Radio Berlin International
Encyclopedia
International broadcasting
International broadcasting is broadcasting that is deliberately aimed at a foreign, rather than a domestic, audience. It usually is broadcast by means of longwave, mediumwave, or shortwave radio, but in recent years has also used direct satellite broadcasting and the Internet as means of reaching...
for the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
(East Germany). It started in May 1959 to counter Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio on 98.7 DZFE in 30 languages . It has a satellite television service , that is available in four languages, and...
, the West German international broadcaster. Much of its output was news reports and information about the GDR. It offered a state-sponsored view on life in a socialist country. It distributed large quantities of colorful and professionally produced publicity material about life in the GDR to its listeners. The broadcaster ceased operations on 2 October 1990 just before German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
. The final broadcast was noted for the bitterness among some RBI staff about its "takeover", rather than "unification" with Deutsche Welle. The last words were, "Take care and good luck."
Radio Berlin International broadcast in many languages, with many of its announcers at the different services — such as English, French and even Danish — coming from their country's respective communist parties. It was one of the major international broadcasters of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
era.