By Joyce Grant
2014
In 2014, a German man named Gunter Zettl was told that he had won a radio contest 45 years earlier, at a time
when his country was in political turmoil. As you read, take notes about the cultural and political differences
between East and West Germany after World War II.
Gunter Zettl won a radio contest in 1969.
He correctly identified a song the radio station played,
and he sent a postcard to the station with the name
of the song (“Painter Man,” By The Creation).
Last week, 45 years later, he was finally given his
prize.
The reason for the delay was political.
Following World War II, in 1945, Germany was
separated into two states: East Germany and West
Germany.
At the time, Zettl was a teenager living in East Germany. Pop music was banned in East Germany at the time.
The CBC radio show As It Happens interviewed Alex Buchholz, the former head of the radio station in Germany.
Buchholz talked about the remarkable events that led to the delay in Zettl receiving his prize.
He said that Zettl’s postcard was confiscated (taken) by the East German police in 1969 before it got to the radio
station.
“They wanted to prevent youngsters in the East, Communist part of Germany to listen to western radio stations.
They thought the western style of living did not fit the communist style of living and pop music was something
regarded as being dangerous to their system,” Buchholz told the CBC.
Then, the police created a file on Zettl. They wanted to fill it with papers that documented his “bad” behavior,
like trying to contact a forbidden radio station, and listening to pop music.
In 1990, East Germany and West Germany were reunited.
East Germans were allowed to take a look at the “secret” files the police had kept on them.
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When Zettl saw the postcard in his file, he re-sent it to the radio station.
[15] The people at the station were “very much astonished,”1
Bucholz told the CBC.
They invited Zettl to the radio station’s 50th birthday celebration, where they brought him onto the stage and
gave him his long-overdue prize—a copy of the record “The Painter.”
Zettl, now 62 years old, was given his prize by the man who, in 1969 was the host of the radio station that had
run the contest.
Zettl doesn’t have a record player, so they gave him a digital copy as well as a physical copy of the song.
“East German Man Receives Contest Prize 45 Years Later”, © 2014, Joyce Grant. Reprinted with permission, all rights
reserved.
Unless otherwise noted, this content is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license
- Astonished (adjective) greatly impressed; surprised and amazed
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Discussion Questions
Directions: Brainstorm your answers to the following questions in the space provided. Be prepared to share
your original ideas in a class discussion. - Based on what you have read about East Germany (before it was reunited with the West), what do
you think it was like to be a teenager there? - What is a free nation? What freedoms do you expect as a citizen of your country?
- Re-read the following lines from page 2. Then, answer this question: Why do people resist change?
In your opinion, is change good or bad, or both? “They wanted to prevent youngsters in the East,
Communist part of Germany to listen to western radio stations. They thought the western style of
living did not fit the communist style of living and pop music was something regarded as being
dangerous to their system,” Buchholz told the CBC.
