the television set sitting in one corner in a prominent position.

1963 sees the arrival of the second German TV station, a year later, a third station follows specialising in learning programmes. And on 25 August, 1967, Willy Brandt -the former German Chancellor- pressed the famous red button at the Berlin »Funkausstellung« to bring colour to people's homes.

Video recording -initially only in professional environments- is part of the developments taking place alongside television. From 1969, video recorders are available for private homes.

Two further aspects have an impact on the development of television: In the eighties, private TV stations appear on the scene, offering more and more programmes -often around the clock-, and satellite TV in the nineties... The world has become a small place.