How effective was Nazi propaganda?

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How effective was Nazi propaganda?
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? Weltanschauung world view, philosophy of
life

• German cultural life during the Third Reich was
  seen as yet another means of achieving
  indoctrination
• What we are aiming for is more than a revolt.
  Our historic mission is to transform the very
  spirit itself to the extent that people and
  things are brought into a new relationship with
  one another"

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? Weltanschauung

• Culture was co-ordinated through the Reich
  Chamber of Culture
• Seven sub-chambers fine arts, music, theatre,
  the press, the radio, literature and films
• Everyone involved in cultural activity had to be
  accountable for their creativity
• Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for
  my gun (Hans Johnst, playwright, 1934)

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? Key themes

• Goebbels and the Nazis sought to project key
  themes
• Anti-Semitism
• Militarism
• Nationalism
• Supremacy of the Aryan race
• Cult of the Fuhrer
• Anti-modernism
• Traditional German Volks culture

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? Newspapers

• 1933 there were 4,700 daily newspapers, 3
  controlled by NSDP
• 1944 997 daily newspapers, 82 controlled by NSDP

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? Newspapers

• Eventually, directly or indirectly, the Press was
  controlled by Eher Verlag (Nazi publishing house)
• RMVP (Ministry for Enlightenment and Propaganda)
  told editors where to place articles
• Nazi Press Agency supplied estimated 50 of
  content
• From 1933 all editors and journalists had to be
  accredited by Goebbels

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? Newspapers

• October 1933 new law made editors responsible for
  infringements of government directives
• Clause 14 obliged editors to exclude anything
  calculated to weaken the strength of the Reich
• Treason to spread false news or rumours

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? Radio

• Radio wardens appointed to report on peoples
  reactions to specific broadcasts
• Provisions made for cheap radios called
  Volksempfänger (peoples receiver)
• Volksempfänger could not pick up foreign
  broadcasts
• Between 1932-9 the number of families with radios
  rose from 25 to 70

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? Radio

• Goebbels described radio as the spiritual weapon
  of the totalitarian state
• Radio was controlled from 1925 by the Reich Radio
  Company
• In 1934 Goebbels dismissed 13 of RRC on
  political or racial grounds
• All news broadcasts came through the Nazi Office
  of Propaganda

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? Film

• Nazi government bought up shares in 4 major film
  companies
• By 1942 film companies completely state
  controlled
• Unified under the UFI

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? Film

• Film going quadrupled between 1933 and 1942
• Over 1000 films produced during the Third Reich
• Nazis often used newsreels shown before the start
  of feature films

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? Music

• Germany had a rich classical tradition which
  suited the Nazis cultural propaganda objectives
• Jewish composers, e.g. Mahler and Mendelssohn
  banned
• New wave, modernist composers e.g. Stravinsky,
  Schoenberg were disparaged
• New genres, e.g. jazz labelled Negroid and
  degenerate

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? Posters

• Poster production controlled by the Office for
  Active Propaganda
• Copies of all political material had to be
  submitted in advance to the office
• Unapproved materials were confiscated

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? Literature

• In 1933 there were book burnings at the
  universities of Berlin and Nuremberg
• 10 May 1933 central square in Berlin the largest
  book burning event took place
• Raids on public and private libraries
• Goebbels wanted eradicate overstated Jewish
  intellectualism
• Books burned which were Jewish, socialist or
  pacifist by nature

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? Literature

• 2,500 writers left Germany between 1933-45,
  including Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht
• Writers who sympathised with the regime or
  accepted its philosophy flourished

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? Rallies

• Rallies were a regular feature of Nazi
  propaganda, with the first official rally in
  Nuremberg, 1927
• As well as attending rallies, Hitler would parade
  through streets in open-top processions
• Many streets were renamed Adolf Hitler Staße
  following a visit from the Fuhrer

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? Rallies

• Speer specialised in designing and choreographing
  rallies
• Used the architecture of light to maximise the
  effect of gatherings and speakers
• Combined effects of uniforms, flags and banners,
  icons like the eagle and swastika and held
  meetings at night

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??? Sport

• Sporting bodies co-ordinated under a
  Reichssportsführer
• Hitler Youth and DAF (German Labour Front, Nazi
  trade union movement) organised sporting events
• Aim was to encourage fitness and health (useful
  qualities for increasing Germanys military
  strength)
• Gym displays were also seen as another way of
  presenting an ordered, regimental society

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??? Sport

• Nazis made great efforts to ensure 1936 Berlin
  Olympics were a propaganda success
• New stadium in modernist style
• Hitler saw Olympics as an opportunity to show the
  racial superiority of German people
• Ant-semitic propaganda was minimised and the
  emphasis in posters and speeches was on
  internationalism
• Germany headed gold medals table, despite Black
  American, Jesse Owens winning 100m
• FA ordered footballers to give the Nazi salute
  before their match against Germany in 1938
  (England won 6-3!)

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? Art

• Hitler also said, Its not the function of art
  to wallow in dirt for dirts sake, never its task
  to paint the state of decomposition, to draw
  cretins as the symbol of motherhood, to picture
  hunchbacked idiots as representatives of any
  strength.

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? Art

• Hitler had very strong views on art and they
  formed the basis of cultural policy
• Art critics were answerable to the state, and
  from 1936 could only provide descriptive
  reviews
• Certain styles of art were given political
  labels, e.g. expressionism was described by
  Alfred Rosenberg, the Culture Minister, as
  Bolshevik filth

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? Art

• 1937 two parallel art exhibitions held in Munich,
  one representing what the Nazi regime viewed as
  the best of German art (Grosse Deutch
  Kunstausstellung), the other what it deemed
  degenerate art (Entartete Kunst)

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? Art

• 18 July 1934, Exhibition of Great German Art was
  held in a newly built museum of art, Munich
• 16,000 works submitted but only 6,000 selected
  for display
• Art was rooted in the traditions of the
  Volksgemeinschaft (the peoples community, the
  Nazi ideal community)
• Exhibition preceded by a Day of German Art,
  annual pageant in Munich celebrating 2,000 years
  of German history
• 600,000 attended exhibition

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? Art

• 19 July, Exhibition of Degenerate Art opened
• 5,000 exhibits labelled as degenerate, Bolshevik
  or artistically poor
• Deemed to reflect cultural decadence of Weimar
  era
• Included works by Emil Nolde, Max Beckmann as
  well as works by Gaugin, Van Gogh and Picasso
• 2,000,000 attended exhibition
• Works later destroyed, sent abroad or kept by
  Goering!

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? Architecture

• Hitler was personally interested in architecture
  as well as art
• Rejected decadent architectural styles, e.g. work
  of Gropius and favoured more traditional
  neo-classical style of Troost
• Albert Speer was Nazi architect who particularly
  admired the monumentalism of neo-classical art
• Local housing was to be inspired by traditional
  art regional styles

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What are the problems in assessing the impact of
Nazi propaganda on ordinary people?
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? How successful was Nazi propaganda?

• Problems
• quantifying peoples responses
• impact of social, political, economic and
  religious context
• effect of Nazi repression

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How successful was Nazi propaganda?

• Mason, sceptical of effect of Nazi propaganda on
  all groups, for example the working classes
• Welch, argues Nazi propaganda was successful in
  strengthening support for Hitler, but not its
  policies e.g. anti-Semitism and some propaganda
  was arguably counter-productive, e.g. anti-Church
  propaganda
• Geary believes Nazi propaganda was most
  successful when it played on traditional German
  prejudices, e.g. nationalism, fear of Bolshevism
  etc.

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? Go further

• Useful texts and websites
• Geoff Layton, Germany The Third Reich 1933-45,
  p.84-88
• John Hite and Chris Hinton, Weimar and Nazi
  Germany, p.244-275
• www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ww2era.htm
• www.activehistory.co.uk/worksheets/a2/lme/nazi_pro
  paganda.pdf
• www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERnazigermany.htm
• www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/nazi_propaganda_ga
  llery.shtml