MASS MEDIA IN DIVIDED GERMANY 585
Conclusion
Without a doubt, the media created an essential bridge between East
and West. Whereas radio had already taken on this function in the 1950s,
stronger and wider bridges were built in the 1970s through the West
German television that was watched on both sides of the Wall and the
reports of correspondents on either side. Not only the public television
stations in the West, but also the state broadcasters in the GDR eventually
had to cater to viewers’ wishes for more entertainment. Television and
radio therefore fostered the emergence of a consumer society in both
German states, generating a desire for consumer goods that could hardly
be stilled in the East. In doing so, they contributed to the replacement of
traditional norms of collectivity and duty in the GDR with the promise of
individual development and expression as part of what became a “trap
of modernity” for the East German state. Print media in both states re-
mained separate, but the borders were at times permeable. East German
newspapers adopted Western formats, styles, and trends, for example,
which promoted pluralization and consumption within the GDR. Even the
development of the most diff erent newspapers imaginable in terms of
politics on both sides of the Wall did exhibit some structural commonal-
ities: the high circulation of these dailies in East and West refl ected their
growing importance in providing social orientation in both a democracy
and a dictatorship. This also manifested itself in the shared interest of
East and West Germans in local and regional news, classifi eds, and ad-
vice/service formats. At the same time, the limits and asymmetry of this
media entanglement was readily apparent. West Germans paid very little
attention to GDR television and radio, but the increasing commercializa-
tion and entertainment focus of the media spread clearly from West to
East and not the other way around.
In 1990, when the West German media system was mapped on to East
Germany and West German media conglomerates came to dominate the
East German market, it initially seemed as if a true process of reunifi ca-
tion was in full swing. Yet a myriad of diff erences soon appeared despite
shared elements and even direct structural ties. The diff erences in pref-
erences between East and West Germans in their choice of television
programming, magazines, and newspapers, as well as the strongly re-
gional contours of the East German media market, have pointed to the
persistence of cultural and social borders, which the media itself has also
fostered. Arrogant views of the East coming from within the West have
not been few and far between. Not only was the seeming monopoly of the
regional press mocked, but also the success of private television and local
commercial stations. From a long-term perspective, however, media de-