Public Communication as Facilitated by the Media from the 1950’s to the 1970’s
Since the beginning of 2008, after the completion of the project on the history of the NWDR, the “Forschungsstelle Geschichte des Rundfunks in Norddeutschland” (FGRN) – the Research Centre for the History of Broadcasting in Northern Germany, the Hans Bredow Institute's cooperative project with the NDR (North German Broadcasting), the University of Hamburg (Department of Languages, Literature and Media I) and the WDR (West German Broadcasting) – has devoted itself to selected questions of public communication facilitated by the media, focussing mainly on the 1950's to the 1970's and with a particular emphasis on programme offerings from NDR.
Currently, three particular issues are being addressed:
- Long-term effects of media: central to this is how media users deal with changing programme offerings by public broadcasting. What is at question in the research is the formation of regional, national and European identity as facilitated by the media.
- The role of public broadcasters as central parties in public communication: the particular question posed here is the role they play in connection with a culture of remembering facilitated by the media, especially in connection to issues of the Nazi past and the process of coming to terms with it.
- Research on the North and West German Broadcasting Association (NWRV): the aim of this preparatory work is to enable a study on the basis of the methods of business history, which analyses the NWRV as an umbrella organisation spanning the joint television work of the NDR and the WDR between 1956 and 1961.
Publications
Bayer, F. (2010): “Von der Rechtlichkeit und Sauberkeit des Verfahrens überzeugen” [Convincing about the Legalities and Cleanliness of the Lawsuit]. Die Berichterstattung des NWDR über den Nürnberger Prozess. [The Coverage of the NWDR on the Nuremberg Tribunal] Online available (German) on the website of the Research Project on the History of Broadcasting in Northern Germany.
Wagner, H.-U. (2010): Ein junger Mann kommt nach Hause. Hans-Ulrich Wagner im Gespräch mit Volker Starke [A Young Man Returns Home. Hans-Ulrich Wagner in Conversation with Volker Starke. Available online (German).
Wagner, H.-U. (2010): Mapping Europe. Wie westdeutsche Rundfunkprogramme europäische Identitäten stiften sollten [Mapping Europe. How West-German Radio Programmes Were Supposed to Create European Identities]. In: M. Arenhövel, M. Razbojnikova-Frateva, H.-G. Winter (eds.): Kulturtransfer und Kulturkonflikt. Dresden 2010 (= Germanica, Neue Folge. Jahrbuch für Germanistik in Bulgarien), pp. 301-316.
Runkel, A. (2010): Schlechtwetter um bessere Aussichten? Die Einführung der Wetterkarte vor 50 Jahren sorgte für Kontroversen [Bad Weather for Better Forecasts? The Introduction of the Weather Chart Caused Controversy 50 Years Ago]. Available online (German).
Wagner, H.-U.; Bayer, F. (2009): Die Bevölkerung mit den Verbrechen der Angeklagten bekannt machen. Edition ausgewählter Dokumente zur Berichterstattung des NWDR über den Nürnberger Hauptkriegsverbrecherprozess [Introducing the German People to the Crimes of the Accused. Edition of Selected Documents on the Coverage of the Nuremberg Trials]. In: Rundfunk und Geschichte 35 (2009), pp. 30-38.
Wagner, H.-U. (2009): Ein symbiotisches Verhältnis. Der Rundfunk und das literarische Leben im Nachkriegsdeutschland [A Symbiotic Relation. Broadcasting and Literary Life in Post-War Germany]. In: B. Busch, T. Combrink: Doppelleben. Literarische Szenen aus Nachkriegsdeutschland. Materialien zur Ausstellung. Göttingen, pp. 227-236.
Wagner, H.-U. (2009): Early Post-War Television in West-Germany: Looking Abroad for Information. In: Video Active. Available online.
Wagner, H.-U. (2008): “Das junge Europa formt sein Gesicht”. Die “Generation ohne Heimkehr” im europäischen Kontext [Young Europe Takes on a Face . The Generation without any Homecoming in the European Context]. In: G. Burgess, H.-G. Winter (eds.), “Generation ohne Heimkehr”. Heimat und Heimkehr in der “jungen Generation” der Nachkriegsliteratur. Dresden.
Wagner, H.-U. (2008): Ein Nestor mit allem Nachdruck: Der Hörspielpapst Heinz Schwitzke [A Decided Nestor: The Pope of Radio Plays Heinz Schwitzke], MDR Figaro, 10 February 2008.
Wagner, H.-U. (in print): “Eine Spielwiese mit Unendlichkeitscharakter” – Martin Walser und das Hörspiel [A Playground without Limits - Martin Walser and the Radio Play]. In: W. Schmitz (ed.), Über Martin Walser [On Martin Walser]. Dresden.
Wagner, H.-U. (2008): Harry Hermann Spitz (1899-1961). In: Lexikon verfolgter Musiker und Musikerinnen der NS-Zeit. [Dictionary of Persecuted Musicians] Hamburg.
Lectures
"Private Opinions and Public Discourses. West-German Broadcasters and Their Attempts to Deal with the Participation of Audiences after 1945", lecture by H.-U. Wagner at the international workshop and founding conference of the ECREA-Section Communication History "User-generated Content. Historical Perspectives of the Participation of Audiences in Social Communication" in Potsdam on 4 June 2010.
"Der Nürnberger Kriegsverbrecherprozess als Medienereignis. Die Berichterstattung durch die Rundfunksender in den alliierten Besatzungszonen 1945/46" [The Nuremberg Trials as Media Event. Coverage by Broadcasting Stations in the Allied Occupation Zones 1945/46], lecture by H.-U. Wagner at the International Conference "That Four Great Nations... Der Nürnberger Prozess - Eine Bestandsaufnahme" in Nuremberg on 1 October 2009.
"Witnessing - Zur Konstruktion von Zeitzeugen" [Witnessing - On the Construction of Contemporary Witnesses], lecture by H.-U. Wagner at the workshop of the DFG project „Medialität und Modernität im NS-Kino“ at the Warburg House of the University of Hamburg on 27 May 2009.
"Coming Home into Thin Air: Radio and the Social-Cultural Geography of Homecoming in Germany 1945-1955", presentation by H.-U. Wagner at the conference “Coming Home? Conflict and Return Migration in Twentieth-Century Europe“, University of Southampton on 2 April 2009 (with A. Badenoch, University of Utrecht).
"'Für Sie, für Sie – und ganz besonders für Sie'. Rundfunkgeschichte(n) im Norden" ['For you, for you - and especially for you'. Broadcasting (hi)stories in the North], module by H.-U. Wagner for the education of NDR programme trainees at the NDR in Hamburg on 23 March 2009.
“Mit dem Großen Zackenbarsch auf Streifzug. Siegfried Lenz – Inszenierung von Autorschaft und Etablierung einer Erzählermarke” [Wandering with the Big Grouper. Siegfried Lenz – Performing Authorship and Establishing a Narrator's Trademark], lecture by H.-U. Wagner at the Europäische Akademie in Sankelmark on 29 June 2008.
“Mehr als nur das ‚Schiff Esperanza’. Ein Porträt des Rundfunkautors Fred von Hoerschelmann” [More Than Only the ‘SS Esperanza’. A Portrait of the Radio Author Fred von Hoerschelmann], lecture by H.-U. Wagner at the Haus der Heimat des Landes Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart on 27 May 2008.
“Gespräch über Axel Eggebrecht” [A Discussion about Axel Eggebrecht], podium discussion and presentation by H.-U. Wagner and H. Kesting at the Medienstiftung of the City of Leipzig on 1 February 2008.
“Das junge Europa formt sein Gesicht’? Die Generation ohne Heimkehr im europäischen Kontext [Young Europe Forms its Image. The Generation without a Homecoming in a European Context], lecture by H.-U. Wagner at the colloquium “Generation ohne Heimkehr. Heimat und Heimkehr in der ‘jungen Generation’ der Nachkriegsliteratur”, a collaboration of the Internationale-Wolfgang-Borchert-Gesellschaft, the University of Hamburg and the FGRN in Hamburg on 24 November 2007.
Organisation and Moderation of “Medienhistorisches Forum für Absolventen und wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs” [Media-historical Forum for Graduates and Young Researchers] a collaboration of the Studienkreis Rundfunk und Geschichte with the Fachgruppe Kommunikationsgeschichte of the DGPuK (H.-U. Wagner with S. Pfau, S. Kinnebrock, M. Löblich) in Lutherstadt Wittenberg on 1 und 2 November 2007.
“Droge Arbeit. Literarische Reaktionen auf die New Economy” [Work as a Drug. Literary Reactions to the New Economy], lecture by H.-U. Wagner in the lecture series “Denn wovon lebt der Mensch?” [What do People live on, then?] at the University of Hamburg on 10 July 2007.
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