Germany's second TV channel exists because a court blocked Adenauer's own network
Chancellor Konrad Adenauer thought Germany's first public broadcaster was too friendly to his opponents, so in 1960 he founded a rival that critics nicknamed Adenauer television. The constitutional court killed it, ruling broadcasting belonged to the states. The states then built their own channel instead: ZDF.
Adenauer's third cabinet began planning a second national network in 1959. He believed ARD's news, including the nightly Tagesschau, leaned toward the opposition Social Democrats. The government-backed Free Television Society was set up on 25 July 1960, while the federal post office built a new transmitter network on UHF channels. Older sets needed a converter costing about 80 marks, and to test the system ARD was allowed to run a temporary evening channel, ARD 2, from May 1961.
Four states led by the Social Democrats, among them Hamburg and Hesse, challenged the plan. On 28 February 1961 the Federal Constitutional Court issued its First Broadcasting Judgment: Berlin's federal government could build transmitters but not operate broadcasters, since powers not explicitly granted to it remain with the states. The same logic allowed Deutschlandfunk, a federal station aimed abroad, because foreign relations are a federal matter.
The states moved quickly. Their premiers signed an interstate treaty in Stuttgart on 6 June 1961 creating a public institution called Second German Television, which came into force that December in the states that had ratified it; Bavaria completed ratification in July 1962. ZDF went on air from Eschborn, near Frankfurt, on 1 April 1963 with a speech by its first director general, Karl Holzamer. It aired its first colour programme in 1967 and moved to Mainz-Lerchenberg in 1974 after a short stay in Wiesbaden.
Today ZDF remains an independent non-profit institution based in Mainz, funded by licence fees and advertising. Its best-known programmes include heute, the news bulletin running since 1963, and the entertainment show Wetten, dass..?, launched in 1981 and off air between 2014 and 2021. Norbert Himmler became director general in 2021.
Source: ZDF
