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

英国广播公司德语台成立于1938年9月，当时英德关系紧张。维克·马蒂娜·普洛克是我的项目的第一位主管，她研究了BBC德语服务的基础设施是如何在战时得到扩展的，以及它是如何旨在实现其主要政治目标的(普洛克，BBC德语服务，序言，第八页)。到目前为止，关于BBC德语服务的学术研究还很少。已经进行的研究主要集中在战争时期和针对东德的广播。虽然针对敌对国家民众的节目引发了更多的学术兴趣，但重要的是要注意到，一直存在到1999年的BBC德语服务也见证了联合王国和德意志联邦共和国之间日益密切的关系。在其首任财政大臣康拉德·阿登纳的领导下，新成立的联邦共和国旨在通过向西方邻国展示自己是可靠和值得信赖的合作伙伴，在国际政治舞台上重新赢得信任。“西部一体化”很快成为西德外交政策的主要基石之一。尽管人们对德国仍有顾虑，但战后时期的英国政府普遍将德国重新融入战后欧洲大陆的政治秩序视为一种政治需要，阿登纳政府的进步受到普遍欢迎。我的项目旨在调查“西部一体化”的过程是如何在德意志联邦服务广播中被描绘出来的。在这方面的一个重要问题是，德语广播的基调和功能如何适应两国在新兴冷战背景下谨慎地从敌人转变为盟友的发展。在战争时期，英国广播公司有一个非常明确的目标，要向德国观众灌输对本国政府的批评立场。调查两国关系的变化是否让BBC在政治上变得更加独立，以及在多大程度上它仍然作为英国外交政策的代理人发挥作用，这将是一件有趣的事情。此外，西德的民主化带来了独立的德国媒体的重新出现。BBC德语服务与西德媒体之间的合作与协调也将是我研究的主题。了解BBC德语服务作为“文化大使”的作用，有助于加深对战后两国关系的起源和发展的了解，从而促进对当今两国关系背后的潜在结构的了解。

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.