German television - mid 1930s

Surviving record of mid-1930's German "Live" television. Preserved by an amateur, Horst Hewel, filming the images from the screen of a television receiver.

Electromechanical broadcasts began in Germany in 1929, but were without sound until 1934. Network electronic service started on March 22, 1935, on 180 lines using telecine transmission of film, intermediate film system, or cameras using the Nipkow Disk. Transmissions using cameras based on the iconoscope began on January 15, 1936. The Berlin Summer Olympic Games were televised, using both fully electronic iconoscope-based cameras and intermediate film cameras, to Berlin and Hamburg in August 1936. Twenty-eight public television rooms were opened for anybody who did not own a television set. The Germans had a 441-line system on the air in February 1937, and during World War II brought it to France, where they broadcast from the Eiffel Tower. The American Armed Forces Radio Network at the end of World War II, wishing to provide US TV programming to the occupation forces in Germany, used US TV receivers made to operate at 525 lines and 60 fields. US broadcast equipment was modified; they changed the vertical frequency to 50 Hz to avoid power line wiggles, changed the horizontal frequency from 15,750 Hz to 15,625 Hz a 0.5 microsecond change in the length of a line. With this signal, US TV receivers with only an adjustment to the vertical hold control had a 625 line, 50 field scan, which became the German standard.

A direct comparison can be made with this footage and that of BBC Television received in New York, also viewable on our YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SniB0JEDGs. The type of material being broadcast; dance routines, talking heads, songs at the piano, were the staple diet of the BBC Television Service during the 1936-1939 era of television.

This film footage is from the Archive Collection held by the Alexandra Palace Television Society.

http://www.apts.org.uk

Preserving the televisual past for the digital future

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• apts
• simon
• vaughan
• alexandra
• palace
• television
• history
• horst
• hewell
• german
• germany
• filming
• 1930
• receiver

[NESHero]

How did you obtain the fortage? did someone record it from the tv using an old reel to reel or something similer?

[aptsarchive]

@NESHero As it states in the description of this video "Preserved by an amateur, Horst Hewel, filming the images from the screen of a television receiver."

[NESHero]

@aptsarchive what did he use to record it with?

[aptsarchive]

@NESHero He used a film camera - either 8mm or 16mm, that bit we don't know!

[RetroCaptain]

Good day

Nice peek back into the early days of the

"idiot box" eh!

I see that the Germans may have had their version of

"Dancing with the stars" (I'm jesting,eh..I'm aware that dancing shows were a staple of television back then & will always be..& obviously play-acting.)

I have a few ancient sets of my own.

Good stuff..enjoyed!

[aptsarchive]

Many thanks for your comment and glad you enjoyed viewing this unique insight into pre-war German television.

[ta455driver]

An enlightened view of any archive is to make material available to the people who want to view it. These uploads are to be applauded. Thank you for making this possible.

[duckman531]

I think the key to better radio was the development of better microphones. Tube microphones replaced the old carbon ribbon ones. Radios were better probably because super heterodyne tuners didn't drift as much. Any radio experts out there who can clarify this?

[mathiasvolta]

@wa5iyx GermanTelevision during WW-II was mainly used as "Lazarett-Fernsehen" to keep the moral of wonded soldiers in military hospitals. This was also one reason, why "Fernsehsender Paris" was on air broadcasting in German TV-norm in occupied Paris in 1944.

[TheMrmagnetophon]

@NESHero Video reel to reel was not in use at that time, nor was magnetophon available to homes.

[rrh1980]

wow, a full 30 seconds for your intro?

[wa5iyx]

It's always been interesting to me that the Germans kept broadcasting TV during WW2 while the BBC shut theirs down for the duration. Different economic and/or strategic factors ? The fear that the VHF signals could have been an aid for navigating enemy bombers should have been a concern for each side.

[kevinturvy]

@NESHero A rock by the looks of it:)



[kryptonite123567]

those wacky Germans........Gotta luvem