ABSTRACT
Radio broadcasts have always been able to be heard all over Germany. West German broadcasts can be received in East Germany and vice versa. In East Germany, the Deutschlandsender was set up as a political instrument to disseminate eastern propaganda under the catchword of national unity amongst West Germans. On the western side, the US occupation power founded the West Berlin RIAS radio station in 1946-7 which allowed a western voice to be heard in East Germany after the outbreak of the cold war. The impact of RIAS was strong throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Failures at home have made the East German leaders seek a solution to their problem outside their frontiers. The kind of reformed Communism emerging in Czechoslovakia came as a shock to the Soviet leaders. West Germany was keen to substitute peaceful togetherness and cooperation for past antagonism.
