The Radio Hobby, Private Associations, and the Challenge of Modernity in Germany by Bruce B. Campbell

The Radio Hobby, Private Associations, and the Challenge of Modernity in Germany by Bruce B. Campbell

Author:Bruce B. Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030265342
Publisher: Springer International Publishing


Conclusions About the Gleichschaltung of Radio Clubs

The Gleichschaltung put an end to the independent existence of the radio hobby, and soon to the very existence of most clubs. The first to go were the working-class clubs, but the middle-class ones followed only a few weeks later. The process took place through a combination of internal and external pressures. Internally, it came from German-National, conservative, and National Socialist club members, coupled with “anticipatory obedience ” (“vorauseilener Gehorsam”) on the part of many club leadership councils, which sought to avoid the worst through the appearance of eager compliance. Externally, the Propaganda Ministry sought to seize control over the radio clubs as a relatively minor part of the larger project of gaining control over broadcast radio, which value as a political instrument was quite clear to National Socialists around Goebbels. One of their most powerful tools in the Nazification of the radio hobby was the long-term subversion of the hobby by the RDR. It helped move the tone and nature of the debate in a Nazi and nationalist direction, and then provided the perfect vehicle for seizing control over and centralizing the radio clubs, ostensibly in the name of “rationalization”. Though the process of Nazifying the middle-class radio clubs was longer and more convoluted than the way the working-class clubs were dealt with, the end result was the same: an end to the independent and rich ecosystem of the radio hobby. Throughout this process, it cannot be forgotten that while many greeted the changes warmly, the threat of great physical violence was also always present. While this violence was used mainly against the Left, the fact that it was there cannot be ignored, and its threat certainly played a central role in the Nazification of radio at every level.

The “shortwave amateurs” (ham radio enthusiasts) under the DASD were a partial exception to this rule. Due to their high level of technical skill and their great importance for rearmament, and due to their ties with international organizations, they were able to escape dissolution, albeit at the price of the loss of their independence. But they could not escape their own Gleichschaltung, and in the end, made a truly Faustian bargain with a state now firmly controlled by the Devil of National Socialism. We will follow this process in the next chapter.

Footnotes

1“Nicht, als wenn wir die Absicht hätten, lediglich Parteiprogramme zu senden. Wir wollen der Unterhaltung, der leichten Muse, Spiel, Scherz und Musik breitesten Spielraum geben; aber alles soll eine innere Beziehung zur Zeit haben. Alles soll die starke Note unserer großen Aufbauarbeit tragen, oder es soll sich doch mindestens dazu nicht in Widerspruch befinden. Dabei ist vonnöten: eine straffe Zentralisation allen rundfunkpolitischen Schaffens, der Vorrang ihrer geistigen Aufgaben vor den technischen, die Durchsetzung des Führerprinzips, die Eindeutigkeit der weltanchaulichen Tendenzen und die weitherzige Elastizität, mit der diese weltanschaulichen Tendenzen in die praktische Sendung übersetzt werden”. Joseph Goebbels, “Der Rundfunk als achte Großmacht. Eröffnungsrede zur Rundfunkausstellung am 18. August 1933”, in Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr.



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