Jeff:The “Radio Station of the German Freedom Party” was the first European offshore radio station, and the only one which primarily targeted a German audience. Remarkably, it served a political purpose – resistance against the Nazi regime. It was programmed by German journalists living in exile, supported by Dutch, British, and French collaborators in their courageous but unfortunately short-lived project, in 1938. Here’s Ray Robinson at the Voice of Hope studios in Los Angeles to tell us more.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. Well, I thought I knew quite a lot about European Offshore Radio, but I’d never heard of this one before some new research was published by Dr. Martin van der Ven in Germany in July. We’re very grateful to him for this fascinating historical reportage.
This is the story of the “Sender der Deutschen Freiheitspartei” or, the “Station of the German Freedom Party,” which operated from the radio ship “Faithful Friend” on shortwave.
In January 1938, Adolf Hitler had been in power in Germany for five years, and the potential for another all-out war was looming. A 50-year-old journalist and Center Party politician, Dr. Carl Spiecker, had been living in exile for those five years. He had been the Ministerial Director and Press Secretary of the Reich Government from 1922 to 1925, and he’d also led a special department to combat National Socialism under Heinrich Brüning’s government in 1930/31. But after the Nazis took power in January 1933, Spiecker was dismissed from his state position for “political unreliability.” He fled abroad, first to France, then England, and later to the USA and Canada. Under the pseudonym Miles Ecclesiae, he published a pamphlet called “Hitler against Christ” in 1936.
Then, together with another exile, Otto Klepper, he founded the “German Freedom Party” (or, DFP). The aim of the organization was to unite various political and religious viewpoints into a centrist “people’s front without communists.” They opposed the Hitler dictatorship from abroad with as much anonymity as possible, while still maintaining contacts with the Wehrmacht, churches, economists and student groups in Germany.
On February 17, 1937, a Paris daily newspaper published a first leaflet signed by the “Reich leadership of the German Freedom Party,” demanding a referendum on whether Germany should continue to participate in the Spanish Civil War. Klepper and Spiecker then distributed subsequent “German Freedom Letters” through secret channels from the end of March 1937, targeting mainly the foreign press correspondents accredited in Berlin.
But besides his publishing activities, Carl Spiecker discovered radio as a medium for his political activities and resistance against the Nazi regime. From the second half of February 1938, he used the ship “Faithful Friend,” registered in the English port of Lowestoft, Suffolk, to broadcast radio programs on shortwave against the Nazi regime. The ship, built in 1913 by the shipping company John Chambers & Co. Ltd. in Lowestoft, was a steam-powered fishing trawler that had belonged to Gilbert & Co. Ltd in Lowestoft, and which used the call sign LT33. On February 18, 1938, the ship was sold to Wessex Drifters Ltd., a front company founded by the SIS – the British Secret Intelligence Service, now known as MI6.
Unknown photographer. Colorised by Harm Koenders.
The trawler cruised under the British flag in the international waters of the North Sea and English Channel, mostly along the northern coast of France between Dieppe and Cherbourg, but also later off the Dutch coast. While serving as a radio station, eight men were on board: the captain, a cook, four sailors and stokers (all English fishermen), a German journalist who also acted as the “radioman,” and a Dutch radio technician. Spiecker’s radio station “Station of the German Freedom Party” was supported by two experts from VARA in Hilversum, who alternated on board.
They used a shortwave transmitter with an output power of just less than 5 kW, which had apparently been prepared in utmost secrecy by British technicians; even the British government was not officially informed. The frequency used was 7842 kHz (38.25 meters), but a later report also mentions 10070 kHz. There may have been some confusion between the ‘Station of the German Freedom Party’ and another station called the “German Freedom Station” which broadcast its programs from Spain on 10070 kHz (29.8 meters) shortwave at the same time. But, a “situation report” by the Gestapo in Karlsruhe does note at the end of April 1938 that “the ‘Freedom Station’ was heard several times during the month on both 29.8 and 38.25 meters” (the wavelengths of the two similarly named stations).
The German radiomen on board the broadcast ship Faithful Friend were two Social Democrats, initially Jakob Altmaier, and shortly thereafter Ernst Langendorf. The station is believed to have started broadcasting in February 1938; the exact date isn’t known, but it was probably shortly after the sale of the ship to Wessex Drifters Ltd. on the 18th of that month.
Available sources suggest that Carl Spiecker, as the initiator and organizational and editorial head of the radio station, was not himself on board the broadcasting ship. He evidently wrote his texts in Paris, from where they were sent to a cover address in the port where the Faithful Friend docked.
At times, the broadcast ship Faithful Friend was reportedly shadowed by a French warship to prevent it entering French territorial waters while broadcasting. The French authorities were apparently well-informed about the true mission of the ship, but they left the Faithful Friend undisturbed during its stays in the harbor.
The station announcement (in German, of course) was: “This is the radio station of the German Freedom Party!” The broadcasts were intended to be heard daily, normally from 7:30-8:00pm and from 10:00-10:30pm. If weather conditions permitted, the programs were repeated several times per night. In case of a storm, the ship occasionally could not leave the harbor, so broadcasts had to be canceled. They read news from around the world, but mainly from Germany. This was followed by political commentary and an international press review, as well as calls to resist the Hitler regime. Altmaier and Langendorf provided detailed reports in their broadcasts about the Condor Legion, through which the German Reich government was involved in the Spanish Civil War. They referred to the January 13, 1935 Saar referendum as a “rigged referendum” and according to another Gestapo situation report in Karlsruhe, the radio station called for a “No” vote in the referendum on the “Anschluss” of Austria to the German Reich, planned for March 13, 1938. The Anschluss was the idea of the unification of Austria with Germany, which actually had strong support in both countries at the time.
In an interview in April 1976 on German radio, Ernst Langendorf remembered the events of 1938. He said:
“The first editor and radio speaker on board was Jakob Altmaier. But after just a few days he quit, as the working and living conditions on this dirty and primitive, coal-powered ship were simply too much for him during the winter storms. I reached Dieppe in mid-February. The stormy sea had forced the entire fishing fleet into the harbor. Nevertheless, we set out to sea the next afternoon. After just a few hours, I was drenched to the skin due to the high waves, and I was so seasick that I was quite incapacitated. Ready to die, I sought out my small cabin. The captain eventually returned to the harbor. During the night, the storm subsided, and the next afternoon the sea was fairly calm, so we made a new attempt. This time everything worked. The Dutch technician from Radio Hilversum got the broadcast equipment ready, with the electricity coming from a gasoline-powered generator. We broadcast on 38.25meters shortwave. At 7:30pm, I sat in front of the microphone and read the station announcement: ‘This is the radio station of the German Freedom Party.’ Then followed news, an international press review, a commentary, and various informative program segments. The broadcasts lasted 30 minutes each and were regularly punctuated by the station identification including the wavelength and broadcast times.
“This continued for about 2 months. Whenever we were in harbor, I stocked up on newspapers and magazines. I would also take the opportunity to call Dr. Spiecker in Paris, who provided me with information, advice, and instructions.
“The day before the planned Austrian referendum in March 1938, the German Army crossed the border into Austria unopposed. You can imagine how busy I was in my radio broadcasts, passing on the reaction to Germany’s actions from the international press – as far as I could get hold of it. We had no news editorial staff – I was the only news editor on the ship.
“During the daytime, I always sat at the radio receiver, taking notes on reports from English, French, Swiss, and German broadcasts. I then made my news broadcast from these notes and was on the microphone twice every evening for half an hour each – the first one being a longer news broadcast. I also had newspapers, magazines and books with me, which gave me ideas for commentaries, which I wrote and read out myself.
“How well the German Freedom Party transmitter was received in Germany is very hard to determine. I only know for sure that it was monitored by the Gestapo, because in a military history archive in Freiburg there are reports of an intercepted broadcast from this transmitter, which is named in full in those reports. Dr. Spiecker had connections in Scandinavia and he had asked his friends there to tune in when the station was broadcasting. They sent him reports on the reception quality, but of course, that says nothing about the actual listenership in Germany, which was probably very small.”
At the end of 1937, Germany had about 68 million inhabitants. Of these, only 9 million people were registered as licensed radio listeners, but each receiving device undoubtedly served multiple listeners, especially in families. By 1938, the German radio industry had produced about 3.4 million “people’s receivers” which the Nazis used as an inexpensive propaganda instrument to influence the masses. This was a medium wave-only receiver, with the shortwave band deliberately omitted by design to try to prevent reception of ‘degenerate’ broadcasts from abroad. However, in the 1930’s, the German-language broadcasts of the BBC could also be heard on medium wave and thus on the ‘people’s receivers’. Regularly in those German-language broadcasts, the BBC gave instructions on how to convert a ‘people’s receiver’ into a world receiver by adding a shortwave converter.
The last broadcasts from the Faithful Friend probably took place after about two months, on the night of April 11 to 12, 1938. Again, Ernst Langendorf recalls:
“Everything went well until early April. On land, I called Dr. Spiecker, who instructed us to stay in the harbor. When he finally arrived, he explained that he expected difficulties for our broadcasts due to changes in Paris. His contact at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Quai d’Orsay had advised him to get out of French national waters until the situation became clearer. After some discussions, we eventually followed the advice of the Dutch technician. Accordingly, we were to head for the port of IJmuiden.”
The crew in Cherbourg harbor followed Carl Spiecker’s recommendation and sailed to IJmuiden in the Netherlands on April 12. When they docked, the boat was thoroughly inspected, first by customs officers and then by a group of harbor police officers. The authorities sealed the transmitter and checked the crew members’ papers and passports. Langendorf had to accompany them to the station, where there was a silent confrontation with a German officer wearing a Nazi badge on his lapel. Apparently, the German embassy had been informed in advance.
But, the following day, April 13, after deciding the transmitter was probably just a normal ship-to-shore radio, the ship received permission to leave the harbor again – which happened on April 14, allegedly with the destination of Dunkirk. The transmitter was eventually stored in a warehouse in Boulogne, and the ship returned to England. Langendorf returned to Paris on Easter Saturday, April 16, and learned that Carl Spiecker had meanwhile hired a comfortable motor yacht, which was also to be equipped in Boulogne. However, during a test run, the yacht caught fire after some gasoline was spilled in the galley. The boat was then a total wreck. Frustrated, at that point, Spiecker gave up his courageous radio ship project.
Spiecker, of course, in 1938, had to cover the costs for food and wages for the Faithful Friend’s crew, finance the fuel (both coal for the ship’s engine and gasoline for the generator), and procure the broadcasting equipment. However, it has since transpired that he had numerous contacts with British underground organizations. Jakob Altmaier and Carl Spiecker are both listed in the directory of “Officers, Agents, and Main Contacts of Section D of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, alias MI6).” Founded in April 1938 (just as the broadcasts from the Faithful Friend were ending), the SIS received formal permission to commence activities in March 1939 and eventually formed the core of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). But, it seems highly likely the whole Faithful Friend project was covertly funded through British intelligence in London.
So what happened to the ship? The Faithful Friend is believed to have been scrapped at the end of 1939.
Back to you, Jeff.
From: Wavescan N817, October 20, 2024
Wavescan is an international DX program, researched and written in Indianapolis by Dr. Adrian Peterson and in Los Angeles by Ray Robinson. Wavescan is produced in the studios of WMRI Shortwave in Okeechobee, Florida, by Jeff White.
The program frequently covers radio stations aboard ships. These reports are documented here.
