Propaganda and Control

Terror: Control through fear. Where people will not willingly follow or believe in Nazi orders, they must be terrified into inaction. Himmler

Propaganda: As many people as possible must be convinced, indoctrinated and fooled into supporting Nazi ideas. Goebbels

Censorship: This involved the control and banning of messages that went against Nazi beliefs. This controlled the information people had access to, and stopped them from being influenced by ideas that the Nazis worried worked against them

Propaganda: This works like adverts for ideas. Rather than preventing messages getting to people, propaganda creates and controls those messages. Goebbels believed the best propaganda ‘does not reveal itself it works invisibly penetrating every cell of life in such a way that the public has no idea of the aims of the propagandist.

Controlling art and culture: The Nazis had narrow views of what art was acceptable. To them Germany should keep to traditional art forms and reject art from other cultures and countries. This meant rejecting Jazz with its African-American roots, rejecting modernist and expressionist art that questioned ideas. Instead traditional German music like Wagner’s opera were promoted.

Goebbels:

• Hitler’s ‘minister of people’s enlightenment and propaganda’ - appointed 1933

• Different of the stereotype of Nazi leader

• A disability had prevented him from serving in WW1, though he was still infuriated by Germany’s treatment in the ToV

• An academic, a powerful speech maker

• vicious antisemite and hypocrite

• promoted traditional family values but was an unfaithful womaniser

• He embraced new technologies like radio and film

Propaganda methods:

• The press: no free press in Germany. All had to print Nazi ideas. In return, the gov effectively communicated with newspapers but only with information that suited them.

• Radio: in the 1930s radio was still new and novel. Like with newspapers, radio stations were subject to censorship. Goebbels ensured Nazi speeches were broadcast. Public radios were put in schools and cafes. Cheap people’s receiver’ radios were produced resulting in 70% of homes having a radio. Designed not to pick up signals from other countries.

• Sport: Berlin hosted the 1936 Olympics, and Hitler turned it into an opportunity to showcase German cultural and racial ‘superiority’. At the time the world was impressed. Germany won most medals. Sports events also featured Nazi songs and salutes. Sport fit the Nazi idea of promoting brutal competition

• Rallies: had been effective in election campaigns, and with Hitler in power they continued. They were choreographed to impress and give an impression of order and strength. A Nuremburg Stadium could hold 200,000 people with banners, huge searchlights and Nazi sculptures.

• Reich chamber of culture: producing art that harked back to traditional values and presented a favourable/sanitised version of German history. Art that promoted Nazi ideals such as struggle, discipline, sacrifice and loyalty. Suppressing art that went against these ideas or that promoted other ideas or cultures

• Cinema: Nazi films were made carrying antisemitic messages. Long newsreels of Nazi ‘achievements’ were shown before all films. All films were subject to censorship and approval. Cartoons were used to send antisemitic messages to children.

• Art: all painters and sculptors in Germany were required to be members of the Reich chamber of visual arts. Those who refused were forbidden from teaching, making, displaying or selling their art. Artists were subject to surprise inspections by the Gestapo. Galleries were also inspected. 12,000 painting and sculptures were removed from display.

• Literature: All new books had to be approved and censored. Books that were anti-Nazi were banned. 2,500 authors had their work outlawed. Uni libraries were purged of books by Jeiwsh or Communist authors, including Einstein. These books were publicly and symbolically burned.

• architecture: Focused of architecture that was grand in scale and imitated the styles of Ancient Rome with pillars, arches, eagles and domes. Giving an empire-building impression.