Radio Hobby, Private Associations, and the Challenge of Modernity in Germany

In the early twentieth century, the magic of radio was new, revolutionary, and poorly understood. A powerful symbol of modernity, radio was a site where individuals wrestled and came to terms with an often frightening wave of new mass technologies. Radio was the object of scientific investigation, but more importantly, it was the domain of tinkerers, “hackers,” citizen scientists, and hobbyists. This book shows how this wild and mysterious technology was appropriated by ordinary individuals in Germany in the first half of the twentieth century as a leisure activity. Clubs and hobby organizations became the locus of this process, providing many of the social structures within which individuals could come to grips with radio, apart from any media institution or government framework. In so doing, this book uncovers the vital but often overlooked social context in which technological revolutions unfold.

“In this book, Campbell demonstrates in a very convincing way how people in Germany integrated new technologies in their daily lives and thus came to terms with a technical modernity between the 1920s and the 1950s. … The book is impressive, putting the development of the radio hobby in the context of societal, technological, political, and economic changes during an important period of changeful German history—a must-read for understanding the genesis of today’s mobile and connected society.” (Christian Henrich-Franke, Technology and Culture, Vol. 62 (2), April, 2021)

Bruce B. Campbell is Professor of German Studies at William & Mary, USA. He has published on the Nazi Stormtroopers and German detective fiction as well as radio.