Die Front

The Wehrmacht’s 18th Army newspaper Die Front on events in Estonia in the summer and autumn of 1941

List of articles

From July to October 1941, five infantry divisions, subordinated to two army corps together with additional supporting units under the command of the Wehrmacht’s 18th Army, engaged Red Army forces in Estonia. The 18th Army’s newspaper Die Front provided daily reporting on the course of military operations in Estonia and on other fronts; between July and December 1941, approximately one hundred articles relating to Estonia appeared in its pages. Richly illustrated with photographs, the newspaper’s purpose was not to furnish a factually accurate account of events and circumstances, but rather to sustain morale, disseminate war propaganda, and keep soldiers and officers informed of developments across all theatres of the Second World War in accordance with the requirements of the German war effort and its propaganda apparatus. Nevertheless, for the summer of 1941 in Estonia, these articles constitute a valuable source of supplementary information for the specialist.

The publisher of the newspaper Die Front was ‘Propaganda Company field post number 04266’, i.e. the 621st Propaganda Company, which was subordinate to the 18th Army. In 1941, the newspaper was edited by war correspondents Helmut Rosenfeld and Siegfried M. Pistorius, and occasionally by other war correspondents.

Articles from the newspaper Die Front, published from 13 December 1940 to 31 December 1941, are available in digitised form on the website of the German Federal Archives (reference number RH 20-18/1655). NB! To access the digitised materials of the German Federal Archives, you must create a user account.

List compiled in June 2026 by Lukas Hensing, intern at the Estonian War Museum