16 December 2020 tbs.pm/71758

GERMANY’S LEAD.

A “TECHNICAL MIRACLE.”

BUREAUS AT BERLIN AND LEIPZIG.

From the Derry Journal for 11 March 1936

The first public television service to be inaugurated anywhere in the world between two cities, 125 miles [200km] apart, was officially opened last Sunday by Baron von Eltz-Rubenach, German Transport and Posts Minister. The German capital and Leipzig were linked up by television, and the German Press duly celebrated “this technical miracle” with the correct amount of national pride.

It is felt in Berlin that Germany has stolen a march on both Britain and the United States. The German Post Office scientific laboratories have been working on the problem of successful television transmission for nine years. Last summer television made its first public appearance at the Berlin Radio Exhibition, but transmission cells were only about fifty yards [45m] apart. This week’s trial experiment is the first time that television at such a great distance has proved successful. A special cable had to be constructed for the purpose.

Naturally, the first television talkers between Berlin and Leipzig were public officials. Herr Rosenberg and several Government officials spoke to other officials in Leipzig. German press men then had television talks with other journalists attending the Leipzig Spring Fair.

Berlin and Leipzig each have two “Television Bureaus.” They function alternately. A three-minute talk costs five shillings [about £20 today, allowing for inflation]. The procedure is as follows:— Herr Braun, of Berlin, wishes to speak to Herr Schmifdt [sic], of Leipzig, at six o’clock on Tuesday evening. He must register his wish on Monday afternoon. Herr Schmidt, of Leipzig, is then requested by the Post Office in his city to be present at the Television Bureau ten minutes before the arranged time.

Courtesy of HuntleyFilmArchives. In this German crime film from 1939, the villain is discovered after the protagonists meet up in a fernsehsprechstellen – ‘television speaking room’ – to discuss the case.

In the Television Bureau, Herr Braun is ushered into a dark cell by a young lady attendant. He sits down in a comfortable leather club chair, opposite a dark screen, and is told to lean back well, so that the picture will be clear.

He then takes up the receiver from a telephone in front of him, and waits, Suddenly a greenish-yellowish, blurred light darts about in front of him, and soon it is transformed on the dark screen into the face of Herr Schmidt, sitting in the television cell in Leipzig. He at once talks away, and is answered just as easily by Herr Schmidt.

Amusing experiences were recorded by various television talkers. One German business man present at the Leipzig Fair had bought a toy animal for his small daughter, who sat in the television cell in Berlin, talking to him and showing pleasure at the promised toy in front of her.

Germany as it stood on 11 March 1936. Modified from User:Alphathon at Wikimedia Commons CC-BY-SA 3.0

The service is open for nine days only. Then the Television Bureaus will be closed for a time till the Post Office has worked on necessary improvements. Although the trial has proved highly successful, it is too early to forecast services from the German capital to other large towns yet. Television research and experiments in this country are backed and financed by the Government. The German Post Office, whose Tempelhof scientific laboratories work on television, recently succeeded in television transmission at a distance of 250 miles [400km].

❛❛Russ J Graham writes: What is television for? In the pre-war days, nobody was quite sure.

In the UK, the Selsdon Committee had decided that it would be for entertainment, education and information, run by the BBC, just like radio – although even they considered that this was just a start. In the United States, television was for spectacle: live events, cameras pointed out the window at crowds, perhaps one day ball games and presidential inaugurations.

In Germany, television at home for entertainment was a very low priority. It would better be used for group edification, as with cinema, or as a two-way tool, for businessmen to have meetings, for Nazi party members to discuss policy and murder, for parted Aryan families to reconnect.

In all cases, nobody foresaw television supplanting radio as the dominant live medium in the world. The world war that would soon be upon us would close down many nascent television stations for variously given reasons, some of them truthful, and switch the world back to the comfort of radio.

The system being talked about in the Derry Journal was mechanical, at 150 lines. The blurred light darting about they mention is the Nipkow disc running up to speed, although it might be mixing it up with the flying-spot camera for the reciprocal picture.

The system continued in development for the next couple of years, joining broadcast services in going all-electronic. The line standard was continually increased, helped by the lack of bandwidth constraints in a double co-axial network, eventually reaching 1,000 lines.

The system was shut off in late 1939 as war began to roll across Europe, and in 1940 was officially abandoned, the co-axial cables put to use for telegraphy.