Sie hörten Frontberichte der Propagandakompanien.
You have heard front-line reports from the [Wehrmacht] propaganda companies.
Radio was still a relatively new technology at the time the Nazi Party rose to power in 1933. The first regular radio broadcasts in Germany began only a decade earlier during the years of the Weimar Republic. Radio receivers were luxury items when they were first introduced, and only a small percentage of Germans had them in their homes. But home radio ownership was growing by the time that the Nazi Party rose to power, and broadcast radio became the leading form of mass communication during the years of Nazi rule.1
When Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor in January 1933, the Nazi regime immediately began consolidating its power and reshaping German society in a process known as “Gleichschaltung" (German for “coordination”). Nazi leaders saw the control of Germany’s radio broadcasting networks as a crucial part of these efforts to transform Germany. The regime used radio to spread Nazi propaganda and create a sense of shared culture and community among members of the Nazis' so-called "national community" ("Volksgemeinschaft").2
The featured clip from the 1944 propaganda film Radio in War shows how Nazi leaders thought radio could be used to connect and unite the members of the Nazi "national community" during World War II. The film takes viewers behind the scenes of a radio station and shows the production of different programming—including anti-Jewish propaganda, news about the war, and music. Popular Sunday programming in Nazi Germany featured songs that were requested for loved ones serving on the front as well as personal announcements such as births or engagements.3 These personal details were included to produce emotional responses in listeners. Nazi propagandists hoped to create the feeling that the members of the "national community" all belonged to one gigantic, extended national family that was united by a stream of words and music.
The regime also tried using radio to connect civilians with the experiences of those serving in the German military by broadcasting news and propaganda from the front. The featured clip begins with members of the German military reporting from the frontlines as battle scenes play behind them. The film suggests that listening to the radio could connect loved ones separated by war through shared experiences. Nazi leaders imagined that radio would act like a “magical bond” uniting Germans on the homefront with soldiers on the frontlines.4 The final scenes of the film show Germans from different walks of life—including workers, mothers, and soldiers—all listening to the radio as part of their daily routines.
To increase the size of the listening audience for Nazi radio broadcasts, the regime started production of the so-called “People’s Receiver” (“Volksempfänger”)5 in May 1933. These basic and affordable radio sets enabled the regime to broadcast Nazi propaganda directly into listeners’ homes. They were intended to show that the Nazi regime was improving Germans’ quality of life and erasing class differences among members of the "national community."6 “People’s Receivers” were designed to pick up local German stations only, but listeners could sometimes pick up foreign broadcasts. Listening to foreign radio broadcasts became a punishable offense after the outbreak of World War II. Many Germans risked tuning in anyway. During World War II, Nazi authorities began registering the names and addresses of anyone who bought new radios and confiscated radios owned by Jewish people.