50 years of broadcasting history in sight
A on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, ORF Tirol is the first regional studio in Austria to work on its broadcasting history. Archives are being searched in cooperation with the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Innsbruck. Possible sensitive and dark spots should also be illuminated.
Next year, the ORF Landesstudio Tirol on Innsbruck’s Rennweg will be 50 years old. Reason enough to sift through history. The project is scientifically processed in cooperation with the University of Innsbruck. First and foremost, it is about developing a state of research, says the Innsbruck historian Benedikt Kapferer. So far there has been very little archived information about it, you can find individual publications on the history of technology, but hardly anything on broadcasting policy or program history.
Results are to be presented for the 50th anniversary.
“Only those who know history can draw lessons from it”
The chapter of the Tyrolean radio is unknown, says ORF Tirol editor-in-chief David Runer. Only those who know the story can learn the lessons from it. “We just don’t know what was going on there, so I’m very happy that the Institute for Contemporary History is working on this topic scientifically,” said Runer.
For the research work of the university, the Tyrolean state archive, the city archive, the Brenner archive and the legacies of former ORF employees and employees are also to be searched.
History begins in 1927
A transmitter was officially put into operation in Innsbruck / Aldrans in 1927. The speaker’s studio was housed in a private apartment in the Allerheiligen district, and two years later they moved into the high-rise of the Innsbrucker Stadtwerke, in what is now the IKB building. After the connection, the Nazis docked the Innsbruck transmitter on the Reichsender München, and the high-rise studio was destroyed by bombs towards the end of the war.
In the basement of the Innsbruck country house, however, a small transmitter remained intact. After 1945 it was sent from the new country house. That was for 27 years, until the opening of the Funkhaus am Rennweg in 1972. This connection, this approach to state politics speaks volumes, says Kapferer.
In addition, the Nazi entanglements of state directors – if they existed – need to be brought to light. The Institute for Contemporary History is still at the beginning of its research. In about a year, on the 50th anniversary of ORF Tirol, concrete results are to be presented.