Das Erste

Das Erste ("The First"), or Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen ("First German Television"), is the principal publicly owned television channel in Germany. It is a joint production of Germany's regional public broadcasters acting through, and coordinated by, the ARD consortium.

History

The channel's first experimental broadcast was on 27 November 1950 as the TV channel of the then NWDR, which in 1956 split into NDR and WDR. The regular NWDR television service started on 25 December 1952. Nationwide transmission began on 1 November 1954 within the ARD framework, under the name Deutsches Fernsehen ("German Television"). It was West Germany's only television channel prior to the establishment of ZDF in 1963.

The new channel consisted of jointly-produced shows such as the nightly news programme Tagesschau (on the air since 26 December 1952), as well as broadcasts produced individually by ARD member stations. The programs were coordinated by the Programmdirektion based in Munich. Besides several entertaining shows, ARD went political in 1957 when it launched its first political TV magazine, Panorama. Germany's first political TV show adopted the slogan "What is being talked about and what should be talked about" and pictured all aspects of postwar West German society—including conflict-laden topics, scandals, and other taboo topics, such as former Nazis who had held important roles.