West front

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The West Front was a German soldiers' newspaper that appeared during World War II . It should not be confused with a soldiers' newspaper of the same name from the First World War .

history

The West Front had been published in Düsseldorf since the end of October 1939 under the editorship of Propaganda Company 637. After being transferred to Rheydt in April 1940 , the propaganda company took part in the campaign in the west . It reached Cambrai on June 3rd and brought the West Front with it. Since the newspaper of the 18th Army did not appear until June 13th, the latter and other units were also supplied. In this month a total circulation of almost 156,000 pieces was reached, of which the 6th and 18th Army (or their PK 621) received a little more than 120,000 pieces.

On June 14, 1940, a group of the propaganda company was sent to Paris to look for a way to print. Five days later, the rest of the company, which had now been assigned to a local propaganda department, also came to report on the expected armistice negotiations. A special issue was published on June 21st for the signing of the armistice. On July 1st, the western front in Belgium was replaced by the civilian occupation organ Brussels newspaper .

Since the PK 612 (9th Army) did not have its own front newspaper until then, it requested a delivery of 50,000 copies on June 19, 1940, which meant that the West Front was at the limits of its capacity (the Paris Soir printing plant was used ). An additional burden arose from the fact that the PK 621 left France at the beginning of July and stopped its newspaper Der Vormarsch , the gap that had arisen up to the point of relocation was also closed by the West Front . On July 11th, the PK 637 went to Rennes , while the West Front remained in Paris, so that it was brought to Rennes by courier plane. After negotiations with the newspaper L'ouest éclair , the West Front was able to appear in Rennes from July 15. It now had a print run of 40,000 copies.

Since mid-August 1940 the Propaganda Company 637 was the first Army PK to publish a magazine. The lavishly designed Western Front Illustrated with colored photos and drawings , created by its own editorial team in Paris, was a weekend supplement for the West Front . Thematically, she focused on current events in the German Reich . The magazine started with 30,000 copies, a special edition, which summarized the advance of the 6th Army, was distributed in September with a circulation of 100,000 copies. The West Front itself was published from September 1 to September 16 with 60,000 and henceforth until September 30 with 72,000 copies. As of October 5th, it was eight pages long, up to now only the Sunday edition had this number.

At the beginning of March 1941, the 6th Army and with it the propaganda company came to southern Poland , because the plans for the Sea Lion company had not been realized. For reasons of camouflage, however, the newspaper was continued by PK 670 from March 25th. In order not to overload the company, the West Front merged on April 22, 1941 with the Army-Nachrichtenblatt published in Bordeaux , the resulting newspaper carried the title of the latter, but now appeared in Paris, was printed by the local Paris newspaper and Delivered to the entire army area.

literature

  • Heinz-Werner Eckhardt: The front newspapers of the German army 1939-1945 . Wilhelm Braumüller Universitäts-Verlagsbuchhandlung, Vienna / Stuttgart 1975 (= series of publications by the Institute for Journalism at the University of Vienna; Volume 1), ISBN 3-7003-0080-8 , especially pp. 46–49.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz-Werner Eckhardt: The front newspapers of the German army 1939-1945 . Wilhelm Braumüller Universitäts-Verlagsbuchhandlung, Vienna / Stuttgart 1975 (= series of publications by the Institute for Journalism at the University of Vienna; Volume 1), ISBN 3-7003-0080-8 , pp. 47–48.
  2. ↑ Heinz-Werner Eckhardt: The front newspapers of the German army 1939-1945 . Wilhelm Braumüller Universitäts-Verlagsbuchhandlung, Vienna / Stuttgart 1975 (= series of publications by the Institute for Journalism at the University of Vienna; Volume 1), ISBN 3-7003-0080-8 , p. 48.
  3. ^ Rolf Falter: De Bruxelles Zeitung (1940–1944) in: Historica Lovaniensia 137, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Departement geschiedenis), Leuven 1982, p. 48 ff.
  4. ↑ Heinz-Werner Eckhardt: The front newspapers of the German army 1939-1945 . Wilhelm Braumüller Universitäts-Verlagsbuchhandlung, Vienna / Stuttgart 1975 (= series of publications by the Institute for Journalism at the University of Vienna; Volume 1), ISBN 3-7003-0080-8 , pp. 48–49.
  5. ↑ Heinz-Werner Eckhardt: The front newspapers of the German army 1939-1945 . Wilhelm Braumüller Universitäts-Verlagsbuchhandlung, Vienna / Stuttgart 1975 (= series of publications by the Institute for Journalism at the University of Vienna; Volume 1), ISBN 3-7003-0080-8 , p. 49.
  6. ↑ Heinz-Werner Eckhardt: The front newspapers of the German army 1939-1945 . Wilhelm Braumüller Universitäts-Verlagsbuchhandlung, Vienna / Stuttgart 1975 (= series of publications by the Institute for Journalism at the University of Vienna; Volume 1), ISBN 3-7003-0080-8 , p. 49 and 86-87.