A unique radio house will be 90 - Happy Birthday House of Radio

Five-part feature series on the radio and online from 22.1. at 8:04 p.m.

The House of Radio in Berlin Masurenallee: It has been on the air for 90 years. Many RBB programs for radio, online and television are produced here around the clock today. With the broadcasting halls and event rooms, it is also a place for concerts, readings and encounter.

Already at its opening on January 22, 1931, it was considered architecturally unique. The massive brick building in the form of an equal triangle by the architect Hans Poelzig houses in addition to office space, three broadcasting halls inside, as well as more than ten recording studios as well as rehearsal and switching rooms. It is a place of stories and history, creativity and innovation, information and propaganda: Weimar Republic and National Socialism, post -war confusion and cold war, division and reunification. Joseph Goebbels and Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler worked here as well as Hans Bredow or Juliane Bartel.

Rbbbkultur is dedicated to the feature series "The House of Radio. A story in five chapters" by Wolfgang Bauernfeind on Friday, January 22nd, 2021, and radiates from 8:04 p.m. on Friday, January 22nd, 2021. At rbbkultur.de there are current contributions, historical material, picture galleries and documentation.

Information on the feature series "The House of Radio-A story in five chapters" by Wolfgang Bauernfeind

Part I: Wilhelminian era 1929 - 1933

On January 22, 1931, the house-invented and designed by Hans Poelzig-was ceremoniously inaugurated with works by Mozart, Handel and Richard Strauß (played by the Great Funk Orchestra). The foundation stone was laid just twenty months earlier, in May 1929. Something big should arise, a home for the new medium radio that begins to conquer the world.

Part II: Years of fate 1933 - 1945

The Nazis will conquer the radio. His leadership is released, among them Hans Bredow, the "father of radio". Some come to the concentration camp like Alfred Braun, the voice of the radio lesson. Goebbels swears the articles on the ideology of the National Socialists. In the last months of the war, the broadcast of the radio became a fortress and, in May 1945, falled into the hands of the Russians.

Part III: The Red Island 1945 - 1952

On May 13, 1945, the "Radio Berlin - Berliner Rundfunk" spoke up, controlled by the Russians. Under the Soviet supervision, the broadcaster is expanded into a full program. In June 1952, the House of Radio was sealed off by British soldiers. A month later, the Berliners of the Berlin Radio leave Masurenallee and take on transmission in East Berlin.

Part IV: Beners 1954 - 1989

From June 1, 1954, the broadcaster Freiees Berlin begins with its program. Founding director is Alfred Braun. The broadcast will initially be sent from the House of Dentists on Heidelberger Platz. At the end of 1957, the House of Radio was inaugurated for the second time and handed over to the new SFB, which profiled itself with innovations: UA, among other things, stereo programs and the much-noticed third cultural program.

Part V: Paths to Unit 1989 - 2009

November 9, 1989 introduces a new radio chapter with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Paragraph 36 In the unification agreement, provides for the handling of the GDR radio radio and the establishment of public law institutions in the new East German federal states. The East German Rundfunk Brandenburg is founded in Potsdam, the broadcaster Freies Berlin becomes State Radio Center for all of Berlin. On May 1, 2003, both merging into the Berlin-Brandenburg Radio (RBB).

"Day of the Open Monument" on September 12, 2021

Rbbbultur wants to celebrate the birthday of this special place together with the Berliners. On September 12, 2021, the RBB opens the doors of the radio house for the public on the "Day of the Open Monument"-provided the Corona situation allows this.