Television in Germany began as an integrated part of an existing public broadcasting system. Although it took seven years in the 1950s to fully establish TV as a mass medium, its history started before World War II. The first tests with wireless transmission of television pictures without sound were regularly offered by the German Reichpost in 1929. As a result of these tests the first TV-movie Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund (The Early Bird Catches the Worm) was produced in 1930. It was not until 1934, however, that programs combining pictures and sounds were produced.

The National Socialist Party enforced further technical developments in order to create a new instrument for propa-ganda. The first regular television network, "Paul Nipkow," began operation on 22 March 1935 under control of Reichssendeleiter Eugen Hadamovsky. In order to fulfill the pro-paganda function only reception was made available only in public television rooms. These venues, which operated quite similarly to movie theatres and presented programs at three nights a week, were set up in Berlin. The first highlight, shown in 28 television rooms, was live coverage of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Pri-vate reception of television was made technically possible by the Deutsche Fern-seh-Einheits-empfaenger, but the system could not be introduced to the market because of the beginning of the war. Television programming adapted to the new situation and by 1941 a series of variety shows Wir senden Frohsinn--Wir spenden Freude (We Broadcast joy--We Spend Happi-ness) were broadcast for injured soldiers in Berlin. Following the presentation of programs in Hamburg, televi-sion was also broadcast in occupied Paris from 1942 until 1944. The same programs produced for the injured sol-diers we-re aimed in French at the inhabitants of Paris.

The development of television in Germany following World War II began when the Western Allies founded new networks in their occupied areas patterned on the network systems of their home countries. A common aim of the Western Allies was to prevent the future abuse of broadcasting by the German government. Thus the different regional networks were placed under control of the federal countries of the republic: NWDR (Northern and West Germany, which were split, during the 1950s, into NDR and WDR); Radio Bremen (Bremen); BR (Bavaria); HR (Hessia); SR, SDR and SWF for Southwest Germany.

In 1948 the British Allies allowed the NWDR to broadcast television programs for the northern part of Germany. A general television programming test phase, organized by Werner Pleister, started on 25 September 1950. Pleister and members of a Television Committee traveled to the United States and several European coun-tries to become more familiar with television standards. In 1950 the NWDR presented a two-hour program between 8:00 and 10:00 P.M. which included news, variety shows, movies and television plays. In 1951 additional pro-grams for children (Television's Children's Hour with Ilse Obrig) and women (Television's Tea Hour with Eva Baier Post) we-re already broadcast in the afternoon. Further gaps in the daily schedule were filled during the 1950s and beside the NWDR other federal networks also star-ted to develop television programs.

In the time of the test phase, between 1950 and 1952, it seemed necessary to promote the new medium by pointing out the technical differences that distinguished television from its "big brothers," radio and film. By presenting live reports with both visual and sound components television was described as the fifth wall in the living room or as the "Miracle Mirror". Television was celebrated as the "window to the world" which transferred directly into German homes. Two major events assisted in efforts to change television into a mass medium--the live coverage of the Coronation Ceremony of Queen Eliz-abeth II on the 2 June 1953 and the final game of the Soccer World Cup in Switzerland on the 4 July 1954. Many people who did not yet own a television set watched these events in pubs.

In 1954 a regular television schedule began as a cooperation of all federal networks, which had formed an association named ARD (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der oeffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunk-anstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland). ARD was financed by licence fees paid by the audience and, after 1956, with a few minutes of commercials presented in the early evening. During the 1950s the basic television genres in the central areas of entertainment, information, and education we-re estab-lished and television plays developed as television's own specific art form. Because of the lack of a recording technique these plays, as well as other types of shows, were presented live. In 1954 the first family series Unsere Nachbarn heute Abend: Fami-lie Schoelermann (Our Neighbours Tonight: Family Schoelermann) appeared. Their lifestyle served as an ideal for the audience, which reacted in many letters expressing gratitude for helpful advice. Documentaries, under the heading Zeichen der Zeit (Sign of the Time), also gave direct insights into several parts of German society.

Improvements in the technical quality of television sets, reduced prices, and bet-ter programs resulted in a steady increase in licence holders and their number reached one million on 1 October 1957. This success and new, still unused frequencies motivated Konrad Adenauer, then Chancellor of the German government to increase his influ-ence by founding a second Channel, "Free Television," financed by the industry with the central goal of presenting government opinions. The federal governments protested against these activities and they were finally stopped by court judgment in 1961. The ARD also presented a second schedule of programs from 1 January 1961 until 4 January 1963. In addition, the federal governments allowed the several ARD networks to found re-gional third channels which from 1964 presented educational and cultural programs in addi-tion to local information.

The ZDF (Second German Television) was founded by the federal states in 1963 as the long-promised se-cond national network. In contrast to the ARD, whose networks distributed several radio programs as well, the ZDF was centrally organized solely for the production of television programs. According to a decision by the federal governments programming had to be planned in coope-ration with the ARD with the aim of presenting contrasting elements on the two channels. Still, the well-established ARD perceived the ZDF as a competitor which they confronted with enhan-ced news coverage and several international reports. New political magazine programs such as Panorama crea-ted controversial public discussions as a result of their investigative journalism. The ZDF did not yet have enough journalists to cover these areas with the same standard. Instead, it increased its ef-forts in presenting entertainment in order to gain a larger audience. The arrival of colour TV in 1967 increased the presentation of popular programs for both ARD and ZDF, whose schedules by then included many U.S. serials such as Bonanza. With the increasing influence of popular tele-vision shows, the star system also became far more significant. Still, as in the 1960s, the highlight of the era came in the form of live coverage--the first man on the moon on the 21 July 1969.

Serials dominated prime time television broadcasts in the 1970s. In the early years of the decade the liberalization movements initiated by students started to influence television. In 1971 Wibke Bruhns was the first female news anchor. Wuensch Dir was (Desire Some-thing, 1969-72) was the first game show which intended to improve social behaviour of the candidates. The first Ger-man sitcom series Ein Herz und eine Seele (One heart and one Soul, 1973) criticized the conservative attitude and the chauvini-stic behaviour of its protago-nist, Ekel Alfred. Television plays tried to present realistic daily life routines in the tradition of Egon Monk's Wilhelmsburger Freitag (Friday in Wilhelmsburg, 1964). Even television se-ries such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Acht Stunden sind kein Tag (Eight Hours Don't Form a Day, 1972) followed realistic dra-maturgy in order to present the necessity of poli-tical engagement. This aim also influenced informational programs which were mainly presented in magazine format, but in addition to politics there were also magazines for seniors, car owners and others. Politics was approached from another direction when the election campaign in 1976 was used to develop new formats for the presentation of political items and television discussions bet-ween the main candidates were established.

In the late 1960s the government founded a commission to analyze possible influences of new media technologies, but the commission did not present its report until 1976. It made clear that cable techno-logy made new, commercially financed television channels possible. Although a 1981 legal decision guaranteed the audience further educational and information programs supplied from public television, this period saw major changes resulting from the rise of commercial broadcasting made possible by these new technologies.

With the foundation of privately organized pilot projects in 1984 in Ludwigshafen, Berlin, and Dortmund the media landscape in Germany, long dominated by public television, changed rapidly. Ratings, instead of quality, now formed the basic criteria for the success of programming. ARD and ZDF, the state supported competitors to the commercial systems, altered their schedules in attempts to secure their financial situation. The general public service goal of in-tegrating social minorities through the development and broadcasting of special programming was now driven by the domin-ance of economic measurements. Public television systems did produce their own series, which were quite success-ful with their specific regional orientation.

Ratings instead of quality now formed the basic criteria for the success of programming which was designed with different forms of entertainment. The steadily increasing number of channels created a growing demand for programs. It was quite expensive to produce them but the prices for licenses exploded as well. Many Hollywood movies and U.S. series like Dallas, Dynasty, and The A-Team were broadcast. The commercial networks RTL and SAT.1 established the form of the daytime series with productions like The Springfield Story. Game show and talk show formats were both successful and inexpensive. RTL tried to gain pu-blic attention by breaking existing taboos--Tutti Frutti (1990) was the first striptease show presented on German TV. Soft news dominated the information sector. Instead of seriously discussing a topic, RTL talk shows were based on the principle of "confrontainment."

At the beginning of the 1990s RTL and SAT.1 improved their financial situation. Simultaneously ARD and ZDF, as public networks, experienced a financial crisis because of the decreasing number of commercials they carried. With their new prominence, RTL and SAT.1 started several campaigns to improve their image. They promised a higher percentage of self-produced TV-movies and series, more information, and less sex in future programming. They bought in stars in order to deepen the identification between the viewers and their networks. ARD and ZDF increasingly adapted the successful formats of their competitors who had themselves already used taken up popular public television formats such as folklore programs.

From 1992 to 1994 "Reality TV" shows were a successful format on every channel. The blurred lines between reality and fiction in these programs created controversial public discussions which led to their slow disappearance. Several forms of emo-tionalized shows like Ich bekenne (I Confess) or Verzeih mir (Pardon me) presented weeping guests comforted by weeping hosts. Flirt and love shows offered exciting possibilities for finding a partner or even for marriage in front of studio cameras (Traumhochzeit). During the 1990s several specialty channels were created. In addition to news (n-tv), sport (DSF), and music channels (Viva I and Viva II), local channels (HH1, Puls TV) were also founded. Even more new channels are expected in the future as digital television technologies make more networks possible in the future.

Throughout most of these developments in West Germany, television broadcasting in the GDR (East Germany) remained under government control and served as a propaganda instrument for socialistic ideals. Regular programming officially started on 3 March 1956 as an alternative to West German television but it reached only few regions across the border. By contrast, ARD broadcasts could be seen in most parts of the GDR.

As in West Germany there had been a test phase in the GDR, begun on 3 June 1952 under the control of Hermann Zille. TV officials traveled to Moscow to gain insight into socialist models of television practices. For political reasons Zille was fired in 1953 and replaced by Heinz Adameck in June 1954, who remained as head of the system until 1989. The first East German television play was an adaptation of E.T.A. Hoffmann's Des Vetters Eckfenster (The Cousin's Corner Window, 22 January 1953).

The purpose of television was to form the morality of socialist people. Television shows and old DEFA movies were presented as entertainment to keep the audience from watching West German channels. In the 1960s TV novels were popular, presenting historical plots in miniseries format. The news Aktuelle Kamera (Current Camera) was directly controlled by members of the go-vernment. Der Schwarze Kanal (The Black Channel) with anchorman Karl Eduard von Schnitzler reacted directly to West German news coverage with propaganda material.

As a reaction to the West German television landscape a second program schedule, presen-ted in colour, was founded in 1969 to complement the original schedule. In its early period this channel presented colour versions of programs which the audience already knew from the first schedule. Additionally, the leaders of Soviet troops in the GDR demanded a series of Russian movies, Fuer die Freunde der Russischen Sprache (For Friends of the Russian Language), which were presen-ted in the original language. In the late 1970s the second schedule began several educatio-nal and cultural programs.

During the 1980s East German television tried to react against commercial tendencies in West Germany. More movies and popular series were placed in the schedules to keep citizens from watching West German Channels. By 1989-90, following political changes in East German and the unification of East and West Germany, the central issue for television was the matter of news coverage. Journalists of the ARD claimed to have encouraged the political changes with their in-formation policy. In essence, East German te-levision was adapted to the West German Broadcasting system, with various services integrated in the ARD.

It remains to be seen whether the newer, combined German system of television will continue a familiar path of creating new channels to serve viewer interests, or become something quite different. Throughout the world television as medium of "mass" communication has begun to fragment into several forms of individual communication. New possibilities for interactive television try to change viewers into active users. Still, it is likely that many of those now sitting before the television set will cling to this medium as a favorite source for information, stories, and human insights.

-Joan Bleicher