Essay How Successful Was Nazi Propaganda from 1933 to 1939?

"Propaganda attempts to force a doctrine on the whole people... Propaganda works on the general public from the standpoint of an idea and makes them ripe for the victory of this idea." These words of Adolf Hitler are taken from his book Mien Kampf (My Struggle) published in 1926. Propaganda was an elaborate and essential tool used extensively by Hitler and the Nazi's during their terrorizing reign of Germany and throughout Europe. Not only was it used to promote and endorse the party and its leader's extreme anti-Semitic values, but also to mask the horrifying truths of what was to become known as the Holocaust.

The things they wanted to be known spread like wildfire and the ones they disapproved of were left to die out. Goebbels went to extreme lengths to ensure that all would hear the words of their Fuhrer and the messages of the Nazi Party. He did so by releasing cheap radios, known as People’s Receivers, so everyone could access Hitler’s speeches. In addition to that, loud speakers decorated the streets and cafes were instructed to publically play speeches spreading the Nazi message [“Propaganda in Nazi Germany”]. But it did not end with that; the Nazis made it their mission to eliminate opposing viewpoints as well to make sure the said beliefs would go unchallenged. Very quickly into his reign, Hitler began murdering leaders of opposing political parties (communists, socialists, liberals). This system of his ensured that “opposition to their rule would be very small and practiced only by” the easily detectable and very extreme [“Propaganda in Nazi Germany”]. The victims and witnesses themselves were being made to contribute to this tight control; Jews and Germans alike were forced into fabricating and sugarcoating the unfolding events. SS officials would convince holocaust victims to send word home and maintain the illusion that they were being treated well. There were even documentaries created about beautified camps like Theresienstadt where the members were shown being treated and fed well, calming suspicions of foreign governments and German citizens alike. In reality, the cast members were transferred to other camps and

However, as Wolfgang Ruge argues, “the Nazi party developed a propaganda apparatus whose activities far eclipsed all previous heights of the demagogy of German imperialism.” On this note, it is widely agreed by historians that the regime was highly successful in one of Friedreich's principles; control of the increasingly powerful mass media in German society as a mechanism for public control. Primarily coordinated through the work of propaganda minister Goebbels, Hitler was portrayed as a leader who was at the same time moderate and reasonable who put the national good before his own interest. Other themes highlighted images of strength and authority which appealed to the highly nationalist German population; epitomised by Hitler appearing out of the sky to lead the German people depicted in Riefenstahl's 1934 film Triumph of the Will, still widely considered the most influential propaganda film of all time. The radio, state produced to be inexpensive, become the regimes number one weapon as it allowed propaganda to not only infiltrate but permeate as many homes as possible.

First off, propaganda enticingly misled Germans into following whatever Adolf Hitler said. It promoted a political cause or point of view. It almost

Propaganda is hard to define as most definitions do not cover the full meaning of the word. The Webster's Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary defines propaganda as " the systematic propagation or discrediting of a given doctrine or cause by circulation of polemical material, such as posters and leaflets" (1353). However, this definition does not cover the full scope of the of the word. Terence Qualter also feels the definition for propaganda needs to be more refined for its new usage. The definition that he gives is "the deliberate attempt...(to) form, control, or alter the attitudes of other groups...(with) the use of the instruments of communication" (27-28). He goes on to say that the propaganda must be aimed at the group in general because that is the basic nature of the word, in that the most effective propaganda is the propaganda which has a large audience. Qualter does mention, however, that there need be no difference in the propaganda to persuade one and the propaganda to persuade the many (28). Germany did this by controlling the flow of information into the country.

The Film Academy made movies that appealed to the younger audience, as well. A movie about Hitler called “Hands Up” was about his childhood and teenage life, a movie meant to relate to the audience that was not yet old enough to participate in any sort of active military. Joseph Goebbels was the head of the film department and wrote the description for this movie: “This film created for the

Just like France, the United States, and Russia, Germany also began to make films, as a way to entertain the working class in an inexpensive way. By 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power, creating very harsh social condition that made several writers, actors, and directors flee Germany because they feared that if they stayed they would have gotten killed. Joseph Goebbels later came to run the UFA, as a government owned production company to make films that were shown to civilians and the military as propaganda on March 13 , 1933, and intended to censor German cinema to make the people believe that they were fascist. Numerous movies in that period of time tried to steer clear of talking about the Holocaust to distract people from what was really happening and to make Hitler seem almost godlike. One film in particular directed by Leni Riefenstahl called The Triumph of the Will became a well known example of propaganda in film history. Throughout the film, you really get to experience a sense of historical context that influenced thousands of people during the time of World War 2. Today, several people view The Triumph of the Will and have a difficult time distinguishing whether or not they can conclude if they view the film as propaganda or an actual piece of art.

The use of propaganda at that time wasnt just putting posters around town. The Nazis produced textbooks, flims, comics and even specific radio stations. The use of all of the propaganda may have seemed minor but because the Nazis went overboard today we look at propaganda as a horrible thing. The use of propaganda is just reminding the people in the holocuast that their lives werent worth anything and gave them broken faith, which was the point.

Propaganda in general is the idea of getting others to believe in one’s own beliefs. Propaganda is the “attempt to influence behavior…by affecting through the use of mass media of communications, the manner in which a mass audience perceives and ascribes meaning to the material world.”1 Propaganda was a major part of Germany’s way to brain wash people into following Hitler and his army. The theme of Hitler and Goebbels, (Paul Joseph Goebbels, was appointed Hitler’s Reichspropagandaleiter, the Nazis national director of propaganda), using propaganda, “was to merge the traditional German patriotism with Nazi ideological motifs”2, this was basically used from1919 to 1945.

Propaganda through advertisements was very effective. Propaganda was shown in multiple films to make sure the ideas of Nazi's would stick in society's minds

As Adolf Hitler began to gain power in Germany, propaganda was a key component of his political plan. Hitler believed that propaganda was the best way to unite the masses. He used propaganda in a different manner than Charles Foster Kane did in the film, but it had the same goal; to formulate the opinions of the people of Germany in his favor. Hitler believed that the best use of propaganda was through simple slogans that specifically targeted the emotions of the middle and lower classes. The main emotion that was targeted by Hitler and the Nazi party was terror. “Many Germans, seduced by Nazi propaganda, accepted terror as a legitimate weapon against subversives and racial defilers who threatened the new Germany” (Perry 445). As seen with the people of Germany during the 1930’s and 1940’s, propaganda can easily sway the beliefs of the people. While Hitler believed that propaganda was the key to uniting the masses, it was not through written sources that he believed the key lied to reach unity, it was through speeches. This is also seen in Citizen Kane.

The most propagandistic part of the film was when different men were giving speeches when Von Hindenburg died. They all had glittering and nice things to say about Germany and how the people and their loyalty were making all of it happen. It was giving Germany a sense of pride

Aldous Huxley, author of the famous dystopian works 'Brave New World’, commented that “Propaganda gives force and direction to the successive movements of popular feeling and desire; but it does not do much to create these movements”. The decree instating the new Ministry defined its task as the spreading of “enlightenment and propaganda within the population concerning…the national reconstruction of the German Fatherland”. It sought to Nazify German culture, wiping away the Weimar decadence of the 1920s with traditional values, societal sense of racial worth, ‘Führerprincip’ and concentration of German culture, purging it of degeneracy and Üntermenschen. Joseph Goebbels had two primary objectives: To ensure nobody in Germany could see or hear anything hostile or damaging to the Party and ensure that Nazi ideology was encouraged in the most persuasive possible manner. Nazi propaganda promoted ideology by demonising the enemies of the Nazi Party, especially Jews and communists, but also capitalists and intellectuals, it maintained the personality cult around Adolf Hitler, and promoted campaigns for eugenics and Pan-Germanism.

Many directors and actors claimed that they were not involved with the Nazi regime and just did their work in films, such as Leni Riefenstahl who failed to examine her role critically in the Nazi regime. Some actors had a difficult time to gain employment for a short while, such as Heinz Rühmann, but he achieved success again, as did many actors who were prosperous in the postwar years in the mostly German market again (“Heinz Ruehmann”). The movies in the 1950’s continued the tradition of entertainment and many movies were made for pure entertainment of the masses that wanted to escape their day-to day lives. With the occurrence of the economic miracle in the Ludwig-Erhard-era, people were busy accumulating wealth yet again and tended to ignore the recent Nazi past (“It’s now Chancellor Erhard”).

As we look deeper into the historical contexts that came about in Germany during the 1920’s, Germany was confined due to the isolation the country was experiencing during World War I. During this solitude, the German government banned foreign films. German Expressionism was formed in result of the conclusion of World War I which compelled Germany to establish its own style of cinema. German Expressionist films produced in the Weimar Republic