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I was surprised to see the pic - "TV antennas directed towards the West, Neustrelitz 1984, East Germany." Was that forbidden? It's seem like that would have be

I was surprised to see the pic - "TV antennas directed towards the West, Neustrelitz 1984, East Germany." Was that forbidden? It's seem like that would have been influence the government would have tried to filter out no? Or was it forbidden but just not enforced?

detaro 8y ago
It wasn't forbidden for the general public, no (I think right after the wall was build there were some crackdowns on it, but hugely unpopular and ineffective, and it was banned for soldiers and some officials). It of course wasn't officially supported in any way and under the table, but it clearly was easy to do in many areas and couldn't really be stopped, so it was widespread and people build their own antennas etc if they needed to. I read stories like that a radio technician somewhere build a small-scale "cable TV" network redistributing west TV from his home and in later years things like that were tolerated. The area around Dresden was known as the "valley of the clueless" ("Tal der Ahnungslosen") because it was one of the few major areas where you couldn't receive West-German TV.
lower 8y ago
Watching Western German television was not officially forbidden and in the 80s most people did it. It was, however, frowned upon and seen as suspect by the authorities. Imagine having to justify yourself in a discussion with the Stasi for consuming the enemies' propaganda.
- usrusr 8y ago
  I think that there is a lot of confusion between what was actually forbidden and what was merely making people more suspect of getting recruited by enemy intelligence and the like. And that this confusion wasn't at all exclusive to outsiders looking back, but was present, or even dominant, within Stasi itself. "Make a list of people to check in the emergency of a CIA counterrevolutionary project" can quickly turn into "Make a list of people to crack down on for lack of ideological commitment", particularly in an organization in the spy game, where need-to-know must be the norm.

detaro 8y ago

It wasn't forbidden for the general public, no (I think right after the wall was build there were some crackdowns on it, but hugely unpopular and ineffective, and it was banned for soldiers and some officials). It of course wasn't officially supported in any way and under the table, but it clearly was easy to do in many areas and couldn't really be stopped, so it was widespread and people build their own antennas etc if they needed to. I read stories like that a radio technician somewhere build a small-scale "cable TV" network redistributing west TV from his home and in later years things like that were tolerated. The area around Dresden was known as the "valley of the clueless" ("Tal der Ahnungslosen") because it was one of the few major areas where you couldn't receive West-German TV.

lower 8y ago

Watching Western German television was not officially forbidden and in the 80s most people did it. It was, however, frowned upon and seen as suspect by the authorities. Imagine having to justify yourself in a discussion with the Stasi for consuming the enemies' propaganda.

usrusr 8y ago
I think that there is a lot of confusion between what was actually forbidden and what was merely making people more suspect of getting recruited by enemy intelligence and the like. And that this confusion wasn't at all exclusive to outsiders looking back, but was present, or even dominant, within Stasi itself. "Make a list of people to check in the emergency of a CIA counterrevolutionary project" can quickly turn into "Make a list of people to crack down on for lack of ideological commitment", particularly in an organization in the spy game, where need-to-know must be the norm.