BBC German Service

The Londoner Rundfunk (English: German Service) of the BBC was a German language radio service running from 1938 until 1999 as part of the wider BBC European Service. It began operating during the Second World War and continued running until after the dissolution of the GDR and the end of the Cold War. With a broadcast time that never exceeded a few hours a day^{[better source needed]} what was first conceived as a propaganda broadcast became a source for reliable information on the state of the war, and later the 'voice of the free world' to those behind the Iron Curtain.

The station first broadcast on 27 September 1938. Regular programming began on 27 January 1939 and was expanded in April, after the complete occupation of Czechoslovakia. The first Head of the BBC German Service was Hugh Greene. Other early leadership included Lindley Fraser, formerly professor of philosophy at Aberdeen, as well as Richard Crossman and Patrick Gordon Walker who would move on to become leading figures in of the Labour Party.

During the war many prominent German exiles contributed to the program, including Thomas Mann, Walter Rilla and Bruno Adler. The Nazi Regime came to call it the number one enemy broadcast.

Throughout the years of the Iron Curtain, programs such as Briefe ohne Unterschrift (Letters without signature) would give a voice to the east of the republic. The East German Stasi extensively investigated, tracked and persecuted all involved; the extent of which became clear only after the reunification of Germany and only because of the extensive records kept.

The broadcast ceased operations in 1999 due to financial reasons, and because listener-polls showed that 90 per cent of listeners would be able to follow the English BBC World Service.