Word and Act (Wort und Tat)

(with English subtitles)

Wort und Tat (English: Words and Deeds) is a 10 minute-long NS 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. It 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 the Social-Democrat Otto Braun making a speech against National-Socialism.

The film then goes into a series of sequences showing how National-Socialist rule has improved various aspects of German life:

-          Agricultural production (with scenes of the Reich Labor Service at work).
-          Education and strengthening of the German youth (Hitler Youth scenes).
-          Coal production.
-          Autobahn construction.
-          The Winter Relief 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 Leni Riefenstahl’s film: “Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht”).