The Nazi Party 's Failure Of Convincing The German Population Of Their Ideology Essay

The Forms of Propaganda Used by the State in Nazi Germany One of the purposes of dictatorship was to give the Nazis control of people's lives. The more control they had, the more easily they could put their aims into effect. The job of controlling people thus became one of the main tasks of the Nazi state. Party propaganda was evident throughout German society and served as a means by which the state could effectively reach every German and summon absolute loyalty to the Nazi party. Following the Nazi party's rise to power in 1933, Hitler established the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels - who was a master of propaganda that used all means at his

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.

To what extent did Nazi propaganda influence the citizens of Germany during World War II? Propaganda is the function to attract supporters and the function to win different members over to make the people believe in certain beliefs. “World War II, which began in 1939 and ended in 1945, was the deadliest and most destructive war in history.” (The National WWII Museum para.1). The object of propaganda is to indoctrinate the people to allow people to change their behaviour in the desire of the propagandist. Forms of propaganda were eye opening to the Germans who were affected by fear and beliefs from the propagandists who implemented it into the society. However, Hitler was able to maintain his dictatorship due in large part because of the ideas and messages presented in the propaganda that was produced in Germany. The propaganda had to be simple and direct because most people during this deadliest war were not very intelligent since it was so power to new ideas from Hitler’s ideology, everyone was so susceptible to it. Hitler was able to persuade the people to his belief of unification of Germany through propaganda and the pride of the people. But, without propaganda, it is without a doubt that the war would have taken another route to make the ideology as widespread as it got during WWII. The citizens of Germany during World War II were emotionally drawn into the war due in large part because of propaganda. Propaganda affected individual beliefs and values, as well as

Through propaganda, the Nazis’ ideals are spread effectively to the people so that they have the support as a complete country, accomplishing the first step in their plans. For the Germans, “propaganda [is] the tool by which nearly every facet of German life [dictates]” (Kinser???). Propaganda has become a stepping stone for what the Germans has to offer, even more to anti-semitism. Similarly, the ideologies of German are anti-semitic so they use that to their advantage, combining it with propaganda even though most images are false. The Germans blames the Jews for all their errors and has become the scapegoats for Hitler. All the posters about Jews by the Germans, “[has] little to no truth behind them, but [are] rather elaborate myths [that are created] to single out a group of people that [are] seen as a threat” (Kinser?). This prompts to unity amongst the people with the same perspective toward a single race.

After World War I, Germany was is great debt and in great need for a political change in its government. Adolf Hitler hired a man named Joseph Goebbels to create posters and media by using the “art of persuasion” to ensure his message over the world (“Propaganda in Nazi Germany” 7). Hitler and Goebbels goal in the propaganda was to “Nazify” the German culture (“How did the Nazis” 5). However, the media that the Nazis presented didn’t state all the negative outcomes of their choices, instead the propaganda only praised the Nazis and the things that they were doing. One film that the Nazis created was of the Theresienstadt ghetto-camp.

Propaganda was recognized by Hitler and his men as an important tool for the success of a regime. As Goebbels said in 1934, “Propaganda was our sharpest weapon in conquering the state, and remains our sharpest weapon in maintaining and building up the state.” Practically, propaganda was aimed at winning support for policies and keeping the population contented. Yet more than that, it was aimed to indoctrinate the nation to believe in a ‘people’s community’ and to ‘mobilize the spirit’. Goebbels wanted to create ‘one single public opinion’ that was committed to the regime, yet the effect of propaganda varied across different social groups, and changed over time. Some such as Welch thought the

“Hitler’s Propaganda Machine” by Robert B. Nelson describes how the Nazi regime used a wide variety of propaganda to widely influence the German people to support Hitler’s dictatorship and furthermore, support the upcoming wars. After World War I occurred, Germany was to blame for the reparations caused from the war; they were in a great amount of debt which destroyed their economy. With this unfortunate situation occurring, Germans supported Hitler’s rise to power in hope to strengthen their economy and country. After Hitler’s rise to power, he put much effort into his Propaganda Machine in order to stabilize powers within the Nazi totalitarian regime. Almost all of Germany’s cultural aspects were influenced by propaganda tactics as well as the reference to anti-Semitism which blamed the Jews for all the troubles that Germany has faced.

The Nazi regime had a top-notch propaganda ministry of the time. In fact, the government was able to adjust the public’s idea quickly. For the most part, They were able to control all media sources. As shown above, The public thought that the Jewish community was responsible for the hardship that they faced after the WWI. Furthermore, The head of the propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels was able to accomplish his goals by keeping the public from watching or listening to anti-Nazi ideas and to construct Nazi ideas are compelling to the audience (Trueman).

Films were made to spread the Nazi ideology across Germany to manipulate the citizens as did newspapers. In Germany, the cartoons in the newspapers portrayed the Jewish people with antisemitic caricatures. Rallies held by the Nazi Party in the Zeppelinfeld were propaganda events used to arouse enthusiasm and show off the power of National Socialism. All of these forms of propaganda worked together to manipulate an entire nation into supporting acts of genocide.

In 1933 Hitler set up a “Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and propaganda directed by Joseph Goebbels”. (“Nazi Propaganda” 1). Germans were constantly reminded of their war against foreign countries and the Jewish

Hitler’s rise to power was the result of many factors, but Hitler’s ability to take advantage of Germany’s poor leadership and economical and political conditions was the most significant factor. His ability to manipulate the media and the German public whilst taking advantage of Germany’s poor leadership resulted in both the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler and the nazi party. During the early 1920s, Germany was struggling with economic instability and political uncertainty. Germany, after being defeated in the Great War, was forced to sign the unforgiving treaty of Versailles, which the Weimar Republic was held responsible for. This brought forward feelings of fear, anger and

As can be seen by the extensive collection of newspapers, posters, films, and radio broadcasts, there was a large influence of anti-Semitic propaganda throughout Germany for several years, form the beginning if the late 1920’s to the mid 1940’s. That’s almost twenty years of rising and implementing hatred of the Jewish people. These types of propaganda were created and promoted in the public sphere in an attempt to eradicate the Jewish population, instigated by the Nazi party of Germany. One can see the development and connection of propaganda to this attempt at annihilation of the Jews in the “Ten Stages of Genocide” by Gregory H.

 Nazi propagandists 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, although neither new nor unique to the Nazi Party, now became a state-supported image. As the Nazi regime tightened control over the press and publishing after 1933, propagandists tailored messages to diverse audiences, including the many Germans who were not Nazis and who did not read the party papers. Public displays of antisemitism in Nazi Germany took a variety of forms, from posters and newspapers to films and radio addresses. Propagandists offered more subtle antisemitic language and viewpoints for educated, middle-class Germans offended by crude caricatures. University professors and religious leaders gave anti-Semitic themes respectability by incorporating them into their lectures and church sermons.

In this literature the authors (King, Rosen, Tanner, Wagner 2008) explore the voting behavior in order to explain the rise of the Nazi Party during the Weimar Republic and who turned to the Nazis and who didn’t. Some of the literature’s arguments there are two theories mentioned, the first one being group-based theory and the second one the Catchall theory. Alternative arguments to this suggest that those who were hurt by the economy and had little risk of unemployment labeled in the readings as the working poor supported the Nazi Party. This group of people disliked the on-going welfare programs from the current government and were seeking for economic stability, new capital goods and more. In contrast those who were unemployed or at high risk of becoming unemployed were in favor of the Communist Party or Zentrum Party, these people were against the Nazi party mainly because they were already benefiting from the different kinds of social assistants and the Nazi policies did not favor the average peasant workers. The data shown in the essay covers elections from December 1924 to March 1933, after having a set of 681 precincts that were stable. This is divided into six regions, each showing 3 different levels of unemployment (low, middle and high) as well as religious affiliation (Protestants and Catholics plus a couple of others). Some of the findings illustrate that Protestants were located to the Northeast, in contrast Catholics regions were located in the Southwest.

The leaders of the Nazi party made it one of the most infamous groups to lead a nation in history. The horrible things done under their rule and with their stamp of approval has made the term Nazi one of the worst possible. The amazing thing about the Nazi party is that many of the main aspects of their ideology existed in Germany even before they formed or came to power. Some of the major aspects of Nazi ideology such as antisemitism, the desire to expand the German empire, and the belief in the strength of the Aryan race existed in Germany years before Adolf Hitler was a name anyone in Germany would recognize.