WM Lands His First Job

And Why He Gives Notice. Chapter 7 of Who Was WM? Investigating a Televisionary: The Life and Work of Wolfgang Menge

5 min readMay 26, 2024

The radio station that never existed and the murder that never happened: This fake photo — created with ChatGPT — shows the last episode of the British black propaganda program “Gustav Siegfried Eins.” Two Gestapo men storm into the studio and kill the ranting Prussian anti-Nazi-patriot called the “Boss”

The Inventor of Fake News

The German News Service resides on Hamburg’s Rothenbaumchaussee in a villa the British military has confiscated. It is located diagonally opposite the public radio station NWDR, today’s Northern German Broadcasting (NDR) building. Despite the eponymous “German” in German News Service, it is the British occupation administration that runs the news agency. In 1949, it will transform into dpa, to this day Germany’s largest news agency. In 1946, however, it is still a relatively modest institution headed by Sefton Delmer.

The 43-year-old journalist is the son of an Australian linguist who taught at Berlin’s Humboldt University before the First World War. Sefton Delmer was born in the German capital and attended school there. He speaks German fluently. In the early 1930s, he reported from Germany for the London Daily News and was the first British journalist to interview Adolf Hitler. During the war, he worked for the secret British propaganda unit Political Warfare Executive with his friend Ian Fleming, who would achieve worldwide fame in the 1950s with his James Bond novels. They collected rumors circulating in Nazi Germany. Delmer used these rumors for propaganda, inventing and producing what we now call fake news.

After the war, he is to do the opposite: set up the first fact-based news agency in post-war Germany within the British occupation zone. He has brought editors and archivists with him from London. Locally, employees who are experienced and untainted are hard to find. Delmer finally recruits a few dozen members of the disbanded German Naval Intelligence Service. After all, to be successful, they had to be competent in gathering facts rather than creating political spin, as was common in Nazi journalism.

From Listening to Black Propaganda to Reporting the News

WM, now 22, decides to apply for a job at the German News Service — with a portfolio of freshly written poems.

“They kicked me out, of course. But I kept going back.”

The early post-war period marks a heyday of new beginnings. And Sefton Delmer lacks personnel who have not lost their innocence in National Socialist institutions. The scrawny young poet in the worn-out army fatigues, who refuses to be turned away, finally makes his way to the head of the German News Service.

WM and Sefton Delmer share a common interest: their love for the propaganda radio station “Gustav Siegfried Eins” (GS1). Until he was drafted, WM rarely missed a GS1 broadcast. And Delmer invented GS1. The supposedly German opposition channel is so-called “black propaganda,” i.e., a form of manipulation that pretends to the audience that it is information from the hands of those who are to be discredited.

Delmer produced GS1 in London. Anyone listening, however, had to believe that the broadcasts came from Nazi Germany, illegally created by a highly patriotic old-school Prussian officer called “Chef,” i.e., boss. He was entirely loyal to the “Reich” and its military. However, he used wild insults and accusations against the corrupt, incompetent, and sexually depraved Nazis — and, for the sake of credibility, also against the British and their Prime Minister Winston Churchill. An exiled German mystery writer scripted the episodes, and the actor Peter Seckelmann, who had fled Berlin, spoke the Prussian officer’s role. When the series came to an end after 700 broadcasts, Delmer had the Gestapo storm the station and shoot the “boss.”

GS1’s programs and the revelation of their true nature left a lasting impression on WM. The fake station simulated existing media formats to deceive the audience, much like WM’s later works The Dubrow-Crisis or The Million Game. The unrestrained tirades of the “boss” also foreshadow those of WM’s Alfred “the Wretch” Tetzlaff.

Sefton Delmer takes a liking to the young man, a GS1 fan who now. in early 1947, wants to become a journalist. He hands him a chance — a traineeship. In domestic politics.

“After a while, I really enjoyed it,” says WM.

No to Yes

In the long run, however, office work does not suit WM. It’s media start-up time in Hamburg. WM and his friend Richard Gruner, soon to be co-owner of the major publishing house Gruner + Jahr, develop a youth magazine. Life-affirming, they call it Yes. Editor-in-chief WM — “I guess that’s what I was …” — fills the trial edition of the magazine with satirical articles. Richard Gruner also contributes one piece.

“I think that was the only thing he ever wrote in his life,” WM says later, “apart from many checks.”

However, the British authorities do not grant the two beginners a license. WM must continue enduring his office hours.

The situation changes on one of the first warm days of the year. WM has a get-together with Richard Gruner. Previously, his friend always came to visit by streetcar. Now, he parks a Borgward limousine in front of WM’s house around midday.

The reason: Richard’s father had picked up two British soldiers on the way back from his print plant in Itzehoe. The hitchhikers took off in the limousine during a pee break. The victim tried to stop a car himself to get a lift — and was run over. Richard inherited the printing company and the recovered limousine.

The Sun Beckons

The two friends enjoy the spring sunshine on the balcony. But the fun soon comes to an end because WM’s shift at the German News Service starts at three pm.

“I’ll drive you there, of course,” says Richard Gruner.

When they arrive at the Rothenbaum, WM asks, “And what are you doing now?”

“I’m going to relax in the sun in my garden.”

“Wait a minute.”

WM disappears into the front door of the German News Service. He returns a few minutes later, and the two of them drive off to Gruner’s garden in Lokstedt.

WM has given notice. He also wants to relax in the sun.