Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen____ Empirischen______Literaturwissenschaft

Herausgegeben von Reinhold Viehoff (Halle/Saale)

Jg. 25 (2006), Heft 2

Peter Lang Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft

SPIEL 25 (2006), H. 2

Popular Culture and Fiction in four decades of East German Television

hrsg. von / ed. by

Uwe Breitenborn (Berlin) & Sascha Trültzsch (Halle) Die Heftbezeichnung SPIEL 25 (2006), H. 2 ist produktionstechnischen Gründen geschuldet und bezieht sich nicht auf das tatsächliche Erscheinungsjahr dieses Bandes, 2009. Dafür bittet die Redaktion um Verständnis. Das Heft wird zitiert: Uwe Breitenborn & Sascha Trültzsch (Hg.), 2009: Populär Culture and Fiction in four decades of East German Television. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. (= special issue SPIEL, 25 (2006), H. 2).

Owing to technical reasons of production, the title SPIEL 25 (2006), H. 2 does not refer to the actual year of publication of this issue. The editorial team asks for the readers’ indulgence. The issue is cited as follows: Uwe Breitenborn & Sascha Trültzsch (Hg.), 2009: Popular Culture and Fiction in four decades of East German Television. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. (= special issue SPIEL, 25 (2006), H. 2). Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft

Contents / Inhalt SPIEL 25 (2006), H. 2

Uwe Breitenborn (Berlin)/Sascha Trültzsch (Halle) Cold War, Cool Screens? Researching Popular Culture in East German television. A Short Introduction and preface 177

Henning Wrage (Berlin) A Hitchhikers Guide to East German Television and to its Fictional Productions 179

Ulrike Schwab (Halle) Fictional History Broadcasts in the GDR Television and their Concept of „Nation“ 191

Uwe Breitenbom (Berlin) Areas of the Past, Present and Future - Urban Landscapes in Non-fictional East German Entertainment Shows 201

Edward Larkey (Baltimore, Maryland) Popular Music on East German TV: Pop as Propaganda 207

Sascha Trültzsch (Halle) Changing Family Values from Strict Socialist to Bourgeois on East German TV 225

Thomas Wilke (Halle) Turntablerockers behind the Wall: The Early Years of Disco in the GDR between 1970 and 1973 235 Lutz Warnicke (Potsdam-Babelsberg) Sports on Television in the GDR in the 1980s. A Movement between the Political-driven Olympic Boycott 1984 and Growing Popularization 249

Markus Schubert & Hans-Jörg Stiehler (Leipzig) Program Structure Analysis of the GDR Television 1956 to 1991 259

RUBRIC

Anne Bartsch (Halle) Kinder, Medien und Familie Zur Sozialisation von Emotionen in der Mediengesellschaft 273 10.3726/80108_201

SPIEL 25 (2006) H. 2, 201-206

Uwe Breitenborn (Berlin)

Areas of the Past, Present and Future - Urban Landscapes in Non-fictional East German Entertainment Shows

Unterhaltungsshows im Fernsehen waren und sind ein wichtiges Forum zur medienspezifischen Inszenierung idealisierter Wirklichkeiten. Seit den fünfziger Jahren existierten im Fernsehen Ost­ deutschlands Shows, in denen öffentliche städtische Räume zu Spielorten und Handlungselementen wurden. Ob Mit dem Herzen dabei, Städte-Duelle a u f Telewelle oder Schlager aus Berlin - nonfik- tionale Unterhaltungsprogramme des DFF besaßen viele Spielarten in denen Stadtlandschaften zu medialen Schaufenstern einer „attraktiven“ Gegenwart, einer „besseren“ Zukunft oder einer „legi­ timierenden“ Vergangenheit wurden. Beispielhaft lässt sich anhand von Shows der fünfziger und sechziger Jahre die dynamische Verknüpfung von kommunistischer Ideologie, Urbanität und popu­ lärer Kultur zeigen. Modernität, „sozialistische Menschengemeinschaft“, Konsum, Mobilität sind nur einige Stichworte eines gesellschaftlichen Entwurfes, der den Fortschritt feierte, umwarb und ausstellte. Freilich verriet der Zukunftsverweis dieser urbanen Inszenierungen oftmals mehr über die Gegenwart als über die Realisierbarkeit solcher Visionen. Städte waren und sind Orte moderner Gesellschaften. Im Fernsehen wurden hier kulturelle Räume und Identitäten konstruiert. Im Zent­ rum vieler Inszenierungen stand Berlin. Der Mythos Berlins und die Ausnahmesituation der Stadt im Kalten Krieg als Ort der Teilung sind nur einige Aspekte dieser Projektionen. Vor allem das Gestaltungspotential der modernen Ost-City als sozialistische Metropole gelangte in den Fokus der DFF-Sendungen. Quasi als Tanzfläche populärer Kultur geriet der städtische Raum Ostberlins zum Signum von Modernität, Fortschritt und Neuaufbau. Schlager in der U-Bahn, Tanzen in der Stalin­ allee oder gar ein Soldatenballett vorm Brandenburger Tor - variantenreich sind die Formen dieser Inszenierungen. Auch andere Städte der DDR und des Ostblocks wurden zu Spielorten in Unterhal­ tungssendungen. Im Vergleich zu heutigen unterhaltenden Programmangeboten waren diese Szena­ rien sehr aufwendig und oftmals publizistisch intendiert. Sie stellten eine andere Phase medialer Kommunikation und Repräsentation dar, die es in dieser Form kaum noch gibt.______

Television History and Urban Scenarios

Television entertainment shows have been an important forum for the media specific presentation of idealised realities in the past and they continue to be today. Contrary to popular belief, entertainment was an important part of television behind the Iron Curtain as well. Although East Germany’s television programming was conceived as a central- istic, government loyal and informative medium, it not only spread ideology and secure power. Right from the start, a number of entertaining shows and game shows were also on the agenda. GDR Television broadcasting began in 1952, a first with a combination of news, small studio productions and game shows. But the spectrum of formats and programs grew even in the test phase that lasted until 1955. Large-scale live shows from Berlin like 202 Uwe Breitenbom

Da lacht der Bär translated, That makes the Bear Laugh (starting in 1955) was a hit among audiences. As early as 1953, an event-oriented programming structure was used during the Leipzig Trade Fair, which took place twice a year in March and in September. During the trade fair, television itself pivoted around trade and consumption, fashion and city life - that is, around insignia of urban life. For example, during the fall fair of 1953, a special fair pro- gram ran with increased broadcast time and a larger program volume. This included a Fern- sehrevue (Television Revue), as well as a special broadcast of Fernsehkarussell (Television Carousel) called Hello LeipzigI It is common knowledge that modem life is set in cities - that is, in the urban context. The term urbanity has a double connotation: as a way of life and as an urban space (see Rötzer, 116). Urbanity is not only tied to cities, but is the quality of a lifestyle or of a medial performance. “Urbanity as a way of life may be primarily at home in the cities and may have developed from them, but it means a mindset/attitude that is not tied to a specific place, but is exactly what transcends it. Urbanity is not fixed locally, but has a universal and cosmo- politan background.” (Rötzer, 115) This means that even the provincial, for example in the form of a small-town, can be turned into urban scenarios. I will show that this happened with a number of shows in GDR Television. Just as in other European countries, television in the GDR was primarily an urban medium in the beginning. Developed, produced and viewed in the cities, it was often a mirror of urban life. Only after a period of time did it find its way into the regional and provincial space, which holds true for its topics as well. In the medium of television, urbanity does not only mean the city as a subject and backdrop in its “material and imma- terial form” (Barth, 9), but also the production of urban scenes in the country. With this in mind, we can be determine two distinct medial types of urban scenarios in the early phase of East German television, which can be used as valid analytical in- struments for other television cultures as well: 1) The material form: city space, especially the metropolis in its material form, acts as a backdrop, as the scene for a show: city squares, streets, boulevards, skyscrapers, clubs, bars, department stores, night lights, representative historic buildings. Mass transit infra- structure: trains, subways, buses, train stations, etc. 2) The immaterial form: Characteristics of urban lifestyle as important composition ele- ments for entertainment shows: crowds of people, synchronicity of events, spectacle na- ture, and cultural codes of glamour and the metropolis, like new trends in music, stars, etc. It was especially these last elements (spectacle, glamour, stars) that were used as essential composition elements in television entertainment. Entertainment is urban: lighthearted, tran- sient, strolling, playful, masked. If urbanity and show (seeing and being seen) are so tightly connected, then in this research field there is obviously the same strong connection between communist ideology, for example, with its urban characteristics, aimed at the masses, and entertainment shows. In urban scenarios, desired topic segments and entertainment potentials could be combined in a paradox manner. In the end, the urban maintained and supported the modelling of idealised realities in many different ways. In Germany, the city of all cities was and is Berlin. During the Cold War, Berlin symbolised - in addition to urban promises of modernity - most of all the battle of the systems. Which city was more modem? Which had the highest building? Where was life Areas of the Past, Present and Future 203

more thrilling, more exciting? The list goes on and on. Berlin had to be portrayed and promoted in film and television, which is why the city had the highest medial presence - of all East German cities - also as a location for entertainment shows. The show Schlager aus Berlin (Hits from Berlin) (1962) was the beginning of a series of journalistic-jovial entertainment shows, in which the famous sports’ reporter and host Heinz Florian Oertel presented short reportages and modem music clips from Berlin. As the show’s title plainly states, this was not about music from rural areas or small towns. The city was the star. This backdrop portrayed Berlin as the socialist capital of the GDR. The past came packaged as proletarian-folkloric local color, the future as ironic suggestion. However, the focus was on the boulevard of the present. The program was advertised as presenting Berlin “just as it lives, loves and laughs, as it works, plays and sleeps, with the commo- tion of its streets and its ever changing face” - depicted using animation, lots of music, and modem, contemporary aesthetics. The first episode was broadcast in March 1962 under the title When in the Schön­ hauser Allee... The title makes reference to a main urban thoroughfare, a boulevard. The “Schönhauser Allee”, the “pulsating main shopping vein“, the “hit” of “new Berlin” as the program announcement called it, had itself become the material backdrop for a pano- rama of other snappy metropolitan scenarios. Heinz Florian Oertel sang the show’s theme song “Ein Bummel durch die große Stadt” (Take a stroll through the big city) and he did just that as he sang. This is a case of the perfect medial combination of material and im- material city forms. The scenarios depicted here were ones of classical urbanity, which are “dependent on the public space and the semi-public space of trade, consumption, culture, and the social”. In this context, urbanity is the way of life “of the publicly di- rected person, to be found on the streets, in cafes and salons, in the theatre, in the opera, in art galleries or in museums - exposed to public life and seeking it, moving through the crowds [...]” (Rötzer, 114). The Schlager aus Berlin shows were of course entertainment programs par excellence, but some of these scenarios were also transferred to the show Schlager einer kleinen Stadt (Hits from a small town), which began in 1964. Expanding on the program’s main concept, rural towns became screens for the projection of modem social designs. In train stations, plazas, in factories and theatres, life in the country was being sought after, with the intention of finding a touch of Berlin here as well. In all, eight small towns were presented using this aesthetic between 1964 and 1967. The enter- taining portraits of East German and Eastern European metropolises followed: Warsaw, Budapest, Moscow, Berlin, Dresden, Cracau, Karl-Marx-City and Prague.

Duells of Cities on Television

In the three-part entertainment show Stadte-Duelle auf Telewelle (Duell of Cities on Television) (1966) different East German cities played against one another. The citizens of the small towns involved competed against each other in elaborate game scenarios. Such scenarios are well known. In the same time period there were similar game shows in other television programs around Europe, like the German ARD’s Spiel ohne Grenzen {Game without Borders) starting in 1965. The incredibly large dimensions of the games 204 Uwe Breitenbom were normal for this time period, where event-like shows were often produced for televi- sion entertainment (one comparison would be too the East German TV show Mit dem Herzen dabei). The first duel took place under the title Achtung! ~ Hoch-Spannung! The German title of the show is a play on words, meaning both Attention! High Voltage and Highly Exciting. It was staged between the cities Zittau and Meißen in Saxony. Among the strange tasks the citizens were given was the “mass fuelling” by automobile and mo- torcycle owners, with the mayor of the town playing the filling station attendant. The city that had filled up the most gasoline got a game point. Split screens showed the hosts in each town, thereby giving the event the flair of synchronicity. In the second episode (April of 1966), the cities of Altenburg and Freiburg produced a human chain made up of thousands of citizens, threw balls for a distance of forty kilometres, and put over 200 hens into egg-production stress to lay masses of eggs within just a short period of time. It was Easter after all. These curious scenes had both playful and political touches as well. The people on site enjoyed the way that the great city game entered the small-town atmosphere. The playful spectacle and surprising scenarios were highlighted with popular jazz music. And it was not only in the media that the small towns were forced into an urban dynamic: crowds of people gathered within these small towns, and huge spatial distances were a part of the game. This is highly symbolic. Here, the history of the cities was presented in the same way as their present, which was supposed to portray a satisfied small town population capable of achieving great things. And it also depicts a public framed in ide- ology. Politically correct stereotypes were one of the main aspects of their city portrayals. In the last episode, called Wer’s kann, der hat's {The one that can do it wins) (December 1996), the cities of Saalfeld, Ilmenau and Suhl competed against one another. Once again, the audience was portrayed as an active, competitive crowd that let themselves be drawn into crazy games. The topographical events were always identity forming as well. Regions and cities had a chance to present themselves, identity was constructed through the presence of the media, and touches of urbanity changed the atmosphere of the rural regions, if only for a short time. The central topic of the political agenda in East Germany - and thereby also the agenda of the media - was the establishment of a communist or socialist structure of society. It is common knowledge that this design was ideal and repressive, and was very closely tied to ideas about industrialisation and urbanisation. One of the ideals associated with this was the systematic development of industrial metropolitan areas for people to work and live. In general terms: daily life was to be modem and influenced by industry, and prosperity was to be experienced as a result of progress. It was a promise for all, even in those places where the promise was difficult to fulfil. Rural and small-town re- gions were subject to this concept as well, as can be seen by the concept of creating equality between city and countryside or by the industrial orientation of agriculture. This topic was also picked up by a number of entertainment shows in East German Television: the signals of modernity, city landscapes, and urban scenarios did not only come from Berlin. City landscapes became medial shop windows displaying an “attractive” present, a “better” future or a “legitimising” past. As I have argued, some of these non-fictional shows were used to model desired cultural and political-ideological values, in this case images of the establishment of state socialism or Areas of the Past, Present and Future 205

of modem life in the big city. By tying these topics to positive emotional connotations, edi- tors and programming heads had the opportunity to transmit these ideas within the most popular program segments (see Haucke 1969). There are many examples of this kind of modelling connection (see Breitenbom 2003); the aesthetic framework with which it was transmitted was broader than previously thought. It was largely based on hackneyed bits of popular culture. A surprising number of these can be found in the German Broadcasting Archive (Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv) in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Hundreds of shows and broadcasts from the first two decades of television alone are an impressive record of the political and cultural history of the GDR, as well as the early history of television in general - a unique media-historical treasure chest. A few prime examples are the shows Amiga- Cocktail (1958-1964) or Herzklopfen kostenlos (1959-1973). The German Research Foundations’ project “Programm History of GDR Television” has taken on the task of unearthing these treasures. It may seem mundane to claim urbanity by filming a city in its material form as the backdrop for an entertainment show. But it is just one of the urban spaces that forcefully thrusts itself in its attractiveness into the action. Whether it is a television ballet per- formed on construction sites or dancing soldiers on the main boulevard “Unter den Lin- den” in front of the Brandenburg Gate - it is still the city and its history-tumed-stone that remains the essential element for the design of television entertainment. And it is still the urban scenarios that infiltrate the rural province, transporting spectacle and amusement to a world that otherwise seems to be much slower and less transient than the metropolis. Nonfictional programs like these are seldom nowadays. Similar productions are only rarely successful in German television - with the exception of Wetten dass? (the taking over of urban spaces occurs here in the so-called “outside bet”). In the short-lived circu- lation of usage in German television today, elaborate shows like these have little financial leeway. The symbolic presence of cities is more often to be found as a stage decoration or in film animation - like in the American and German Late Night Shows. Today, cities are more often brought to the stage than that they are made stages for action themselves.

Bibliography

Barth, Holger (Hg.), 2001. Grammatik sozialistischer Architekturen. Berlin. Breitenbom, Uwe, 2003. Wie lachte der Bär? Systematik, Funktionalität und thematische Segmentierung von unterhaltenden Programmformen im Deutschen Fernsehfunk bis 1969. Berlin. Haucke, Lutz, 1969. Von der Erfahrung zur Prognose. Bemerkungen zu einigen kultur- theoretischen Grundfragen einer Standortbestimmung der „Unterhaltungskunst“. In: Informationen. Beilage zur Fachzeitschrift Unterhaltungskunst, 11/1969. Ber- lin. Rötzer, Florian, 1995. Die Telepolis. Urbanität im digitalen Zeitalter. Mannheim. 206 Uwe Breitenbom

Author's address: Uwe Breitenbom Wollankstr. 117 13187 Berlin E-mail: [email protected]