Wort und Tat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wort und Tat
Directed by Fritz Hippler
Release date(s) 1938
Running time 10 minutes
Country Flag of Germany Germany
Language German

Wort und Tat (English: Words and Deeds) is a 10 minute-long Nazi propaganda film directed by Fritz Hippler, among others. It was released in 1938.

The film is notable for the extensive use of montage to get its message across, in a style reminiscent of Sergei Eisensteins "Oktober".

The film begins with a montage of clips from the Weimar period, showing a series of clips of Labor and Communist rallies, interspersed with scenes of scantily clad cabaret girls, and then shots of the posters of the different Weimar era political parties. this illustrates the "chaos" and "decadence" of the Weimar period. This sequence ends with former chancellor Heinrich BrĂ¼ning making a speech against National Socialism.

The film then goes into a series of sequences showing how Nazi rule has "improved" various aspects of German life:

(in approximate order)

  • Agricultural production (with scenes of the Reich Labor Service at work)
  • Improvement of youth (Hitler Youth scenes)
  • Coal production
  • Autobahn construction
  • The Winter health Campaign
  • Steel production
  • Factories being built

Then the film shifts to a scene of Mussolini praising the German development (in German), and various shots of the SS marching and the Luftwaffe flying in formation (which seems to have been lifted from Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht).

[edit] See also

Preceded by
none
Hippler Propaganda films
Wort und Tat (1938)
Succeeded by
Der Westwall (1939)