Deutsche Welle GmbH
{{short description|German broadcaster of the 1920s and 1930s}}
{{about|the Deutsche Welle company of the 1920s and 30s|the unconnected international long-wave statipon of the same name founded in 1953|Deutsche Welle}}
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Deutsche Welle GmbH was a publicly licensed, though privately financed, German broadcasting company active during the Weimar era.
History
The company was founded in {{start date and age|1924|08|p=y}} in Berlin, and was one of the nine broadcasting companies that were functioning during the Weimar Republic, the other eight being regional companies with medium-wave transmissions. However, while the regional companies started operations between 1923 and 1924, Deutsche Welle did not begin broadcasting until {{start date and age|1926|01|07|df=y|p=y}}, when it opened a long-wave transmitter (which soon became known as the Deutschlandsender, since its broadcasts could be heard all over Germany) at Königs Wusterhausen near Berlin.{{cite journal|last1=Führer|first1=Karl Christian|title=A Medium of Modernity? Broadcasting in Weimar Germany, 1923–1932|journal=The Journal of Modern History|volume=69|issue=4|year=1997|issn=0022-2801|doi=10.1086/245592|page=724|s2cid=145014737 }} A large part of the station's output consisted of the retransmission of material from the regional broadcasting companies; within this framework Deutsche Welle attempted to emphasize educational programming for a nationwide audience.
The far reach of the Deutschlandsender's long-wave transmitter meant that Deutsche Welle's programming could be heard well beyond Germany's borders. In September 1926, the Munich regional station -- the Deutsche Stunde in Bayern -- received feedback from listeners in Amsterdam when its programmes first began to be relayed by the Deutschlandsender.
On 1 January 1933, Deutsche Welle GmbH was officially renamed Deutschlandsender GmbH and given the specific remit of relaying representative programme material from the regional companies to a national audience.
References
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Category:German radio networks
Category:Defunct radio stations in Germany
Category:Mass media companies established in 1924
Category:Radio stations established in 1924
Category:Radio stations in Berlin
Category:1924 establishments in Germany