Gesnerus 76/2 (2019) 172–191, DOI: 10.24894/Gesn-en.2019.76009 “Because every recipient is also a potential patient” – TV Health Programmes in the FRG and the GDR, from the 1960s to the 1980s Susanne Vollberg Abstract In the television programme of West Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, health magazines like Gesundheitsmagazin Praxis [Practice Health Maga- zine] (produced by ZDF)1 or ARD-Ratgeber: Gesundheit [ARD Health Ad- visor] played an important role in addressing health and disease as topics of public awareness. With their health magazine Visite [Doctor’s rounds], East German television, too relied on continuous coverage and reporting in the fi eld. On the example of above magazines, this paper will examine the his- tory, design and function of health communication in magazine-type for- mats. Before the background of the changes in media policy experienced over three decades and the different media systems in the then two Germanys, it will discuss the question of whether television was able to move health rele- vant topics and issues into public consciousness. health magazine, GDR television, FRG television, Gesundheitsmagazin Praxis Health-related programmes were, right from the early days of television, part of the common TV repertoire in both German countries but it was in the health, disease and medicine, which was well-received by the audience. The- coverage of medicine and health issues in East and West German television 1 Abbreviation for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen – Second German Television; public-service broadcaster. Apl. Prof. Dr. Susanne Vollberg, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Institut für Musik, Medien- und Sprechwissenschaften, Abt. Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, [email protected] 172 Gesnerus 76 (2019) Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 03:47:12PM via free access of that period was dominated by magazine-type formats. More extensive treatment of an issue in longer documentaries, which was characteristic for Anglo-American television, played in German programmes only a lesser role.2 However, this reporting in the mass media was met, at the same time, by a critical response by physicians and scientists, but also by the TV produc- ers themselves, and was put under some scrutiny. One of the episodes3 of the health magazine programme called Medizin im Dritten [Medicine on your Regional Channel] broadcasted by Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)4 started, for instance, with the following voice-over questions, Ladies and gentlemen, how do patient and doctor react to the fl ood of medical information in the mass media, i.e. in the press, on the radio or on TV? Is this really providing help or is it merely making people more afraid of diseases?5 Based on historic materials in the archives6 of the respective broadcasting ser- vices or editorial offi ces, and based on the scientifi c literature on the pro- gramme history of West German and East German television,7 this paper ex- plores how health and disease were addressed in magazine-type series in the two Germanies, i.e. the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Dem- ocratic Republic. The structure of this historic overview follows the partial parallels in the development of the two broadcasting systems and the emer- gence and diversifi cation of health magazines from 1960 until 1980. Due to their many years of existence and their popularity with the audience, some of these programmes were important drivers of and in the societal discourse on health and disease. This examination is linked to the hypothesis that televi- sion is able to bring health relevant topics and facts into the fi eld of public 2 Compare Floto 2003, 385. 3 The episode with the title The pre-informed patient or The disquiet brought on by the mass media featured three physicians, Dr Ulrich Fohrmann (science journalist), Prof J F Volrad Deneke (German Medical Association) and Prof Ludwig Demling (Erlangen University), as experts. Archived WDR material on the Medizin im Dritten series; episode broadcasted on 26 September 1979 on WDR. 4 Westdeutscher Rundfunk – West German Broadcasting Service; regional public-service- broadcaster. 5 WDR archived material (my translation). 6 Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv Potsdam (DRA); Bundesarchiv Berlin; Unternehmensarchiv ZDF; RechercheDesk BR, Historisches Archiv WDR. 7 The fi ve-volume publication Geschichte des Fernsehens in der Bundesrepublik Deutsch- land, offers a good overview of the programme history of West German television, in par- ticular volume 1. See Hickethier 1993. The fi nal publication of the research project on the Comparative Program History of GDR Television, funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemein- schaft (DFG) [German Research Foundation], provides a good overview of East German television and programme history. See Steinmetz/Viehoff 2008. Detailed information on the individual decades can be found in the anthologies by Dittmar/Vollberg 2002, 2004 and 2007. Gesnerus 76 (2019) 173 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 03:47:12PM via free access awareness. Health related reporting and the related presentation of health-rel- evant behaviour can therefore infl uence an individual’s attitude to health is- sues.8 1 Evolving into a mass medium – television in the 1960s The beginnings of modern television go back in both German countries to the early 1950s.9 In close time-wise competition, the responsible authorities in both Germanys started their own public broadcasting services. The forma- tion of Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (ARD) [Consortium of public broadcast- ers in Germany]10 in 1950 marks the beginning of joint television broadcasts on 25 December 1952. Initially, regular broadcasting in West Germany com- prised only a few hours in the evening. But right from the start, TV health education was part of the programme as evidenced by the fi ve-minute med- ical programme Der Doktor hat Ihnen etwas zu sagen [The doctor wants to tell you something], produced from 1953, which provided viewers with health-related information on Wednesday evenings right after the leading news bulletin, Tagesschau. The GDR started its experimental television programme Fernsehzentrum Berlin [Berlin Television Centre] four days earlier, on 21 December 1952. With the start of the regular television station called Deutscher Fernsehfunk (DFF) [German Television Broadcaster] in 1956, East Germany’s broadcast- ing hours also increased from approximately 22 hours per week in 1956 to about 58 hours until 1960.11 Early East German television also provided its audience from the beginning with medical advice. In its fi rst years, health and sickness were covered by a non-fi ctional format called Der Arzt [The Doctor] (1956-1957) and, after the series was dropped, the Gesundheit für alle [Health for Everyone] episodes (1959-1960) shown as part of the ad- vice-oriented magazine Sendung für die Frau [Women’s hour] continued to give airspace to physicians.12 8 For an extensive presentation of the scientifi c research in the fi eld of medical and health communication see Rossmann/Meyer 2017. 9 Hickethier 1993, 1998; Steinmetz/Viehoff 2008. 10 The consortium was founded jointly by Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR) [North Western German Broadcasting Service], Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) [Bavarian Broadcast- ing Service], Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) [Hessian Broadcasting Service], Radio Bremen (RB) [Bremen Radio], Süddeutscher Rundfunk (SDR) [Broadcasting Service for the South of Germany] and Südwestfunk (SWF) [Southwestern Broadcasting Service]. 11 Kreutz/Löcher/Rosenstein 1998, 26; Schubert/Stiehler 2007, 26. 12 Rosenstein 1998, 379-380. 174 Gesnerus 76 (2019) Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 03:47:12PM via free access 1.1 The doctor’s offi ce opens – Health information in West German television in the 1960s Since the beginning of the 1960s, the range of available programmes ex- panded as the West German television system diversifi ed. With the introduc- tion of a second central channel, the Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) [Second German Television], on 1 April 1963, 67 percent of households own- ing a television set could now choose between two channels. Television in West Germany became more and more an infl uential mass medium due to its increasing distribution.13 Whereas the fi rst channel, ARD, broadcasted an average of 7.5 hours per day, ZDF broadcasted 5.5 hours on average.14 The competition between ARD and ZDF, which was further increased by the development of ARD’s regional (third) channels between 1964 and 1969, led in subsequent years to a continuous extension of daily broadcast- ing hours which, in turn, triggered the development of fi xed programme schedules, continuous programme production based on seriality, and the es- tablishment of fi xed broadcasting slots.15 Programme planners loved maga- zines which, as a result, underwent increasing diversifi cation. Their advan- tages lay in the format’s openness for a variety of issues, high programming fl exibility due to the versatility in running times (between 25 and 45 min- utes), and good audience connectivity through the male, less often female, presenter. The production of magazines was also relatively cheaper and their modularity allowed to show the different aspects of a topic in a variety of audiovisual forms. Right from the onset, the public broadcasting services, ARD and ZDF, were given the objective to ensure, and provide the people with, indepen- dent primary information, education, culture and entertainment. The pro- vision of practical help through advice and advisory information was there- fore one of the most important broadcasting objectives, as continuously emphasized by, for instance, Karl Holzamer, the then Director General of ZDF.16 With emerging organisational structures including specialized teams and departments within the broadcasting services, and continuously increas- ing broadcasting hours, the share of advice-focussed programmes that dealt with issues related to every-day-life, such as education, nutrition, health, school or transport, was growing.17 Service journalism, which was at the time well established in print media and radio, quickly spread to television 13 Bleicher 1993, 96-105.