Envisioning Socialism: Television and the Cold War in the German Democratic Republic

255 Pages·2014·1.992 MB·English

by  Heather Gumbert

Revised Pages
Envisioning Socialism
Revised Pages
Revised Pages
Envisioning Socialism
Television and the Cold War in the
German Democratic Republic
Heather L. Gumbert
The University of Michigan Press
Ann Arbor
Revised Pages
Copyright © by Heather L. Gumbert 2014
All rights reserved
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (be-
yond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by
reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher.
Published in the United States of America by
The University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
c Printed on acid- free paper
2017 2016 2015 2014 4 3 2 1
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978– 0- 472– 11919– 6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN 978– 0- 472– 12002– 4 (e- book)
Revised Pages
For my parents
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Revised Pages
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 Cold War Signals: Television Technology in the GDR 14
2 Inventing Television Programming in the GDR 36
3 The Revolution Wasn’t Televised: Political Discipline
Confronts Live Television in 1956 60
4 Mediating the Berlin Wall: Television in August 1961 81
5 Coercion and Consent in Television Broadcasting:
The Consequences of August 1961 105
6 Reaching Consensus on Television 135
Conclusion 158
Notes 165
Bibliography 217
Index 231
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Revised Pages
Acknowledgments
This work is the product of more years than I would like to admit. That it has
finally seen the light of day, so to speak, is due to the support of a number of
institutions and individuals.
I began this project as a doctoral student at the University of Texas at
Austin, where I received financial, collegial, and moral support. Generous gifts
to the Department of History from Eugene and Dora Bonham, John Paul Jones,
Alice J. D. Sheffield, and Gardner F. Marston funded early research. The Ber-
lin Program for Advanced German and European Studies at the Freie Univer-
sität Berlin and the Social Science Research Council supported my dissertation
research, offered me a supportive and challenging institutional home while I
was in Berlin, and introduced me to some of my closest friends and colleagues.
The Zentrum für zeithistorische Forschung in Potsdam was a fount of generous
and collegial scholars. Special thanks go to Christoph Klessmann and Thomas
Lindenberger. Thanks to the members of my dissertation committee, David
Crew, Peter Jelavich, Joan Neuberger, Tracie Matysik, and Sabine Hake; each
one is a model scholar I can only hope to emulate.
Virginia Tech has been my institutional home for almost a decade, through
thick and thin. The Department of History and the College of Liberal Arts and
Human Sciences have provided support invaluable research support through a
number of travel and research grants and stipends. The Jerome Niles Faculty
Research Fellowship supported the final writing of the manuscript. Thanks
also to my friends and colleagues at Virginia Tech, with whom I have shared
and surmounted far more than any of us could have imagined.
I must acknowledge the support given by research professionals on two
continents, without whom this work would not have been possible. I am in-
debted to the friendly and dedicated staff of Inter- library Loan at Virginia Tech.
The staffs of the German Federal Archives in Lichterfelde and Dahlwitz-