Hi Indy and crew,
Can you tell us about Die Deutsche Wochenschau, the Nazi newsreel shown in German cinemas? How did it come about? Who made it? And how did the public react? Was it popular, or ignored as more Nazi spin?
Roger in Texas, y’all
Hi Indy and crew,
Can you tell us about Die Deutsche Wochenschau, the Nazi newsreel shown in German cinemas? How did it come about? Who made it? And how did the public react? Was it popular, or ignored as more Nazi spin?
Roger in Texas, y’all
Great question:
It translates best as weekly news or literally week-look (the last week). The Nazi’s made pretty good propaganda of it by portraying going from one victory after victory after victory all the way from Stalingrad to Berlin, and also from North Africa to Sicily to the surrender from Italy and Normandy all the way victoriously to Germany proper. These were psychologically one reason why a lot of Germans kept blindly following their leader from victory to victory all the way into the ruins of Berlin with their leader bravely hiding in his bunker maniacally ordering non-existent units into counterattack.
The postwar ones are actually a lot better historically as these talk about mass unemployment and refugees to Germany from the East.
Die Wochenschau März 1950 | FLÜCHTLINGE in Deutschland | Real Stories Deutschland - YouTube
Die Wochenschau Juni 1950 | Flucht nach West-Berlin | Real Stories Deutschland - YouTube
The Wochenschau itself stayed as a name and a news source as it is just the weekly news which changed its name to Tagesschau on TV (Daily news!).
Any Germans here are obviously welcome to correct me if there are any mistakes. I am not German and not old enough to have seen the Wochenschau in foreign cinemas
It works best with a translator for the text if German is not your thing