The text leaves nothing to be desired in terms of clarity.

“Hearing black” is not a trivial offense, is the serious admonition.

Since radio broadcasting gained a foothold in Hesse in October 1948, the radio fee postcards have not only served as receipts, but also as an educational tool: the back of the cards not only promotes more faithful payment - there are also instructions for enlightened listening.

Don't listen to too many programs a day, so that your head doesn't get foggy, that's advice that is diametrically opposed to the constant drone of the present.

Today the radio is “listenable”, and there are contemporaries who are practically unable to live without background noise in their ears.

Eva Maria Magel

Senior cultural editor of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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If you now look at the beginnings of the Hessischer Rundfunk (HR) in the Frankfurt Museum for Communication, which has opened its archive for the exhibition "Funk für Fans", you can certainly become a bit nostalgic, maybe even wistful.

In view of the solemn announcement of the first radio transmissions or the stork postcard announcing the "little brother" of radio, television, in 1953, one can hardly help a grin.

But one stands with reverence in front of the diagrams that the writer Alfred Andersch used to introduce himself in order to set up a dedicated cultural and educational program for the newly founded Hessian post-war radio broadcaster.

Ashtrays and intellectual celebrities of the young republic

The program was supposed to be contemporary, critical, European, oriented towards society, an “imposition of the highest demands”, a “funk experiment”.

At listening stations you can listen to programs such as "What do we mean by modern literature?" on July 15, 1948. Greats like Elisabeth Langgässer, Eugen Kogon and Hans Mayer gathered around the sparse tables with huge ashtrays.

"A philosopher confronts two questioning laypeople," said the subtitle of the program "Sense and Nonsense of Philosophy".

The "Abendstudio" was shaped from 1948 onwards by speakers such as Theodor W. Adorno, Alexander Mitscherlich, Jürgen Habermas, since 1950 a second purely cultural program has flanked the HR, since 1953 the German Jazz Festival has been bringing new sounds to Frankfurt and into the world.

Brochures, photographs and audio samples manifest the efforts made at the time to bring about a democratization of society through education and culture after National Socialism and the Second World War.

The Funkkolleg, which still exists today, in digital form, is shown in this chronological narrative as the next logical step: it was launched in 1966, an "experiment to overcome the educational barrier" with certificates, postgraduate studies and a series of books.

The fact that famous scholars, many of them working at the Goethe University, worked in this series and designed lectures suitable for radio and television seems almost exotic today - and that the third program, HR 3, with its colorful mix of music, once caused a wave for the " foreign workers” was established, as well.

“Funk for fans.

Hessian Radio Stories” until 4 September, Tuesday to Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday until 7 p.m., extensive accompanying program with radio plays and concerts.