ABSTRACT
The broadcasting landscape in eastern Germany has changed dramatically in the eight years since revolution gripped the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In 1989, as the drama began to unfold, East Germans were accessing a relatively limited array of largely public or state radio and television stations broadcasting from both the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. From the beginning, the Socialist Unity Party leaders had viewed East German radio and television as “instruments” of the party and state, and they tightly controlled all aspects of these institutions, including programming. By the time the dramatic events of 1989 began to unfold, watching West German television and listening to western radio had become staples of life in the GDR. The Germans in the East and West consumed generally homogenized programming. The remainder of the personnel in the Einrichtung were all members of the GDR’s radio, television, or technical broadcasting services who were carried over into the new organization.
