Leipzig Radio Station Fire 1934

 

On January 15th, 1934, shortly after 9:00 PM, the upper segment of two radio towers caught fire.  The fire started 200 feet off the ground and was exacerbated by high winds. Back in 1934 arson was called incendiarism which sounds like a religious sect for pyromaniacs. But based on that word I was able to find a number of papers which picked up the Reuters wire service coverage of the incident.  

The coverage in the Hong Kong Daily Press reads like the wire service sent out an update while they were doing layout; first stating that it was arson, then that it was spontaneous combustion. The news was quick to retract attributions of arson. The Hong Kong Daily telegraph wrote "First belief of sabotage is not discounted." 

To be honest, "spontaneous combustion" sounds less suspicious if you also read the Pinang Gazette which specifies that the spontaneous combustion happened in a condenser. (probably an electrolytic condenser)  The New York Times coverage also specifies that the tower was made of wood. 

In February of 1934 Popular Wireless magazine carried an article "Eckersley Explains" in which P.P. Eckersley briefly commented on the fire in the context of the Lucerne Plan, which he was politely critical of in a very British way. It's interesting that Eckersley is skeptical of the official story. 

"The 'Emperor of the Ether' wasn't a bad, if a somewhat soporific, title for M. Braillard. Then the Leipzig mast had headlines as high as its lattice work. Of course, incendiarism was hinted at. The station was burnt clown before one started to read it was still transmitting at the bottom of the paragraphs."

Under the Lucerne Plan station on frequencies below 300 kc could broadcast at up to 150,000 watts. Those stations 550 and 1100 kc could broadcast at up to 100,000 watts. Those stations between 1100 and 1250 kc could broadcast only up to 60,000 watts. There were exceptions of course: Moscow 1 which will continue to use 500 k.w. and Budapest, Leipzig, Paris PTT, Prague 1, Rennes PTT, Toulouse PTT and Vienna were all capped at 120 kw. [SOURCE]

 Constructed in 1932, the two 400-foot towers carried a set of aerials aloft to broadcast on 382.2 meters. In February of 1933 Braodcasting Magazine called it "Germany's most powerful broadcasting station." But the article at the time, pre-Lucerne Plan listed them at 770 kc. A year later, the February 1934  issue of Radio Index described the station content for long wave listeners:

"One of Germany's most powerful stations, famous for orchestral concerts by the Leipzig Symphony and Dresden Orchestras, and also its frequent transmission of old and new dances."

I did find BBC radio schedules for Radio Leipzig, in the Fall of 1934 so it's clear they returned to the air. But I found no coverage of the reconstruction. There is a reason I think the coverage might be missing. This is early in the history of the Reich Broadcasting Company; before the full atrocities of WWII came to bear. So I don't think wartime coverage has anything to do with it. I suspect that by January of 1934, nobody wanted to write about another fire in Liepzig.

There had been another story about a fire running in Liepzig for a year... "The Liepzig Fire Trial". Now 90 years later history remembers better the precipitating incident, the Reichstag fire. The fire happened on February 27th 1933. But the Fire Trial was at the Reich Supreme Court in Leipzig and ran though December of 1933. It was recorded, and it's testimony broadcast on the radio. After 4 months of arguments the court found Marinus van der Lubbe guilty. But we know today that this was a Nazi false flag operation.