Wednesday 12 April 2023

How did the Nazis control the German people using propaganda?

By Matthew G

Wednesday 12 April 2023

What is Propaganda?

• Propaganda is the use of media to aggressively promote a point of view. This is similar to brainwashing; the Nazis used propaganda to get people to think their way. They wanted to convince the public of their ideological viewpoints.

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Joseph Goebbels

• Joseph Goebbels (pictured) was Hitler’s right-hand man and controlled the Nazi propaganda. He was very different to Hitler. He was younger and an intellectual, with a PhD is literature an philosophy. He was very powerful speaker, like Hitler.

• By the 1930s, Goebbels was using many different methods to publicise the Nazi Party. For example: government posters were used to advertise Nazi views aeroplanes were used to transport Hitler quickly from place to

place, so that he could be seen in person by millions of Germans. a mass rally was held each year at Nuremberg to create a sense of

German unity and advertise the strength of the Nazi Party.

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda was based around his famous quote. . .

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

The Press

• One way that the Nazi Party tried to control the people of Germany was by controlling the newspapers. The Nazis made sure that there were no free newspapers in Germany; every newspaper had to be a Nazi newspaper.

• Journalists were given regular briefings, containing the information the government were willing to publicise; they were sometimes given direct instructions of what to write.

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Radio

• Joseph Goebbels started to use the radio as propaganda. – All radio stations were put under Nazi control. – Hitler and other Nazi officials broadcasted on their own

Nazi radio stations. – Special radios were produced that would only tune into

Nazi stations. These radios were cheaper than normal radios, so people who had never been able to afford one took advantage of this opportunity. This was another example of brainwashing – they were constantly listening to the Nazis.

NAZI FM

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Cinema

• Goebbels and the Nazis also greatly influenced films that were shown at the cinemas.

• They used censorship to control what films were shown in the cinemas. – Film-makers had to send the plot of every new film to Goebbels

for approval. If he didn’t like it, they couldn’t make it. – Films were shown alongside a 45-minute newsreel, publicising

Germany’s achievements. – Some films had overtly political messages, like Hitlerjunge Quex,

in which a young member of the Nazi Party was killed by the communists.

– All Jewish actors and actresses were banned completely.

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Cinema

• Hitler and Gobbles noticed the popularity of Mickey Mouse films so they had a propaganda carton made. The leading character, Hansi, was a canary with three fingers in white love, just like Mickey, but he had Hitler’s lick of hair across his forehead.

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Music

• Music was also censored. Jazz music was banned, as it was seen as “black music”, and therefore was inferior.

• The work of Mendelssohn was also banned because he was partly Jewish.

• On the other hand, Richard Wagner as promoted because he heroic German legends from the past to music.

• Beethoven, Back and traditional German folk music were favoured.

Only Nazi

music should

be allowed!

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Books

• The Nazis decided what literature would be available to the German people.

• Like the films, the music and the newspapers, any books which conveyed views that the Nazis didn’t like were censored.

• Millions of books were removed from public libraries and universities and burned on huge, public bonfires.

• On one particular occasion, students in Berlin burned 20,000 books written by Jews, communists and anti-Nazi authors.

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Theatre

• The Nazis also controlled the plays that were shown in the theatre.

• Plays about German history and politics were favoured as long as they reflected Nazi views. Any plays that the Nazis didn’t like were banned – another example of censorship.

• Cheap theatre tickets were made available, so people who couldn’t normally afford to go to the theatre took advantage of this opportunity.

• Plays were used as a good way of getting Nazi views across.

COMING SOONTHE NAZI YEARS

Only in Cinemas

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Sport

• Hitler and Goebbels also used sport to show Nazi Germany in a good light.

• In 1936, the Olympic Games were held in Berlin. • The Nazis built the Olympic Stadium. This was the

biggest stadium in the world, reflecting Germany’s power at the time, and could hold 110,000 people.

• All of the events were organised and run faultlessly, to demonstrate the efficiency in Germany.

Wednesday 12 April 2023

Sport

• Germany won 33 gold medals, which was more than any country, along with some silver and bronze ones.

• However, there was one embarrassment for the Nazis. Jesse Owens as a black American athlete, and he broke Olympic records 11 times in heats and finals an won four gold medals.

• Hitler refused to present medals to any of the nine black US medal winners.