Original German WWII Damaged 1938 Kleinempfänger DKE 38 Radio by Ideal-Werke A.G. of Berlin Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. The Volksempfänger (“people’s receiver”) was a range of radio receivers developed by engineer Otto Griessing at the request of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. This example is the model DKE 38, and is marked on the circuit board by the maker: JDEAL-WERKE A.G. / App. Nr. 43578. Ideal-Werke of Berlin was a known producer of radios, and like many companies, they used a J instead of I in their logo. There some additional markings on the speaker and embossed on the bakelite housing. The radio measures approximately 9 ½”W x 9 ¾” x 4 ¾”.

Unfortunately, this example has lost the entire back plate, which would have given information about the circuit design, and also has cracks and damage to the bakelite housing. The rear bottom corners are both missing chunks, and the front is missing material above the frequency selector. In spite of this, the speaker is still attached firmly and has all four screws intact. The interior shows lots of Waffen proofs on various components. Both tubes are intact, and the smaller tube still has getter flashing, so the vacuum inside is still good.

The power cord is missing, and most likely other components are as well. This is sold as a display piece, and we do not expect that it can be made to function. This is a rare chance to own an iconic piece of propaganda technology from AH’s Third Reich.

The purpose of the Volksempfänger-program was to make radio reception technology affordable to the general public. Joseph Goebbels realized the great propaganda potential of this relatively new medium and thus considered widespread availability of receivers highly important.

The Volksempfänger was designed to be produced as cheaply as possible, as a consequence they generally lacked shortwave bands and did not follow the practice, common at the time, of marking the approximate dial positions of major European stations on its tuning scale. Only German and Austrian stations were marked and cheaper models only listed arbitrary numbers. Sensitivity was limited to reduce production costs further, so long as the set could receive Deutschlandsender and the local Reichssender it was considered sensitive enough, although foreign stations could be received after dark with an external antenna.particularly as stations such as the BBC European service increased transmission power during the course of the war.

Listening to foreign stations became a criminal offense in NSDAP Germany when the war began, while in some occupied territories, such as Poland, all radio listening by non-German citizens was outlawed (later in the war this prohibition was extended to a few other occupied countries coupled with mass seizures of radio sets). Penalties ranged from fines and confiscation of radios to, particularly later in the war, sentencing to a prison camp or capital punishment. Nevertheless, such clandestine listening was widespread in many NSDAP-occupied countries and (particularly later in the war) in Germany itself. The Germans also attempted radio jamming of some enemy stations with limited success.

This Deutscher Kleinempfaenger (more properly spelled Kleinempfänger) DKE 38 radio was first manufactured in 1938. The name means “German small radio.” The DKE in the model designation stands for the words Deutscher Kleinempfänger and the 38 signifies the year of introduction. Using only two tubes, it’s one of the simplest tube radios that you will ever come across. The Kleinempfänger was designed to be simple, and therefore cheap, so that as many Germans as possible could buy one. It cost only 35 Reichsmarks, roughly one week’s wages for an average worker of that day.

This was a propaganda radio, in short. Germans nicknamed this set Goebbels’ Schnauze (Goebbels’ snout), referring to the Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, whose voice was often heard over the airwaves. The appearance from the front is Spartan, a simple Bakelite box dominated by the circular speaker grille. This is a small radio, measuring about 9.5 inches square from the front, and only 4.5 inches deep. The controls consist of two knobs and a tuning dial marked with numeric scales from 0-100 in opposite directions. Directly above the dial you can see a tiny German eagle over a swas.