Continuing with the theme of art and culture, I chose to include the Berlin TV Tower at Alexander Platz as the next point on my Walking Tour. From this tower, the East German state broadcasted many of its televised programs for both adults and children. These programs were very biased towards the East German state and highly anti-Western in values.

The Berliner Fersehtrum was built between 1965 and 1969. The actual idea for the tower began in the 1950's when the East German government had plans to erect a television tower in order to transmit their own in-house media throughout the city of Berlin. The Tower would not only become the tallest building in Berlin at 368m and is also the second tallest building in Europe.

The Fersehtrum may have a utilitarian purpose but it would end up becoming a symbol for the Cold War. The idea for the tower came not long after the Soviet Union launched its first satellite, Sputnik, which gave the communist world the ability to broadcast television for the first time. According to World Site Guides, "The leader of the Socialist Unity Party, Walter Ulbricht, ordered Fernsehturm to be built on Alexanderplatz. Fernsehturm was designed by Hermann Henselmann and the result is the lean, tall, rocket-like building we see today. The sphere itself resembles very much how the soviet satellite looked. The end result was a fully functional TV-tower but also a status symbol for East Germany."[1]

Today, the Berliner Fernsehturm is one of Berlin's most popular tourist sites but it continues to broadcast many television services around Berlin and throughout Germany.

[1] https://www.worldsiteguides.com/europe/germany/berlin/fernsehturm/

"Berliner Fernsehturm." The World Federation of Great Towers. Accessed March 24, 2019. https://www.great-towers.com/towers/berliner-ferns....

"The Berlin Television Tower's History." Berliner Fernsehturm. Accessed March 24, 2019. https://tv-turm.de/en/tower-history/.

"When the First Stone Was Laid: Berlin TV Tower." When the First Stone Was Laid: Berlin TV Tower - The Local. August 06, 2015. Accessed March 24, 2019. https://www.thelocal.de/20150806/when-the-first-st....

An important aspect of nostalgia is having a positive experience with something that connects us to the past. For many growing up in the GDR, especially as children, television played an important role in many people's lives. As mentioned earlier, the TV Tower is not only the largest building in Berlin but has become a symbol of the past. It was because of the construction of the tower that East Berliners were able to watch state-produced television programs and sporting events that gave them many hours of entertainment. However, continuing with the theme of state censorship, the Fernsehtrum was also a symbol of oppression.

According to Palmowski, "In 1960, 16.7 per cent of households owned a television set … and this figure rose to nearly 100 per cent by 1975."[1] Televised broadcasting hours had also jumped from fifty-eight to 116 from the 1960's to the 1970's. As East Germans consumed more television on a daily basis, the East German state tightened its grip on telecommunications. In 1964, the Deutscher Fernsehfunk or DFF was established and became the official state broadcaster of the GDR. One of the first television shows to be broadcast on the station was an entertainment show entitled 'Songs of a Small Town' as well as a spy drama called 'The Invisible Lens'. By 1966, the DFF was broadcasting six original programs that were seen by many people not only in Berlin but also in the Baltic states.

Such is the case with most public broadcasters, the programs aired held pro-state views and attempted to express the culture of the people. While considered an entertainment show, the aforementioned 'Songs of a Small Town', "represented the central idealogical aim of the Ulbricht era: the creation of a socialist community of people."[2] In the 1970's and 1980's, the DFF began shifting to comedies and they ended up being quite popular with East German audiences. However, the messages were still the same as they were in the more dramatic programs, "Entertainment on television could contribute to promoting and imprinting 'the socialist way of life', the socialist feeling of heimat, socialist internationalism and the moral values of the socialist community."[3]

[1] Inventing a Socialist Nation by Jan Palmowski p. 81.

[2] Inventing a Socialist Nation by Jan Palmowski p. 83.

[3] Inventing a Socialist Nation by Jan Palmowski p. 121.

Brown, Archie. The Rise and Fall of Communism. (New York, ECCO, 2011).

Childs, D. Fall of the GDR. (Routledge, United Kingdom 2016).

Palmowski, Jan. Inventing a Socialist Nation: Heimat and the Politics of Everyday Life in the GDR, 1945-1990. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press), 2009.