Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
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.
Over 700 episodes were produced, and many of the historical WWII footage we nowadays have comes from the Wochenschau.
This is issue No. 680 from September 15th, 1943. It shows, to commemorate the death of King Boris III. of Bulgaria, footage from the last meeting of Hitler and Boris and footage from the funeral.
In addition, it shows Hitler Youth during pre-military training, the crew of a German auxiliary cruiser arriving in Japan, troop transports and fighting on the Eastern Front, as well as German positions in Italy and German units moving towards Italy over Austria.
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Subtitles made by me.
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.
Over 700 episodes were produced, and many of the historical WWII footage we nowadays have comes from the Wochenschau.
This is issue No. 680 from September 15th, 1943. It shows, to commemorate the death of King Boris III. of Bulgaria, footage from the last meeting of Hitler and Boris and footage from the funeral.
In addition, it shows Hitler Youth during pre-military training, the crew of a German auxiliary cruiser arriving in Japan, troop transports and fighting on the Eastern Front, as well as German positions in Italy and German units moving towards Italy over Austria.
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Subtitles made by me.
![“Real Men”- German Propaganda Short about Paratrooper Training and Combat- February 1942 [Full HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mHmbgGicnnM/mqdefault.jpg "“Real Men”- German Propaganda Short about Paratrooper Training and Combat- February 1942 [Full HD]
“Real Men” (Ganze Männer) is a short propaganda film about the training and combat mission of German paratroopers.
During WWII, Germany was the first country to use paratroopers on a larger scale; they were employed during the invasion of Denmark and the Low Countries in 1940.
But their most famous operation was the invasion of Crete, where over 14,000 German paratroopers landed on the island and managed to conquer it in May/ June 1941 but suffered heavy losses. Paratroopers after 1941 were used as regular ground troops, mostly on focal points on the front that were under high pressure.
Nevertheless, actual paradrop training was continued until early 1944. The following short shows scenes from Paratrooper training, exercise and combat footage from the landings on Crete. The title, Real Men refers to the fact that, according to this propaganda short, only real men can become paratroopers. This short was shown before propaganda newsreels and films in early 1942.
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Subtitles made by me.")
![Ufa Sound Week No. 478- 1 Nov. 1939 [Full HD] (Siegfried Line Activities, Seaboat Reconnaissance)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mm-UYznpjo8/mqdefault.jpg "Ufa Sound Week No. 478- 1 Nov. 1939 [Full HD] (Siegfried Line Activities, Seaboat Reconnaissance)
The Ufa (Universum Film AG) was a German movie and TV company, founded in December 1917. It was founded by several companies, with the German goverment secretly involved; and its initial goal was to produce pro-German propaganda movies that would be shown outside of Germany.
After the end of WWI, however, the focus shifted on producing movies for Germany for commercial profit.
In 1927, Ufa had financial difficulties and was facing bankruptcy, the company was bough by right-wing media mogul Alfred Hugenberg, who continued production as normal, but also Newsreels of the Ufa to advertise his own party and later the Nazi party.
After the Nazis rose to power, Ufa, like all other movie companies, came under strict goverment control, and in March 1937, Hugenberg had to sell the majority of his stakes in Ufa to a goverment-controlled company; the Ufa thus came under direct goverment control.
The Ufa Week was produced from September 1925 onwards, initially as silent newsreel, from September 1930 onwards with sound, hence the name was changed to Ufa Sound Week.
Like all newsreels in Nazi Germany, it was not a neutral news source, but rather full of Nazi propaganda. After the outbreak of WWII, the content that all newsreels produced was unified, and in mid-1940, all newsreels were unified to The German Newsweek.
This is Ufa Sound Week No. 478, released on the first of November 1939.
It starts of with footage from a Ballet School in Berlin, followed by a rather interesting scene of stags during rutting season, with some Nazi Social Darwinism Propaganda inserted.
Other scenes include the return of Slovakian troops from the Polish campaign, footage from German soldiers on the Western Front singing and sending propaganda leafleats to the French side, a German village re-taken and cleared of French mines, among other scenes.
The last segment shows a German Dornier Do-18 long-range reconnaissance seaboat conducting martitime patrol, and German Heinkel He-111 bombers taking off for a bombing raid on Scapa Flow.
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Subtitles made by me.")
![Footage from the Warsaw Ghetto- ca. 1942/43 [Full HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mrVfq0z-DQc/mqdefault.jpg "Footage from the Warsaw Ghetto- ca. 1942/43 [Full HD]
The Warsaw Ghetto, officially called “Jewish Residential District in Warsaw” was the largest Ghetto created by the Nazis in occupied Poland during WWII.
Established in November 1940, Jews from Warsaw, but also other Polish regions, occupied European countries and Germany were deported there, and from the Warsaw Ghetto, deported further to concentration camps.
The Warsaw Ghetto was located in the western district of Wola and had a size of 3,1 km². At its height, more than 460,000 Jews lived there, a massive overcrowding.
The Nazis intentionally didn’t provide enough food and medicine, leading to starvation and the outbreak of diseases, and people dying on the streets was a common sight.
The Nazis used these conditions for their own propaganda, by showing that the Jews were allegedly a filthy people that wouldn’t adhere to hygiene standards. Around 92,000 people died inside the Ghetto, and hundreds of thousands were deported to concentration camps, the majority to Treblinka (roughly 265,000).
The Ghetto was destroyed after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April/May 1943. The Warsaw Ghetto is one of the most infamous symbols of Nazi terror against Jews, and one of the most inhumane crimes of the Nazi regime, as the Nazis intentionally overcrowded the Ghetto to let thousands of people suffer and die from hunger, exhaustion and diseases.
The following is footage taken from inside the Ghetto, most likely taken in 1942/43, showing scenes of everyday life in the Ghetto, but also scenes of the terrible conditions in the Ghetto, like a dead man lying on the street. It also shows scenes of the Ghetto after its being destroyed in 1943.
Since it is silent footage, there are no subtitles and no sound.")
](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/nQ-KpoZNkIM/mqdefault.jpg "Ufa Sound Week No. 499- 28 March 1940 [Full HD](U-Boat Shipyard, Bf-109 Production, Scapa Flow Raid)
The Ufa (Universum Film AG) was a German movie and TV company, founded in December 1917. It was founded by several companies, with the German goverment secretly involved; and its initial goal was to produce pro-German propaganda movies that would be shown outside of Germany.
After the end of WWI, however, the focus shifted on producing movies for Germany for commercial profit.
In 1927, Ufa had financial difficulties and was facing bankruptcy, the company was bough by right-wing media mogul Alfred Hugenberg, who continued production as normal, but also Newsreels of the Ufa to advertise his own party and later the Nazi party.
After the Nazis rose to power, Ufa, like all other movie companies, came under strict goverment control, and in March 1937, Hugenberg had to sell the majority of his stakes in Ufa to a goverment-controlled company; the Ufa thus came under direct goverment control.
The Ufa Week was produced from September 1925 onwards, initially as silent newsreel, from September 1930 onwards with sound, hence the name was changed to Ufa Sound Week.
Like all newsreels in Nazi Germany, it was not a neutral news source, but rather full of Nazi propaganda. After the outbreak of WWII, the content that all newsreels produced was unified, and in mid-1940, all newsreels were unified to The German Newsweek.
This here is Ufa Sound Week No. 499 from late March 1940.
It shows footage from a meeting between Mussolini and Hitler, the construction of the new Nibelungen Bridge in Linz, and footage of building of new U-Boats and Bf-109 fighter planes.
The last section shows lenghty post-mission briefing from an attack of a German bomber squadron on British ships at Scapa Flow.
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Subtitles made by me.")
![German Newsweek No. 677- 25 August 1943 [Full HD] (SA Sport Festival, Eastern Front Combat Footage)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/naBddSFWGm8/mqdefault.jpg "German Newsweek No. 677- 25 August 1943 [Full HD] (SA Sport Festival, Eastern Front Combat Footage)
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 onwards shown under the title of The German Newsweek.
It was one of the most important aspects of German wartime propaganda. These Newsreels were made to show the war in a favorable way for the Germans, even when the tide of the was clearly turned against German after 1943. Even in 1945, they still tried to generate a feeling of resistance and told the people that Germany is able to continue its defense.
They also often contain other elements of Nazi propaganda, such a antisemitic footage, or footage describing the alleged misery or bad conditions among the Allied nations or the Soviet Union, and the superiority of Germany in fields of arts, social programs and living conditions.
Each week, over 2000 copies were sent to theaters and movie houses throughout Germany and shown to the general public, as well as frontline soldiers, RAD-workers etc.
The showing was mandatory before films, and later, a regulation was added that people were not allowed to enter the cinema after the Wochenschau started, forcing people to sit through it if they wanted to watch a film.
285 wartime issues were produced, from September 1939 (No. 470) to March 1945 (No. 755).
This is issue No. 677, released in mid-August 1943.
It shows footage from an SA sport festival in Prague, and a gliding competition of the Hitler Youth. The next scene showcases how packages are prepared for German POWs in enemy countries, followed by a section about the fight against Malaria, among other scenes.
Then, combat footage from the Eastern Front is shown, first from the area around Lake Ladoga, and then from the Battle of Kursk, including bombers attacking enemy positions at Belgorod and tanks and infantry attacking in the area at Orel.
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Subtitles made by me.")
![German Instruction Video about V1 Missile Launch- ca. 1943 [Full HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oFuzCN4XqzU/mqdefault.jpg "German Instruction Video about V1 Missile Launch- ca. 1943 [Full HD]
The Fiesler Fi 103, officially called V1 (Vergeltungswaffe- “Vengeance Weapon”) was the world’s first operational cruise missile.
Development started already in the late 1930s, by engineer Fritz Gosslau from the Argus Engine Company in Berlin. In early 1942, the Fiesler company joined the project and built the actual missile, which was first tested in December 1942. In May 1943, a comparison between the V1 and V2 was conducted, and it was decided to continue development of both weapons.
The first use of the weapon was on June 13th, 1944, against London, and until March 1945, around 12,000 of these rockets were launched, mainly against London and the port of Antwerp, to disrupt Allied supply.
However, the V1 failed to achieve a major effect, and while it caused some panic among British civilians, it did not disrupt British war production. It was also a pretty inaccurate weapon. For example, during an attack on Manchester on December 24th, 1944, 50 rockets were launched, but only 30 reach Britain, and only a single one hit the city area of Manchester. Many rockets missed their targets, hitting fields or small villages in the countryside, causing almost no damage.
The following is a German instruction video about the launch of the V1, explaining the mechanism behind the launch, and showing a test launch of a V1, including a slow-motion scene, footage of the V-1 during flight and it hitting the ground. It also explains technical details about how the missile is launched and the effect it has on a target.
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Subtitles made by me.")
