Radio Hobby, Private Associations, and the Challenge of Modernity in Germany

Bruce B. Campbell is Professor of German Studies at William & Mary, USA. He has published on the Nazi Stormtroopers and German detective fiction as well as radio.

• 1. Introduction.- 2. The Beginnings: Radio in the 1920s.- 3. German Radio Before Broadcasting: Scientists, War, and Imperialism.- 4. Technology and the Radio Hobby Mature, 1927–1929.- 5. The Nazification of the Radio Clubs, 1929–1935.- 6. The Radio Hobby in the Service of National Socialism, 1935–1945.- 7. The Radio Hobby Comes in from the Cold, 1945–1955.- 8. Conclusions and Questions.

“In this book, Campbell demonstrates in a very convincing way how people in Germany integrated new technologies in their daily lives and thus came to terms with a technical modernity between the 1920s and the 1950s. … The book is impressive, putting the development of the radio hobby in the context of societal, technological, political, and economic changes during an important period of changeful German history—a must-read for understanding the genesis of today’s mobile and connected society.” (Christian Henrich-Franke, Technology and Culture, Vol. 62 (2), April, 2021)