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Nazi TV
Television and its influence on World War II
In all fearlessness, the Nazis didn’t invent TV. The British did. Or the Americans. Or the Russians depending on who you listen to. The fact is, a lot of countries were experimenting with the new medium in the 1920s and ’30s but it was Nazi Germany that introduced the world’s first regular television service and it was Nazi Germany that first used television to push a message.
Launched in March 1935 as Deutscher Fernseh Rundfunk, TV station Paul Nipkow Fernsehsender started broadcasting 90 minutes of programming three times a week to a few select Berliners — the Nazi Party elite and some National Post Office employees. The line-up consisted of variety shows, concerts, and gymnastics promoting the state-organized leisure campaign Strength Through Joy. Simple fare but there was no mistaking its goal of “imprinting the image of the Führer on every German heart, never to be erased.” So said Reich Program Director Eugen Hadamovsky when he formally opened the station that spring. No ambiguity there.
Yet, the endeavor was never formally called Nazi TV nor was it officially part of the Propaganda Ministry. (I’m calling it Nazi TV for simplicity’s sake.) Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels wasn’t that enthusiastic about television — he preferred radio to fire up the masses — so television became Nazi light, less…
