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Kinder- und Jugendliteratur im Rundfunk

Abstract

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[English title and abstract below]

Die Mediengeschichte zeigt, dass mit dem Aufkommen neuer Medien immer auch literarische Stoffe von ihnen aufgegriffen wurden, sei es in Form von traditionellen, neu erschienenen oder eigens für sie geschriebenen Texten. In Deutschland trifft diese Feststellung auch auf den Rundfunk zu, der flächendeckend ab 1923 in Form von dezentralen Rundfunkgesellschaften aufgebaut wurde (vgl. Halefeldt 1997), die ab 1924 ein Programm für Kinder und Jugendliche anboten. Hört zu! lautete der an sie gerichtete Aufruf.

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Children's and Youth Literature on the Radio during the Weimar Republic and the Era of National Socialism

This article presents some results from a research project on German-language children‘s and young people‘s literature in the media network from 1900 to 1945, focussing on radio programmes, from 1924 on, that engaged with this literature. The sources of information about the programmes were radio magazines, which were only published until 1941 due to the constraints of the Second World War. In the initial phase, readings of fairy tales and legends dominated; from the early 1930s on, more and more fairy tale radio plays were produced. Punch and Judy radio plays by Liesel Simon, for instance, were broadcast regularly from 1926. Book recommendations aimed at parents and young people also played an important role as did readings by contemporary authors such as Felix Salten, Lisa Tetzner, Erich Kästner, Irmgard von Faber du Faur and Will Vesper. While the new political and social start with the Weimar Republic in 1918/1919 did not result in a caesura in the market for children’s literature, because authors who had been successful up to that point continued to be published, it did introduce several innovations, for which there was little room after Hitler came to power in 1933.