Books The Nazis and sympathisers published many propaganda books; some 20,000 new titles were published in the Reich annually, many of those being propaganda works. Most of the beliefs that would become associated with the Nazis, such as German nationalism,
eugenics, and
antisemitism had been in circulation since the 19th century, and the Nazis seized on this body of existing work in their own publications. The most notable is Hitler's
Mein Kampf, detailing his beliefs. The book outlines major ideas that would later culminate in World War II. It is heavily influenced by
Gustave Le Bon's 1895
The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind, which theorised propaganda as a way to control the seemingly irrational behavior of crowds. Particularly prominent is the violent antisemitism of Hitler and his associates, drawing, among other sources, on the fabricated "
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" (1897), which implied that Jews secretly conspired to rule the world. This book was a key source of propaganda for the Nazis and helped fuel their common hatred against the Jews during World War II. For example, Hitler claimed that the international language
Esperanto was part of a Jewish plot and makes arguments toward the old German nationalist ideas of "
Drang nach Osten" and the necessity to gain
Lebensraum ("living space") eastwards (especially in Russia). Other books such as
Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes ("Racial Science of the German People") by
Hans Günther and
Rasse und Seele ("Race and Soul") by Dr. (published under different titles between 1926 and 1934) attempt to identify and classify the differences between the German,
Nordic, or
Aryan type and other supposedly inferior peoples. These books were used as texts in German schools during the Nazi era. The pre-existing and popular genre of
Schollen-roman, or novel of the soil, also known as
blood and soil novels, was given a boost by the acceptability of its themes to the Nazis and developed a mysticism of unity. The immensely popular "Red Indian" stories by
Karl May were permitted despite the heroic treatment of the hero
Winnetou and "coloured" races; instead, the argument was made that the stories demonstrated the fall of the Red Indians was caused by a lack of racial consciousness, to encourage it in the Germans. Other fictional works were also adapted;
Heidi was stripped of its Christian elements, and
Robinson Crusoe's relationship to Friday was made a master-slave one. Children's books also made their appearance. In 1938,
Julius Streicher published
Der Giftpilz (The Poisonous Mushroom), a storybook that equated the Jewish people to poisonous mushrooms and aimed to educate children about the Jews. The book was an example of antisemitic propaganda and stated that "The following tales tell the truth about the Jewish poison mushroom. They show the many shapes the Jew assumes. They show the depravity and baseness of the Jewish race. They show the Jew for what he really is: The Devil in human form."
Textbooks "Geopolitical atlases" emphasised Nazi schemes, demonstrating the "encirclement" of Germany, depicting how the prolific Slav nations would cause the German people to be overrun, and (in contrast) showing
the relative population density of Germany was much higher than that of the Eastern regions (where they would seek
Lebensraum). Textbooks would often show that the birth rate amongst Slavs was prolific compared to Germans. Geography textbooks stated how crowded Germany had become. Other charts would show the cost of disabled children as opposed to healthy ones, or show how two-child families threatened the birthrate. Math books discussed military applications and used military word problems, physics and chemistry concentrated on military applications, and grammar classes were devoted to propaganda sentences. Other textbooks dealt with the history of the Nazi Party. Elementary school reading text included large amounts of propaganda. Children were taught through textbooks that they were the Aryan master race (
Herrenvolk) while the Jews were untrustworthy, parasitic, and
Untermenschen (subhumans). Course content and textbooks unnecessarily included information that was propagandistic, an attempt to sway the children's views from an early age. Maps showing the racial composition of Europe were banned from the classroom after many efforts that did not define the territory widely enough for party officials. Nordic sagas were likewise presented as the illustration of the
Führerprinzip, which was developed with such heroes as
Frederick the Great and
Otto von Bismarck. Literature was to be chosen within the "German spirit" rather than a fixed list of forbidden and required, which made the teachers all the more cautious although Jewish authors were impossible for classrooms. While only
William Shakespeare's
Macbeth and
The Merchant of Venice were actually recommended, none of the plays were actually forbidden, even
Hamlet, denounced for "flabbiness of soul." Biology texts, however, were put to the most use in presenting eugenic principles and racial theories; this included explanations of the
Nuremberg Laws, which were claimed to allow the German and Jewish peoples to co-exist without the danger of mixing. Science was to be presented as the most natural area for introducing the "Jewish Question" once teachers took care to point out that in nature, animals associated with those of their own species. Teachers' guidelines on racial instruction presented both the handicapped and Jews as dangers. Despite their many photographs glamorising the "Nordic" type, the texts also claimed that visual inspection was insufficient, and genealogical analysis was required to determine their types and report any hereditary problems. However, the
National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB) stressed that at primary schools, in particular, they had to work on only the Nordic racial core of the German
Volk again and again and contrast it with the racial composition of foreign populations and the Jews. The only books in English to be sold were English classics, and books with Jewish authors or Jewish subject matter (such as biographies) were banned, except for some scientific works. Control of the paper supply allowed Germans the easy ability to pressure publishers about books.
Caricature Popular Nazi caricaturists began associating Jews with animals, in order to dehumanize them. The Nazis used caricatures in postcards depicting Jews as Glücksschwein, literally "lucky pig" in German, meaning lucky charm. One example features a poem wishing the recipient good fortune, with the punchline being a figure with a pig's head placed atop a man dressed in traditional Orthodox characteristics such as
peyos and a fedora associated with
Hasidic Jews. The joke relied on the audience knowing that Jewish dietary laws,
Kashrut, forbid the consumption of pork. Other postcards depicted Jewish men eating pork in secret, one shows a man winking beneath a sign reading "You Can Eat Pork" framing Jewish people as hypocrites who publicly performed religious devotion while privately indulging in forbidden acts. This tapped into a broader
antisemitic prejudice that Jewish piety was merely a front for gluttony and deception.
Films with
Heinrich Himmler at
Nuremberg in 1934 .
SS leader
Heinrich Himmler,
Adolf Hitler, and
SA leader
Viktor Lutze (from L to R) on the stone terrace in front of the
Ehrenhalle (Hall of Honour) in the
Luitpoldarena. In the background is the crescent-shaped
Ehrentribüne (literally: tribune of honour). The Nazis produced many films to promote their views, using the party's
Department of Film for organising film propaganda. An estimated 45 million people attended film screenings put on by the NSDAP.
Reichsamtsleiter Karl Neumann declared that the goal of the Department of Film was not directly political in nature, but was rather to influence the culture, education, and entertainment of the general population. Under Goebbels and Hitler, the
German film industry became entirely nationalised. The National Socialist Propaganda Directorate, which Goebbels oversaw, had at its disposal nearly all film agencies in Germany by 1936. Occasionally, certain directors such as
Wolfgang Liebeneiner were able to bypass Goebbels by providing him with a different version of the film than would be released. Such films include those directed by
Helmut Käutner:
Romanze in Moll (
Romance in a Minor Key, 1943),
Große Freiheit Nr. 7 (
The Great Freedom, No. 7, 1944), and
Unter den Brücken (
Under the Bridges, 1945). Schools were also provided with motion picture projectors because the film was regarded as particularly appropriate for propagandising children. Films specifically created for schools were termed "military education."
Der ewige Jude (
The Eternal Jew, 1940) was directed by
Fritz Hippler at the insistence of Goebbels, though the writing is credited to
Eberhard Taubert. The movie is done in the style of a feature-length documentary, the central thesis being the immutable racial personality traits that characterise the Jew as a wandering cultural parasite. Throughout the film, these traits are contrasted to the Nazi state ideal: while Aryan men find satisfaction in physical labour and the creation of value, Jews only find pleasure in money and a hedonist lifestyle. The movie is resolved with Hitler giving a speech hinting at the coming "Final Solution", his plan to exterminate millions of Jews. One historian has noted that "so radical was the film's antisemitism that the Propaganda Ministry had doubts about showing it to the public... it was most successful amongst Party activists; the general public was less impressed". The main medium was
Die Deutsche Wochenschau, a newsreel series produced for cinemas, from 1940. Newsreels were explicitly intended to portray German interests as successful. Themes often included the virtues of the Nordic or Aryan type, German military and industrial strength, and the evils of Germany's enemies.
Fine art 's sculptures of the Nordic-Aryan man made him Hitler's favourite sculptor. By Nazi standards, fine art was not propaganda. Its purpose was to create ideals, for eternity. This produced a call for heroic and romantic art, which reflected the ideal rather than the realistic. Nevertheless, selected themes, common in propaganda, were the most common topics of art. Sculpture was used as an expression of Nazi racial theories. The most common image was of the nude male, expressing the ideal of the Aryan race. Nudes were required to be physically perfect. At the
Paris Exposition of 1937,
Josef Thorak's
Comradeship stood outside the German pavilion, depicting two enormous nude males, clasping hands and standing defiantly side by side, in a pose of defense and racial camaraderie.
Landscape painting featured mostly heavily in the Greater German Art exhibition, in accordance with themes of blood and soil. Peasants were also popular images, reflecting a simple life in harmony with nature, frequently with large families. With the advent of war, war art came to be a significant though still not predominating proportion. The continuing of the German Art Exhibition throughout the war was put forth as a manifestation of German's culture.
Magazines In and after 1939, the
Zeitschriften-Dienst was sent to magazines to provide guidelines on what to write for appropriate topics. Nazi publications also carried various forms of propaganda.
Neues Volk was a monthly publication of the
Office of Racial Policy, which answered questions about acceptable race relations. While mainly focused on race relations, it also included articles about the strength and character of the Aryan race compared to Jews and other "defectives". The
NS-Frauen-Warte, aimed at women, included such topics as the role of women in the Nazi state. Despite its propaganda elements, it was predominantly a women's magazine. It defended
anti-intellectualism, urged women to have children, even in wartime, put forth what the Nazis had done for women, discussed bridal schools, and urged women to greater efforts in total war.
Der Pimpf was aimed at boys, and contained both adventure and propaganda.
Das Deutsche Mädel, in contrast, recommended that girls take up hiking, tending the wounded, and preparing to care for children. Far more than
NS-Frauen-Warte, it emphasised the strong and active German woman. and distributed throughout
occupied Europe and neutral countries. Published from April 1940 to March 1945,
Signal had the highest sales of any magazine published in Europe during the period—circulation peaked at 2.5 million in 1943. At various times, it was published in at least twenty languages. An English edition was distributed in the British
Channel Islands of
Guernsey,
Jersey,
Alderney, and
Sark, which were
occupied by the Wehrmacht during the war. The promoter of the magazine was the chief of the
Wehrmacht propaganda office, Colonel Hasso von Wedel. Its annual budget was 10 million Reichsmarks, roughly $2.5 million at the pre-war exchange rate. The image that
Signal transmitted was that of Nazi Germany and its
New Order as the great benefactor of European peoples and of
Western civilisation in general. The danger of a Soviet invasion of Europe was strongly pointed out. The quality of the magazine itself was quite high, featuring complete reviews from the front lines rich in information and photos, even displaying a double center-page full-color picture. In fact, many of the most famous Second World War photos that are seen today come from
Signal. The magazine contained little to no antisemitic propaganda, as the contents were mainly military.
Newspapers , 1935. The billboard heading reads: "With the Stürmer against
Judah". The subheading reads: "The Jews are our misfortune". The
Völkischer Beobachter ("People's Observer") was the official daily newspaper of the NSDAP since December 1920. It disseminated Nazi ideology in the form of brief hyperboles directed against the weakness of
parliamentarism, the evils of Jewry and Bolshevism, the national humiliation of the
Versailles Treaty, and other such topics. It was joined in 1926 by
Der Angriff ("The Attack"), a weekly and later daily paper founded by Joseph Goebbels. It was mainly dedicated to attacks against political opponents and Jews—one of its most striking features were vehemently antisemitic cartoons by
Hans Schweitzer—but also engaged in the glorification of Nazi heroes such as
Horst Wessel. The
Illustrierter Beobachter was their weekly illustrated paper. Other Nazi publications included; •
Das Reich, a more moderate and highbrow publication aimed at intellectuals and foreigners; •
Der Stürmer, the most virulently antisemitic of all; •
Das Schwarze Korps, an
SS publication, aiming at a more intellectual tone. After Hitler's rise to power in 1933, all of the regular press came under complete Nazi editorial control through the policy of
Gleichschaltung, and short-lived propaganda newspapers were also established in the conquered territories during World War II.
Alfred Rosenberg was a key member of the Nazi Party who gained control of their newspaper which was openly praised by Hitler. However, Hitler was dissatisfied by Rosenberg's work and slandered Rosenberg behind his back, discrediting his work.
Newspapers in occupied countries In Ukraine, after the Nazis cracked down on newspapers, most papers printed only articles from German agencies, producing the odd effect of more anti-American and anti-British articles than anti-Communist ones. They also printed articles about antecedents of German rule over Ukraine, such as
Catherine the Great and the
Goths.
Photography in the front row, far right The Nazis used photographers to document events and promote ideology. Photographers included
Heinrich Hoffmann and
Hugo Jaeger. Hoffmann worked in his father's photographic shop and as a photographer in Munich from 1908. He joined the Nazi Party on 6 April 1920. After Hitler took over the party in 1921, he named Hoffmann as his official photographer, a post he held for over a quarter-century. A photograph taken by Hoffmann in Munich's Odeonsplatz on 2 August 1914 shows a young Hitler among the crowds cheering the outbreak of World War I and was used in Nazi propaganda. Hitler and Hoffmann became close friends—in fact, when Hitler became the ruler of Germany, Hoffmann was the only man authorized to take official photographs of him. Hoffmann's photographs were published as postage stamps, postcards, posters, and picture books. Following Hoffmann's suggestion, both he and Hitler received royalties from all uses of Hitler's image (even on postage stamps), which made Hoffmann a millionaire. In 1940 he was elected to the Reichstag. Nine photographs taken by Hoffman reveal how Hitler rehearsed poses and his hand gestures. He asked Hoffmann to take pictures so that he could see how he looked while speaking. Hitler later asked that these photographs be destroyed, which Hoffman did not follow through with. Hoffman was forbidden from taking such candid photographs without Hitler's consent. This was an intentional propaganda effort to maintain the cult of personality around Adolf Hitler.
Egon Hanfstaengl, son of Hitler's one-time foreign press officer
Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl, said in a documentary,
Fatal Attraction of Hitler: "He had that ability which is needed to make people stop thinking critically and just emote."
Posters '' 29 April 1942
Poster art was a mainstay of the Nazi propaganda effort, aimed both at Germany itself and occupied territories. It had several advantages. The visual effect, being striking, would reach the viewer easily. Posters were also, unlike other forms of propaganda, difficult to avoid. Imagery frequently drew on
heroic realism. Nazi youth and the SS were depicted monumentally, with lighting posed to produce grandeur.
Parole der Woche wall newspapers were published by the
Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. The first edition was distributed on 16 March 1936. Every week an estimated 125,000 posters were administered to the public from 1936 to 1943.
Word of the Week posters were politically skewed and meant to rally public opinion in support of the Nazi efforts. The posters set out to educate and unify the German people before and especially during World War II. The posters were placed in train cars, buses, platforms, ticket windows—anywhere there was dense traffic flow. Very few individuals, at the time, owned a car; most biked, walked, or used public transportation daily. Exposure to the
Word of the Week posters was high in German cities. The messages and Nazi ideologies "stared out at the mass public for a week at a time in tens of thousands of places German pedestrians were likely to pass in the course of a day". The posters were 100 centimeters high and 212 centimeters wide.
Radio Before Hitler came to power, he rarely used radio to connect with the public, and when he did so non-party newspapers were allowed to publish his speeches. This changed soon after he came to power in 1933. Hitler's speeches became widely broadcast all over Germany, especially on the radio, itself introduced by the Ministry of Propaganda. They were shown in weekly newsreels and reprinted in large editions in books and pamphlets all across Germany. Furthermore, the types of stations and wavelengths that could be accessed and reached by the radios were controlled by the Ministry, allowing them to limit the radios’ capabilities to listening in on government announcements and propaganda. Nazi propaganda emphasised and portrayed his speeches so that their main points appeared in weekly posters and were all over Germany by the hundreds of thousands.
Internal broadcasts Recognising the importance of radio in disseminating the Nazi message, Goebbels approved a scheme whereby millions of cheap radio sets (the
Volksempfänger) were subsidised by the government. In the "
Radio as the Eighth Great Power" speech, Goebbels proclaimed: :
It would not have been possible for us to take power or to use it in the ways we have without the radio....It is no exaggeration to say that the German revolution, at least in the form it took, would have been impossible without the aeroplane and the radio. ...[Radio] reached the entire nation, regardless of class, standing, or religion. That was primarily the result of the tight centralisation, the strong reporting, and the up-to-date nature of the German radio....Above all it is necessary to clearly centralise all radio activities, to place spiritual tasks ahead of technical ones,...to provide a clear worldview, By the start of the Second World War, over 70% of German households had one of these radios, which were deliberately limited in range in order to prevent loyal citizens from considering other viewpoints in foreign broadcasts. This was accelerated during the war to prevent people from tuning in enemy propaganda broadcasts; though Goebbels claimed in his
Das Reich article that it was to make the radio a good companion to the people, he admitted the truth in his diary.
External broadcasts , known as "Lord Haw-Haw" to British wartime listeners, lying in an ambulance under armed guard before being taken from
British Second Army headquarters to a hospital following his arrest in 1934, who later became a
Vichy minister and broadcaster for the Nazis As well as domestic broadcasts, the Nazi regime used radio to deliver its message to both occupied territories and enemy states. One of the main targets was the United Kingdom, to which
William Joyce broadcast regularly, gaining the nickname "
Lord Haw-Haw". Joyce first appeared on German radio on 6 September 1939 reading the news in English but soon became noted for his often mischievous propaganda broadcasts. Joyce was executed for
treason in 1946. Although Joyce was the most notorious, and most regularly heard, of British propagandists, other broadcasters included
Norman Baillie-Stewart,
Jersey-born teacher
Pearl Vardon,
British Union of Fascists members
Leonard Banning and Susan Hilton, Barry Payne Jones of
The Link and Alexander Fraser Grant, whose show was aimed specifically at
Scotland, also broadcasting through the "New British Broadcasting Service". Broadcasts were also made to the United States, notably by
Robert Henry Best and '
Axis Sally'
Mildred Gillars. Best, a freelance journalist based in
Vienna, was initially arrested following the German declaration of war on the U.S. but soon became a feature on propaganda radio, attacking the influence of Jews in the U.S. and the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who succeeded Winston Churchill in Nazi propaganda as "World-Enemy Number One". Best was later sentenced to life imprisonment for treason, and died in prison in 1952. Gillars, a teacher in Germany, mostly broadcast on similar themes as well as peppering her speech with allegations of infidelity against the wives of servicemen. Her most notorious broadcast was the "Vision of Invasion" radio play, broadcast immediately prior to
D-Day, from the perspective of an American mother who dreamed that her soldier son died violently in
Normandy. France also received broadcasts from Radio-Stuttgart, where
Paul Ferdonnet, an antisemitic journalist, was the main voice during the
Phoney War. Following the occupation,
Radio Paris and
Radio-Vichy became the main organs of propaganda, with leading far-right figures such as
Jacques Doriot,
Philippe Henriot, and
Jean Hérold-Paquis regularly speaking in support of the Nazis. Others who broadcast included Gerald Hewitt, a British citizen who lived most of his life in Paris and had been associated with
Action Française. Domestic broadcasters were also used to galvanise support for occupation in
Belgium, where
Ward Hermans regularly spoke in support of the Nazis from his base in
Bremen, and the
Italian Social Republic, to where
Giovanni Preziosi broadcast a vehemently antisemitic show from his base in
Munich. Pro-Nazi radio broadcasts in the
Arabic language aired in North Africa, crafted with the help of
Mohammad Amin al-Husayni and other Arab exiles in Berlin to highlight Arab nationalism. They recast Nazi racist ideology to target Jews alone, not all Semites. Downplaying Mussolini's operations in Africa, they touted the anti-colonialism of the Axis Powers.
Speakers The Nazi Party relied heavily on speakers to make its propaganda presentations, most heavily before they came to power, but also afterwards. In
Mein Kampf, Hitler recounted that he had realised that it was not written matter but the spoken word that brought about changes, as people would not read things that they disagreed with, but would linger to hear a speaker. Furthermore, speakers, having their audiences before them, could see their reactions and adjust accordingly, to persuade. His own oratory was a major factor in his rise, and he despised those who came to read pre-written speeches. Such speakers were particularly important when the information put across was not desired to reach foreigners, who could access the mass media. In 1939, , speaking of his own experience as an early speaker, urged that they continue.
Sturmabteilung speakers were used, though their reliance on instinct sometimes offended well-educated audiences, but their blunt and folksy manner often had its own appeal. The ministry would provide such speakers with information, such as how to spin the problems on the eastern front, or how to discuss the cuts in food rations. The party propaganda headquarters, sent the
Redner-Schnellinformation (Speakers' Express Information) out with guidelines for immediate campaigns, such as antisemitic campaigns and what information to present. Specific groups were targeted with such speakers. Speakers were created specifically, for instance, for Hitler Youth. These would, among other things, lecture Hitler Youth members and the
BDM on the need to produce more children. Speakers often addressed political or military rallies, which were well-orchestrated events with banners and marching bands. ==Historiography==