Fernsehsender Paris : Television under German Occupation Through the Eyes of the Collaborationist Press

Between 1943 and 1944, while France was under German occupation, a television station broadcast from the Eiffel Tower. Fernsehsender Paris, often referred to as Paris-Télévision or Télévision de Paris, was intended to entertain military personnel recovering from their injuries. The collaborationist press portrayed it as a technical achievement, a modern form of entertainment, and even a promise of things to come after the war. This was, more or less, a way of concealing an operation that was in fact a propaganda enterprise organised by the German occupying forces.

A Television Station Born of War

French television, which had previously been known as Paris-Télévision before the war, ceased broadcasting in 1940, when French technicians sabotaged the Eiffel Tower installations before the arrival of German troops. The Vichy Government subsequently entertained some ambitions of its own, but these were quickly curtailed by the country’s real masters.

The occupying forces subsequently installed a Telefunken transmitter (441 lines, the German standard), connected by cable to the new studios in the 7th arrondissement. German officer Kurt Hinzmann, a former head of programming at Berlin television, was the driving force behind the project.

Regular programmes on Fernsehsender Paris began on 7 May 1943, initially using telecine equipment, before the opening of the main studio, housed in the former Magic-City, on rue de l’Université. On 30 September 1943, the studio was officially inaugurated in the presence of Louis Hautecœur, Director-General of Fine Arts. For some time now, nothing more had been heard about television. Was the war responsible for this silence, and had the work been abandoned? Not at all [ ] Television-Paris has been officially inaugurated in the studios on rue de l’Université, reported Gringoire. The newspaper added that reception remained restricted to hospitals and soldiers’ homes , highlighting the service’s real purpose: entertaining wounded or convalescing German military personnel in the Paris region.

A Studio Presented as a Technical Marvel

The collaborationist press emphasised the studio’s modernity, implicitly disparaging the television facilities of the French Third Republic. On 25 January 1944, Le Petit Parisien contrasted the new Magic-City studios with the dusty and archaic studios of the pre-war period, located on rue de Grenelle : “Before the war, there was only one camera, and it was stationary [ ] Today, technicians have mobile cameras at their disposal, and there are several of them.” The newspaper highlighted a production style that was now as lively as the cinema.

The propaganda sought to demonstrate that, despite the war, occupied France remained at the forefront of technological progress under German direction. Film Magazine went even further: The possibilities have been demonstrated, and now Europe’s largest television centre has just been established in Paris. This was a somewhat grandiose claim that overlooked one important fact : the cameras and receivers were made by Telefunken in Germany, and the chosen broadcasting standard was the German 441-line system.

Programmes for German Soldiers

The actual audience for Paris-Télévision was extremely limited. Programmes were primarily intended for German military hospitals and soldiers’ homes, thanks to several hundred television receivers installed throughout the Paris region. The weekly radio magazine Les Ondes made this clear on 5 March 1944 : “It is true that few private individuals own a television receiver ; Paris-Télévision therefore works primarily for hospitals, where soldiers are receiving treatment or recovering from their injuries.”

he programmes included variety shows, theatre, ballet, films, news bulletins and live broadcasts, in both French and German. The aim was to provide the convalescing men of the Wehrmacht with quality entertainment. Every day, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., and then from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., the vast premises of the television station on rue Cognacq-Jay come to life, noted Le Petit Parisien.

How Live Television Was Produced at Paris-Télévision

Newspaper articles devoted considerable attention to the control room, mobile cameras and image mixing. L’Œuvre described a programme devoted to the Berry region : “A folk group dressed in colourful regional costumes dances and sings before the cameras, on stage. Two cameras are positioned in front of them, operated by cameramen wearing headphones. Following mysterious instructions, they move around, accompanied by technicians who lift the cables connecting the cameras to the control room. Powerful spotlights flood the stage with light. “

The report then takes the reader into the control room : “At the back of the room, like a large glass-fronted box, is the control room. We climb up to it via a narrow wooden staircase. This is where the directing takes place. Inside the glass-walled wooden room are three television receivers. Looking up slightly, one can see the stage in the distance. The two sets on the right and left correspond respectively to cameras 1 and 2. The directors, seated in front of the receivers, must quickly choose the best image. A brief command is given, and the operator sitting beside them moves a lever: everything falls silent, and on the central screen appears the selected image, the very same one that the distant viewer sees at that moment.”

The press portrayed live broadcasting as a revolution. Film Magazine adopted the same heroic vocabulary typical of the Occupation-era press. In television, there is no room for mistakes . This emphasis on technical details and achievements also helped obscure the reality. There was plenty of talk about lighting, make-up, cables and production staff, but very little about the fact that the station operated under German control and served the occupying army.

Under the Spotlights

Journalists were invited to visit behind the scenes. In February 1944, L’Œuvre described a room transformed into a film studio : “The performers move beneath the blinding glare of the spotlights. Their make-up is very heavy, as only bright colours show up properly on television“. The head of artistic bookings explained that conditions had previously been dreadful : unbearable heat, a fixed camera and performers who had to remain motionless. Now, she declared, “television is radio for dancers“. Everything was apparently for the best in the best of all possible worlds provided, of course, that it was a German one.

A Promise for the Post-war Years

All these articles promised readers that domestic television would become a reality after the war . This is a particularly striking prospect in retrospect, given that the Allied landings were only a few months away. Le Petit Parisien envisaged family television screens measuring between 25 and 32 centimetres, as well as public viewing rooms equipped with large screens, which the newspaper L’Appel dubbed cinema-television . Meanwhile, Les Ondes imagined that people would soon be able to tune in to Paris-Télévision and “have the world in their own homes” . Finally, Film Magazine estimated that a television receiver would cost around 100,000 francs.

In 1944, however, the manufacture and sale of television sets remained marginal. Other priorities took precedence

An Ending Without Sabotage

On 12 August 1944, at 11:30 p.m., Fernsehsender Paris ceased broadcasting, approximately one week before the Liberation of Paris. Unlike other installations, the station was not destroyed. Kurt Hinzmann refused to carry out the sabotage order, leaving French technicians with a studio and equipment that were largely operational. The cameras, however, were taken back to the Reich. French television was therefore able to resume broadcasting as early as 1 October 1944, from the same premises on rue Cognacq-Jay, initially using a closed-circuit system.

These facilities would go on to play an important role in the development of post-war French television.