The BBC German Service during the Second World War

This book, part media history and part group biography, tells the story of the BBC’s attempts to reach out to these listeners at a time when Anglo-German relations were particularly strained. During the Second World War millions of people in Nazi Germany turned to the BBC’s German-language programmes for reliable information. Who were the individuals behind the microphone, whose names could only be mentioned in whispered conversations on the continent? Who wrote the satirical sketches that offered comic relief to housewives struggling to obtain enough food to feed their families? And who made decisions about programme delivery and staffing? Drawing extensively on previously unexamined archival material The BBC German Service during the Second World War: Broadcasting to the Enemy sheds light on the complex, often difficult working arrangements at the wartime BBC where people from different nationalities, social backgrounds and political convictions collaborated and argued about the delivery of an effective propaganda programme that would assist the Allies in defeating the Nazis.

Publication Year: 2021
Imprint: Springer International Publishing