"Guten Abend, meine Damen und Herren, zur Aktuellen Kamera. – Die Übersicht..." - Aktuelle Kamera's opening
Aktuelle Kamera, roughly translated as "Current Camera", was the name of the newscast on the state television of the former German Democratic Republic (Deutscher Fernsehfunk, known as "Fernsehen der DDR" between February 11, 1972 and March 14, 1990). On air from December 21, 1952 (daily broadcasts were not until October 11, 1957, however) to December 14, 1990, it was one of the main propaganda tools of the communist regime of East Germany.
The newsroom of Aktuelle Kamera was directly linked to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED. Its reports consisted almost only of stories boasting socialism and darkening the image of the West in a country that was thirsty for anything from the other side of the Berlin Wall. Coverage of the socialist countries was always positive, bad news were censored and journalists did not have the right to criticize the regime.
In fact, Aktuelle Kamera was largely ignored by the viewers who preferred West German television (10-15% of actual viewing). The East German authorities were well-aware of it and went as far as adopting the French color standard SECAM rather than PAL used in the Federal Republic of Germany. However, East Germans responded by illegally buying PAL decoders for their SECAM TV sets. Eventually, the government in East Berlin stopped paying attention to what it called "Republikflucht via Fernsehen" or "Defection through television".
Almost a month before the opening of the Berlin Wall, AK loosened its fidelity to the party line and began presenting fair reports about the events transforming East Germany at the time. On October 16th 1989, it showed its first pictures of the massive opposition rallies taking place every Monday in Leipzig.
Following the end of the communist regime, the many editions of Aktuelle Kamera were rebranded according to the period of the day they aired. The 12:50 newscast was from then known as "AK am Mittag", the main broadcast of 19:30 "Aktuelle Kamera am Abend" and the news on DDR2 "AK-Zwo". News summaries received the generic name of "AK-Nachrichten" or "AK-Kurznachrichten".
The last newscast under the name "Aktuelle Kamera" was presented by Petra Kusch-Lück on December 14th 1990 at 1:00 on DFF1 (ex-DDR1). From the next day and until December 31st 1991, DFF news were simply called "Aktuell" and the East German television was restricted to one channel after DFF1 was shut down to transmit Das Erste. On January 1st 1992, the former DDR2 was regionalised and incorporated into the ARD as the regional channel ("Dritte Programme") for the "New Länder" under the names of MDR -Fernsehen (Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt, Thüringen), ORB-Fernsehen (Brandenburg, later merged with Sender Freies Berlin to form Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg ) and N3 (Mecklemburg-Vorpommern ).
AK's main edition was originally scheduled at 20:00 before being moved to 19:30 in the 1960s. The broadcast lasted 20 minutes until 1972 when it was expanded to a full half-hour. Starting in the mid-1970s, another 30-minute edition was presented on DDR2 (launched in 1969) around 21:30. Prior to that, both channels aired Aktuelle Kamera simultaneously at 19:30. AK 19:30 was also entirely repeated the next morning when DDR1 opened around 9:30 (later 8:30) before the programmes destined to schools.
News summaries were added as the transmissions increased during the day. There was a bulletin at the end of the morning programmes (i.e between 12:00 and 13:00) and another at 17:00 on the first channel. DDR2's evening schedule always began with the news at 18:45 (later 17:45 and 18:55). Late newscasts did not appear until the 1970s when DDR1 screened a headline update following magazines around 22:00. From the 1980s, Aktuelle Kamera's final round-up was the last programme at the end of the day.
Presenters
Aktuelle Kamera's principal presenters, 1952–1990:
- Herbert Köfer
- Klaus Feldmann
- Elisabeth Süncksen
- Hans-Dieter Lange
- Angelika Unterlauf
- Wolfgang Meyer
- Wolfgang Lippe
- Matthias Schliesing
- Renate Krawielicki
- Anne-Rose Neumann
- Peter Kessel
- Christel Kern
- Klaus Ackermann
- Heidrun Schulz
References
