Selling Britain: The BBC German Service in the Post-War Period

1938年9月，英国广播公司（BBC）成立了德国广播公司，当时英德关系紧张。Vike Martina Plock是我的项目的第一位主管，他研究了BBC德语服务的基础设施是如何在战争期间扩大的，以及它是如何旨在实现其主要政治目标的“放松希特勒对德国公众的意识形态控制”（Plock，The BBC German Service，Preface，p. viii）。迄今为止，对BBC德语服务的学术研究还不多。已经进行的研究主要集中在战争时期和针对东德德国的广播。虽然针对敌对国家民众的节目引起了更多的学术兴趣，但必须指出的是，一直存在到1999年的英国广播公司德国服务部也见证了联合王国与德国的联邦共和国之间日益密切的关系。新成立的联邦共和国的目标是在国际政治舞台上重新获得信任，把自己作为西方邻国可靠和值得信赖的伙伴。“西进”很快成为西德对外政策的主要基石之一，尽管对德国仍有疑虑，战后英国政府普遍认为德国重新融入欧洲大陆的战后政治秩序是一种政治必要性，阿登纳政府的进步受到普遍欢迎。被描绘在德国服务广播到联邦共和国。在这种背景下，一个重要的问题是德语广播的基调和功能如何适应两国在冷战背景下谨慎地从敌人转变为盟友的发展。在战争时期，BBC有一个非常明确的目标，即在德国观众的头脑中灌输对自己政府的批评立场。两国关系的变化是否使BBC在政治上更加独立，以及它在多大程度上仍然是英国外交政策的代理人，这将是一个有趣的研究。此外，西德的民主化带来了独立的德国媒体机构的重新出现。BBC德语部与西德媒体之间的合作与协调也将是我的研究课题。了解BBC德语部作为“文化大使”的角色，有助于加深对战后两国关系的起源和发展的理解，从而了解当今两国关系背后的深层结构。

The BBC German Service was established in September 1938, while Anglo-German relations were strained. Vike Martina Plock, who is the first supervisor for my project, has researched how the infrastructure of the BBC German Service was expanded during wartimes and how it aimed to achieve its primary political objective "to loosen Hitler's ideological hold over the German public" (Plock, The BBC German Service, Preface, p. viii).To date, there has not been much academic research on the BBC German Service. The studies that have been conducted mostly focus on war times and broadcasts targeted at East Germany. While the programmes directed at the populations of adversary states have sparked more academic interest, it is important to note that the BBC German Service, which stayed in existence until 1999, also witnessed the forging of ever closer relations between the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany.Under its first chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, the newly established Federal Republic aimed to regain trust on the stage of international politics by presenting itself as a reliable and trustworthy partner to its Western neighbours. "Westintegration" quickly became one of the main cornerstones of West German foreign policy.While there was still apprehension towards Germany, the British governments of the post-war period generally saw the re-integration of Germany into a post-war political order on the European continent as a political necessity and the advances of the Adenauer government were generally welcomed.My project aims to investigate how the process of "Westintegration" was portrayed in German Service broadcasts to the Federal Republic. An important question in this context is how the tone and function of German-language broadcasts adapted to the development of the two countries cautiously moving from enemies to allies in the context of the emerging Cold War.During war times, the BBC had a very clear objective to instil a critical position towards their own government in the minds of its German audience. It will be interesting to investigate whether the changing relationship between the two countries allowed for the BBC to become more politically independent and to which degree it still functioned as an agent of British foreign policy.Also, the democratisation of West Germany brought about the re-emergence of independent German media outlets. The cooperation and coordination of efforts between the BBC German Service and West German media outlets will also be a subject of my research.To understand the role of the BBC German Service as a "cultural ambassador" can help advance the understanding of the origins and developments of the relations between the two countries in the post-war period and thereby the underlying structures behind the relationship between the two countries today.