Listening behind the curtain: BBC broadcasting to East Germany and its Cold War echo

This is the first study of the BBC’s East German Programme, a radio broadcast to the GDR. It traces the origins of the section from the Second World War, before analysing some of the output, above all the satirical Two Comrades programme which poked fun at apparatchiks, and the ‘Letters without Signature’ feedback programme from East German listeners. The piece therefore tries to close the transmitter–receiver loop, as well as suggesting ways in which audiences influenced broadcasters as well as vice-versa in the generation of public opinion in an (almost) closed system.