Unforgotten Landscapes: Radio and the Reconstruction of Germany's European Mission in the East in the 1950s
Inge Marszolek
Using the example of audio series Unforgotten Landscapes (Unvergessene Landschaften) aired on Radio Bremen in 1955, this article addresses important role that radio played complex border-negotiation processes Germany after World War II. For many years, agency as an interlocutor and discursive tool process renationalization has been more or less neglected historical research. Indeed, visual auditory representation Eastern borders was a highly contaminated field Western until 1970s. Even today, relations between Poland are still affected by these issues. By using German notion Heimat umbrella concept, shows how programs tried to shift understanding existing territorial borders, having resulted from II atrocities Nazi being part imaginary construction Kulturnation. The depicted history theses landscapes since medieval times, with no human beings living there present, but also claiming voices death can be heard. Thus, territories could lost, anchoring cultural memory, they would Germanness. Moreover, reinforce West Germany's European mission connect east west beyond continuities völkisch “blood-and-soil ideology” underlying concept Heimat.
German Politics and Society