German Newsweek No. 698- 20 January 1944

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. 698 from January 20th, 1944. It shows a lot of non-combat footage, such as an opera from Emil von Reznicek, an ice hockey game, a circus performance by Sarrasani, soldiers painting, Brigadier General Adelbert Schulz, the 9th Knights Cross with Diamond holder of the Wehrmacht visiting his hometown of Nuremberg, and German garrison troops in Greece, on Samoa and visiting a monastery on the Chalcidice peninsula. It also shows combat footage from the Eastern Front, the bridgehead at Nikopol, and a lot of footage from German planes engaging American bombers, including footage of wrecks, captured American crews and an interview with two German pilots. - Subtitles made by me.