Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Harry Giese (1903-1991) is perhaps best known for being the narrator of the German Newsweek, the WWII propaganda newsreels of the Nazis.
A theater actor by trade, he was hand-picked by Hitler to voice not only the Wochenschau, but also a lot of other propaganda films, Wehrmacht training films, including the infamous anti-Semitic "Jud Süß".
After the war, Gieses voice remained too close connected to Nazi propaganda, and he struggled to find work. He was now too old for his main theater role as bachelor lover, and his attempts at becoming the new voice for the post-war German Newsweek in 1950 failed.
Nevertheless, he did manage to find some jobs, including in the American musical film "Top Hat" from 1935, which was dubbed into German in 1950, and in which Giese voiced the famous Fred Astaire.
He also managed to secure some jobs in documentaries and advertisements; these became rarer by 1960, and his wife, who worked as a teacher, became the main breadwinner fro the family.
The following is a car advert from Opel for its new luxury sedan Kapitän, released in 1958, which was voiced by Giese. While it has nothing to do with WWII directly, I always found it somewhat amusing to hear the same voice that a decade back talked about annihilating Bolsheviks now praising the comfort and reliability of a luxury sedan.
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Subtitles made by me.
Harry Giese (1903-1991) is perhaps best known for being the narrator of the German Newsweek, the WWII propaganda newsreels of the Nazis.
A theater actor by trade, he was hand-picked by Hitler to voice not only the Wochenschau, but also a lot of other propaganda films, Wehrmacht training films, including the infamous anti-Semitic "Jud Süß".
After the war, Gieses voice remained too close connected to Nazi propaganda, and he struggled to find work. He was now too old for his main theater role as bachelor lover, and his attempts at becoming the new voice for the post-war German Newsweek in 1950 failed.
Nevertheless, he did manage to find some jobs, including in the American musical film "Top Hat" from 1935, which was dubbed into German in 1950, and in which Giese voiced the famous Fred Astaire.
He also managed to secure some jobs in documentaries and advertisements; these became rarer by 1960, and his wife, who worked as a teacher, became the main breadwinner fro the family.
The following is a car advert from Opel for its new luxury sedan Kapitän, released in 1958, which was voiced by Giese. While it has nothing to do with WWII directly, I always found it somewhat amusing to hear the same voice that a decade back talked about annihilating Bolsheviks now praising the comfort and reliability of a luxury sedan.
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Subtitles made by me.
![German Newsweek No. 549- 12 March 1941 [Full HD] (Fw 200 Maritime Bombers, Afrikakorps)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ySsCjg0qc2A/mqdefault.jpg "German Newsweek No. 549- 12 March 1941 [Full HD] (Fw 200 Maritime Bombers, Afrikakorps)
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. 549, released on March 12th, 1941.
It starts with a short segment about Japanese troops in China, followed by footage from a large fire in Santandar, Spain. The next segment is about ice blasting on the Vistula and Danube rivers, and some footage of flooding on the Danube. This is followed by various other civilian news, including footage from the naturalization of ethnic Germans from Romania, the opening of a trade fair in Leipzig and Winter Games of the Hitler Youth in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The issue also shows footage of German army and air force units moving into Bulgaria, German troops of the Afrikakorps being transported across the Mediterranean into Africa, and footage of a German long-range Fw-200 bomber attacking British convoys off the coast of Scotland.
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Subtitles made by me.")
![Battle of Kursk- German Propaganda Footage- 21 July 1943 [Full HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zDOVmWjtMz0/mqdefault.jpg "Battle of Kursk- German Propaganda Footage- 21 July 1943 [Full HD]
The Battle of Kursk, officially called Operation Citadel, was a German offensive against the Kursk salient from early to mid-July 1943.
The Germans planned to attack the Kursk salient simultaneously from the north, near Orel, and from the south, near Belograd, to cut off and destroy the Soviet forces inside the salient. The Germans planned to do so with strong tank forces, committing around 3,000 tanks and assault guns to the attack, including many Panther and Tiger tanks.
Thanks to Allied intelligence, the Soviets were warned long before the attack and used that to prepare by setting up extensive defense positions, including minefields, AT-gun emplacements and other defensive structures.
Because of the extensive Soviet preparations, the German attack, which started on July 4th, only progressed slowly, before coming to a complete stop around mid-July, as the Germans greatly underestimated the strength of the Soviet reserves.
Although Soviet losses were far higher than the Germans (the Soviets lost around 1,500 to 2,000 tanks and assault guns during Operation Citadel, the Germans around 323) the Soviets were able to replace their losses quickly, while the Germans were not. Additionally, while the Germans only lost around 330 tanks, the number of damaged tanks was around 1,600, and repairing these tanks timely was difficult for the Germans.
The Allied invasion of Sicily from July 9th forced the Germans to stop the attack to pull forces away from the Eastern Front.
This was the last time the Germans had the strategic initiative on the Eastern Front, after Operation Citadel, this initiative went to the Soviets until the end of the war.
The following video shows scenes from the batlte, shown in German propaganda newsreels.
It shows footage of German tank and infantry units advancing, German bombers and artillery attacking Soviet positions, destroyed Soviet tanks and other material, footage of German generals Model and von Kluge, among other scenes.
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Subtitles made by me.")
