Not only Christmas. I have a motorised satellite system so watch German television on a regular basis.

You're probably right then. There are so many public channels in Germany that I sometimes lose track of what's on.

But let me just say that Luzie, der Schrecken der Straße (Lucie, postrach ulice) will be repeated on HR Fernsehen in the early mornings, starting on 7th August at 5:05cet.

Here's another clip in Czech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmS-1zxqMYY

The fall of the Berlin Wall as seen on the local news from SFB, the ARD station for West Berlin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrKU9_wg450

Here's a full episode of East Germany's "Verkehrsmagazin" (traffic magazine) from September 1989, hosted by a Volkspolizei lieutenant colonel in his uniform.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBX9WKTObj4

Half of this episode is devoted to the presentation of the "new" Trabant 1.1 model that was supposed to go into mass production in May 1990. While all previous Trabant cars had two-stroke engines, the new model featured a four-stroke petrol engine, built in the GDR but licensed from Volkswagen. From the outside, the car almost looked identical to its predecessor.

After the fall of the wall, everybody wanted to buy (used) Western cars, so the Trabant 1.1 quickly became redundant. Only 40,000 units were built.

Top speed: 125 km/h (78 mph)
From 0 to 100 km/h in 22 seconds
1,050 ccm
40 HP
Planned retail price: 19,865 M (about 8,000 more than the previous model!)
Official retail price after German unification: 6,900 DM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traban...2.80.931991.29
http://www.viertakttrabant.de/
http://www.viertakttrabant.de/vierta...rosunieng1.jpg
http://www.viertakttrabant.de/vierta...osunieng23.jpg
http://www.viertakttrabant.de/vierta...rosunieng4.jpg

The host didn't seem to get into the spirit much did he ? Such a huge occasion and he was very matter of fact

EDIT: Sorry, I thought your comment referred to the traffic magazine video.

In the summer of 1989, the GDR government already had huge problems. Thousands of people were fleeing, via Hungary and via the West German embassy in Prague. The presentation of a car that didn't look much different than the one that had been sold since 1964 must have been perceived as a bad joke by the majority of people.

This is how the Trabant 601 looked at its premiere in 1963:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traban...rabant_601.jpg

When you wanted to buy one, you had to wait for 8 to 15 years. A lot of people ordered cars for their children and other family members, even if they didn't need them. When it was their turn, the factory sent them a letter, telling them where to collect the car. From what I've heard, they didn't even get to choose the colour. Of course they could instantly resell the car and make a profit. Even Trabants that were a couple of years old were sold for more than the original list price.

During the 60s and 70s, the IFA factory in Zwickau developed a couple of prototypes but the government always stopped them because mass production would have been too expensive. Here's an example from the late 70s that was supposed to be produced in loose cooperation with Skoda:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traban...t_20040924.jpg

More Trabant prototypes:
http://ifa-mobile-ddr.npage.de/prototypen.html

And here's a 1968 Wartburg prototype from Eisenach that has a surprising similarity to the Volkswagen Passat that was launched in 1973. They planned to produce an export version of the Wartburg with a Renault engine - but it never happened.
http://ifa-mobile-ddr.npage.de/rund-...vergleich.html

instead, the Wartburg 353 (with few modifications) was sold from 1966 until 1988.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:...nduit_1988.jpg

It was then replaced by the Wartburg 1.3 that looked almost the same but had a four-stroke engine from Volkswagen.

Yes, this particular host always was pretty calm and matter-of-fact. But remember that this report was a recap of the weekend events, broadcast on Monday, four days after the fall of the wall.

Borders were opened on late Thursday evening. There were hours and hours of special reports on West German TV throughout Friday and the entire weekend. Hundreds of thousands of people from the east travelled to small towns and big cities in the west, to go shopping and to collect 100 DM of "welcome money" that the West German government gave to every visitor from the GDR (since 1970). Shops were suddenly allowed to open on Sunday. Bananas, nylon tights, canned beer, cheap cassette recorders, and other things were sold out within hours or minutes.

On Monday... Well, you can't say that everything was back to normal but the first rush was over and most people went back to work.

An interesting documentary about the East German TV archives (in German):

https://youtu.be/gRTx1LrTG8g

I like films about Artek. Like a scouts and guides summer holiday camp, except that if any of those always smiling boys and girls got a quote from Lenin wrong, they were quietly taken away and shot ........ but hey, nice uniform !

Public information films from the GDR...

Road safety in winter time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8uk5ETc7TM

Safety at work through efficient signage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFEwKIBzmXM

How to use a stepladder safely:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRF1ziWFyo0

Road safety on your way to work and back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgIlEN5NOBs

These short films were commissioned by the centralised trade union (FDGB), so they were probably shown in factories etc., not on television.


The first episode of "HAPS", a household & cooking magazine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhE97w_GFyc

Fabulous. I love this thread, some gems on here

I always thought that DDR Fernsehn was far superior to any of the West German channels when I was stationed in Germany during the late 70's.
Where I was stationed, I could receive DDR1 & DDR2.

Were you stationed in Berlin, or somewhere in Lower Saxony?

What were your favourite programmes on DDR-Fernsehen?

I was stationed in Nienburg which is about 50 minutes by car NW of Hannover.

It was a long time ago so I can't remember specific programs I am afraid.
I did watch it far more often than West German television until BFBS came to the area which was 78 or 79.

I remember that the local German population were very excited about being able to view BFBS.

Ah, great, that's about 25 miles from where I grew up.

I'm surprised that you could receive both DDR 1 and DDR 2 there. We had decent reception of DDR 1 on channel 6 from the Brocken transmitter but DDR 2 on channel 34 was more or less unwatchable.


I lived near the Fallingbostel garrison, and I had heard that some people could receive the picture. You had to buy a special device/decoder to get the sound as well. But the Fallingbostel transmitter must have been very low in power - I never got to see a BFBS signal when I fiddled about with our TV sets, and my parents weren't interested in that kind of stuff, so they didn't install a better aerial.

The sound frequencies on German TV and UK TV were then different.
I always made sure that any television I purchased was usable in any European country including the ability to receive Secam. I was always a bit of a tech geek.

I always got perfect reception on both of the DDR channels.
We had a communal aerial for the whole block of flats.

I seem to recall that WDR and another I can't recall (getting old now) were hit and miss signal wise. Some days we could get them perfectly and other days, nothing at all. Never anywhere in between. It was these two (regional channels, I think) that frequently had English soundtracks on some programs which was useful until BFBS arrived.

I think the BFBS signal was quite strong in Nienburg because a lot of the married quarters were some distance away from the barracks.

Yeah, that was a wise thing to do. I remember that my parents bought a used colour TV set (for my room) from a family in Bremen in the late 80s. When we installed it, I was a bit disappointed that it didn't have a SECAM decoder, so I could watch DDR 1 in black & white only. The family in Bremen hadn't cared about SECAM because they couldn't receive DDR channels anyway.


The regional channel for the Nienburg area would have been NDR (Nord III, later N3), probably with good reception from the Verden transmitter. The signal for the WDR channel (West 3) from the Minden/Porta Westfalica area might have been weaker. And there were also regional opt-outs (NDR, WDR, Radio Bremen) from 6pm until 8pm on ARD. Shows like "Hart to Hart", "Remington Steele", "The A Team", or "Falcon Crest" were shown in these regional slots.

But back to topic: Interestingly, DDR-Fernsehen never had any regional opt-outs until after the fall of the wall. The GDR was a very centralised country, all the decisions were taken in East Berlin. There actually were some regional studios, e.g. in Rostock, Halle, and Dresden, but they only got to produce a couple of shows and magazines for the centralised channels.

I seem to recall that there was a lot of nudity and onscreen sex scenes compared to West German television, so I had to be careful when my then young children were around.

Just out of interest could you get American forces TV too?

Not where I was. Only the radio service.

I can now via satellite.

Germany was divided into occupation zones after the war, and even after the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949, allied forces pretty much stayed in their zones. So you could receive BFBS radio in large parts of northwestern Germany and AFN in the south. And my theory is that this fact influenced generations of Germans in their taste of music, i.e. people tend to listen to British acts in the northwest and to American acts in the south.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied...rmany-1945.svg

Yeah, GDR television used to be a bit more frivolous than its Western counterpart. For example, I remember watching "Le cadeau" on DDR-Fernsehen, starring Claudia Cardinale and Clio Goldsmith.

And on Christmas and Easter, after 11 pm, there was Erotisches zur Nacht ("Série rose" from France). I think I've already mentioned that on this thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EjE9_wDzwE

Totally the opposite of what I would expect communist telly to show...

Perhaps the population was frustrated because of the lack of freedom.