Paris Exhibit: 80 Years of French TV

[jhalphen]

Hi Tom,

Yes, the Germans set up FernsehSender Paris in 1943 to provide entertainment to wounded/recovering soldiers in Paris hospitals.

The station was run by a francophile, Kurt Hintzmann, who was married to a french wife. The station set up its studios 15 rue Cognacq-Jay and converted a dancing hall into several studios. The project was very innovative in terms of program content with a varied schedule including plays, drama, singers, orchestras, singing artists and movies.

Kurt Hintzmann took personal risks, covering many people and saving them from the STO (compulsory work deportation to Germany) and also protected many jewish artists and technicians. He was under close scrutiny by the Gestapo but got away with it with high-level protection in Berlin.

The station ceased broadcasting in august of 1944, days before Paris was liberated. He was ordered to destroy everything but disobeyed, a single tube was destroyed in the transmitter, the rest left intact. The experimental Telefunken Iconoscope cameras were shipped home to Berlin.

At the end of the war, the french inherited a state of the art 441 line TV facility. French TV remained in the Cognacq-Jay premises until its privatization in 1983!

Kurt Hintzmann came to live in France after the war, where he remained until his death. He received a medal for saving his work staff and was made an honorary President of Thomson-CSF for life.

A TV film named Cognacq-Jay was directed by Laurent Heynemann in 1993. It relates the entire story of FernsehSender Paris. It aired on Franco-German cultural TV channel ARTE, but unfortunately was not released on DVD.

Best Regards

jhalphen