Propagandakompanie – Wikipedia

The Propagandakompanie ( PK ) or Propaganda troupe At the time of National Socialism, the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, the department, later a troop genre of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen WehrmachtPropaganda (WPR) was subordinate to the Wehrmacht’s chief command. Her mission consisted of the propaganda influence of the German population and the soldiers as well as the opponent of National Socialism.

In the winter of 1938/39, the head of the Wehrmacht Higher Command (OKW) Wilhelm Keitel and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels signed an “Agreement on the Performance of Propaganda in War”, which said that the Ministry of Propaganda (RMVP) only must take care of suitable material and the war propaganda to influence the enemy army can only be carried out by the OKW and their propaganda units. At the same time, however, the leading role of the RMVP was also emphasized in war periods in accordance with the instructions of the “leader” and its responsibility for the production of the propaganda material. ^[first] Five propaganda companies were formed. The propaganda troops were initially subordinate to the news troops, but on October 14, 1942, a separate group of troops with the arms color of the light gray. They were subordinate to the official group for Wehrmacht Propaganda (WPR) in the High Command of the Wehrmacht under Hasso von Wedel.

Department or official group for Wehrmacht Propaganda [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Soldier of the propaganda company (sleeve strap), France, June 1940.

The formal Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and his official group foreign defense and news of the OKW in April 1939 received their instructions from summer 1939 directly from the Colonel of General Alfred Jodl, the head of the Wehrmacht leadership office. Under her boss Hasso von Wedel, she gained an increasing independence and was upgraded to the “Office for Wehrmacht Propaganda” at the end of 1942. ^[2] This was initially divided into four groups (WPR I-IV). The task of group WPR I has questions from the propaganda work and organization, WPR II was responsible for domestic propaganda, the WPR III initially represented the propagandable long of the Navy, but was responsible for military censorship after the start of the war. The increasingly expanding WPR IV was the switch for the Wehrmacht abroad. This group IV, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Albrecht Blau, also processed foreign language magazines from the beginning of 1940, put propaganda material in the broadcasting operating for abroad and had “reports and dementia for the abroad”. ^[3] In January 1940, the groups WPR V for Army Propaganda and WPR VI for the Air Force Propaganda were added. In particular, WPR V under the lieutenant colonel and experts in military psychology and psychological warfare, Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Hesse, tried to operate an independent propaganda at the instigation of the commander -in -chief of the Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch, which she increasingly brought in contrast to Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbel. ^[4]

Expansion of the propaganda troops [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

At the end of 1942, propaganda troops had grown to 15,000 people, such as division strength. The WPR now comprises 21 army PK, eight air force PK, three marine propaganda departments, an independent marine PK, eight propaganda departments in the occupied areas, an SS propaganda battalion and the propaganda use department-a special unit for the Psychological warfare. ^[5] In total, the war reports produced around 80,000 contributions and over 2 million individual photos. The material of the propaganda troops was used in particular for the creation of the same German weekly show. The Propaganda Compania also participated in the design and implementation of the four Christmas ring endings of the Großeutscher Rundfunk. ^[6]

Loudspeaker car with soldiers of a PK on the front of the Oberrhein, 1939

PK soldiers in France when sticking posters (May 1940)

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Anti-English posters of the PK in occupied France that accused England of the war debt (June 1940)

Reports the PK Mit Mikrophone (December 1940)

PK film reporters are preparing to film a raid of the regulatory police and Polish police officers in German in German (January 1941).

A child lies on a sidewalk in the Ghetto Warsaw (recording by the relatives of the propaganda company 689 Zermin, May 1941).

Organization, tasks and procedures of the propaganda companies are described in the implementation regulations that the historian Daniel Uziel, which are valid as until 1943, are described as follows in the implementation regulations agreed by the State Defense of the OKW and the Reich Defense Department of the RMVP:

• The PK is subordinate to the Army Oberkommando (AOK).
• It is the main task of the PK to ensure the interaction between propaganda and weapons war in the operating areas. She collects war reports for the RMVP and leads a propaganda train against the enemy.
• The company manager is subject to the AOK deputy and works closely with the military defense
• The PK fulfills its tasks in accordance with the instructions of the RMVP and within the framework of the possibilities of the AOK
• The battle and catering road transmits the propaganda material to the re-hat. The censor representative checks the material from the military point of view. ^[7]

In military practice, the activities of the propaganda companies shifted away from war reporting towards the so-called active or combat propaganda in the winter of 1941/1942, which aimed to demoralize and weaken the enemy soldiers in the winter of 1941/1942. ^[8] But the so -called “war reporting” also had the task of presenting an contrast between “racially superior” Germans and their enemies in 1940. For example, at the beginning of 1940 PK reporters received the order to present prisoners of war from France’s colonies in such a way that the degeneration of the French army should catch the eye. In July 1941, PK film reporters were supposed to represent Soviet prisoners of war as clichéd grimaces: “They were presented as an vertical criminals who wanted to take hold of a storm of extermination in Europe.” ^[9]

The focus of the PK reports was also justifying representations of Jewishhettos. Numerous reports on the Warsaw Ghetto tried to convince the audience “that the Jews only suffered a fair fate”. ^[ten] A “picture report” by PK photographer Artur Grimm from the occupied Warsaw 1939, which was printed in the Berlin Illustrirten Zeitung on December 5, 1939, is typical of the PK reporting. With scenes set, it shows how Jews arrested in a raid, who, as the inhabitants of the ghetto in graves of Polish soldiers, have “buried weapons in a body -like manner”. ^[11] The Office for the OKW Wehrmacht Propaganda recommended that the propaganda company working in Tunisia in 1942 to have anti -Jewish pogroms and business looting to be opened, which then no longer occurred. ^[twelfth]

The standard works on war photography in National Socialism include Eric Borchert’s Reich with color photographs equipped with color photographs “crucial hours. With the camera on the enemy ”from 1941. Borchert (approx. 1900–1942) had previously been a star photographer of the Berlin illustrated newspaper and married to the employee in the UFA press department and later dpa photographer USA Borchert. He fell as a soldier of the propaganda company in the spring of 1942 in Tobruk in North Africa. ^[13] The theme of the then rare color photography gave the final chapter the title: “With the color camera on the enemy”. Borchert noted back at the end of the western campaign in April 1940:

For Borchert, not only was the camera led by the “Fiihrer”, where the photographer in the background resigned as a pure tool, the photographer roamed the job as a journalist in Hitler’s warfare and became part of the troops, he fought ideologically with:

Borchert found the outcome of the First World War as a disgrace – like Hitler, who

Among the relatives of the propaganda troops (mostly war reporters) there are also some well -known media figures post -war Germany:

• Albert Ammer, cameraman and photographer, later a film report of the popular uprising in the GDR of June 17, 1953 in Halle/S.
• Kurt Blauhorn, later editor of the mirror
• Jochen Brennecke
• Georg Brütting
• Lothar-Günther Buchheim (The boat)
• Made buchheit
• Harald Busch
• C. W. Ceram alias Kurt W. Marek (journalist, editor and author)
• Max Ehlert (1904–1979), later photographer at the mirror
• Hans Ellenbeck (1892–1959), head of the unit “Defense of enemy propaganda in the Department of WehrmachtSpropaganda” since 1940, publisher several publications
• Paul Coelestin Estighoffer (1896–1975), aka Frank Löhr von Wachendorf, German writer
• Joachim Fernau, writer
• Artur Grimm, Fotograf
• Horst Grund, cameraman and photographer
• Johannes Hähle, photographer
• Rudolf hailstan, writer
• Jürgen Hahn-Buzry
• Karl Holzamer, later director of the ZDF
• Gerhard Heller, book censor in Paris, later publisher of Stahlberg Verlag
• Walter Henkels, Journalist
• Günther Heysing, in the post -war period, publisher of the organ of the former members of the Propaganda Compania (PK), The wild duck . This appeared irregularly about twice a year between 1948 and 1970. ^[15]
• Hanns Hubmann (alias: Heinrich Benedikt), photographer for The Stars and Stripes, at Quick (co -founder)
• Hans-Otto Holzner (1906-1986), German publisher
• Hugo Jaeger, formerly assistant to Heinrich Hoffmann
• Martin Jente, journalist, actor and television producer, known as a television butler ‘Mr. Martin’ on the show One will win
• Fritz Kempe, photographer
• Ernst von Khuon, journalist and author
• Walther Kiaulehn, Journalist
• Lambert Lensing
• Hans Liska, draftsman
• Heinz Maegerlein
• Johannes Matthiesen, later editor and boss from the service at Spiegel
• Erich Murawski, 1939 to 1944 Head of Unit in the Office for Wehrmacht Propaganda and from 1955 Head of the Federal Archive Military Archives
• Henri nannen, later editor of the star
• Hilmar Pabel, journalist and photographer, including a. For quick and star
• Clemens Graf Podewils
• Rudolf Poertner
• Herbert Reinecker, writer, screenwriter
• Jürgen Roland, director (Steel network)
• Ernst Rowohlt, publisher (Rowohlt Verlag)
• Horst Scharfenberg, journalist and television chef
• Gustav Schenk, author
• Manfred Schmidt, Comichers (Nick knatterton)
• Georg Schödl, photographer
• Percy Ernst Schramm, historian, member of the Wehrmacht Propaganda district group
• Wilhelm Ritter von Schramm
• Hans Schürer (1911–1996) photographer and front observer
• Joachim Schwatlo Gesterding, later commander of the command territorial defense
• Paul Sethe, Journalist
• Karl-Georg von Stackelberg, founder of Emnid
• Walter Steigner
• Werner Stephan
• Wilhelm Traeger
• Alfred Tritschler, Photographer, Photo Agency Wolff & Tritschler
• Thaddäus Troll (alias by Hans Wilhelm Bayer), writer and Swabian dialect poet
• Rudolf Vogel, later CDU member of the Bundestag and diplomat
• Irnfried von Wechmar, head of the army propaganda department
• Hans Weidemann
• Erich Welter
• Hugo Wellems
• Benno Wundshammer, reporter at Quick, editor -in -chief Revue
• Peter von Zahn, media journalist
• Kurt Zentner, publisher of impaired illustrated books, e.g. B. Illustrated history of the Second World War With material of the PK
• Erich Zühlsdorf, image reporter at the Ullstein-Verlag and ADN central picture

• Ortwin Buchbender: The sounding ore. German propaganda against the Red Army in World War II. Seewald, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-512-00473-3 (Military-Political Series, 13; At the same time: Dissertation, Hamburg 1978).
• Mriam uk.. “And criticism sparked in the photos”. The “Wehrmacht exhibition”, its critics and the new concept. A contribution from a photo-historical-source-critical point of view. In: Photo history. Contributions to the history and aesthetics of photography. Heft 85/86, 2002, S. 96–124 ( Online, image examples ).
• Bend boll: The Propaganda Compania of the Wehrmacht from 1938 to 1945. In: Christian Stadelmann, Regina Wonisch: Brutal curiosity: Walter Henisch. War photographer and image reporter. Christian Brandstätter, Vienna 2003, ISBN 978-3-85498-294-4.
• Rainer Rutz: “Signal”. A German illustrated German abroad as a propaganda instrument in World War II. Plain text, Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89861-720-8.
• Daniel Uziel: The Propaganda Warriors. The Wehrmacht and the Consolidation of the German Home Front. Peter Lang, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-3-03911-532-7 (Review of Erica A. Johnson in the history magazine Central European History edition June 2012 published in Cleveland/Ohio here ).
• Rainer Rother, Judith Prokasky (ed.): The camera as a weapon. Propaganda image of the Second World War. Edition Text + Critics, Munich 2010, ISBN 3-86916-067-5, including:
  • Daniel Uziel: Propaganda, war reporting and the Wehrmacht. The importance and function of the propaganda troops in the Nazi state. S. 13–36; online in contemporary historical research.
  • Ralf Forster: From the front to the cinemas. The path of the PK reports to the German Wochenschau. S. 49–64.
  • Klaus Hesse: PK photographs in the Nazi extermination war. A picture report Artur Grimms from the occupied Warsaw 1939. S. 137–149.
  • Mriam uk.. How enemy pictures were made. On the visual construction of ‘enemies’ using the photographs of the propaganda company from Bromberg 1939 and Warsaw 1941. S. 150–166.
  • Alexander Zöller: Soldiers or journalists? The image of the propaganda company between claim and reality. S. 167–179.
  • Ulrich Döge: The self -expression of propaganda companies in the film specialist press. S. 180–192.
• Moritz Rauchhaus, Tobias Roth (ed.): Enemy flight leaves of the Second World War. Afterword by Christiane Caemmerer. Verlag the Cultural Memory, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-946990-41-3 (the examples are 85 American, British, French, Soviet and German leaves).

1. ↑ Daniel Uziel: The Propaganda Warriors. The Wehrmacht and the Consolidation of the German Home Front . Peter Lang, Oxford u. a. 2008, S. 87f.
2. ↑ Rainer Rutz: “Signal”. A German illustrated German abroad as a propaganda instrument in World War II. Plain text, Essen 2007, pp. 29–32.
3. ↑ Rainer Rutz: “Signal”. A German illustrated German abroad as a propaganda instrument in World War II. Plain text, Essen 2007, pp. 33–39, quote p. 33f.
4. ↑ Daniel Uziel: The Propaganda Warriors. The Wehrmacht and the Consolidation of the German Home Front . Peter Lang, Oxford u. 2008, pp. 116 and 164ff.
5. ↑ Daniel Uziel: Propaganda, war reporting and the Wehrmacht. Objective and function of the propaganda troops in the Nazi state . In: Rainer Rother, Judith Prokasky (Hg.): The camera as a weapon. Propaganda image of the Second World War. Edition Text+Critics, Munich 2010, pp. 13–36, here p. 20.
6. ↑ The Christmas ring – a large -scale performance of organization and technology. (PDF; 1,7 MB) In: Funcream. Year 14 (1941), Issue 2, p. 22.
7. ↑ Daniel Uziel: Propaganda, war reporting and the Wehrmacht. Objective and function of the propaganda troops in the Nazi state , S. 17.
8. ↑ Daniel Uziel: Propaganda, war reporting and the Wehrmacht. Objective and function of the propaganda troops in the Nazi state , S. 21f.
9. ↑ Daniel Uziel: Propaganda. War reporting and the Wehrmacht. The priority and function of the propaganda troops in the Nazi state, p. 22.
10. ↑ Daniel Uziel: Propaganda, war reporting and the Wehrmacht. Objective and function of the propaganda troops in the Nazi state , S. 22f.
11. ↑ Klaus Hesse: PK photographs in the Nazi extermination war. A picture report Artur Grimms from the occupied Warsaw 1939 . In: Rainer Rother, Judith Prokasky (ed.): The camera as a weapon. Propaganda image of the Second World War. Edition text+criticism, Munich 2010, pp. 140f.
12. ↑ Raul Hilberg: The destruction of European Jews , Fischer Taschenbuch 1982, Volume 2, ISBN 3-596-24417-X, p. 686 ff.
13. ↑ Rolf Sachsse: The upbringing to look away. Photography in the Nazi state . Verlag der Kunst-Philo Fine Arts, Dresden 2003, ISBN 978-3-86572-390-1, p. 373.
14. ↑ All quotes from Eric Borchert: Decisive hours. With the camera on the enemy , Limpert, Berlin 1941
15. ↑ Hermann Schreiber: Henri nannen. Three live . Bertelsmann, Munich 1999, ISBN 3570001962, pp. 140ff.