Tal der Ahnungslosen

Valley of the Clueless was a satirical name of the GDR language use for regions in the northeast to Greifswald and in the southeast of the GDR in the former district of Dresden, FM radio and television broadcasts from the former territory of the Federal Republic of Germany ( known in the GDR Western television ) also could not be received terrestrially with great effort. The inhabitants of these areas that were not reached by the Western television and FM radio, were informed as bad in the GDR because they only had information from the censored GDR media. They accounted for about 15 % of the population of the GDR.

Extent of the area

The term is often equated with the Dresden Elbe Valley boiler, also was - also satirically - the term ARD interpreted as " Save space Dresden " or "Out of Rügen and Dresden ". In fact, the included " valley of the clueless " is not only the Dresden Elbe Valley, but also a greater share of East Saxony ( especially parts of Upper Lusatia ) and Pomerania.

Effects

A study ( core and grove Mueller, 2009) came through evaluation of documents of the GDR State Security to the conclusion that the population in areas without reception of Western television and radio broadcasts with the political system was less satisfactory than in areas with these media. The authors attribute this to the fact that the Western media has been used primarily as a source of entertainment ( media Escapism ), but not to question the GDR regime. The virtual emigration apparently lowered the suffering and stabilized by the communist regime.

Today's use of language

The term is now used for local communities or areas in Germany with missing or poorly developed broadband Internet access in allusion to the previous situation in the southeast of the GDR.