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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA - General (theory, practice and history)
Nazi Propaganda by David Welch 
Nazi Propaganda By Professor David Welch In the last days of the 1932 election campaign, amidst a sea of coloured election posters, the Nazis confidently produced a strikingly effective black-and-white election poster. It consisted of an image of Hitler's disembodied head, set in stark contrast to a black background. Below the face, written in white capitals, was just one word -'HITLER'. No electioneering slogan was thought necessary on this poster. The juxtaposition of face and name was considered sufficient to put across the necessary message. Hitler's familiarity, in an age when the mass media was only just being recognised as a potent political force, had largely been established by his astonishing election schedule. By taking to the skies in his Deutschlandflug, accompanied by the slogan 'the Führer over Germany', Hitler addressed major rallies in twenty different cities within a period of only six days. The umbilical bond between the members of Hitler's 'charismatic community' became so closely identified with the absolute authority of its leader, that when Germans voted in elections in the 1930s the ballot card referred not to the NSDAP but to the Hitlerbewegung ('Hitler movement'). Propaganda for the masses had to be simple, and appeal to the emotions. To maintain its simplicity, it had to put over just a few main points, which then had to be repeated many times. Once in power the Nazis took control of the means of communication by establishing the Reichministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda ('Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda') - or RMVP, under Dr Joseph Goebbels. Much of Hitler's popularity after coming to power rested on his achievements in foreign policy. A recurring theme in Nazi propaganda before 1939 was that Hitler was a man of peace, but one who was determined to recover German territories 'lost' as a result of the Versailles Treaty of 1919, drawn up at the end of World War One. In 1936, when Germany re-occupied the Rhineland in contravention of Versailles, Hitler attempted to placate the Allies by speciously offering to conclude non-aggression treaties with France and Belgium, and to return Germany to the League of Nations. The cartoon above is from the right-wing magazine Kladderadatsch. It dates from after Germany's illegal occupation of the Rhineland, but presents Hitler as a statesmanlike sower of peace. The figure of Peace is shown in the background, blowing a trumpet fanfare. Since the mid-nineteenth century, the German periodic press had embraced a robust tradition of political satire. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Nazis seized upon the cartoon as an important propaganda vehicle. The cult of the leader, which surpassed any normal level of trust in political leadership, is central to an understanding of the appeal of National Socialism. It was undoubtedly the most important theme running through Nazi propaganda. The Nazis turned to völkisch thought (a product of nineteenth-century German romanticism) and the notion of Führerprinzip ('the leadership principle'), to embody their ideas, and Hitler was shown in posters as a mystical figure, guiding the nation's destiny. In practical terms, the leadership principle meant that decisions came down from above, instead of being worked out by discussion and choice from below. The essentially negative anti-parliamentarianism of Nazi propaganda led to the projection of the 'Führer-myth', which depicted Hitler as both charismatic superman and man of the people. A veritable industry of paintings and posters showed Hitler in familiar 'renaissance pose', alongside the propaganda slogan: Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer ('One People, One Nation, One Leader'). The slogan was used to great effect in 1938, with the Anschluss ('union'), when Germany joined in union with Austria. From 1936 until the Munich agreement of 1938, which gave the Sudetenland to Germany, Hitler carried out a series of audacious foreign policy coups, and these won him support from all sections of the community. He was now widely acclaimed throughout Germany, enjoying unparalleled popularity and prestige. This poster is advertising the benefits of saving for 'your own KdF car'. 'KdF' referred to the Kraft durch Freude ('Strength through Joy') organisation, and the car is the Volkswagen. In May 1933 most of the trade unions were replaced by the Deutsche Arbeitsfront ('German Labour Front'), or DAF, and strikes were banned. In order to win over the support of the working class, the Labour Front established two new organisations: Schönheit der Arbeit ('Beauty of Labour') and Kraft durch Freude ('Strength through Joy'), or KdF. Both can be seen as an attempt to improve the status of workers, and their working conditions, as a substitute for wage increases. The Labour Front's official philosophy was to reduce leisure to a mere auxiliary of work, although it preferred to concentrate on the achievements of organisations like KdF, and provide workers with the prospect of owning one of the new 'people's cars' shown in the poster. Similar posters urged workers to: 'Save five marks a week and get your own car.' Workers responded enthusiastically, and paid millions of marks in to the saving scheme, but they received no cars. By the late 1930s, the increasingly fanatical tone of Nazi propaganda reflected the growing radicalisation of the regime's anti-Semitic policies. The Jewish stereotypes shown in such propaganda served to reinforce anxieties about modern developments in political and economic life, without bothering to question the reality of the Jewish role in German society. In November 1937 'The Eternal Jew' exhibition opened in Munich, and ran until 31 January 1938, claiming to show the 'typical outward features' of Jews and to demonstrate their allegedly Middle Eastern and Asiatic characteristics. The exhibition also attempted to 'expose' a world-wide 'Jewish-Bolshevik' conspiracy. The striking poster for the exhibition contrasted Jewish individualism and 'self-seeking' with the Nazi ideal of a 'people's community'. It did this by revealing an 'eastern' Jew - wearing a kaftan, and holding gold coins in one hand and a whip in the other. Under his arm is a map of the world, with the imprint of the hammer and sickle. The exhibition attracted 412,300 visitors, over 5,000 per day. The Secret Police reports claimed that it helped to promote a sharp rise in anti-Semitic feelings, and in some cases violence against the Jewish community. After the failure to invade Britain in 1940, with Göring's Luftwaffe decisively checked in the Battle of Britain, Hitler switched his attack and invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941. The anti-Bolshevik motif was central to the Nazi Weltanschauung ('world view'). The movement had created an environment in which Communists, together with Jews, formed the main target of Nazi propaganda and violence. Russia figured not only as the centre of world Communism, but also as the repository of international Jewry. The anti-Bolshevik poster above proclaims that Germany has destroyed Great Britain (depicted as one graveyard, with Churchill's grave symbolically prominent), and shows how the mailed fist of Germany is turning its attention to the east - threatening a knock-out blow for Stalin and the Soviet Union. The justification in the poster for the invasion of the USSR (in violation of the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact, 1939) is security (baby in a cradle) and prosperity (living space for Germans). In propaganda terms the message would return to haunt the Nazi leadership when, in 1943, an undefeated RAF began to bomb German cities. |
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