Comments on: Swastika Tube

Swastika Tube

hortense — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:43:50 -0800

Spiegel TV has tracked down rare Nazi TV footage, complete with everything from bizarre cabaret acts to interviews with people like Albert Speer. Pop culture done by Nazis, the banality of showbiz evil.

found here alternate link

By: longsleeves

longsleeves — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:26:07 -0800

When the voiceover said "Volks TV" I heard "Fox TV" at first.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:53:04 -0800

Wow, fascinating videos hortense. That guy in your second link, the TV host guy, whoa, he's an Aryan Snidely Whiplash with a Dudley Do-Right mask on. Such a caricature of Nazi malevolence, I expected him any minute to get hypno eyes with little swastika pinwheels. And that psycho Bavarian woman in the same vid, between :30 and :46 doing the "Strength through joy" skit, yikes, some demonic sharky thing going down there. Never thought joy could look so much like a nightmare. The author of that documentary is Michael Kloft. He directed another intriguing documentary, a comparison of the parallel lives of Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, called The Tramp and the Dictator.

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:53:39 -0800

Great link, really fascinating stuff. Fast forward to 21:00 for some extreme creepiness. The last 5-10 minutes or so are also totally bizarre, as it documents the programming made after all televisions in the Reich were installed in military hospitals toward the end of the war to entertain the wounded and crippled. There's a documentary clip showing single-legged amputees hopping through an obstacle course so they can be rehabilitated enough to rejoin Goebbels' Total War, and a double amputee who pretty clearly wishes he were dead struggling to dance with a woman and talking about how wonderful life is. Totally surreal.

By: CCBC

CCBC — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:00:54 -0800

Good link. Maybe you should have mentioned Paul Nipkow, the guy the TV facility commemorated.

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:01:02 -0800

That guy in your second link, the TV host guy, whoa, he's an Aryan Snidely Whiplash with a Dudley Do-Right mask on. Yeah, that's the extreme creepiness I mentioned, I hadn't watched the second video. The terrifyingly smarmy Aryan talking about "a different beat" and alluding to concentration camps. He's at about 1:00 into the shorter YouTube video if you don't want to watch the whole documentary, although you should if you've got an hour to spare. You don't want to miss out on such thrilling programs as "The Joy Of Home Gardening" and Nazi cooking shows showing the Frauleins how to feed a hungry master race.

By: Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese

Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:19:11 -0800

This is fascinating. Great post.

By: A189Nut

A189Nut — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:30:55 -0800

Sounds like it is narrated by the wonderful Paul Vaughn too

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:32:20 -0800

I'm hereby copyrighting "You know who else liked pop culture?"

By: chillmost

chillmost — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:08:52 -0800

What? No Sexy Sport Clips? More entertaining than modern German television.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:28:50 -0800

Fascinating. Cheers.

By: The Salaryman

The Salaryman — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 04:13:24 -0800

Amazing, frightening post. Sometimes it is hard to understand how people could have gotten sucked in to this, because drained of historical context and knowledge of menace a lot of fascist things seem a bit comedic. All jokes aside though, the sound and vision of evil is razor filled cheese and banality. I remember reading an article in the Observer about Serbian 'Turbo-folk' which was in essence the sound of genocide. Arkan et al rocked out to this brand of pop while committing unspeakable atrocities. I was curious to hear what it sounded like and hunted some down. Sure enough, it sounded a lot like Abba - vapid, over processed helium vocals, simple, dancable melodies etc. Fascist entertainment is more likely to be more like Mamma Mia! than Triumph of the Will. Bread and circuses etc etc.

By: micayetoca

micayetoca — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:39:32 -0800

Following the idea of Pop culture by the Nazis, only with propaganda purposes, here is a link to Charlie and His Orchestra, Joseph Goebbels Swing band. Good post, thanks!

By: Forktine

Forktine — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:05:25 -0800

That second link was hair-raising. But it was also a nice example of how the camps weren't some deep secret that only a small group of high-ranking people knew about — they were something that people could joke about on television. Salaryman, thanks for the mention of turbo-folk. I'd heard it in movies, but didn't know it had a name. The Wikipedia page has a nice overview; there is lots on youtube (example). Right now I have a Ceca song playing in the background that sounds like a cross between a James Bond theme song and Turkish folk music.

By: The Salaryman

The Salaryman — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:14:43 -0800

Cheers, Forktine! I forgot to mention that the irony of the Turkish inflections given the Ottomanite connections of their victims. Ceca is one spooky lady...

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 06:56:07 -0800

Mein Kamcorder.

By: bonobothegreat

bonobothegreat — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:27:50 -0800

This is really a great post...I had no idea the nazis were broadcasting TV.

By: Guy_Inamonkeysuit

Guy_Inamonkeysuit — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:31:59 -0800

This is my morning dose of surrealism. I thought I knew a thing or two about Nazi Germany (research for writing projects) but, like bonobothegreat, I didn't know the bastards were into video. What a great, great post. Thanks!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 08:07:26 -0800

Superb post, many thanks for sharing it. That second link was hair-raising. The second link is just a few snippets from the first, which should be watched in its entirety. I had no intention of watching a 54-minute documentary, but by the end I wished it were longer. Mesmerizing stuff.

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:04:46 -0800

From the "pop culture" link: "Take those so called 'foreign-exchange musicians'. We don't beat about the bush with them, do we? They're sent to 'concert camps' for their further education, where they're taught to sing for their supper." Joking about sending people to 'concert camps' on TV kind of detracts from the whole 'we didn't know what was going on' defence of the German citizenry.

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:02:35 -0800

So how long until the full 254 reels are placed online somewhere? That would give me an excuse to learn German.

By: WPW

WPW — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:02:03 -0800

Joking about sending people to 'concert camps' on TV kind of detracts from the whole 'we didn't know what was going on' defence of the German citizenry. The opening of Dachau was widely reported in German newspapers.

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:01:02 -0800

Joking about sending people to 'concert camps' on TV kind of detracts from the whole 'we didn't know what was going on' defence of the German citizenry. Yeah, their "defense" was not that they didn't know concentration camps existed, but that they didn't know that genocide was happening in them. There were in fact no extermination camps in Germany itself, but even the lowest-level average moron must have at least heard rumors. The "lebensraum" emigrants living within smelling distance of death camps in Poland are just full of shit, though.

By: jokeefe

jokeefe — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:23:55 -0800

Fantastic stuff. Truly the best of the web. Thank you.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:12:24 -0800

Wandering around the web just now I came across this site, a prop and costume company with Nazi uniforms for sale and it reminded me of the OP.

By: stammer

stammer — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:15:06 -0800

I can't believe they actually made a program called "Aristocracy of Labor" (3:50). Was it a joke?

By: hortense

hortense — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:15:22 -0800

maybe that's where Arnold got his buckle nicky.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 15:46:09 -0800

/derail Honestly hortense, I'm shocked seeing Arnold in that Naziesque skull buckle. yikes. What is he thinking?

By: hortense

hortense — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:08:37 -0800

Who knows what he was thinking but he has a history.

By: hortense

hortense — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:36:42 -0800

Berlin Reichshauptstadt 1936 short color film, excellent soundtrack