Cold War on the Airwaves: The Radio Propaganda War against East Germany

by Nicholas J. Schlosser

Founded as a counterweight to the Communist broadcasters in East Germany, Radio in the American Sector (RIAS) became one of the most successful public information operations conducted against the Soviet Bloc. Cold War on the Airwaves examines the Berlin-based organization's history and influence on the political worldview of the people--and government--on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Nicholas J. Schlosser draws on broadcast transcripts, internal memoranda, listener letters, and surveys by the U.S. Information Agency to profile RIAS. Its to undermine the German Democratic Republic with propaganda that, ironically, gained in potency by obeying the rules of objective journalism. Throughout, Schlosser examines the friction inherent in such a contradictory project and propaganda's role in shaping political culture. He also portrays how RIAS's primarily German staff influenced its outlook and how the organization both competed against its rivals in the GDR and pushed communist officials to alter their methods in order to keep listeners. From the occupation of Berlin through the airlift to the construction of the Berlin Wall, Cold War on the Airwaves offers an absorbing view of how public diplomacy played out at a flashpoint of East-West tension.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2015

Reviews

[Timothy Fitzpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

My experiences as a youth in Berlin, as a member of the Berlin Brigade and as a Psychological Operations Officer have always made me appreciate RIAS, but I never knew the breadth and depth of what RIAS meant to US efforts in Berlin and to the people of East Germany. Nicholas J. Schlosser in his book “Cold War on the Airwaves: The Radio Propaganda War against East Germany” has given us a precious gift to our understanding of the contributions of RIAS to the psychological combat between the Soviet block and the United States and between the contrasts in freedom between East and West Germany. The book sums up the importance of RIAS to East Germans, Berliners and the United States is summed up powerfully when Schlosser writes “….RIAS went from being just a purveyor of news and information to a quasi-United States Embassy, a representative of the united States in East Germany.” RIAS was founded by and controlled by the United States, but staffed by Germans, and engaged in the front lines of influence and political warfare against communism.
Schlosser relates the early foundations of RIAS to counter Radio Berlin that the Soviets took despite being in the British Sector (The Eifel Tower like Funkturm) and refused to share with the other occupying powers. To compete, though late, the American Forces inititated broadcasts on the old Nazi wired (telephone line) radio system developed so allied bombers could not home in on Berlin through a signal. This Wired (Drahtfunk) Broadcasting in the American Sector (DIAS) initiated US broadcasting in its sector as the voice of the U.S. occupation government. It soon began radio broadcast and became Radio (Rundfunk) in the American Sector (RIAS). Schlosser relates the stages of RIAS effort over time and in reaction to Berlin and world events. Throughout its history, RIAS emphasis on credible and objective news from a United States perspective and calling out DDR and communist failings were its hallmark. The people of East Germany came to rely on this during crisis after crisis starting with the Berlin Airlift, during the 17 June 1953 East German uprising and Soviet suppression, the Berlin crisis and the construction of the wall, and during the long period of the Cold War, easing tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the collapse of the wall and Berlin and German reunification.
Schlosser writes this book not in a technical manner, but in very human terms that goes to the heart of RIAS’ dedicated staff and their understanding of the information (and entertainment) needs of their audience in clear contrast to communist deterministic programming.
I strongly recommend this book for all Berlin U.S. Military Veterans as you explore the totality of what the U.S. meant to Berliner’s on both sides of the wall and to complement our own understanding of RIAS giving voice to what we in the U.S. and allied forces physically stood for.
RIAS still exists as the RIAS Berlin Commission (http://riasberlin.org/en/about-us/). The RIAS Berlin Commission was founded in 1992 as a binational organization for the promotion of German-American understanding in the field of broadcasting and promotes the exchange of persons and information in the field of broadcast journalism between the two countries.

[jbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covers the very beginning of the Cold War in depth, but then the years 1963--1992 were just a short epilogue.