大象传媒

On 9th November 1989, citizens from East and West Berlin flocked to the Berlin Wall with sledgehammers and pick axes and began to demolish the barrier that had physically and ideologically divided Berlin for more than 28 years.

Long before the wall went up, the 大象传媒 started to receive letters from listeners in East Germany - many featured in a weekly programme 鈥楤riefe ohne Unterschrift鈥� (鈥楲etters without Signature鈥�). The Stasi (Staatssicherheitsdienst - the state security service) saw this programme as a form of psychological warfare aimed to destabilise the regime.

The construction of the wall started on 13th August 1961. 大象传媒 Monitoring compiled Summaries of World Broadcasts during that summer month and those reports contain information on how the rest of the world viewed what was happening in Berlin. Many citizens of the German Democratic Republic wrote to the 大象传媒 in desperation, appealing to the outside world not to be forgotten as the Berlin Wall was going up.

On 9th November 1989, the 大象传媒鈥檚 Brian Hanrahan reported in the Nine O鈥� Clock News on the bombshell announcement that citizens from East Germany would be able to cross directly into West Germany. By 11pm the checkpoints were open and the Berlin Wall had, in Hanrahan鈥檚 words, suddenly become a 鈥榬edundant structure鈥�. The fall of the iconic Cold War symbol marked the effective collapse of the German Democratic Republic. The political process towards the reunification of East and West Germany started within weeks, and was made official on 3rd October 1990, less than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The 大象传媒 Written Archives Centre holds files charting its broadcasting relationship with East and West Germany in series E1, E2, E3 and E40. Significant sections include over 300 files of letters sent from behind the Iron Curtain to the 大象传媒 (1955-1976) and the Summaries of World Broadcasts 鈥� daily digests of foreign radio broadcasts (1939-2001).