A unique broadcasting center turns 90 – Happy Birthday Haus des Rundfunks!

Five-part feature series on radio and online from January 22nd at 8:04 pm

The Haus des Rundfunks (Broadcasting House) on Masurenallee in Berlin: It has been broadcasting for 90 years. Many of rbb's radio, online, and television programs are produced here around the clock. With its broadcast studios and event spaces, it is also a venue for concerts, readings, and gatherings.

Even at its opening on January 22, 1931, it was considered architecturally unique. The massive brick building, in the shape of an isosceles triangle, designed by architect Hans Poelzig, houses not only offices but also three broadcasting studios, more than ten recording studios, and rehearsal and control rooms. It is a place steeped in stories and history, creativity and innovation, information and propaganda: the Weimar Republic and National Socialism, the postwar turmoil and the Cold War, division and reunification. Joseph Goebbels and Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler worked here, as did Hans Bredow and Juliane Bartel.

rbbKultur will celebrate the anniversary on radio and at rbbkultur.de with reports and discussions, and will broadcast the feature series "The House of Broadcasting: A History in Five Chapters" by Wolfgang Bauernfeind starting at 8:04 p.m. Current articles, historical material, photo galleries, and documentaries can be found rbbkultur.de

Information on the feature series "The House of Broadcasting – a history in five chapters" by Wolfgang Bauernfeind

Part I: The Gründerzeit (Founding Era) 1929 – 1933

On January 22, 1931, the building – conceived and designed by Hans Poelzig – was ceremonially inaugurated with works by Mozart, Handel, and Richard Strauss (performed by the Great Radio Orchestra). The foundation stone had been laid just twenty months earlier, in May 1929. Something grand was to be created: a home for the new medium of radio, which was beginning to conquer the world.

Part II: Fateful Years 1933 – 1945

The Nazis immediately seized control of the broadcasting service. Its leadership was dismissed, among them Hans Bredow, the "father of broadcasting." Some, like Alfred Braun, the voice of the radio program "Funkstunde," were sent to concentration camps. Goebbels swore the directors to the Nazi ideology. In the final months of the war, the broadcasting center was transformed into a fortress and fell to the Russians intact in May 1945.

Part III: The Red Island 1945 – 1952

On May 13, 1945, "Radio Berlin – Berliner Rundfunk" went on the air, controlled by the Russians. Under Soviet supervision, the station was expanded into a full-service broadcaster. In June 1952, the broadcasting center was sealed off by British soldiers. A month later, the staff of Berliner Rundfunk left Masurenallee and began broadcasting in East Berlin.

Part IV: Birth times 1954 – 1989

Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) began broadcasting on June 1, 1954. Alfred Braun was its founding director. Initially, broadcasts originated from the House of Dentists at Heidelberger Platz. At the end of 1957, the Haus des Rundfunks (Broadcasting House) was inaugurated for the second time and handed over to the newly established SFB, which distinguished itself through innovations such as stereo broadcasts and the highly regarded Third Cultural Program.

Part V: Paths to Unity 1989 – 2009

The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, ushered in a new chapter in broadcasting history. Article 36 of the Unification Treaty stipulated the dismantling of East German broadcasting and the establishment of public broadcasting corporations in the newly formed eastern German states. The East German Broadcasting Corporation (Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg) was founded in Potsdam, while Sender Freies Berlin became the state broadcasting corporation for the entire city of Berlin. On May 1, 2003, the two merged to form the Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting Corporation (rbb).

“Open Monument Day” on September 12, 2021

rbbKultur wants to celebrate the anniversary of this special place together with the people of Berlin. On September 12, 2021, rbb will open the doors of the broadcasting center to the public on "Open Monument Day"—provided the COVID-19 situation allows it.