When Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party (NSP) came to power in Germany in 1933, things quickly changed – much of it for the worse – in the depression-gripped country.

Radio receivers were a luxury item in Germany at that stage, as the manufacturers ran a price-fixing cartel. However, the NSP soon realised that radio could be a powerful propaganda tool and so a cheap radio that the average household could afford was needed.

However, they could also see that the average domestic radio of the day could pick up good-quality signals from adjoining countries. As a result, counter propaganda from these adjacent countries could cause German listeners to question what they were being told by the Nazis.

The tuning dial in the DKE38 carries numbers rather than station markings. Note the Nazi emblem with the swastika and eagle immediately above the dial.

So the Nazis they faced a dilemma. How could they encourage people to buy sets and listen to German radio broadcasts but not to broadcasts from neighbouring countries?

The solution was simple – keeping the price down so that the general population could afford the sets inevitably meant that they would be simple low-performance receivers. Their performance would be inferior to the more expensive sets, so the chances of them picking up good-quality broadcasts from other countries would be minimised.

To make absolutely sure that people only listened to German broadcasts, a label would be placed on the sets stating the following: "Be aware – listening to transmissions from across the border is a breach against the national security of our people. By declaration of the Fuhrer, it will be punished with severe jail sentences." Later in the war, the penalty for listening to "unapproved" radio stations was increased to death in some instances!