Radio from a Sinking Ship: Nazi Domestic Broadcasting in the Last Months of the Second World War.

Since the Battle of Stalingrad in winter 1942/43, a rift had been growing between Nazi propaganda claims and the reality of almost uninterrupted military setback. By the final months of the war, with the Allies rapidly advancing across Germany, this contradiction reached a new level. This article is a case study of the German domestic radio service from January to May 1945 as it was confronted with an unrelenting crisis that ended in total defeat. Using original sources, it focuses on radio policy and tactics, as mirrored in the radio conferences at the Propaganda Ministry, the programmes broadcast and listener response. The dual and irreconcilable courses characterized, on the one hand, by a clinging on to normality, echoed in the programme schedules and, on the other, by outpourings from a dying propaganda machine, including the Radio Werewolf venture, are examined. However, the article first sets the limits within which Nazi radio was forced to operate. Here access to its audience in light of massive technical problems and inroads by Allied stations that broadcast to the Reich play a key role. Among the interesting aspects covered in the study is the resumption of religious broadcasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]