Propaganda During Nazi Germany Essay

"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.

During World War II propaganda was ubiquitous. It consisted of a wide range of carriers including leaflets, radio, television, and most importantly posters. Posters were used based on their appeal: they were colorful, creative, concise, and mentally stimulating. Posters often portrayed the artist's views on the war. They demonstrated the artist concern for the war, their hopes for the war, and reflected the way enemies were envisioned. Posters also show a nations political status: they reflect a nations allies and enemies, how the nation saw itself, and its greatest hopes and fears of the war.

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.

Needless to say, every one of the wars just mentioned was advertised as a defensive, moralistic, and completely national expedition. Bismarck even went so far as to make an unworkable treaty with Austria so that he could claim, when Austria broke it, that he was waging war in defense of the sacredness of treaties. But no one should be deceived by such propaganda. All these wars were waged in order to maintain certain groups in control in the belligerent countries.

Hitler and the Nazis used propaganda to suppress the Jews’ freedoms and human rights. Films portrayed Germans as powerful and mighty while showing the Jews to be “subhuman creatures” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 1). German newspapers portrayed Jews in their cartoons as anti semitic caricatures while radios played Hitler’s manipulative speeches all over Germany. By dehumanizing Jewish people through propaganda, Hitler was able to encourage Germans to support the Nazis and look down on the Jews. Without propaganda, less people would have been motivated to support Hitler.

Propaganda was arguably one of the most effective ways for ideas to be spread around rapidly, this was shown in Hitler's autobiography, Mien Kampf, in which he states: "Propaganda tries 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." It shows that Hitler understood the effectiveness of propaganda and utilised it to spread his anti-Semitist ideas towards the German people to create a negative image of the Jewish population. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Webpage states that the Nazi propagandists "exploited pre-existing images and stereotypes, and portrayed Jews as an "alien race" that fed off the host nation, poisoned its culture, seized its economy, and enslaved its workers and farmers." This hateful depiction of the Jewish people was enough to create fire in the minds of the German population and drove them into an anti-Semitic frenzy, resulting in the German people expressing their rage against the Jews through violent means. The impact on the German people that was created by the slanderous depictions of Jews was extremely valuable to prepare them for the Holocaust, as the hatred for the Jews was so deeply

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.

History has shown that, in a wartime setting, a country needed all of the possible help it could get to win a war. Whether it was joining the military or supporting it, all citizens of a country were able to help the war effort. During World War II, one of the most effective ways to get help from citizens of a country was through propaganda. Propaganda encouraged people to help in many different areas, especially encouraging people to enlist in the army. Propaganda even targeted people that were unable to fight. Different forms of propaganda targeted various groups of people to encourage them to help in the war effort through their money or through

Prior to his upbringing and continuing, anti-Semitism propaganda was abundant in production. Nonetheless, Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels. The Ministry's aim was to ensure the Nazi’s anti-semitic message was successfully spread through any mode of communication. The propaganda reignited the resentment and underlying hatred inside every German through the exploitation of anti-semetic myths entrenched in the European culture for generations. Propaganda also encouraged passivity and acceptance of the impending measures against Jews, as these appeared to depict the Nazi government restoring

Propaganda is misrepresentative information presented to impose bias ideals upon its viewers. The propaganda organized by the Nazi party was integral in their rise to power and dependent on reinforcing the narrative among Aryan Germans that all other races were inferior. Presented through a variety of mediums including texts, films, and images, the demonizing of Jews and portrayal of Hitler as a god-like figure in Nazi propaganda furthered the false reasoning behind the subjection of Jews to the many merciless horrors the holocaust consisted of.

The film promoted several aspects of Nazi propaganda including the concept of the Aryan Race, Volksgemeinschaft and the glorification of Hitler. These concepts can be seen through planned events in the film such as, parades, assemblies, images of Hitler and his speeches. In Susan Sontag’s book ‘Fascinating Fascism’ she states that Hitler himself declared that “Triumph of the Will was a totally unique and incomparable glorification of the power and beauty of our movement”. This evidence shows that Leni used propaganda as a

As the Nazi political party, also known as the National Socialist German Workers ' Party, grew, they needed a way to keep control over and continue to influence German citizens of their ideology. The Nazi party’s propaganda is considered to be ingenious because of it’s ability to quietly influence the German citizens to the party’s hateful message. The Nazi party was also known to be effective in using the new form of media, film, to influence the younger generation. These claims are untrue because the Nazis were not always successful in influencing German citizens or in the citizens had little faith for propaganda to provide answers. Other citizens flat out did not believe the Nazi idea that the Jewish people were a subordinate race. Despite the Nazi’s near total control of the German media through film, art, posters, and the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the Nazi party still failed to convince the whole German population of their ideology.

‘‘The texts and images of wartime ideology and propaganda of Nazism are a rich and revelatory means of understanding why European, and in particular German, anti-Semitism, the source of centuries of persecution, led between 1941 and 1945 to the holocaust’’ (Herf, Jeffrey, 2006, p.1). The posters that were distributed by the Nazis were encouraging the German people to go against the Jews and it lead to the holocaust. The more people believed that the Jews didn’t belong in Germany, the more Germany became anti-Semitic. Germans supported the Nazis and Hitler’s plan which was simply to exterminate all Jews. Although most Germans were agreeing with Hitler, there were still some that did not agree with him so he required individuals who were welcomed with open arms to join the mainstream, and to help eliminate the Jews.

For differing reasons, one fact was clear - cinema attendance figures were increasing - more people were seeing the Nazi influenced films. In 1933 the number of moviegoers was 250 million, in 1942 was 1,000 million. This was a lot to do with Goebbels addressing of the divide between propaganda and entertainment. This is a key factor to the success of cinema as a medium. Films such as Leni Riefenstahl's ' Triumph of the Will' and - though a beautiful showcase of Nazi might at the Nuremberg party rally - was in many respects, in presentation - too extreme. A documentary, but one so very clearly designed to work for the promotion of the Nazi party.

Following the Nazi Seizure of Power in 1933, Hitler built up a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels. The Ministry's point was to guarantee that the Nazi message was effectively imparted through workmanship, music, theatre, films, books, radio, instructive materials, and the press. The primary flood of enactment, from 1933 to 1934, concentrated to a great extent on restricting