Christoph Classen. Faschismus und Antifaschismus: Die nationalsozialistische Vergangenheit
im ostdeutschen Hörfunk (1945-1953). Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2004. 384 S. EUR 44.90 (cloth),
ISBN 978-3-412-15403-5.
Reviewed by Stefan K. Berger (School of Languages, Linguistics and Culture, University of
Manchester)
Published on H-Diplo (June, 2008)
Anti-Fascism in East Germany
Next to the newspapers, the most important mass
medium of the post-war years was radio. At the end of
1947, 50 percent of households in Berlin had a radio and
the numbers climbed to 80 percent for the entire German Democratic Republic (GDR) by the mid-1950s. Radio was thus a key medium for the formation of the public
sphere–even under conditions of a Communist dictatorship. This volume looks at the discursive construction of
anti-fascism in radio, but at the same time it reflects the
institutional framework in which these discourses took
place. And it also attempts to reconstruct how listeners
reacted to radio, which is difficult as there were no representative surveys in the Soviet zone of occupation. But
the book makes excellent use of painstaking archival research in German radio and state archives, and it assembles a wide range of information on radio programming
and use from diverse sources.
acterized by the Soviets taking a firm control over radio programming. They intervened in programming decisions, had the last say in personnel matters, and used
censorship widely. It was also a period in which the radio
network was rebuilt. In organizational terms, centralizing tendencies were strong in the Soviet zone right from
the beginning. The percentage of word programs to music programs was already high, despite the fact that there
were many indications that listeners disproved of this didactic approach to radio.
National Socialism was the most important theme on
radio in these years with a particular focus on the persecution and repression of opponents of National Socialism. Classen very effectively analyzes the dramaturgical means with which the stories about National Socialism were presented on radio. The Nazis were routinely
described as barely human, and the Communist repreChristoph Classen begins by recalling how Commu- sentation of Nazism allegedly used the same language of
nist anti-fascism depicted fascism before 1945. Apart elimination that the Nazis had used in the years before
from underestimating fascism before 1933, the depiction 1945. Prioritizing the memory of the victims of National
of fascism remained always subservient to the interests Socialism had the function of establishing a broad antiof the Soviet Union. Also, Classen traces the universal- fascist consensus in society. To this end there was not
ization of fascism in Communist discourse, which essen- yet a strict hierarchy of victims. In fact, the Christian retially made all enemies of Communism, including the So- sistance was given particularly broad coverage to lay to
cial Democrats, into fascists. Against this background, he rest fears that the Soviet Union and Communism would
then deals in depth with two phases of radio program- be anti-Christian. By contrast, the Soviets intervened to
ming on anti-fascism.
downplay the role of the Communist resistance and the
degree of Communist suffering under the Nazis. Another
The first phase lasted from 1945 to 1948 and was char- central aim of the representation of anti-facism on East
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German radio was to invoke gratitude towards the Soviet
occupiers. The Nazi war crimes on the Eastern front were
prominently discussed, and the reporting about the war
reflected directly the positions of the Soviets.
fascism became the foundation stone on which socialism
was being built in the GDR. Classen uses Jan Assmann’s
concept of the creation of a “cultural memory” to describe
the effect of the anti-fascist narrative on the GDR in this
period.
During the second phase, from 1947 to 1953, the radio network was extended steadily, at the same time that
there were efforts to undermine the West German radio
network by installing sixteen Störsender or jamming stations. However, it soon became apparent that the East
Germans could not hope to stop the Western radio stations transmitting into East Germany. In this phase, the
Soviets began to withdraw from direct interventions and
stayed in the background. Institutionally, this phase of
radio programming was characterized by the comprehensive purge of those who had been exiled in the West
rather than the Soviet Union. A climate of denunciation
and mistrust reigned supreme in East German radio, and
the many dismissals of highly qualified journalists led to
a de-professionalization of radio in the GDR. The centralization of the radio network was intensified, and the percentage of word programs rose even higher, as the GDR
officials started a campaign against Western popular music. Their attempt to offer a socialist alternative instead
turned out to be a debacle.
The more radio followed the dictat of the ruling Communist Party, the more radio listeners turned away from
it and tuned their radio to West German stations. The
propagandistic and didactic make-up of the programs on
GDR radio was rejected by many listeners. Although,
Classen manages to assemble impressive evidence for his
thesis that it was successful among the first generation
of social climbers in the GDR, those who had gone to the
workers’ and farmer’s faculties and who became officials
and functionaries rising through the Communist nomenklatura in the 1950s and 1960s. For them the Communist
resistance to fascism became a master narrative that gave
historical depth and legitimation to the foundation of the
GDR and its rationale of building socialism. In subsequent generations, however, this was less and less the
case.
On balance, Classen’s book attempts to avoid the
highly charged and polarized debate about anti-fascism
as the key Lebenslüge of the GDR, but anyone reading
his book cannot help thinking that anti-fascism was functionalized by the Soviets and the German Communists to
a very high degree right from the very beginning. There
is little evidence here for the thesis that antifascism in
the GDR started off as something positive but became deformed only later through the influence of Stalinism. Instead, the reader closes this book with a feeling of dismay
over the crude functionalization of the victims’ suffering
under National Socialism and the political point-scoring
to which anti-fascism deteriorated during the first phase
of the Cold War. Classen’s study is theoretically aware,
based on thorough archival studies and written in a clear
academic style. It should be read by anyone interested in
the East German variant of anti-fascism.
The theme of anti-fascism and National Socialism in
general lost in importance and the topic was dealt with
in a less and less concrete way. A distinct hierarchy of
victims’ groups now emerged, with the Communist resistance groups taking pride of place before anyone else.
Anti-fascism became a means of integrating people into
the new state that exculpated the vast majority of Germans and contrasted their anti-fascism with the evil of
Nazism. Historical presentism began to dominate the reports on anti-fascism, which legitimated the stance of the
socialist block in the Cold War and made the imperialist
United States and its allies into worthy successors of the
fascists. Fascism in the GDR became externalized and
de-historicized. It was what had happened in a different
country and was still smoldering in West Germany. Anti-
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Citation: Stefan K. Berger. Review of Classen, Christoph, Faschismus und Antifaschismus: Die nationalsozialistische
Vergangenheit im ostdeutschen Hörfunk (1945-1953). H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. June, 2008.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14596
Copyright © 2008 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for
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