Uploaded July 2025 | 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 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. 721, released in late June 1944, after the Allied landings in Normandy and the Soviet summer offensive in Belarus, both disastrous for the Germans.
The first scene shows the famous German actor Werner Kraus, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, followed by scenes showing widows of soldiers who became students, and female AA-auxiliaries being trained.
Two large sections of combat footage are also included in this episode, the first one is from the Eastern Front, showing mainly Ju-87 planes attacking enemy positions and advancing German infantry and tanks; the second shows footage from Normandy, including destroyed and captured Sherman tanks and other Allied material, such as trucks, and combat footage including German paratroopers and Waffen-SS soldiers from the 17th Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier Division.
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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 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. 721, released in late June 1944, after the Allied landings in Normandy and the Soviet summer offensive in Belarus, both disastrous for the Germans.
The first scene shows the famous German actor Werner Kraus, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, followed by scenes showing widows of soldiers who became students, and female AA-auxiliaries being trained.
Two large sections of combat footage are also included in this episode, the first one is from the Eastern Front, showing mainly Ju-87 planes attacking enemy positions and advancing German infantry and tanks; the second shows footage from Normandy, including destroyed and captured Sherman tanks and other Allied material, such as trucks, and combat footage including German paratroopers and Waffen-SS soldiers from the 17th Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier Division.
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Subtitles made by me.
![German Newsweek No. 515- 18 July 1940 [Full HD] (Return of Soldiers from France/Narvik, U-Boats)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/f2FmLeaEd-c/mqdefault.jpg "German Newsweek No. 515- 18 July 1940 [Full HD] (Return of Soldiers from France/Narvik, U-Boats)
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.
This is issue No. 515, from mid-July 1940.
Being produced shortly after the victory over France, this is one of the main topics of this episode. Footage of captured French war material and raw resources, footage from German soldiers returning home and holding parades, and footage from German tank crews being awarded the Iron Cross are the main point of this episode.
The second part features a lenghty section of a German U-Boat from the famous captain Günther Prien returning to its harbor, and footage from other U-Boats attacking British ships.
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Subtitles made by me.")
![Propaganda Footage from German Paratrooper Exercise- 16 June 1943 [Full HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gN8y9QEUbPY/mqdefault.jpg "Propaganda Footage from German Paratrooper Exercise- 16 June 1943 [Full HD]
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, for example during the famous assault on Fort Ében-Émael in Belgium on May 10th, where around 500 German paratroopers used gliders to land inside the fortress and capture it.
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.
However, the Germans suffered heavy losses during these landings, both in men and planes, which prompted Hitler to believe the age of large-scale paratrooper landings is over, and no further use of airborne landings was planned.
Unlike the Germans, the Allies were impressed with the German landings on Crete, and began to form their own tactics for large-scale airborne operations, which were successfully employed on Sicily, in Normandy and during the famous Operation Market Garden.
Germany, on the other hand, only used paratroopers after 1941 as regular ground troops, mostly on focal points on the front that were under high pressure. The German paratroopers, still considered elite formations, were famous even amongst the Allies, and paratroopers often offered heavy resistance, both in Italy and on the Western Front in 1944/45.
Actual paradrop training was continued until early 1944. This video is a short clip from German paratroopers conducting training in June 1943, shown in propaganda newsreels. It shows them boarding planes, dropping and advancing on their mock target.
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Subtitles made by me.")
](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gsmozf3JQOI/mqdefault.jpg "German Newsweek No. 563- 18 June 1941 [Full HD](Combat Footage Crete/Africa, German Merchant Raider)
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.563, released on June 18th, 1941, only four days before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, which was of course still being kept a secret and thus not mentioned here.
The episode starts with footage from East Asia, showing a Japanese Army parade and combat footage from China.
The issue also contains footage from evacuated children from Hamburg in Vienna and re-building of a bridge in occupied Yugoslavia.
Combat footage from Crete, including the landing of Italian troops and mountain troops is shown, as well as combat footage from North Africa.
The last scene shows German Navy units operating off the coast of Africa and India, sinking British merchant ships.
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Subtitles made by me.")
](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gu7X0ERRuJE/mqdefault.jpg "German Newsweek No. 628- 16 Sep. 1942 [Full HD ](U-Boats St. Lawrence river, Caucasus/Stalingrad)
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. 628 from September 16th, 1942.
It shows footage of a German U-Boat operating in the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence in Canada,German units fighting on the Volkhov front, including footage of the making of Volkhov staffs, German and Romanian units crossing the Strait of Kerch and advancing towards Novorossiysk, and lenghty scenes of German planes attacking Soviet positions and planes.
Finally, the Newsweek shows German units advancing towards and shelling Soviet positions around Stalingrad, and again German planes attacking Soviet positions around and in Stalingrad.
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Subtitles made by me.")
![Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Helicopter Testing Footage [Full HD]- ca. August 1943](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hLBOolI6O3k/mqdefault.jpg "Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Helicopter Testing Footage [Full HD]- ca. August 1943
The Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 Drache (Dragon) was the first serial produced helicopter in the world, and the first to be used in a rescue mission.
Development began in 1937, with the first prototype ready in 1940. However, development and production were seriously hampered by Allied air raids, which resulted in the destruction of several prototypes and pre-series helicopters.
In the end, only around 20 were built until the end of the war, with most of them destroyed while still on the factory floors.
Only a few were assigned to Transport Squadron 40, a dedicated helicopter transport unit, and some prototypes were used for rescue missions of crashed planes, although many of these prototypes crashed themselves.
The following is footage showcasing the flight of a later prototype of the Fa 223.
It is raw footage without sound, so there are no subtitles.")
![German Propaganda Footage from a U-Boat under Attack in the Arctic Ocean- 10 August 1944 [Full HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/h_TY32qqLTA/mqdefault.jpg "German Propaganda Footage from a U-Boat under Attack in the Arctic Ocean- 10 August 1944 [Full HD]
During WWII, many German U-Boats operated in the Arctic Sea to attack Allied convoys, as many of them passed through that area, both to reach the Soviet port of Murmansk, but also convoys on their way to Great Britain.
U-Boat warfare in the Arctic Ocean lasted until 29th April 1945, when the last convoy attack of the entire war took place, with U-286 sinking the freighter HMS Goodall.
The following is footage from a German submarine operating in the area, coming under attack from enemy planes and diving. It was taken inside the submarine and shows the crew trying to evade the bombs, including footage from the crew repairing a water leak.
It is unknown when exactly the footage was taken, or how much of it is actually real or staged, but it was shown in German propaganda newsreels released on August 10th, 1944.
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Subtitles made by me.")
