Preserving the Old Homeland: Sender Freies Berlin's Broadcasts to West Germany's Expellee Communities

During the 1950s, the West Berlin public broadcaster Sender Freies Berlin (SFB) broadcast a range of programs aimed specifically for German communities that had once resided in Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Romania.  The most notable program, “Alte und Neue Heimat” (Old and New Homeland), sought to highlight and showcase the customs and culture of the former German territories of East Prussia and Silesia while also chronicling the experience of Germans still living in what had become western Poland.  The program examined the declining use of the German language in the region, the decay of German historical sites such as the Tannenberg Memorial, and stressed the persistence and survival of East Prussian and Silesian culture in West Germany.  The program was extremely popular, and was enthusiastically supported by German expellee organizations.           

This paper explores the broadcasts of “Alte und Neue Heimat” and analyzes how SFB sought to preserve the idea of a German culture and society east of the Oder-Niese line.  While never advocating the forceful reacquisition of the territories, the broadcasts nevertheless argued that the region was historically and fundamentally German.  They always referred to them as territories under Polish administration and contended that their absorption into Poland was ahistoric and unnatural.  Listeners amongst the expellee community considered the program a means of preserving their culture and history.  Fundamentally, SFB sought to provide a sense of identity and security for audiences anxious and uncertain about the future of the German state and German identity.  The subject provides historians with a means of understanding the important role radio played in shaping postwar identities and creating a symbiotic relationship between broadcasters and listeners.