ABSTRACT
Germany was divided into two states with different ideologies but with a shared cultural heritage and language from 1949 until 1989. State-owned television production in East Germany (German Democratic Republic; GDR), like the entire political and social system of the GDR, was indissolubly tied to this division of Germany after World War II. The two-state solution also affected TV productions in West Germany although for different reasons. TV programs in the GDR were faced with a double bind. On the one hand, they were obliged to fulfill the Eastern bloc’s expectations to spread the socialist ideology and program. On the other hand, the GDR found itself in constant rivalry with the West German economic and political system and its TV programming, which presented a permanent temptation for East German viewers. This dilemma set the frame for the establishing and performance of the GDR’s TV system from the very beginning. The GDR responded to this problem by waging “class warfare on the air” by developing programs fiercely hostile and diametrically opposed to any outcomes and innovation in Western TV programs (Dittmar 2010).
