Dr. Kai Knörr

100 years ago, radio was established in the German-speaking world as “Rundfunk”. Closely connected with the term “Rundfunk” is the electric spark (“Funke”) or sparking (“funken”) as a contemporary term for the generation of oscillations and transmission of signals by means of electromagnetic waves. In five case histories, Kai Knörr tells a media history of the spark from the elaboration of the term and usage in the 17th/18th century, the temporary ‘disappearance’ of sparking from the discourse of electricity in the 19th century, to its identification as an electric wave. As a cause and effect of media use, sparks have regularly ‘overwhelmed’ society. An early era of electrical media is portrayed, in which scientists and dilettantes, hobbyists and publicists alike were involved in the advancement of technical, theoretical and craft knowledge.

The book Funken. Eine Medienkulturgeschichte is published by Kadmos-Verlag as ZeM-Monograph 03.

Research focus

media theory, private and public media, radio

Kai Knörr, born in 1978, studied history, politics and media science at the University of Potsdam and FU Berlin. Master’s thesis on the feature films of the writer Wolf Schmidt (1913-1977), who as an auteur filmmaker in the mid-1950s provided an early example of cross-media production in the transition from radio, film and television. 2010-2014 research on the history of serial entertainment on ARD, since winter semester 2009/10 lectures in the course European Media Studies with a focus on broadcasting history, sound and new German film. Since 2014 research on the dissertation project in the department of media culture history at the University of Potsdam.

Publications

“Über-Reden. Reflexionen über Horst Krüger als Autorenstimme im Rundfunk”. In: Rundfunk und Geschichte, Jg. 43, Nr. 1-2/2017, S. 32-40.

Lectures

“Funk-Haus-Heimat. Vor- und Nachgeschichten zum Radio in Deutschland”. Vortrag beim Potsdamer Tag der Wissenschaften, Potsdam, 13. Mai 2017.

“Featureforschung: Rechtliche und technische Hürden heute”. Vortrag in der Fachgruppe Radiofeature; Jahrestagung des Studienkreises Rundfunk und Geschichte e.V., Deutsche Welle, Bonn, 9. Juni 2017.

You can visit personal page of Dr. Kai Knörr on the website of University Potsdam here (in German).