The first television station of the world,
the "Berlin house of the broadcast", started
his regular television program on March 22nd, 1935. A long-standing development
went ahead, before the transfer of moving pictures in the near future was
prophesied by the German Post Office Department in 1923. In 1928 the transfer
of a motionless picture was successful for the first time. The Television
AG (a share company) was founded in Berlin a year later. Foundation members
were the Bosch AG, Zeiss-Ikon AG, Radio AG Loewe and the Baird television
company. The
national socialists recognized the propagandistic possibilities which this
medium opened fast after the seizure of power. Consequence was a direct
insinuation of this department under the newly created propaganda department
which was escorted by Joseph Goebbels. The development of the broadcast
engineering and radio sets was pursued with enthusiasm and taken to maturity
in 1935. The transmit power of the transmitter sufficed only for the area
Berlin. The (private) television sets of this first hour were moreover
so expensive (approx. 2500 Reichs Mark) that only a few privileged
party functionaries could afford them by some good connections. Two years
after the opening of the television program there were only approx. 75
home receivers. Music presentations as well as a two hour evening information
program could be seen at the begin of the experimental television program
of the early days. Only during the summer Olympics of 1936 the television
got accessible to a larger audience. Approximately 150.000 people could
watch the games in 28 so-called "television lounges" in Berlin. An eight-hour
long program was broadcasted by the transmitter "Paul-Nipkow" daily.
Besides propagandistic purposes the Olympics
also used as a test for the new electronic cameras.
The prototype of a private television set,
called FE1, could be taken to maturity for series production first in July
1939. Approx. 500 television sets existed in Berlin before the beginning
of WWII , so that at this time nobody could speak of a real mass media
but of a luxury object ( approx. 650 Reichs Mark per set).
With begin of the war the production for the
private sector came almost to succumbing
since the electricians were engaged with the development of the radar engineering.
During the second World War only 50 equipments
were manufactured . There were however television programs furthermore
and new television rooms were established primarily in hospitals to "cheering
up" the injured soldiers. Due to destructions and staff shortage (military
service) the television operation (last only sustained over wires) was
stopped on October 19th 1944. |