27/10/2026
The German Newsweek (Die Deutsche Wochenschau) was the unified newsreel of Germany from 1940-1945. The concept of a weekly newsreel was much older, dating back to WWI, and in the 1930s, there were several different weekly newsreels in Germany.
With the outbreak of WWII, these were unified and from June 1940 shown under the title of "The German Newsweek".
It was one of the most important aspects of German propaganda. Each week, over 2000 copies were sent to theaters and movie houses throughout Germany and shown to the general public, as private TV ownership was extremly rare during WWII.
These newsreels were, of course, not a neutral news source, but would rather spread N**i propaganda, trying to create the impression that Germany was winning the war and that Germany was fighting a just war, without mentioning the countless war crimes and crimes against humanity commited by German forces.
285 wartime issues were produced, from September 1939 (No. 470) to March 1945 (No. 755).
This is issue No. 634 from late October 1942.
It starts with a lengthy propaganda section about the 20th anniversary of Mussolini’s March on Rome, the Fascist Coup in Italy in 1922, and features scenes of the alleged successes of the Fascist rebuilding of Italy.
Other scenes in this issue include footage from the Eastern Front, including combat footage from the area around Lake Illmen, Stalingrad and the
Caucasus.
