Volksempfänger

The Volksempfänger (German: [ˈfɔlks.ɛmˌpfɛŋɐ], "people's receiver") was a range of radio receivers developed by engineer Otto Griessing at the request of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.

Volksempfänger VE301 - The distinctive bakelite cabinet was the work of the architect and industrial designer Walter Maria Kersting.

The purpose of the Volksempfänger-program was to make radio reception technology affordable to the general public. Joseph Goebbels realized the great propaganda potential of this relatively new medium and thus considered widespread availability of receivers highly important.

History
Deutscher Kleinempfänger, DKE 38 (built from 1938 to 1944)

The original Volksempfänger VE301[1] model was presented on August 18, 1933, at the 10. Große Deutsche Funkausstellung in Berlin. The VE301 was available at a readily affordable price of 76 German Reichsmark (equivalent to two weeks' average salary), and a cheaper 35 Reichsmark model (which was even sold on an installment plan[2]), the DKE38 (sometimes called Goebbels-Schnauze – "Goebbels' snout" – by the general public) fitted with a multisection tube, was also later produced, along with a series of other models under the Volksempfänger, Gemeinschaftsempfänger, KdF (Kraft durch Freude), DKE (Deutscher Kleinempfänger) and other brands.

1936 Nazi propaganda poster, promoting the use of the Volksempfänger. The translated text reads, "All of Germany hears the Führer with the People's Receiver."

The Volksempfänger was designed to be produced as cheaply as possible, as a consequence they generally lacked shortwave bands and did not follow the practice, common at the time, of marking the approximate dial positions of major European stations on its tuning scale. Only German and (after 1938) Austrian stations were marked[3] and cheaper models only listed arbitrary numbers. Sensitivity was limited to reduce production costs further; so long as the set could receive Deutschlandsender and the local Reichssender, it was considered sensitive enough, although foreign stations could be received after dark with an external antenna, particularly as stations such as the BBC European service increased transmission power during the course of the war.

Listening to foreign stations became a criminal offence in Nazi Germany when the war began, while in some occupied territories, such as Poland, all radio listening by non-German citizens was outlawed (later in the war this prohibition was extended to a few other occupied countries coupled with mass seizures of radio sets[4]). Penalties ranged from fines and confiscation of radios to, particularly later in the war, sentencing to a concentration camp or capital punishment. Nevertheless, such clandestine listening was widespread in many Nazi-occupied countries and (particularly later in the war) in Germany itself. The Germans also attempted radio jamming of some enemy stations with limited success.

Technical
VE301 WN interior

First introduced in 1933, the Volksempfänger Model VE301 used a tuned radio frequency (TRF) circuit, an economical radio receiver design common during the 1920s. The radio set was capable of reception on two bands: Langwelle (long wave) from 150 to 350 kilohertz, and Mittelwelle (medium wave) from 550 to 1700 kilohertz. The glass tuning dial was imprinted with the names of German and Austrian cities corresponding to the frequencies of broadcast stations located in them. The set employed three vacuum tubes: RGN 1064, RES 164, and AF7. Three different VE301 models were produced to suit differing power supply requirements: batteries, alternating current (AC) mains, or direct current (DC) mains. Variations in AC line current were accommodated by moving a wire on the power transformer to select 110 volt, 130 volt, or 220 volt current. Three antenna jacks were provided for antennas of differing lengths, used to optimize reception on the different frequency bands. Volksempfänger models produced between 1933 and 1937 used an inexpensive metal reed type speaker. The 1938 models (VE301 Dyn) added an audio output transformer and featured a more modern electrodynamic loudspeaker.[3]

Effects

Much has been said about the efficiency of the Volksempfänger as a propaganda tool. Most famously, Hitler's architect and Minister for Armaments and War Production, Albert Speer, said in his final speech at the Nuremberg trials:

Hitler's dictatorship differed in one fundamental point from all its predecessors in history. His was the first dictatorship in the present period of modern technical development, a dictatorship which made the complete use of all technical means for domination of its own country. Through technical devices like the radio and loudspeaker, 80 million people were deprived of independent thought. It was thereby possible to subject them to the will of one man...[5]

Utility receiver

The Volksempfänger "people's radio" concept has been compared to the Utility Radio or "Civilian Receiver" produced by Britain between 1944 and 1945.[6] Unlike the Volksempfänger, the Utility Radio was produced primarily to remedy a shortage of consumer radio sets caused by the British radio industry's switch from civilian to military radio production. These Utility Radios followed a standardized and government approved design, and were built by a consortium of manufacturers using standard components.[7]

  • The album Radio-Activity, released in 1975, by German electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk prominently features a Volksempfänger, of the DKE brand (model 38), on its cover.
  • German band Welle: Erdball has also produced a song entitled Volksempfänger VE-301, which first appeared on their Die Wunderwelt der Technik album of 2002.
  • While living in Berlin in the 1970s, the American artist Edward Kienholz produced a series of works entitled 'Volksempfänger', using old radios, which at the time could be purchased cheaply at Berlin flea markets, a consequence of the large numbers that had been produced in the pre-war years.

See also

Citations
  1. "VE301" is an abbreviation where the "VE" stands for "Volksempfänger" and the "301" refers to the date of 30 January 1933 – the day of the Machtergreifung.
  2. Museum, Radio. "WW2 Radio Broadcasting in Germany". www.radiomuseum.org.
  3. Nelson, Phil. "German Volksempfaenger VE 301 Dyn Radio (1938)". www.antiqueradio.org.
  4. "Hand in?". Verzetsmuseum.
  5. Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks; Andrew D. Evans; William Bruce Wheeler; Julius Ruff (1 January 2014). Discovering the Western Past, Volume II: Since 1500. Cengage Learning. pp. 350–. ISBN 978-1-111-83717-4.
  6. Pauline Webb; Mark Suggitt (2000). Gadgets and necessities: an encyclopedia of household innovations. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-081-9.
  7. Chas E. Miller (2000). Valve Radio and Audio Repair Handbook. Newnes. pp. 144–. ISBN 978-0-7506-3995-8.

General sources
  • Diller, Ansgar (1983). "Der Volksempfänger. Propaganda- und Wirtschaftsfaktor". Mitteilungen des Studienkreises Rundfunk und Geschichte (in German). 9: 140–157.
  • Hensle, Michael P. (2003). Rundfunkverbrechen. Das Hören von "Feindsendern" im Nationalsozialismus (in German). Berlin: Metropol. ISBN 3-936411-05-0.
  • König, Wolfgang (2003). "Der Volksempfänger und die Radioindustrie. Ein Beitrag zum Verhältnis von Wirtschaft und Politik im Nationalsozialismus". Vierteljahreshefte für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte (in German). 90: 269–289.
  • König, Wolfgang (2003). "Mythen um den Volksempfänger. Revisionistische Untersuchungen zur nationalsozialistischen Rundfunkpolitik". Technikgeschichte (in German). 70: 73–102.
  • König, Wolfgang (2004). Volkswagen, Volksempfänger, Volksgemeinschaft. "Volksprodukte" im Dritten Reich: Vom Scheitern einer nationalsozialistischen Konsumgesellschaft (in German). Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. ISBN 3-506-71733-2.
  • Latour, Conrad F. (1963). "Goebbels' "außerordentliche Rundfunkmaßnahmen" 1939–1942". Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (in German). 11: 418–435.
  • Mühlenfeld, Daniel (2006). "Joseph Goebbels und die Grundlagen der NS-Rundfunkpolitik". Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft (in German). 54: 442–467.
  • Schmidt, Uta C. (1999). "Der Volksempfänger. Tabernakel moderner Massenkultur". In Marßolek, Inge; Saldern, Adelheid von (eds.). Radiozeiten. Herrschaft, Alltag, Gesellschaft (1924–1960) (in German). Potsdam: Vlg. f. Berlin-Brandenburg. pp. 136–159. ISBN 3-932981-44-8.
  • Steiner, Kilian J. L. (2005). Ortsempfänger, Volksfernseher und Optaphon. Entwicklung der deutschen Radio- und Fernsehindustrie und das Unternehmen Loewe 1923–1962 (in German). Essen: Klartext Vlg. ISBN 3-89861-492-1.
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