Transcript How important and how successful was Nazi propaganda?

How important and how successful
was Nazi propaganda?
www.educationforum.co.uk
Propaganda and Censorship
 Governments use propaganda to persuade people to think and
behave in a certain way. The Nazis used propaganda to convince
the German people that their policies were right for Germany.
 The Nazis also used censorship. They tried to prevent people
hearing, reading or seeing anything that was critical of the Nazis.
 Propaganda and censorship were vital to the Nazis because they
helped to make sure that most Germans supported Nazi ideas.
Both were controlled by the Minister of People’s Enlightenment
and Propaganda, headed by Joseph Goebbels. He was a genius
at using propaganda to persuade people that Hitler and his ideas
were right for them.
Campaigns and Rallies
 Rallies were held all over the country to show how popular Hitler and
the Nazis were and to persuade people that Nazi Germany was powerful
and great.
 An annual rally of the Nazi Party was held each year in Nuremburg.
Music, lighting and banners were used as a backdrop for Hitler’s
speeches.
 The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin were used as a propaganda
opportunity to show the superiority of the Third Reich. German
athletes won more medals than any other country.
 Poster campaigns were a way of giving ideas and images an important
place in people’s minds. Images of Hitler as a wise leader appeared in
many poster campaigns.
New Technology
 Radio was relatively new and Goebbels realised how useful it
could be to Nazi propaganda. Industry was encouraged to
produce cheap radios that everyone could afford and by 1939
Germany had more radios per head of population than any other
country in the world.
 All radio programmes were carefully controlled and Hitler’s
speeches were frequently broadcast. The radios on sale in
Germany were designed to have a short range. This meant that
they could not pick up foreign stations and listen to alternative
versions of the news.
 Radio sets were placed in cafes and factories and loudspeakers
placed in the streets.
Press
 Non-Nazi newspapers and magazines were closed down or
taken over.
 News was biased in favour of the Nazis and editors were told
what they could print. As a result, newspaper sales went
down because people found them repetitive and boring.
Cinema
 The cinema was very popular in Germany and over 100 films
were made each year.
 All film plots had to be shown to Goebbels before production
started.
 Although some propaganda films were made, Goebbels
believed that propaganda succeeded best if people were
entertained. The German cinema, therefore continued to
make comedies, love stories, thrillers and historical epics,
which were all given a pro-Nazi slant.
Culture
 Many writers, composers and artists were persuaded or forced to
create works in praise of Hitler and the Third Reich.
 Books written by Jews, Communists and anti-Nazis were banned.
Many were destroyed in public book-burnings in 1933.
 Jazz music was banned because it was the music of black people
(an inferior race).
 Much modern art was declared ‘degenerate’ and art galleries were
forced to get rid of it.
How successful?
 The Nazi Party certainly spent a great deal of time and effort
on propaganda in an attempt to indoctrinate the population
into the Nazi world view 1933-39.
It is however rather difficult to measure how successful these
attempts were because there were no free elections in the
Nazi period, opposition was banned and a reign of terror
implemented against real and imagined opponents.
How Successful?
 The Secret Police and Gestapo compiled regular reports on
the state of public opinion based on evidence gathered by
their networks of spies and informers. The reliability of such
evidence however is highly questionable.
 Similarly there were a series of plebiscites throughout the
1930's which invited approval of major government policies
such as the decision to leave the League of Nations in 1933,
the elevation of Hitler to Fuhrer in 1934 and the Anschluss
with Austria in 1938. These too however are problematic
when used as evidence of support for the regime or the
success of propaganda not least because of the ongoing use of
terror and fear of reprisals
Interpretations
 Traditionally historians have characterised the Nazi regime as
extremely successful in indoctrinating even 'seducing' the
German nation.
 This view has however been somewhat revised by historians
who have emphasised how hard it is to reasonably assess the
level of active support for regime. More recent studied have
empathised that support for the regime varied through time whilst Nazi economic policy was successful groups like
workers and the middle class supported the regime but when
hardship returned with the impact of war this support fell
away.
Evaluation
 What is clear is that Nazi propaganda was especially
successful when it tapped into existing political culture and
beliefs e.g. the Fuhrerprincip, anti democracy, nationalism,
anti Semitism.
 Nazi propaganda was less successful when it went beyond
these existing beliefs for instance the radical Nazi policy
against religion and the Church was much less successful.
Nazi propaganda was also especially successful when aimed at
the young whose ideas and beliefs had either yet to be
formed or were only partially formed.