WesWorld

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Broadcast communications in Germany is carried out by the Reichs Radio Gesellschaft (National Broadcasting Corporation) under the auspices of the Deutsches Reichspost. The national headquarters of the Reichs Radio Gesellschaft is located in the Haus der Rundfunk (Radio House) in Berlin, but a number of regional subsidiaries provide services across the nation, comprising:

Bayerischer Rundfunk GmbH, München
Hessischer Rundfunk AG, Frankfurt
Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk AG, Leipzig
Norddeutsche Rundfunk GmbH, Hamburg
Ostmärkische Runkfunk AG, Wien
Ostpreußen Rundfunk AG, Königsberg)
Saarländischer Rundfunk AG, Saarbrücken
Schlesische Rundfunk AG, Breslau
Süddeutsche Rundfunk AG, Stuttgart
Westdeutsche Rundfunk AG, Köln

The subsidiary company Deutsche Welle GmbH provides international short and long-wave broadcast services from Berlin, using the transmitting station at Königswusterhausen.

National and regional wireless broadcasting services provide a wide variety of news, cultural and entertainment broadcasting for the populace of Germany. Foreign language services are also provided; Deutsche Welle provides news broadcasting in English, French and Spanish, while regional foreign language broadcasts include that of Norddeutsche Rundfunk (English, Danish and Nordmarkish), Ostmärkische Rundfunk (Hungarian, Italian and Serbo-Croatian), Ostpreußen Rundfunk (Polish), Schlesische Rundfunk (Polish) and Saarländischer Rundfunk (French).

In 1934 broadcast television services were introduced to the general public, operating from the Fernsehsender "Paul Nipkow" in Berlin. The first major event to be broadcast was the 1936 Olympics, with an estimate of more than 160,000 viewers.

The popularity of broadcast services has provided incentives for the German electronics industry to introduce many models of wireless receiving sets as well as several models of television sets. Funding of the Reichs Radio Gesellschaft is obtained from the annual licence fees paid by the owners of wireless and television receivers, and the growing sales of such equipment have provided the national broadcast system more than sufficient funding for its operation and growth. The strength of the broadcast communications market can be seen in the growth in the numbers of registered receiving sets: in 1923, at the commencement of operations, the number of registered receiving sets numbered but 9,000 units; one year later that had risen to 780,000, and to 1,200,000 in the following year. A milestone of 4,000,000 registered units was reached in 1932, and in 1939 no fewer than 13,000,000 receiving sets were registered with the Reichs Radio Gesellschaft.

The inventory of military aircraft appended below represents the total on-hand inventory of both the Luftwaffe and the Marineflieger, including all trainer, transport and liaison types, operated by frontl line units, training establishments, held in reserve or otherwise accounted for.

It should be noted that the nominal front-line strength of Luftwaffe combat units for the same period represents 6,324 bomber, fighter, reconnaissance, transport and army cooperation aircraft.

Data represents complete aircraft delivered for service acceptance or export, exclusive of spare parts.

This organization, known in the English-speaking world as the German Standardisation Committee, was founded in 1917 as the Normenausschuß der deutschen Industrie – the Standardisation Committee of German Industry – as part of the industrial mobilisation effort of the Great War. It adopted its current title in 1926, by which time it was recognised that the committee dealt with standardisation issues in many industries, and not merely industrial products. It is a registered association, privately held but supported by the Government, and provides a forum to draw up standards arrived at through the consensus of interested parties (manufacturers, consumers, testing institutes and governmental authorities).

Work to streamline arms production in late 1916 led to the realisation that all German industry had to be mobilised in order to match the industrial might of the Entente powers. To accomplish this basic standards for the engineering industry were considered necessary. To this end the Königlichen Fabrikationsbüro für Artillerie (Royal Artillery Manufacturing Office) of the Prussian War Ministry led to the formation of the Committee in Berlin.

Beginning with such simple but fundamental things as tapered pins and machine screws the Committee has established standards for manufacture for most industrial products, assuring that components made by one manufacturer can be substituted for those made by another without loss of functionality, strength or safety. Commonly known as Deutsche Industrienorm, the standards published by the Committee have been the skeleton upon which German industry has rebuilt itself in the wake of the Great War.

Upon the union of the Austrian provinces the activities of the comparable organisation, the Österreichischer Normenausschuss für Industrie und Gewerbe, were integrated with those of the Committee.

This enterprise was founded in 1899 on the initiative of Postmaster General Heinrich von Stephan. In order to eliminate the nation’s dependence on the English cable monopoly he was able to convince a consortium of German banks to finance construction of a German-owned trans-Atlantic telegraph cable. The first section, from Greetsiel on the East Frisian mainland, via Borkum, to Fayal in the Azores, was laid in 1900-1901, with the section linking Fayal with New York City laid between 1901 and 1902. The success of the initial cable led to the construction of a second cable along the same route between 1903 and 1904. At the outbreak of the Great War these cables were cut by the British Government, and as a provision of the Treaty of Versailles the cables were ceded to the British as reparations. Between 1926 and 1929 new cables were laid linking Borkum with New York via Fayal in the Azores, and a new cable was laid from Borkum to Vigo in Iberia, to link with the Iberian cable network.

The other day the topic of the availability of the German Panther medium tank and its Yugoslav "Kurjak" counterpart came up in discussion. As Germany has far greater industrial capacity than Yugoslavia, Germany is in a better position to respond to potential export orders for military equipment of all classes. The table below illustrates how I have calculated Panther production since its introduction in January 1943, being as realistic as possible given the constraints of our game (which for ground equipment are extremely limited).

As you will see, five factories have been involved in Panther production over the years, of which two continue to produce them, at a relatively low rate compared to their potential. Current production is mainly to keep up with attrition, build up war reserves, and basically keep the factories working until the Panther's replacement comes along (which should be soon).

Factories don't start production at 100% - they build up output gradually, and likewise taper off production in response to changing needs. The Panther has had a relatively long production life, but still remains a viable weapon on the battlefield (it was rather advanced when it was introduced). As the WW Panther is not exactly the same as the OTL Panther (closer to the OTL Panther II) it has gone through incremental upgrades. It was also designed from the outset to be production-engineered, hence the rapid build-up of production.