In the years immediately after the Second World War, when Germany was destroyed, divided and occupied, the radio was the best-preserved and most popular medium of mass communication. In Voices in Ruins, Alexander Badenoch explores the implications of radio's dominance at the time by placing it within the longer history of Germany's mass media to highlight the dynamics of continuity and change after 1945. The book examines not just what was broadcast but how, and argues that the structures of time, space, personality and gender inherent in broadcasting were a key site where ideas of 'normal' and 'exceptional', 'public' and 'private', Heimat and Fremde were negotiated. Based around original archive research and a broad interdisciplinary approach, the book will be of interest to scholars in a wide range of disciplines including German Studies, Film and Media Studies, Gender Studies and Memory Studies.
Co-winner of the IAMHIST prize for the best work of media and history in the years 2007 -2008
'Sophisticated in its theoretical framework and presenting new empirical research, Badenoch's fascinating study demonstrates the crucial role radio played in rebuilding everyday domestic normality in post-World War II Germany. In this respect, and in negotiating cultural, social, and institutional ruptures as well as continuities, broadcasting became one of the most significant tools in shaping a new sense of national identity after 1945. Badenoch's work is innovative, stimulating, interdisciplinary - and as inclusive and multigeneric as the medium he discusses.' - Professor Tim Bergfelder, University of Southampton, UK
'Rooted in exhaustive archival research, this book provides a first comprehensive English-language overview of the development of West German radio as a mass popular medium in the aftermath of World War II. Compellingly and lucidly written, the book tells a multifaceted story of radio as institution, mass media technology and soundscape of everyday life. Charting the medium's history across a broad range of fields, this densely-layered and illuminating account is set to become essential reading for scholars of postwar German cultural history, as well as media historians and cultural studies researchers seeking an authoritative history of a medium emerging from the ruins of world war.' - Professor Erica Carter, University of Warwick, UK
'The Author...has brought together an enormous wealth of material, from manuscript and sound documents, contemporary statements from programmers and interviews, as well as seemingly marginal sources...From these mosiac stones he constucts interconnected themes step-by-step, and so driven by curiosity pursues his main thesis about normality in times of crisis and fragmentation.' - H-Soz-u-Kult
Introduction and Contexts
Echoes of Days: Finding Everyday Between Exception and Routine
Familiar Voices: Representations of Personalities and Pasts
Time Consuming: Addressing a Nation of Women
Re-placing a Nation: Between Home Service and Heimat
Conclusion: Voices in Ruins? Radio and Normalization in Post-war Germany
ALEXANDER BADENOCH received his PhD in Modern Languages from the University of Southampton in the UK and has recently completed a post-doc on infrastructures and European identity at the Technical University of Eindhoven. He currently lives in the Netherlands.
Description
In the years immediately after the Second World War, when Germany was destroyed, divided and occupied, the radio was the best-preserved and most popular medium of mass communication. In Voices in Ruins, Alexander Badenoch explores the implications of radio's dominance at the time by placing it within the longer history of Germany's mass media to highlight the dynamics of continuity and change after 1945. The book examines not just what was broadcast but how, and argues that the structures of time, space, personality and gender inherent in broadcasting were a key site where ideas of 'normal' and 'exceptional', 'public' and 'private', Heimat and Fremde were negotiated. Based around original archive research and a broad interdisciplinary approach, the book will be of interest to scholars in a wide range of disciplines including German Studies, Film and Media Studies, Gender Studies and Memory Studies.
Reviews
Co-winner of the IAMHIST prize for the best work of media and history in the years 2007 -2008
'Sophisticated in its theoretical framework and presenting new empirical research, Badenoch's fascinating study demonstrates the crucial role radio played in rebuilding everyday domestic normality in post-World War II Germany. In this respect, and in negotiating cultural, social, and institutional ruptures as well as continuities, broadcasting became one of the most significant tools in shaping a new sense of national identity after 1945. Badenoch's work is innovative, stimulating, interdisciplinary - and as inclusive and multigeneric as the medium he discusses.' - Professor Tim Bergfelder, University of Southampton, UK
'Rooted in exhaustive archival research, this book provides a first comprehensive English-language overview of the development of West German radio as a mass popular medium in the aftermath of World War II. Compellingly and lucidly written, the book tells a multifaceted story of radio as institution, mass media technology and soundscape of everyday life. Charting the medium's history across a broad range of fields, this densely-layered and illuminating account is set to become essential reading for scholars of postwar German cultural history, as well as media historians and cultural studies researchers seeking an authoritative history of a medium emerging from the ruins of world war.' - Professor Erica Carter, University of Warwick, UK
'The Author...has brought together an enormous wealth of material, from manuscript and sound documents, contemporary statements from programmers and interviews, as well as seemingly marginal sources...From these mosiac stones he constucts interconnected themes step-by-step, and so driven by curiosity pursues his main thesis about normality in times of crisis and fragmentation.' - H-Soz-u-Kult
Contents
Introduction and Contexts
Echoes of Days: Finding Everyday Between Exception and Routine
Familiar Voices: Representations of Personalities and Pasts
Time Consuming: Addressing a Nation of Women
Re-placing a Nation: Between Home Service and Heimat
Conclusion: Voices in Ruins? Radio and Normalization in Post-war Germany
Authors
ALEXANDER BADENOCH received his PhD in Modern Languages from the University of Southampton in the UK and has recently completed a post-doc on infrastructures and European identity at the Technical University of Eindhoven. He currently lives in the Netherlands.
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