Media

Punctually on the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall the German Broadcasting Archive is presenting documentation from 1989 and 1990 from East German television in the Internet. Chronicles, thematic dossiers, photographs, audio samples and videos impressively reflect the view of GRD television on the revolution that was taking place in its own country.

Innumerable people are sitting on the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate. A man tries to climb up to them and is finally hoisted by the crowd. The scene was shown on November 10, 1989, one day after the opening of the Berlin Wall, on the GRD news programme Aktuelle Kamera (i.e., Current Camera). Like about 350 other video recordings, this one too is part of the new Internet special of the German Broadcasting Archive (Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv / DRA), Wende-Zeiten (i.e., “Time of the Wende”), where it can be ordered for a fee. For reasons of copyright, the DRA is showing online only sixteen videos of sessions from the East German People’s Parliament.

The official view from the East

The new web offering of the DRA on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Wall has been online since mid-February 2009. It is available not only to television journalists, but also to cultural institutions and the interested public. “Wende-Zeiten shows the fall of the Wall from a different perspective than the one mainly known”, explains Project Director Alexandra Luther. “It’s about how the Wende was represented by GDR television and how GDR citizens experienced it on television.”

The German Broadcasting Archive’s special offers excerpts from various East German television programmes – including many from Aktuelle Kamera, the main news broadcast. Like all other television broadcasts, it too was ideologically coloured. “There was no balanced reporting”, Luther calls to mind, “the GDR media were plainly propaganda instruments”. That changed only when the Department of Agitation and Propaganda of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany was disbanded on October 19, 1989.

The class struggles goes on?

The contents of the complete Internet offering of Wende-Zeiten is divided into thematic dossiers and chronicles. The former contain detailed information on politics and GRD television; a major focus of the latter is the Wende in television. The pictures show, among other things, how the upheavals in autumn 1989 also created opportunities for free and critical journalism in East Germany. “GDR television responded relatively swiftly”, says Luther. “New programmes were developed, and formats like the Schwarze Kanal disappeared.”

The Schwarze Kanal (i.e., Black Channel) served to dye reports from Western media in ideologically biased commentary. “The class struggle goes on!”, its moderator Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler could still intone in 1989 in the 1,519th broadcast, which was also the last. Other formats were also dropped, and new programmes quickly introduced. Thus on September 1, 1989, GDR television broadcast the young people’s programme Elf 99 (i.e., Eleven 99) that contained surprisingly critical reporting – for instance, about Wandlitz, the privileged residential estate for high government officials.

Scarcely any pictures from the night of the “Wende”

Another thematic dossier of Wende-Zeiten directs its gaze on the inner German border. It describes how the opening of the Berlin Wall came about – and quotes Günter Schabowski, a leading member of the East German politburo, who on November 9, 1989 rashly announced the pledge to allow GDR citizens to leave East Germany. But there is little material in the Archive on this fateful day: GDR television confined itself to announcing in the news that permission to leave the country could now be “applied” for.

“We have hardly any pictures of this night”, says Luther. “Only a day later did Aktuelle Kamera begin reporting an incredible amount about the opening of the Wall.” For obvious reasons, the propaganda broadcasts were also somewhat behind on other subjects: moderators at first wasted not a word about, for instance, the huge Monday demonstrations in Leipzig. Only one month later, at the beginning of October 1989, did the gatherings find their way onto Aktuelle Kamera; and even then, as Luther observes, “the demonstrators were called rioters”.

Censorship of Michail Gorbatschow

The second large section of the Wende-Zeiten offerings is formed by the chronicles, which in addition to GDR television also concern political and sport events. It contains mainly text information that can be accessed by the use of a navigation bar arranged according to individual rubrics, months or days. Thus, for example, the user learns that the twenty year-old Chris Gueffroy, who was shot by GDR border guards on February 6, 1989, was the last victim of the Wall that divided Germany.

The weighty words spoken at the GDR’s fortieth anniversary celebrations by then Soviet chief of state and Communist Party leader Michail Gorbatschow are also cited: “Life punishes those who come too late”. But one seeks pictures of this speech in the video holdings of the DRA in vain. “GDR television showed only pictures of the fortieth anniversary celebrations”, explains Luther, “without Gorbatschow’s famous words”.

“I love everyone, I love all people”

There is a scene that Luther thinks is one of the most important in the entire video offering of Wende-Zeiten. It is from the speech of the Minister for State Security, Erich Mielke, before the People’s Parliament on November 13, 1989. When one of the representatives complained that Mielke addressed everyone as “Comrade”, the Minister appeared confused: “But that is a question of formality. I love everyone, I love all people”. Thereupon the representatives broke out into laughter. “No one could have imagined that before – that the head of the secret police would be laughed down in the People’s Parliament”, says Luther. Up to then, all resolutions of the GDR parliament had been passed unanimously.

Speech of the Minister for State Security, Erich Mielke, before the People’s Parliament on November 13, 1989: