Music for the Wehrmacht
"THE OWI AIMS AT FRITZ"
LONDON - The German Army, target of the "German Wehrmacht Hour" beamed out by ABSIE (American Broadcasting Station in Europe) is getting its first taste of OWI-supplied live popular music according to the New York office of the OWI's Overseas Branch. Beginning last Wednesday (Nov. 1) ABSIE is offering German listeners a weekly half-hour of music by Maj. Glenn Miller, leader of the American Band of the Supreme Command."
The headline from the November 6, 1944 issue of "Broadcasting" magazine described the ABSIE program "Music For The Wehrmacht" which was part of the one hour program. The other half hour was a German-language news broadcast. In addition to Glenn Miller, the musical programs broadcast by ABSIE from London to the German armed forces, the German people and the occupied peoples of Europe also included broadcasts by "Der Bingle" Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Marlene Dietrich, Morton Downey and even Spike Jones among other American artists. The scripts used by ABSIE for Americans not familiar with the German langauage were produced in "phoentic" style allowing celebrities including Glenn Miller to converse with a fluent German-language announcer. All of the Glenn Miller ABSIE programs are preserved by the GMC.
Discover Glenn Miller's German-language wartime broadcasts here:
Updated - May 3, 2022
Glenn Miller and actress Irene Manning at ABSIE, December 6, 1944 (NARA)
Acknowlegment
Translations Courtesy of Edward F. Polic