Television Under the Swastika

Film documents television under the Nazis

BENITO MUSSOLINI'S visit with Adolph Hitler was chronicled in "Television Under the Swastika."

When you think of the early days of television, images of Uncle Miltie Berle and the “U.S. Steel Hour,” Edward R. Murrow and “I Love Lucy” come to mind.

Ah, but there was television better than a decade before that. It was in Nazi Germany.

This fascinating fact makes for a less than fascinating documentary, “Television Under the Swastika.”

The Nazis were early pioneers in the world of broadcast television, dating to March 1935.

Nazi television quality was pretty crude at first, but within a few months the picture quality improved greatly.

The documentary proves less interesting than you would anticipate, probably because there just isn’t that much material surviving.

It’s hard for us to fathom in these days of camcorders and digital video recorders, but archiving programs was technologically difficult back them.

The result is most of the programming went out over the airwaves and was lost forever.

What is left often is films of the making of programs.

It remains a historically interesting find.

Some of the archives are downright funny, including a less-than-eloquent Nazi official who can’t seem to express himself too well, mumbling and stammering.

Another time we see a program about scientists studying the Aryan race. A scientist takes what looks like the old ice-carrying tongs to measure the superior head circumference of a German girl.

There’s live coverage of Adolph Hitler’s visit to Adolf Hitler Square. Since there weren’t multiple cameras available, they simply had a car driving along side Hitler’s. So Germans were treated to footage of Hitler riding down the road in his car, and riding and riding.

Actually, there weren’t too many Germans with television at the time. There were television salons where Germany’s elite sat and watched the single TV in the room. A man stood in the front of the room and was ready to make an adjustment if the picture started jumping.

It wasn’t all propaganda, although we see talking heads discussing the greatness of the Nazi plan called “Strength Through Joy.”

The programs originated at first from a tiny room, but eventually expanded into bigger quarters.

Programming aired three times a week at first, but it didn’t take long for it to expand to seven days.

There was intensive coverage of the 1936 National Socialist Party Convention, including a list of all of the food the members were eating.

We see the 1937 visit from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

There were plays presented on a stage, old-fashioned type vaudeville acts. We see tap dancers, singers, comedy routines.

Another unintenionally funny program was aimed at German women, showing them how to be good wives. How to bring up proper German children. It was supposed to be real, but was definitely staged. A big part of learning to be a good German wife apparently included singing pro-Nazi songs.

This television division attempted to keep itself important and relevant because if it didn’t, the whole thing would close and staffers would be off to the front.

As the war worsened, we see footage of happy German soldiers who have lost their legs still being able to dance, just as good as ever.

Eventually, in 1944 when Germany’s defeat was inevitable, the broadcasts went black. The experiment was over.

History buffs will no doubt enjoy this documentary.

This appeared in the Star Beacon WEEKENDER Oct. 3, 2008.