Norag and the Culture of the 1920’s in Hamburg
Under the umbrella of the interdisciplinary research association on the cultural history of Hamburg (www.fkghh.uni-hamburg.de), from 1 October 2008 to 30 September 2009 academics from various subject areas comprehensively investigated the Hamburg cultural scene during the Weimar Republic and passed on their results to a wider public in 2010. Within the context of this project, the “Research Centre for the History of Broadcasting in Northern Germany” was responsible for working on the area of radio.
In the 1920’s, a new mass medium appeared in the shape of radio and rapidly developed into an decisive cultural factor. As an important metropolitan centre in northern Germany, Hamburg became the seat of one of the large regional broadcasters. On 2 May 1924, the regular broadcasts of Norag, the “Nordischer Rundfunk Aktiengesellschaft” [Nordic Broadcasting Company] began broadcasting. As an institution comprising staff as well as varied programme offerings, Norag in a few years became a definitive actor in the areas of literature, of musical life and of entertainment, as well as a decisive force in terms of the regional culture and the Low German language.
Publications
Wagner, H.-U. ; Stegemann, W. (2010): „Hallo, hallo! Hier Radio!“ Ein neues Medium verschafft sich Gehör: Der Rundfunk in Hamburg ['Hallo, Hallo, this is the Radio' A New Medium Gets Itself Heard. The Nordic Broadcasting Company (Norag) in Hamburg]. In: Hempel, D.; Weimar, F. (eds.): „Himmel auf Zeit“. Die Kultur der 1920er Jahre in Hamburg. Neumünster, pp. 177-201, 372-374.
Wagner, H.-U. (2009) [Review] Franz Steinfort: Hörspiele der Anfangszeit [Radio Plays in the Early Days]. In: Medien und Kommunikation 57 (2009), No. 1, pp. 97-99.
Lectures
“’Hallo, hallo, hier Radio!’ Ein neues Medium verschafft sich Gehör – Der Rundfunk in Hamburg” ['Hello, Hello, this is the Radio' A New Medium Gets Itself Heard. Broadcasting in Hamburg], lecture by H.-U. Wagner in the course of the lecture series “Himmel auf Zeit – Die 20er Jahre in Hamburg” [Heaven for a Time – the 1920s in Hamburg] at the University of Hamburg on 10 June 2010.
“’Das Gebiet unserer Sendegemeinschaft ist Niederdeutschland’ – Der Rundfunk und seine niederdeutsche Programmarbeit in den 1920er und 1930er Jahren” [‘The Area of Our Broadcasting Community is Lower Germany’ – Broadcasting and Its Lower German Programme in the 1920s and 1930s], lecture by H.-U. Wagner at the 123rd annual conference for Lower German linguistics in Hamburg on 25 May 2010.
“’Hallo, hallo, hier Radio!’” Ein neues Medium verschafft sich Gehör: Die Nordische Rundfunk AG (Norag) in Hamburg 1924-1933” ['Hallo, Hallo, this is the Radio' A New Medium Gets Itself Heard. The Nordic Broadcasting Company (Norag) in Hamburg 1924-1933], lecture by H.-U. Wagner in the lecture series “Andocken II. Eine Hansestadt und ihre Kulturen 1848-1933” at the University of Hamburg on 9 July 2008.
Contact person
Research Centre for the History of Broadcasting in Northern Germany
Universität Hamburg
Department Sprache Literatur Medien
Von-Melle-Park 6
D - 20146 Hamburg
Tel. +49 (0)40 428 38 - 27 24
Fax +49 (0)40 428 38 - 35 53
Co-operation partners
D. Hempel (University of Hamburg), F. Weimar (Hamburg)