About 75 years ago, in June 1950, the constituent assembly of the ARD took place. The aim was to strengthen the position of the broadcasters in the political arena and to have a say in international affairs, for example in the allocation of broadcasting frequencies. At that time, “the broadcasters” meant exclusively radio.
In a podcast by Rainer Volk for SWR Kultur, media historian Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wagner and other experts shed light on the history of the ARD. Wagner points out that the abbreviation “ARD” did not appear in 1950, but only in 1954. He explains why they initially tried to persuade people to register their radios with entertainment, why coordinating the introduction of FM programmes was so important and how the constitutional judges in Karlsruhe play a mediating role in this liberal model of broadcasting regulation.
Today, says Hans-Ulrich Wagner, the ARD as a public service broadcaster is a great success – and careers are no longer dependent on party membership as they once were.
The podcast “Die ARD und die Politik – Ringen um Unabhängigkeit” [ARD and Politics – The Struggle for Independence] is part of the SWR podcast series “Das Wissen” [The Knowledge] and can be found in the ARD audio library, which is only available in German.