Description
German WWII Radio/Volksempfanger – Deutscher Kleinempfänger 1938
The bakelite housing is complete and without cracks or damages, but on one side are three small holes. Possibly these were made for extra wires to another loudspeaker.
The textile loudspeaker cloth has a hole, but this is nothing disturbing. This is simply a great original Volksempfanger.
The size is approximately 24 × 24 × 12 cm.
The functionality has not been tested. Please mind this item is over 80 year old, and we offer it as a display collectable to collectors or museums.
Definately a great original collectible for any warroom, militaria- or radio collection or museumdisplay.
IMPORTANT: due to it’s size, weight and fragile material we would advise a pickup after ordering. If you choose for shipping per courier than we will pack it as good as we can in a lot of bubblewrap and within a box in a box. Shipment, especially international, is however at risc of the buyer. We strongly advise a pickup! Also certain international destinations (outside of Europe) may need a higher shipment amount as our standard shipmentcosts and we might have to contact you for this afterwards.
A little background:
In the 1930s this type of ‘people’s receiver’ served as a mouthpiece for Nazi ideology in millions of German households. Above the tuner wheel is an eagle with a swastika. This particular type was produced around 1938.
In his final speech at the Nuremberg trials, Albert Speer, Nazi Minister of Armaments and War Production, described how under Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship the use of “technical devices like the radio and the loudspeaker, 80 million people were deprived of independent thought. It was thereby possible to subject them to the will of one man.” These Volksempfängers, or “people’s receivers,” are material evidence of Hitler’s technological manipulation. Developed at the request of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and designed to be cheaply produced, these basic, Bakelite-encased receivers, made radio technology available to the general public. With tuners indicating only those German and Austrian stations that broadcasted Nazi propaganda, these devices played a central role in Hitler’s regime. However, clever listeners could tune in to Allied wavelengths using external antennae, a bold act considering it was a criminal offense punishable by fines, deportation to concentration camps, or even capital punishment. These radios thus encapsulate the dual nature and powerful potential of communication in modern times. Though intended as vehicles for Nazi propaganda, the Volksempfänger was transformed by brave citizens into tools for resistance.
