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How Successful was Nazi Propaganda?

Nazi Germany

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Learning objectives

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What is propaganda?

The role of censorship.

Who was Josef Goebbels?

What propaganda techniques did Goebbels use?

How effective were those techniques?

What we will learn in this presentation:

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Introduction

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Photograph courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, London.

This picture shows Hitler ascending to the speaker’s podium at the 1934 Nuremburg rally.

What kind of effect do you think this spectacle had on ordinary Germans who attended?

Propaganda

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Propaganda is best thought of as being ‘political advertising’. It is designed to get people to think and believe what you want them to.

persuading Germans to believe in Nazi ideas and love their Führer

convincing those hostile to the regime that the Nazis were so powerful that opposition would be futile.

Propaganda has been widely used by governments to distort facts, maintain popularity and boost morale.

Are there any circumstances in which a government could legitimately use propaganda?

For the Nazis, this involved:

What is propaganda?

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Alongside their propaganda machine, the Nazis practised strict censorship. People who disagreed with Nazi ideas were silenced.

In order to get any work published or performed in Nazi Germany, you had to be a member of the Reich Chamber of Culture. Writers, film makers and artists were denied membership if their views were un-Nazi.

Books which did not fit in with Nazi doctrine were publicly burnt.

Essentially, the Nazis controlled everything that the German people read, heard and saw.

Censorship

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Censorship

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Who was Josef Goebbels?

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RMVP (Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda)

Reich Chamber of Culture

Central Propaganda

Office

11 departments, responsible for:

LegislationBroadcastingPressFilm & theatreLiteratureFine arts & musicFolk culture

7 chambers, responsible for:

PressRadioFilmLiteratureTheatreMusicFine Arts

2 departments:Offices for Films,

Broadcasting, Culture and Coordination

Offices for Party exhibitions, Trade Fairs and Mobile Technical Units.

The propaganda empire of Josef Goebbels

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Painting, Architecture and

Literature

The Arts

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Hitler and the arts

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Newspapers, Radio, Film

Broadcasting

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Newspapers

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Radio

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Film

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Evidence of success:

In the short term, propaganda played an important role in getting Hitler into power and then advertising his main ideas. The general lack of resistance to the Nazi regime is an important indication that propaganda was effective.

For young people, propaganda had a lasting effect. Despite the loss of World War II, a poll conducted by the USA in October 1945 showed that 42% of German youths believed that reconstruction would best be carried out by a ‘strong new Führer’.

Conclusion

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Evidence of failure:

In the longer term, great thinkers such as Thomas Mann and Albert Einstein emigrated to escape oppression. In this way, Germany lost many of its best scientists and intellectuals.

Older and more educated people were generally less susceptible to propaganda, having been brought up with different values and ideas.

There was some resistance, for example, churchman Martin Niemöller spoke out against the Nazis. The concentration camps were full of political prisoners. It is hard to tell if the lack of resistance to the Nazis was due to propaganda or the police state.

Conclusion

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Based on this presentation alone:

Was propaganda mainly used to highlight real achievements, or to deliberately mislead the people?

Can the use of propaganda and censorship by a state ever be justified?

Based on comparing this presentation to earlier ones:

What was more important in controlling the German people: propaganda or the police state?

Plenary discussion points