1934/1944/1954: Continuing Careers

Broadcasting featured local customs and crafts from the very beginning. Radio reports such as those by Andreas Reischek were the forerunners of today’s radio features. His reports made individual craft businesses and traditional events especially famous.

After the Nazi seizure of power in 1938, Andreas Reischek continued his work and produced programmes in line with Nazi propaganda. These also covered areas in Slovenia that had been annexed by the Nazi state. In his propaganda reportage, Reischek tried to emphasise the supposedly “German” character of the region referred to as “Lower Styria”. In reality, “Germanisation” was carried out through coercion and violence, including war crimes.

Although he had worked for the Nazi propaganda machine, Reischek was able to continue his career after 1945. He produced programmes with similar content and style and was even appointed head of the Linz studio of the US-controlled station Rot-Weiss-Rot, after representing himself as a resistance fighter of the eleventh hour. 

Andreas Reischek with the Nazi propaganda report “Village Diary from Lower Styria”, Reichssender Wien, 0:33 min., 1944, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv

And towards the end of the book, there are particularly beautiful pictures. These are pictures of the 1942 harvest crèche, where you can see happy young Lower Styrian people all gathered together. At peak working time, when farming men and women have to be out in the fields, the children of these Lower Styrian farmers are cared for by the Volkswohlfahrt (public welfare). The future of this German region, now German once again and forever more.

Andreas Reischek with a report on mouth harp production in Molln, Radiosender Rot-Weiß-Rot, 1:25 min., 1954, Österreichischer Rundfunk ORF 

Kennen Sie dieses merkwürdige Instrument? Kennen Sie diesen summenden Ton? Ich glaube, liebe Hörerinnen und Hörer, dass nur wenige von Ihnen wissen, was eine Maultrommel ist. Denn eine solche Maultrommel haben Sie jetzt gehört. Ein unscheinbares, kleines, aus Eisen gefertigtes Instrument. Aber man hört es von Afrika über Indien 

bis nach Tibet. Die Primitivvölker der anderen Erdteile kennen dieses Instrument seit urältesten Zeiten. Und, und das ist jetzt das Interessante, alle diese Instrumente, die von den Eingeborenen ferner Länder gespielt werden, fast alle, stammen aus dem kleinen Ort Molln im Steyrtal in Oberösterreich, wo wir vor dem kleinen Hause eines der Meister der Maultrommelschmiede stehen.