Schoonmaker Nazi Propaganda

The Nazis in Power 1933-1939 Sara Schoonmaker John Carroll University

Schoonmaker Nazi Propaganda

Introduction For many of us the words Nazi Propaganda may immediately evoke mindless youth marching side by side, saluting the Fuhrer or thousands of Nazi Party members raising their arms and shouting Heil Hitler unanimously at Nuremberg rallies. The movie Triumph of the Will created by Leni Riefenstahl ensured that such iconic images would endure long after the collapse of the regime she served. Along with Riefenstahls films, numerous other techniques were skillfully used, for example to promote the cult of Hitler, one of the most successful elements of positive Nazi propaganda, retaining widespread appeal until the end of the Nazi regime. After 1933 Nazi Propaganda became an increasingly dangerous weapon with the regimes suppression of democratic freedoms and control of the police and other coercive powers. Most means of mass communication as well as educational and cultural institutions fell quickly under Nazi control and the expression of opposing political viewpoints became punishable crimes. The rapid dismantling of democratic institutions in Germany reminds us of the need for vigilance in safeguarding our freedoms and remembering our responsibilities. The aims and consequences of Nazi propaganda have left an important legacy that influences the way people think about contemporary genocide, anti-Semitism, and hate propaganda. Six decades after the postwar shock of genocide and the unspoken promise that never again will humanity be made to suffer, we find ourselves in an era of anti Semitism, genocide, and even denial of the facts of the Holocaust itself (Zimmerman, 2000). In this age of social media the hater and propagandists have new tools at their fingertips, meanwhile consumers of information seem less able to digest. According to the Media Dynamics publication, Media Matters, a typical adult has potential daily exposure to about 600- 625 ads in any form: 272 of these exposures come from the major traditional media TV, radio, magazines,

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and newspapers confronting them daily (Bauer &Stephen, 1969, p. 2). We need to take a step back and examine the complexities of our past to help us maneuver familiar and unfamiliar waters in the future. Opening to Propaganda Propaganda, Adolf Hitler declared in 1924 in his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert. During the next two decades, Nazi leaders showed the world bold, new ways to use this tool. With a variety of sophisticated techniques, the Nazi Party sought to sway the German people and other Europeans with appealing ideas of a utopian world along with degrading images of Communists, Slavs, and Jews, deemed to be threats to their vision. Ultimately, Nazi Germany drove the world into war, pursuing a vision that cost the lives of some fifty-five million people, including six million Jewish men, women, and children. While the effectiveness of Nazi Propaganda to change minds continues to be debated, Allied officials who prosecuted war crimes after the war and the Nazi leaders themselves believed that propaganda played a crucial role in the implementation of Nazi policies. Many scholars support this view as well (Zeidman 2008). What is Propaganda? Defining the term propaganda has long been a challenge, and its meaning has changed over the course of time. Propaganda comes from Latin and originally was referred to the biological reproduction of flora and fauna, meaning propagation of plants and animals. It took on a new meaning in the 17th century when the Papacy recognized a special division within the Catholic Church the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (propaganda fide), to systematically spread Catholic doctrine throughout the world to win converts to Catholicism and stem the rising tide of Protestantism. Propaganda thus came to connote the dissemination of

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religious ideas in order to shape the opinions and behavior of mass audiences (What is propaganda?) Gradually, the term became associated with the political realm (Fellows 1959). One of the leading scholars of Nazi propaganda, Aristotle A. Kallis, recently characterized propaganda as a form of mass communication and persuasion developed on modern societies: a systematic process of information management geared to promoting a particular goal and to guaranteeing a popular response as desired by the propagandist (Zeidman 2008 p. 2). World War I and the Birth of Modern Propaganda World War I was the foot in the door for propaganda. Between 1914 and 1918 propaganda gained immense interest and newley published works devoted pages to the concept (Schivelbusch, 2003). Army officers, military politician and scholars came to see propaganda as an essential component of modern military warfare. This is partially due to the high death toll in World War I and new weaponry, such as tanks, submarines, aircraft , machine guns, artillery and railway guns, and poison gas. The continuing nature of the war, demanding the mobilization of between sixty million soldiers from five continents and unprecedented military losses1 meant that propagandists had to continually appeal to people in any country involved in war, to recruit more men for the armed forces and to persuade their country that the war needed to be fought until victory (Zeidman 2008, p. 18). World War I and the Public Discovery of Propaganda Propaganda did not get widespread international public recognition as a tool of mass mobilization until World War I (1914-1918). The Central Powers and the Allies created propaganda agencies. The purpose was to rally the front and the soldiery in support of the war ,
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2 million German, 1.1 million Austro-Hungarian, 1.4 million French, and nearly 900,00 British soldiers killed

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maintain or boost morale , weaken the enemies will to fight, and win over the publics opinion in neutral countries . Propaganda was crucial at this time to ensure there would be wiling and able bodied new volunteers or conscripts for the armed forces. At this point in history the atmosphere was characterized by government censorship and manipulation of the press, discerning the truth from half-truth became difficult. Propaganda played a crucial role in Hitlers party platform until 1933. Hitler and his party would continue to capitalize electoral successes in the final years of the Weimar Republic. However the Nazis never managed to win a majority of the votes in any national elections. Millions of Germans would oppose Hitler and his extremist platform, and in the Reichstag elections of November 1932, the Nazi Party won two million fewer votes than in 1930 (Erdmann 1985, 300). It did not have enough electoral support to establish a parliamentary majority or a national government. Nazi victory neither certain nor appointed ultimately would depend less on the strength of its propaganda than on the willingness of President Paul van Hindenburg and the circle surrounding him to appoint Hitler to office of chancellor; which occurred on January 30, 1933 (Zeidman 2008). Propaganda had helped bring the Nazi party close to power by making Hitler a popular candidate, but it could not get him elected 2008) Nazi Propaganda Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime continue to represent the evil power and perils of propaganda. Hitler was first exposed to mass political movements during his early career as a struggling artist in Vienna, from 1907-1913, Hitler drew from two anti-Semitic politicians, Karl Lueger, Viennas Christian Social mayor and Georg Ritter von Schonerer, leader of the Austrian Pan-German Party that stood for the union under German rule of all German speaking peoples in (Zeidman

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Central Europe. The Nazi Party would later adopt tools of political indoctrinization and mobilization that these two Austrian politicans used to attain support (Zeidman 2008). Hitler also observed tactics of the powerful Social Democratic parties, which enjoyed mass support in Austria-Hungray and in Germany. Hitler admired the Socialists, in his book Mien Kampf, written in 1924, astounding skill in mobilizing large segments of the populationmass festivals, parades and the like. He also noted the use of violence to scare political rivals (Zeidman 2008). Hitler came to believe that to destroy Marxism, the Nazi Party would have to create a propaganda machine and its own terror organization the SA (Sturmabteilung) or storm troopers. Hitlers view of propaganda was above all influenced by World War I (1914-18). In Mein Kampf Hitler applauded the skill of enemy propagandists. He felt that U.S. and British propagandists had succeeded in the war because content was emotional and simple, it concentrated on repeatedly making a few points, and it focused on one enemy. By representing the Germans to their own people as bloodthirsty barbarians, they prepared the individual soldier for the terrors and war [and] increased his rage and hatred against the enemy (Zeidman, 2008, 16). In one of several studies of propaganda published in Germany after the war, German poet and art educator Ferdinand Avenarius, analyzing the atrocity stories, exposed how French propagandists falsified photographs by changing captions and touching up images of Russian pogroms against Jews to portray them as German atrocities (Zeidman 2008). The manipulation of photo captions and images later became a standard tool of the Nazis after they took power and during World War II and was a tactic also used during the war by the allies fighting Germany. Socio-political factors of WWII

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Germanys defeat in WWI and the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, came as a great shock to many Germans. Equally traumatic were the abdication of the Kaiser and the proclamation of a republic by the Social Democratic Party. The revolutionaries overthrew the imperial regime, Emperor Wilhelm II, Cologne, on November 9, 1918. The emperor was forced into exile, and proclaimed a democratic republic. For the Nazis and other right-wing nationalists, this event further proved that Germany had been stabbed in the back b y internal enemies (Zeidman 2008 22). The humiliation of their WWI defeat and the Versailles Treaty (1919)- which stipulated that Germany was to pay all war reparations, cede Alsace-Lorraine, Danzig, and other territories all its overseas colonies; and have allied troops occupy the Rhineland, among other terms- led to much backlash in Germany. Hitler and other right wing nationalist parties and organizations, invoking the shame of the Versailles treaty and rejecting the Weimar Republic, developed the myth that Germanys internal enemies Social Democrats, liberals, pacifists, and Jews had stabbed the country in the back. (Zeidman 2008, 22) Looking for a convenient scapegoat, right-wing politicians charged that Jews with shirking their military duty. Although Hitler believed in the stab in the back myth, he was also aware that Allied propaganda, in the form of leaflets dropped from the air to soldiers in the trenches on the Western front, had discouraged Germans will to fight. A German writer expressed his hope for national recovery from defeat and described propaganda as the weapon by which we were defeated, the weapon that has been left to us, the weapon that will help us rise once more. (Rubarth, 1933 p.11). When Adolf Hitler joined the German Workers party in September 1919, it has only been in existence for a few weeks. Within weeks Hitler helped expand the partys membership base,

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he encouraged party leaders to take out advertisements in local newspapers and distribute leaflets promoting meetings. In doing so Hitler likely drew on his earlier observations of mass mobilization in Vienna. While in Vienna he put his skills to the test in at a part-time job designing posters and advertisements for shopkeepers (Zeidman 2008). By early 1920s Hitlers skills in promotion and his appeal as a speaker had earned him the position of director of party propaganda. On February 24, 1920 leaders renamed the party Nationalist Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and published the Twenty Five Point Program. The Nazis Program remained the Partys official statement of goals until the partys end in 1945. For example statement number four, Only someone of German blood, regardless of faith, can be a citizen. Therefore, no Jew can be a citizen. (Zeidman, 2008). This catchy advertising was developed by Hitler and helped bring in two thousand people (Bullock 1962, p.34). In 1922, the guidelines issued by the party was to maximize the propaganda value of meetings organized by members to establish new local groups to increases the momentum of the movement. The Nazi Party In 1920 Hitler purchased Vlkischer Beobachter (Peoples Observer), the newspaper detailed meeting location and times of NSDAP meetings. Compared to the long, detailed articles and academic articles and discussion of economic and social problems usually found in the political journals, Vlkischer Beobachter , edited by the antisemitic writer Alfred Rosenburg, specialized in short hyperboles of the Nazis favorite themes: the humiliation of the Versailles Treaty , the weakness of Weimar parliamentarianism, and the evil of Jewery and Bolshevism all of which were contrasted with Nazi patriotic slogans (Welch, 1993 p.12). Hitler served as Nazi propaganda director and created the partys flag- the Nazi Partys main advertising logo. He maintained the red, white, and black colors of the flag of Imperial

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Germany but modified this design: a black swastika on a white disc against a field of red. The crooked cross of the swastika had ancient roots- because it was found in divers cultures from Hindus in India to native American and modern associations with German and Austrian rightwing groups. It was closely associated with Aryan civilization in India (referring to IndoEuropean settlers in contrast to the indigenous population ), the swastika was taken by those groups to represent the racial superiority of Aryans, whom the Nazi Party equated with Nordic or German blooded peoples, in contrast to Jews and other minorities (Zeidman 2008) Hitler wrote In red we see the social idea of the movement, in white the nationalistic idea, in the swastika the mission of the struggle for the victory of the Aryan man (Hitler, 1925). Hitler became one of Nazis most important propaganda tools. What was new was the scrutiny Hitler paid to presentation, how he said something rather than what he said (Kershaw, 1999). Hitler believed that unlike a newspaper, a film, or even a radio address, a speaker appearing before an audience could form a direct and personal contact with the listeners. The art of propaganda, he wrote in Mein Kampf, lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the masses attention and hearts (Hitler, 1925 p.180). Forming a National Propaganda Apparatus Various methods were used by Nazi propagandists to build popular support and win votes in the election. First the Reich Propaganda Directorate provided local Nazi organizations with detailed instructions on conducting campaigns. Local organizations were told how and where to place party posters, how to tailor language for different targeted audiences-from workers to middle class proffesionals, how to increase the chances that leaflets would be read by distributing them to passengers entering rather than exiting rail and subway stations, how to use

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certain colors to capture the observers eye, and when to stack several versions of the same kiosk (Zeidman, 2008). Second, drawing on modern advertising techniques, Nazi propagandists changed from using wordy broadsides with visually confusing images used by most of their openents to create posters with strong, vibrant colorful images and simple slogans, like Work and Breadto catch peoples attention (Zeidman, 2011) . Important too, the Nazi propagandists distinguished their party from the many other parties in Weimar,Germany,propagandists focused on the person of Adolf Hitler. Hitler Movement propaganda, as it came to be known,depicted crafted images of the Fuhrer that emphasized his charisma, his roots in the common people, his heroism as soldier in World War I , his quasi-messianic status as a savior, and his respectability ( Zeidman, 2011). The Jewish Question Germanys Jewish Community The Jewish Question was an important part of Nazi theoretical writings and propaganda well before Adolf Hitlers accession to power on January 30, 1933, as Weimar Germanys chancellor. Once Hitler took office, the Jewish Question moved from the hypothetical of Nazi theorizing into practical politics. Although the Jewish Question was crucial to the Nazis overall cleanse of the German population, the idea had to be filtered through the levels of political considerations that governed much of what Hitler and the Nazi party did during the early years in power. Until Hitler completed his Gleichschaltung (reordering or coordination) policy of completely Nazifying Germany, he had to weigh his desire to strike forcefully against Germanys Jewish population (Crowe, 2008).Hitlers appointment to chancellor was not without fear on the behalf of some extreme revolutionary factions within the Nazi movement who saw Hitlers appointment as the signal for war against the Jews.

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One of the myths propagated by the Nazis in their campaign for power was the ever present image of the German Jew, especially in the German economy. The Nazis depicted the Germanys Jewish community as a force determined to destroy the fabric of German society and culture. However, the reality at this time was quit different. Germanys Jewish community, which had peaked in 1925 at 568,000 numbered from 523,000 to 525,000 in 1933 and made up just 0.76 percent of the population of 66.1 million. Almost a third of Germanys Jews lived in Berlin; the rest lived in large and small urban areas throughout the country (Crowe, 2008). German Jews did make up a disproportionate percent of the legal (16 percent) and medical professions (10 percent), and from 3 to 5 percent of the countrys writers and journalists, accountants, and performing artists. Only 2 percent of the countrys bankers and stockbrokers were Jewish, a statistic that contradicted the Nazis claim that Jews controlled this important part of the German economy (Crowe, 2008). The only segment of the German economy in which the Jews played a predominant role was in department store businesses (i.e. Tietz, Wertheim, Karstadt). The Nazis so detested these Jewish businesses, which they saw as a threat to the German economy, and as symbols of Jewish modernism and economic domination, that they even mentioned them in the 1920 Party platform: We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class, the immediate communalizing of big department stores and their lease at a cheap rate to small traders, and that the utmost consideration shall be shown to all small traders in the placing of State of Municipal order ( Noakes and Pridham, 1984). The Nazis also hated what they believed to be the Jewish controlled press. Although it is true that Jews owned some of Germanys more respected newspapers such as the Vossiche Zeitung in Berlin, the paper did not have a circulation of more than 100,000. In

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addition, Alfred Hugenberg , the head of the DNVP, a political ally of Hitlers and the minister for economics and food in Hitlers first cabinet, owned a media conglomerate that controlled over half of Germnays newspaper industry. But the Nazis who viewed the press as an essential propaganda channel for their own views, were troubled by the thought of any perceived Jewish domination of this crucial media source. The longest article in the Party program decreed that all German newspaper editors and contributors had to be members of the nation. In addition the program stated, it should be illegal for non-Germans to own German newspapers or to influence them in any way. Anyone who violated such a law would be immediately deported (Noakes and Pridham,1984) . The Nazification of Germany and the Jewish Question 1933-1935 As the Nazis rose to power the Jewish Question became all the more important. Several months before Hitler was appointed chancellor, a Nazi position paper laid out the basic aim of the Nazi party if it should come to power. Should the NSDAP receive an absolute majority [in the November 1932 Reichstag elections], Jews will be deprived of their rights by legal process. If, however, the NSDAP receives power only through a coalition ,the rights of German Jews will be undermined through administrative means (Schleunes, (1990). When Hitler came to power the Nazis only held three seats in a twelve man cabinet and controlled a third of the seats in the Reichstag. Hitler needed to secure a Reichstag majority, consequently when new Reichstag elections took place, the Nazis had already taken over several national and regional administrative positions. In the following weeks the Nazis moved through Germany to seize control of governments not already under party control. During this time Hitler began to prepare for the passage of the Enabling Act; Law to Relieve the Distress of the

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Volk and the Reich, which would allow the government to issue laws and decrees for four years without Reichstag approval (Crowe 2008). But to pass this law, Hitler needed to control two thirds of the seats in the Reichstag. The Nazis went on campaign against the Communists and others who opposed Hitlers movement. As part of this campaign the Nazi party created a series of political detention centers to imprison political opponents. In March of 1933 Heinrich Himmler announced the creation of a Konzentraitionslager (concentration camp)outside the village of Dachau, near Munich. The camp could hold 5,000 prisoners, and was meant for communists, Social Democrats,and anyone else who endangered state security. Hitlers talent was his ability to bind together for a time all of the strands of continuity with old Germany (Kershaw, 1999). Racism, and especially anti-Semetism, remained an important part of Nazi thinking at this time and would become a central issue yet, Hitler and other leaders realized that not all Germans responded to their anti-Jewish messages. To be sure, in some areas of Germany, anti-Jewish propaganda was pronounced. Party campaigns were particularly heavy, and often blatantly anti-Semitic in Berlin under the leadership of Joseph Goebbels, Hitlers propaganda chief whose newspaper DerAngriff (The Attack) bore the motto For the oppressed, against the exploiters and featured articles blaming Jews for most of Germnays ills. Despite the geographic location, as a politican Hitler understood that to gain respectability as a national leaders, he had to suppress temporarily some of his hard hitting antiJewish rhetoric. Jews suffered quit a bit during this period, particularly at the hands of the SA, the most violent anti-Semitic group in the Nazi movement. Local SA units attacked Jewish businesses and initiated boycotts against Jewish goods. On March 28, 1933, Hitler declared an indefinite

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nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses and professional activites, to begin on April 1 (Crowe 2008). He appointed Julius Streicher as head of a Central Committee for Defense against Jewish Atrocity and Boycott Propaganda, which would organize the boycotts. Goebbels told Party organizations : National Socialists, we took care of the Marxist agitators in Germany, and they wont force us to our knees, Saturday, at the stroke of ten, the Jews will find out whom theyve declared war on! (Reuth,1993). The Weimar Republic continued to be doted with violent acts, creating a political and economic crisis that left the society fearful. In Berlin, Nazi Party leader, Joseph Gobbels intentionally provoked Communist and Social Democratic actions by marching SA storm troopers into working class neighborhoods where those partiers had strongholds. The wellpublicized image of the SA-man with a bandaged head, a reminder of his combat against the Marxists became standard in Nazi propaganda. The dual strategy of propaganda and street violence paid off for the Nazi party not just in increased recruitment of SA troopers but ironically, in winning respectability. The Nazis laid out their targets methodically by attacking socialist and Communist paramilitary organizations and locales while avoiding outward violent confrontation with the police, army, or other government agencies. The mainstream press and the authorities accepted the Nazi version of the events that were self defense actions against Marxist provocations and terrorism. By portraying themselves as the only force against Marxism , the Nazis gained respectability and votes ( Zeidman, 2011). During the spring 1932 presidential elections , Hitler did not win the presidency however Hitlers popularity increased due to his personality and ability to attract huge numbers of Germans from diverse backgrounds. That does not go without noting the skill and ability of Joseph Goebbels, he had a doctorate of literature , was a writer, journalist, and clerk before

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joining the Nazi Party in 1924. As party leader in Berlin after 1926, he was effective in enlisting new members. In 1930 Hitler named Goebbels director of the partys national propaganda apparatus. Known for his firry oratory and loyalty to the Fuhrer, Goebbels organized the election campaigns of 1930 and 1932, including Hitler over Germany.Goebbels also initiated the use of the radio, and had motion pictures produced for rallies, speeches, and other events to show at meetings to further inspire and mobilize core supporters (Chrystal, 1975) . Although the Nazi Party made a large splash, it never managed to win the majority of votes in any national election. The Nazi victory- neither inevitable nor preordained- ultimately depended less on the strength of its propaganda than on the willingness of President. Propaganda had helped bring the Nazi party close to power by making Hitle a popular candidate, but it could not get him elected. Not long after the Nazis began to imprison groups they considered asocialor habitual criminals. By 1935, six concentration camps were open throughout the Third Reich. The Enabling Act passed in March of that year by 441 to 94. The Enabling act marked the end of democracy in Germany and gave Hitler firm control of the German government. Between April and July 1933, the Nazis eliminated the state legislatures and replaced them with Reich governors. The Nazis considered this period of struggle as the crown of their propaganda success. The rise of the Nazi Party from petty to political power convinced its militants that propaganda, properly crafted and disseminated, could work miracles. In 1933 when Hitler took power, he had a wealth of skilled, experienced, propagandists and a centralized propaganda apparatus with strong connections to grassroots organizations.

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Works Cited Bauer, Raymond A. & Stephen A. Greyser,. (1968). Advertising in America: The Consumer View. Boston: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University. Bullock, Alan., (1962). Hitler: A Study in Tyranny, New York: Harper and Row, 1962, 65-66. Chrystal, William G. (1975). Nazi Party Election Films, 1927-1938, Cinema Journal 15 2947. Crowe, David. M. (2008). The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath. Elon University, Westview Press. Erdmann, Karl D. (1985). Die Weimarer Repulik , Munich Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag. Fellows, Erwin W. (1959). Propaganda: History of a World American Speech 34 Hitler, Adolf. (1925). Mein Kampf. 496-97. Kershaw, Ian .(1999). Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris 434-435 Noakes, Jeremy and Pridham, Geoffrey eds. (1984). The Nazi Party, State and Society , 19191939, vol. 1 of Nazism, 1919-1945: A History in Documents and Eyewitnesses Books, 15.

Accounts . New York: Stocken

Reuth, Ralf G. Goebbels, trans. Krishna Winston, (1993), 179. Welch, David. (1993). Edgar-Stern Rubarth, quoted in Schivelbusch, Culture of Defeat, The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda, 215-16. Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. (2003). The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning, and Recovery, New York, Metropolitan Books, 214.

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Schleunes, Karl A. (1990). The Twisted Road to Aushwitz: Nazi Policy Toward Jews, 1933-1939, 58,70. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, What is Propaganda? Retrieved from http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/resources/. 18. December 2013 Zeidman, S. Fred. (2011). State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C. Zimmerman, John C. (2000). Holocaust Denial: Demographics, Testimonies, and Ideologies. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.