The Sound of the East
For three decades the Funkhaus is the single source of recorded sound in the GDR — orchestras, radio plays, choirs and the entire state soundtrack are committed to tape on Nalepastraße.
Part of Funkhaus Berlin
8 moments in this segment.
- — The Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra records in Saal 1, its sound captured by the hall's celebrated acoustics. Decades of symphonic recordings for GDR radio are made in this room.
- — The broadcasting house on Nalepastraße. The completed Funkhaus stands as one of the largest broadcasting complexes in Europe — Ehrlich's brick blocks strung along the Spree, a self-contained city of sound on the eastern edge of Berlin.
- — The Rundfunkchor Berlin. The Berlin Radio Choir, one of the world's leading professional choirs, records its repertoire in the Funkhaus halls — voices wrapped in the same legendary reverberation.
- — Hörspiel — the golden age of radio drama. The Funkhaus's dedicated drama studios produce thousands of Hörspiele — radio plays — a central art form of GDR culture, with Foley rooms and dead-rooms built into Ehrlich's plan.
- — Amiga — the GDR's record label. Amiga, the popular-music label of the state-owned VEB Deutsche Schallplatten, issues the records of the East. Much of its catalogue — pop, jazz, rock and Schlager — is recorded in the Funkhaus.
- — Reinhard Lakomy — early electronic pop. Composer and singer Reinhard Lakomy records pop and pioneering electronic music for Amiga at the Funkhaus, later famous for the beloved "Traumzauberbaum" children's records.
- — Reels, valves and the Magnetophon. German magnetic tape recording — the Magnetophon lineage — fills the Funkhaus's technical blocks: racks of valve amplifiers, custom desks and tape machines that define the building's sound. This photograph dates from 1970.
- — The Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Berlin. The radio dance orchestra — the GDR's big-band sound — records swing, jazz and light music in the Funkhaus's dedicated Sendesaal für Tanzmusik, supplying the dance music of the East.
