Deulig-Woche. 1923 (1923)

Production company
Deulig Film AG (Berlin)
Rights statement
Source
DFF - Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum
Category
Wochenschauen

The newsreel deals with the occupation of the Rhineland-Westphalian industrial area by French and Belgian soldiers. Among other things, footage of the Rhine-Herne Canal is shown, which nationalist groups sabotaged during that time by sinking barges to prevent coal deliveries to France. The "Deulig-Woche," a propaganda tool of German industrialists, sarcastically comments on the images with an intertitle as "futile attempts by the French to clear the Rhine-Herne Canal for coal transport." Additionally, the newsreel presents some newspaper articles sharply condemning the French occupation policy, particularly the imprisonment of directors of the Krupp AG.

In Germany, after the end of World War I, newsreels were initially hardly produced anymore. Only the UFA continued producing the "Messter-Woche," which was close to the political right since 1914. In 1919, the German Lichtbild-Gesellschaft (Deulig), initiated by German industrialists, took over the "Messter-Woche" and then discontinued it in 1922 in favor of its own newsreel, the "Deulig-Woche." The digitized copy of the original nitro negative is only partially preserved.