French Army Destroys Soviet Berlin Radio Antennas

On the morning of December 16, 1948, after evacuating personnel, the French army blew up the two pylons (80 and 120 meters high) that supported the antenna of the Soviet-controlled Berlin radio station (Berliner Rundfunk). As they fell, they also destroyed a large part of the transmission equipment. At 10:45 a.m., the station fell silent. Due to the division of Berlin into four occupation zones (American, British, French, and Soviet), these antennas happened to be located in the French sector.

Since June 1948, the western part of the former Reich capital had been under a Soviet blockade. This part of the city was therefore supplied by an airlift.

To accommodate the many aircraft, additional runways were needed. The French built an airport in Tegel, in their sector. However, the Radio Berlin pylons, located along one side of the runway, made the 250 daily Skymaster flights (the cargo planes supplying West Berlin) dangerous. A recently installed radar system allowed for navigation in low visibility. The French army stated that it had informed the Soviets of this action a month earlier. But in this period of very high tension between the two blocs, the demolition can also be seen as part of psychological warfare, since the Russians were left without their main propaganda tool, briefly.

A backup transmitter was installed on the eastern side in Potsdam, and broadcasts resumed the same evening at 10 p.m., but at only 15 kW. It was not until the end of March that Radio Berlin regained a power output of 100 kW.

The studio headquarters in West Berlin

While the Soviet radio antennas were located in the French sector, the studios themselves were in the heart of the British sector. In 1952, they had been home to the radio service of the new German Democratic Republic for three years and were protected by the Red Army.

On June 3, 1952, at 3:30 a.m., the British army surrounded the building and allowed people to leave but not enter. The Soviets had blocked several small enclaves, and tensions between the former allies had risen again. Inside the House of Broadcasting (Haus des Rundfunks) were 300 employees and 25 Soviet soldiers. It was not until June 10, after tensions over the enclaves had eased, that the British lifted the siege. However, anyone wishing to enter the building needed special authorization from the Western authorities.

On July 24, a Soviet truck refused to stop at a checkpoint. The British protested and then tightened their control around the building on August 3. A truck trailer blocked the entrance, which was only reopened once everyone had been cleared. In 1953, the GDR set up new radio studios in East Berlin. However, the unusual situation of the former broadcasting house in the West persisted until the summer of 1956, when the building was finally evacuated and returned to the Federal Republic of Germany. It then housed Sender Freies Berlin, which became Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg in 2003, the regional public broadcaster for Berlin.