Censorship & Propaganda, 1933-1945

-Goebbels headed Nazi Germany’s propaganda machine.

• It had 3 parts: the RMVP (Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda); the Reich Chamber of Culture; and the NSDAP Central Propaganda Office.
• The RMVP controlled propaganda, arts and entertainment
• The Reich Chamber for Culture was to promote Germanic, Völkisch culture. Membership was compulsory for anyone involved in arts, culture or the media.

• The RMVP controlled all aspects of the media and the arts in a variety of ways:
  • Direct or part ownership.
  • Controlling those who could work in the media and the arts.
  • Overseeing what the media and the arts produced.
  • Dealing with non-conformists.
• Licenses were issued to approved writers, artists, musicians etc and could be revoked. Without a license, you could not work.
  • The RMVP gradually bought shares in German film production companies.

• In April 1934 the Nazis created a unified German radio system and purged it of all the usual undesirable elements. It controlled all radio content.
• Cheap radios were subsidised by the Nazi party. They had limited range and only picked up one station.
• By 1939, 70% of German households owned one.
• Most output was light entertainment or news.
• Every district and a loud speakers to broadcast speeches by Nazi leaders.

• Book burnings were not effective but were highly symbolic.
• Books burned included all Jewish authors, left wing, liberal, democratic works, traitors, foreigners or anything deemed to denigrate the German Volk.
• The Reich Association of the German Press had lists of acceptable editors and journalists.
• The RMVP controlled content through the Press Agency.
• Local newspapers were harder to control but the Nazis’ publishing firm, Eher Verlag, took over most titles. In 1939 they controlled 69% of newspapers.

• Visual art: -Artwork portrayed superior, heroic Aryans or idyllic family life.
  • Landscapes often showed rural Volk and the land they worked (‘Blood and Soil’).
  • Degenerate art was banned, including abstract, surreal art and artists like Van Gogh, Picasso as well as work by communists, Jews etc.
• Architecture:
  • Public buildings were to be a lasting memorial to the 1000 Year Reich. Both their outside and inside space would be experienced by thousands daily.

• Nuremberg rallies were filmed and shown on newsreels. It was hoped people would be fired with enthusiasm for Nazism. They were addressed by Hitler.
• Festivals celebrating key dates in Nazi history were introduced, such as Nazis seizure of power (30 January), Hitler’s birthday (20 April) and the Munich Putsch (9 November).
• Adam (1992)
  • ‘Few politicians have produced such adoration, even hysteria, as Hitler.’
• The 1936 Berlin Olympics were an international propaganda opportunity.

• Film was not usually overtly used as propaganda. Its value was in keeping the masses entertained. There were newsreels before all feature films however were full of propaganda.
• About one sixth of feature films were propaganda e.g. Jud Süss (1940).
• Leni Riefenstahl was the most famous producer. She also made films of festivals, rallies like Triumph of the Will (1935) about the Nuremberg Rally and Olympia (1938) about the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

• Comparative historical work on authoritarian regimes in recent years has shown that Nazi propaganda was made effective because it was coupled with economic growth.
• Paul Corner (2009) argues that authoritarian regimes had to 'legitimate themselves through results.' There would always be a gap between the image of life projected by propaganda and the reality of life in Nazi Germany but the real material rewards that the Nazis were able to give the German people helped them to reconcile this 'gap'.

• Historians generally believe the impact of propaganda was minimal, except in reinforcing existing fears and prejudices – e.g. against communists, Jews.
• Bankier (1992) argues that ‘from 1941 onwards, the failure of Nazi promises to materialise drove a wedge between the population and the regime’.
• Stargadrt (2016) argues that by 1943 the Nazi regime had to combat defeatism by whipping up German fears about the Jews. The Allied bombing of Germany in 1943 was used to rally a determination to survive.