PROPAGANDA POSTCARDS
(1938)

This page was last updated
16-Sep-2026 05:28

15. GROßE DEUTSCHE RUNDFUNK-AUSSTELLUNG
(5th/21st Aug 1938)

BACKGROUND: The annual German Radio Broadcasting Exhibition was hosted in Berlin-Charlottenburg from the 5th to the 21st of Aug 1938. There was a series of photocards published by Verlag C. Koser of Charlottenburg to commemorate the event. A similar series of photocards was published to commemorate the 16th Exhibition held from 28th Jul until 6th Aug 1939.

The 1938 German broadcasting exhibition was the 15th "Große Deutsche Rundfunkausstellung" (Great German Radio Exhibition), held in Berlin-Charlottenburg from the 5th until the 21st of Aug 1938 and was one of the annual "Funkausstellung" that ran continuously from 1924 to 1939 (today's descendant is IFA Berlin).

Its centerpiece was television: 1938 marked the start of Berlin's regular TV broadcasts using the 441-line standard, with the Deutsche Reichspost and German TV industry giving a full overview of the technology in Hall 2. On the radio side, the exhibition unveiled the "Deutscher Kleinempfänger 1938" (DKE38, nicknamed the "Goebbels-Schnauze" or Goebels mouthpiece), an even cheaper companion to the "Volksempfänger VE301" that sold for just 35 Reichsmarks, plus the VE301 Dyn model with an electrodynamic loudspeaker. More than 100,000 sets sold in the exhibition's first two days, part of the regime's push to put a radio in every household as a propaganda conduit.

The event also had a heavy political dimension: "Reichsintendant Heinrich Glasmeier", general director of German radio, used his opening speech to lay out programming plans that included systematically purging Jewish broadcasting professionals, a policy documented in the accompanying press coverage.

SONDERSTEMPEL:

A special cancel was available inscribed "BERLIN-CHARLOTTENBURG 5/15 Grosse Deutsche | Rundfunkausstellung | Berlin 1938 | 5.-21.8", used from 5th to 21st Aug 1938

In addition there was a slogan cancel inscribed "15. GroÎ²e Deutsche | Rundfunk- | Ausstellung | BErlin 1938 | 5.21.AUGUST | am Funkturn" used from 21st Jul until 21st Aug 1938.

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