Propaganda and the Pluralist Society

Klaus Arnold. Kalter Krieg im Äther: Der Deutschlandsender und die Westpropaganda in der DDR. Münster u.a.: LIT Verlag, 2002. 746 S. EUR 45,00, gebunden, ISBN 978-3-8258-6180-3. Reviewed by David Tompkins Published on H-German (January, 2005) What is the role of radio in influencing politi‐ velopments seen in other areas of political and cal opinions and historical events? Some recent cultural life in the GDR: an organizational phase scholarship on radio during the Cold War has followed by tightening and loosening of the reins made far-reaching claims about the role of West‐ around the key years of 1953 and 1956. After the ern stations like Radio Free Europe, even contend‐ building of the wall in 1961, a several-year thaw ing that these efforts were a primary cause in the allowed for new cultural developments and forms downfall of the Communist regimes in the Soviet of music, and in turn was superseded by a period bloc.[1] Klaus Arnold makes much more modest of lower tolerance in the second half of the 1960s. assertions in his detailed study of the Deutsch‐ With respect to its activities vis-à-vis the Fed‐ landsender (DS), the German Democratic Repub‐ eral Republic, the Deutschlandsender generally lic's radio station that broadcast primarily for the followed official policies, which are painstakingly citizens of West Germany. His story of the DS, recounted in Heike Amos's recent study on the which mirrors his larger context of East German SED's Westpolitik.[2] Indeed, Arnold relies heavily policies towards West Germany, is marked by in‐ on her work, as he notes that the DS did not devi‐ effectual actions punctuated by the occasional ate from the party line (p. 216). Around 1950, the small-scale success in influencing opinion in the station concentrated on agitating for unification Federal Republic. Due to strident rhetoric too of‐ and against the American occupation, followed in ten based on falsehoods--which Arnold calls pro‐ the mid-1950s by a campaign against the integra‐ paganda--East German attempts to employ radio tion of West Germany into NATO. Towards the end to advance its interests in the Federal Republic of the 1950s, the DS sought to influence the anti- are described here as largely a failure. nuclear movement in the West while also at‐ The core of the book provides an extensive tempting to paint Adenauer's government as fas‐ examination of the SED's policies towards West cist. Arnold does a particularly excellent job of ex‐ Germany from 1945-1971 as seen through the amining the SED's role in attempting to discredit prism of the DS. For each main chapter, he breaks West German political fgures like Hans Globke the Ulbricht period into four- to fve-year sections, and Theodor Oberländer for their Nazi pasts. from the postwar organization of the station Here as elsewhere, Arnold convincingly demon‐ through to a fnal period of 1966-1971, when it strates how the DS undermined potentially com‐ was renamed and also abandoned its mission to pelling cases through exaggerated campaigns. Af‐ broadcast primarily for West Germany. Domesti‐ ter 1961, agitation for unification gave way to a cally, the radio station experienced the same de‐ gradual push for international recognition for the H-Net Reviews GDR until, with Honecker's rise to power in 1971, The frst part of the book, covering about one an emphasis on the separation of the two states hundred pages, is an overview of the theoretical also led to the demise of the Deutschlandsender, literature on propaganda. Arnold posits his own now considered irrelevant to the reality of two definition to differentiate the term from similar separate states. concepts like public relations. In his view, propa‐ These developments are recapitulated in ganda presents an ideological worldview as abso‐ thorough detail, both more generally for the lute truth in order to influence society (pp. 76-78). broader history of the GDR and specifically with He defines ideology as a construction of reality respect to the DS. Of particular interest in each that claims all truth for itself; this focus on "truth" chapter is a section that analyzes a representative seems to be the key element for Arnold, one that campaign or political theme taken up by the sta‐ separates propaganda from similar concepts. In tion. Here Arnold uses the archives effectively, as my opinion, Arnold's terminology is both too nar‐ he examines transcripts of specific broadcasts. His row and too constrained by perspectives devel‐ discussion of the music, however--which, after all, oped during the Cold War. While he does allow made up most of the programming--could have for propaganda to appear in pluralistic societies, been expanded. Rather than simply mentioning especially in times of war, he does not develop the genres in or out of favor during a particular this aspect. On the fnal page, Arnold links his period, a closer discussion of the kinds of music study to contemporary events, as he labels as pro‐ played would have surely been illuminating, per‐ paganda the activities of Serbia, Russia, and NATO haps on the model of his chosen thematic exam‐ during the Kosovo War; he might well have men‐ ples. tioned other aspects of media control under Vladimir Putin, media coverage of the frst Gulf A relatively short fnal section tackles the dif‐ War, or even the management of political spin in ficult question of reception; this information 1990s America. He further questions why, in might have been better expanded and integrated states with press freedom, journalists and the me‐ into preceding chapters that dealt with the inten‐ dia are instrumentalized for propaganda goals (p. tions and goals of both radio and political offi‐ 642). Of course, we cannot expect a book pub‐ cials. Nonetheless, Arnold does a fne job with his lished in 2002 to anticipate the highly problematic limited sources, which include primarily listener relationship between political leaders and the me‐ letters and surveys. Perhaps most interestingly, he dia in the run-up to the current Iraq war, as well describes the surprising popularity of a theoreti‐ as the nature of reporting in its aftermath. How‐ cal program dealing with Marxism-Leninism (pp. ever, such trends in recent decades have become 610ff). Although Arnold presents fgures that increasingly clear, and Arnold might have more show higher percentages of occasional listeners in effectively situated his study in this broader con‐ the early 1950s, it appears that throughout most text. Additionally, subjecting his material to a of the period, the percentage of listeners of the more theoretically sophisticated analysis of pow‐ Deutschlandsender never rose higher than the er and discourse surely would have yielded inter‐ single digits in West Germany. The DS nonetheless esting results, as would an exploration of the na‐ did have success in affecting people and even en‐ ture of radio as a medium of communication. couraging action on the local level or during spe‐ cific crises (pp. 625ff). And it certainly helped to Arnold's book provides an excellent overview compromise leading West German politicians of the Deutschlandsender and its cultural-political who had Nazi pasts. context in the GDR under Ulbricht. The analyses of institutional policies and personnel changes with respect to the DS are done well and will be of 2 H-Net Reviews interest. The author makes impressive use of the relevant archives and supplements them with ff‐ teen interviews. In general, Kalter Krieg im Äther serves as a valuable reference for those historians of East Germany interested in radio, wider cultur‐ al politics, and the SED's policies towards the Fed‐ eral Republic. Notes [1]. See especially Michael Nelson, War of the Black Heavens: The Battles of Western Broadcast‐ ing in the Cold War (Syracuse: Syracuse Universi‐ ty Press, 1997); Arch Puddington, Broadcasting Freedom: The Cold War Triumph of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2000). [2]. Heike Amos, Die Westpolitik der SED 1948/49-1961 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1999). If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-german Citation: David Tompkins. Review of Arnold, Klaus. Kalter Krieg im Äther: Der Deutschlandsender und die Westpropaganda in der DDR. H-German, H-Net Reviews. January, 2005. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10119 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.

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