Deutsche Welle GmbH

Deutsche Welle GmbH was a publicly licensed, though privately financed, German broadcasting company founded in August 1924 in Berlin.

This article is about the Deutsche Welle company of the 1920s and 30s. For the unconnected international short-wave station of the same name founded in 1953, see Deutsche Welle.

On 7 January 1926 the company opened a long-wave transmitter (which soon became known as the Deutschlandsender, since its broadcasts could be heard all over Germany) at Königs Wusterhausen near Berlin. A large part of the station's output consisted of the retransmission of material from the nine regional broadcasting companies which had been established in the previous three years; within this framework Deutsche Welle attempted to emphasize educational programming for a nationwide audience.

The far reach of the Deutschlandsender's long-wave transmitter meant that Deutsche Welle's programming could be heard well beyond Germany's borders. In September 1926, the Munich regional station -- the Deutsche Stunde in Bayern -- received feedback from listeners in Amsterdam when its programmes first began to be relayed by the Deutschlandsender.

On 1 January 1933, Deutsche Welle GmbH was officially renamed Deutschlandsender GmbH and given the specific remit of relaying representative programme material from the regional companies to a national audience. The appointment only a few weeks later, of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany was, however, soon to alter the character of all German radio stations radically.

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