Television Under the Swastika (1/4)

Television Under the Swastika
Michael Kloft's documentary on the history of Nazi television. Legend has it that the triumphal march of television began in the United States in the 'fifties. But in reality its origins hark back much further. As early as the 'thirties, a bitter rivalry raged for the world's first television broadcast. Nazi Germany wanted to beat the competition from Great Britain and the U.S. - at all costs. Reich Broadcast Director Hadamovsky christened the new-born "Greater German Television" in March 1935. And it was only in September 1944 that the last program flickered across the TV screens.

For a long time the belief persisted that only very few Nazi programs had survived, but SPIEGEL TV has now succeeded in tracking down a stock of television films and reports which have remained intact since the end of the Third Reich. These include extensive coverage of the 1936 National Socialist Party Convention in Nuremberg which recalls today's live broadcasts, and of a 1937 visit Benito Mussolini paid to Berlin. Interviews with high-ranking Nazis such as Albert Speer, Robert Ley and the actor Heinrich George are among the finds, along with numerous special reports (i.e. on the Reich Labor Service), a cooking show and the lottery drawing. Television anchorwomen greet their tiny audiences in specially installed television parlors in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg with "Heil Hitler."

The entertainment programs are particularly curious. Cabaret artists are featured - alongside singers extolling the virtues of the "brown columns of the SA and SS." This documentary by Michael Kloft will reveal a rare and intriguing view of the Third Reich, one far removed from the propagandistic presentations of Leni Riefenstahl & Co. and the weekly cinema newsreel, yet no less ideologically slanted. This is Nazi Germany expressed in an aesthetic medium that we ourselves have only really known since the 'fifties.

Playlist for whole episode: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC92D1EE7E8B10419
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3VnBt7bo1A
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LymLm6NllI4
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilRzFJyWyCA
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=839oGoOPJnE

Visit my YouTube-channel for more documentaries about the Second World War, First World War and more or visit my website at http://sites.google.com/site/thegermanwarfiles/ for a better organized and easier access to all my YouTube documentaries and their descriptions.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Second
• World
• War
• Documentary
• Television
• Under
• the
• Swastika
• Michael
• Kloft
• Nazi
• Hitler
• Propaganda
• Nuremberg
• SPIEGEL
• TV
• Reich
• Labor
• Service
• Third
• Germany

[merasanam]

Nazi television seems much better than today's "democrat" television.

[neogeo53]

can anyone tell what is the classical music they play for the background music thanks

[AwakenedSword]

“Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.” ― Bill Hicks 

[rocksonice3333]

every head of state is protected in similar manner. the fuhrer was far more important that other leaders at that time. btw one indian head of state was assassinated by LTTE using a garland. dont talk without knowing, if i was behind the fuhrer i would react in a similar manner

[mrceebees14]

Wow, did you see how FAST they RAN towards that mother and child when Hitler got within touching distance of them? They literally pulled him away from them and pushed the women and child away. Did they think the flowers had a bomb in there or something? ha.

Talk about protecting, whew....

[mrceebees14]

@frethis555 If they didn't have those ads, you would have to pay to watch youtube.

[mrceebees14]

I swear, EVERYTHING is on youtube.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a video of me taking a dump found its way here.

[frethis555]

youtube is going crazy with the ads

[alanheath3]

Whatever else one can say about Goebbels, he did appreciate that the average person in the street was not interested in raw propaganda but instead dressed it up in clever propaganda in variety shows, adventure films and other forms of escapism.

[ilovealexjones1]

excellent documentary ive never heard of it and its probably better than most.