German Newsweek No. 754- 16 March 1945

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. 754, the second to last Wochenschau issue, from March 16th, 1945. By that time, the Western Allies were just about to breakthrough German Lines on the Rhine in the West, and the Soviets were conducting offensives to capture German territories in the East, namely Lower Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia, before starting their final offensive towards Berlin one month later (On April 15th). Nevertheless, this Wochenschau tries to portray the war in a favorable way for Germany. It shows footage from strikes and civil unrest in the US (although this is old archive material, see pinned comment for explanation), German combat footage from the Western and Eastern Front, from Courland and from the Oder River, and succesfull German counteroffensives. It also shows rather graphical footage of German civilian casulties, allegedly killed by the Red Army, and a visit of Propaganda Minister Goebbels to Lauban, and a speech, his last public speech ever held, in Görlitz. In addition, it shows a frontline visit of Hitler. - Subtitles made by me.