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. 720 from June 21st, 1944.
It shows footage from the final of the 1944 German Football Championship between Dresden and Hamburg, a speech by (Vichy) French minister Henriot, a lengthy section recounting how Sergeant Apitz got his Knights Cross, footage from soldiers relaxing behind the frontlines in the east, and combat footage from Italy and the Normandy invasion front, including the awarding of the Knights Cross to two Navy officers for their combat in Normandy, and footage of how allegedly American planes deliberately bomb French cities, among other scenes.
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Subtitles made by me.
