Uwe Johnson's television reviews with literary scholar Yvonne Dudzik (University of Rostock) and media scholar Andy Räder (University of Greifswald)

Between June and December 1964, Uwe Johnson, an alert contemporary of the political and social conditions of his and Wolfang Koeppen's time, reviewed GDR television for the West Berlin newspaper "Tagesspiegel" - the only time the writer wrote regularly for a daily newspaper over a longer period of time. These reviews were published posthumously in 1987 under the title "Der 5. Kanal". As part of the Uwe Johnson work edition, they were republished in 2024 with a comprehensive commentary, which provides an opportunity to look at some of the programs and films he reviewed.

Most of Uwe Johnson's television reviews deal with the programs "Prisma" and "Der schwarze Kanal". While the still young series "Prisma" dealt with domestic political conditions in the GDR, "Der schwarze Kanal" had a foreign policy function, as the series was also intended to appeal to West German viewers. "Der schwarze Kanal" showed clips from West German television and commented on them, while "Prisma" showed scenes from everyday life in East Germany and interviewed citizens of the GDR - with the aim of encouraging an improvement in their living and working conditions. The broadcasts from June 8, 1964 and November 26, 1964 are examples of how both formats were made.

Yvonne Dudzik is a literary scholar and research assistant at the Uwe-Johnson-Werkausgabe (Uwe Johnson Works Edition) of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities at the University of Rostock.
Andy Räder is a media scientist and works as a research assistant at the Institute for Political and Communication Science at the University of Greifswald.

"Der schwarze Kanal", GDR 1964, Moderation: Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, 27'
"Prisma", GDR 1964, Moderation: Gerhard Scheumann, 34'
Photo: German Broadcasting Archive Foundation / Waltraut Denger