Originally Posted by swb1964:
“Question for KarlHyde, if he is still reading. Were East and West German television compatible, or did you need a dual standard set?”
As anthony david has explained, they were at least compatible in black & white, and in the 70s and 80s, multinorm colour tuners were available in both parts of the country.
Quote:
“Was watching East German telly in the west considered unpatriotic, or was it just normal?
How many channels did each 'side' have?”
I grew up in rural northwestern Germany, about 120 km from the border. In the 80s, we had three Western terrestrial channels: ARD and ZDF (the main public stations), and a regional one. In big cities like Hamburg or Hannover, commercial stations RTL and SAT.1 became available in the late 80s.
In the East, there was DDR 1 and DDR 2. Both channels were broadcast from high-power transmitters along the border, but DDR 1 (being on VHF) had a much larger footprint than DDR 2. We could watch DDR 1 in acceptable quality (although the picture was somewhat grainy), while DDR 2 was unwatchable.
When you only had three "domestic" channels, a fourth one from across the border (in the same language) was a welcome alternative. Of course the news and political programmes were frowned upon. But there were decent variety shows and children's programmes (e.g. the little mole from Czechoslovakia), loads of sports coverage, and some movies from the west as well. For example, I watched "Once Upon a Time in America" on DDR 1, and I even taped it. This was the long version, about 3.5 hours, complete with the West German dubbing soundtrack.
I also had a soft spot for the consumer counselling programmes that were always on at 7pm, because they seemed so "exotic". There was a traffic magazine, a gardening magazine, programmes about medicine, about legal cases, about various hobbies, etc.
To put a long story short: About 30 or 40% of the Western population could receive at least one of the Eastern channels, and most of them probably watched them once in a while.
About 90% of the Eastern population could receive the Western channels, and the vast majority watched them extensively, although the government wasn't happy about it, and people didn't talk about it in public.
What a slip of the tongue! 