Germany has taken many forms throughout the history of censorship in
the country. Various regimes have restricted the press, cinema,
literature, and other entertainment venues. In contemporary Germany, the Grundgesetz (Basic Law) generally guarantees freedom of press, speech, and opinion.
Today, censorship is mainly exerted in the form of restriction of
access to certain media (examples include motion pictures and video
games) to older adolescents or adults, as well as perceived online fake news, hate speech and misinformation.
Furthermore, the publication of works violating the rights of the
individual or those considered to be capable of inciting popular hatred
(Volksverhetzung) may be prohibited. Possession of such works (including Adolf Hitler'sMein Kampf), however, is generally not punishable. As of 2022, Germany is ranked 22nd on the Press Freedom Index.
Before 1871
Most
of the various smaller German states that later became the modern
nation-state of Germany had censorship laws that severely restricted press freedom and made criticism of the government difficult or impossible. In large measure these were a result of the 1819 Carlsbad Decrees which, inter alia, expanded the censorship of the press.
Censorship was enforced through the requirement to have a government
license to publish books or newspapers, and the mandatory use of an impressum on printed material to identify authors and publishers. However, the city-republics such as Frankfurt and Hamburg tended to have a free press, a rarity in 19th century Germany.
The Prussian invasion, occupation and annexation of Frankfurt was in
large part motivated by the Prussian government's irritation with the
Frankfurt free press; unlike Frankfurt, Prussia had severe censorship
laws.
German Empire (1871–1918)
In the German Empire, many forms of media were under imperial control. Before World War I,
the government appointed civil administrators and bureaucrats who were
in charge of ensuring the public decency of printed material within the
Empire.
The Imperial Press Law of 1874 ended the government's right to
censor materials before publishing. It also eliminated the need for a
government-issued license to publish.
However, the government retained the right to be notified of all
publications when printing began and could prosecute editors for the
content featured in their works. Most often, editors were imprisoned for
the publication of material which insulted the monarch.
At this point, theatres, cinemas, cabarets, and music halls were still
subject to state licensing. Police had direct control over these venues.
Although overall restrictions on film were not codified into law at this time, movies were monitored and regulated.
However, this process was subjective and varied case-by-case and
locality by locality. The local government cut and banned any material
deemed to be against their best interests.
Universal state regulation across the entire Empire began in 1906 when
several local police forces formed a collective task force to ban films
involving Rudolf Hennig
Hennig, a German murderer and fugitive, escaped arrest and embarrassed
the police force. Officials hoping to contain news of his escape banned
the film. In May 1906, government officials passed a police ordinance
requiring that every film shown in Berlin must be examined by the police before it could be presented to public audiences.
However, as the number of films and productions increased, it became
difficult for police to regulate every work. As such, they attended
screenings randomly to check for legal and moral compliance.
Although the state censorship authorities deployed officers all
over the Empire, some localities set up their own field offices. The
first of these field offices were established in 1912 in the cities of
Munich and Stuttgart.
These offices often created their own additional compliance
requirements, but all films remained subject to the standards
established by the state.
With the outbreak of World War I,
the military took over the censorship office with the aim of mobilizing
German support for the war. A police official was appointed in every
city for this purpose. Restrictions on materials became much harsher.
Materials could be banned because of association with a particular
person or country, or simply because the censor felt that the piece was
distracting or a waste of time. Newspapers could be suspended for days
at a time as punishment for the publication of "inappropriate material".
Weimar Republic (1918–1933)
Article 118 of the Weimar constitution banned censorship, but excepted film, indecent and obscene literature, and measures at public events to protect youth. Article 48
allowed the President to suspend this guarantee in order to restore
public safety and order, with veto power over such actions given to the
Reichstag.
An exception to this article was film. The film industry was regulated by the Film Assessment Headquarters. The purpose of this organization was to censor films released in Germany for pornography and other indecent content.
The Gesetz zur Bewahrung der Jugend vor Schund- und Schmutzschriften
(“Law for the Protection of Youth from Trash and Filth Writings”) of 18
December 1926 provided for the partial censorship (restrictions on
distribution) of printed materials in the interest of youth welfare,
though it was only applied post-publication on a case-by-case basis.
Furthermore, it incorporated limits to what could be censored and on
what grounds; printed materials could not be added to the index for
political, social, religious, ethical, or world-view-related reasons. However, the goal of this regulation was to restrict content that could ruin the youth intellectually, morally, and physically. Such "harmful" content included dime novels, serialized books, and dramatic pamphlets.
The Weimar Republic maintained a number of criminal provisions for hate crimes and anti-Semitic expression.
In response to violent political agitators such as the Nazis,
authorities censored advocacy of violence and criticism of the
government. Emergency decrees were issued giving the power to censor
newspapers, and hundreds of Nazi newspapers were shut down. Hitler was
prevented from speaking in several German states, and leading Nazis such
Goebbels were sentenced to jail time for violating hate speech laws.
Shortly after Adolf Hitler
rose to power in 1933, he established the Ministry of Propaganda with
the goal that this agency would control all forms of mass communication
in Germany. At its peak of influence, the Ministry employed 1,500 employees spanning 17 departments.
Censorship policy was produced and implemented by the Reich Minister of
Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. As such, Goebbels oversaw the publication
of all media that was to be widely distributed — literature, music,
newspapers, and public events.
Any material that threatened the reputation of Hitler's government or
spoke ill of the regime was immediately censored and retracted. Additionally, books that were already in circulation and written by Jewish authors were collected and burned.
Nazi bureaucrats saw their work and information control as necessary.
It was, in their minds their duty to protect the German public from the
harms of "undesirable books".
The control of information among young people was especially
vital to the German government. On May 10, 1933, shortly after the Nazis
rose to power, the government burned one-third of the total library
holdings in Germany.
As soldiers burned at least 25,000 books in the center of Berlin,
Goebbels spoke of the evils of literature and encouraged massive crowds
to say “No to decadence and moral corruption!”. This event began a widespread effort to illustrate government control and align public opinion with party ideology.
The aim of censorship under the Nazi regime was simple: to
reinforce Nazi power and to suppress opposing viewpoints and
information.
According to the Constitution of the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik), censorship of any kind was forbidden. However, the government of the GDR took measures to ensure that all publications were in line with their ideological grounding.
The Office of Head Administration for Publishing and Book Trade
was tasked with regulating all material published within the GDR.
The office aimed to produce material that was both politically correct
and a reflection of communist values; however, the office was often
advertised to the public as “a means for improving the quality of
literature.”
Most division chiefs were literary figures with a history of party
loyalty; oftentimes a former head of a publishing house or an author
filled the role.
In order to have material published and printed, an author or
publisher had to submit the work to the Office and acquire a permit.
Writers typically experienced a processing time of one to two months. Refusal to publish was not uncommon; a team of six typically rejected 250 manuscripts each year after receiving around 600. Approved books were published and around 10,000 copies of each book entered circulation.
Other types of art were also highly regulated. Permission was required to exhibit or perform any visual art. In addition, journalists without government approval were not hired.
The primary goal of East German censorship - whether it be to
regulate books, movies, or other forms of art - was to protect the
interests of communism and its implementation. Works critical of the
East German or Soviet governments were forbidden, as were any works
which seemed sympathetic to fascism.
Around 1989, as the people of East Germany grew more and more
displeased with the state of the country, the rejection of material that
celebrated West Germany heightened.
Thousands of East Germans were fleeing west and the demand for West
German materials - films, books, and magazines - was on the rise. As a result, the literature market for East German publications suffered. Books sat undistributed in Office warehouses as the demand for material was nearly nonexistent.
In the immediate aftermath of World War II, the West German media was subject to censorship by the forces of the Allied occupation. Authors, publishers, distributors, and sellers were all subject to prosecution for spreading "poisonous material". Content displaying communist affections or anti-democracy leanings were most heavily regulated.
The most celebrated characteristic of acceptable publications was party
loyalty; West German Government officials repressed any content that
did not allude to political support and nationalism. Publications void of total party support were taken off the shelves amid discovery and added to a blacklist.
In all, around 30,000 titles were confiscated and every copy was to be
destroyed. Often, such works would be discovered by a non-governmental
party loyalist committed to the cause. The representative of the Allied
forces admitted that the order in principle was no different from the Nazi book burnings, although unlike the burnings, the measure was seen as a temporary part of the denazification program.
Another main goal of widespread censorship in West Germany was to protect youths from "poisonous" material.
Government officials worked to prevent individuals under the age of
eighteen from being exposed to content considered immoral, dangerous, or
inappropriate. Tapes, films, books, magazines, and music were
restricted and added to the list of "youth endangering writings" should
they showcase improper content.
Officials took it upon themselves to rid young West Germans of content
which featured expletives, sexual interactions, excessive affection,
war, or substance use.
Re-unified Germany (1990–present)
When the official government, the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
took over in 1949, the limits on free speech were relaxed. The new
German constitution from 1949 guaranteed freedom of press, speech, and
opinion; the government continued to fight "anti-constitutional"
activities, especially communist subversion during the Cold War. When East Germany ceased to exist and its territory became part
of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990, it became subject to the
jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Germany; the same protections
and restrictions in West Germany apply to contemporary Germany. However,
continued globalization and the advent of Internet marketing present a new host of complications to German censorship and information laws.
Publications violating laws (e.g., promoting Volksverhetzung or slander and libel) can be censored in today's Germany, with authors and publishers potentially subject to penalties. Strafgesetzbuch section 86a
forms a relatively strict prohibition on the public display of "symbols
of unconstitutional organizations" outside the context of "art or
science, research or teaching". Such symbols include the swastika, the black flag of ISIL, and the Communisthammer and sickle,
although the legality of some symbols is dependent on the context in
which they are displayed -- a swastika may be displayed in a Buddhist temple, for example. Materials written or printed by organizations ruled to be anti-constitutional, like the NSDAP or the Red Army Faction (Baader-Meinhof Gang), have also been placed on the index. Public Holocaust denial is also prohibited and may be severely punished with up to five years in prison.
A decision of a court that assumes that a publication is violating
another person's personal rights may also lead to censoring (a newspaper
for example can be forced not to publish private pictures).
One official censoring body in Germany is the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien
(Federal Review Board for Media Harmful to Minors). The body manages a
list of works that may be purchased by adults only, and the exhibition
(for sale) is usually also prohibited. While this indexing can grant
publicity to some works, publishers often try to avoid indexing, to make
the media available to a wider audience. Methods to avoid inclusion on
the list include the reduction of violent scenes in movies and the
removal of Nazi symbols in games in cases of propaganda.
Education purposes and the freedom of arts allow the appearance of Nazi symbols in films and games in other cases.
The Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK) is a privately organized body that also controls (electronic) media regarding their suitability for minors. The German Jugendschutzgesetz
(Youth Protection Act) of 2003 made the former advisory-only label a de
facto requirement; only products controlled by such a body may be
publicly displayed for sale, with further restrictions applying to such
media considered to be "18+".
In the 1990s and 2000s, the struggle against Scientology in Germany has been a major issue, as Scientology
is viewed by the German authorities as a threat to democracy and a
predatory commercial organization, not a religion. Scientology remains
under government surveillance, and there have been attempts to ban the
organization entirely.
In 2022, several German states have banned public displays of the letter "Z", a symbol used for supporters of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"The Russian attack on Ukraine is a crime and whoever publicly approves
of this war can thereby become criminally liable," said Marek Wede, a
spokesperson for Germany's Interior Ministry.
Critics of this policy note that banning the public display of the
letter "Z" does not assist Ukraine and that it may embolden supporters
of Russia who already claim to feel victimized.
Religious censorship
In 2002, there was a legal controversy regarding the "Power for Living" campaign by the Christian Arthur S. DeMoss Foundation featuring celebrities Cliff Richard and Bernhard Langer.
The TV advertisements for their book were banned because they were
considered as "advertising a worldview or religion", which is forbidden
by § 7 section 8 of the state treaty on broadcasting
(Rundfunkstaatsvertrag) and European laws on media. For its posters,
newspaper adverts and leaflets, however, there was no such problem.
Network Enforcement Act
The Network Enforcement Act or NetzDG which was passed in the Bundestag
in 2017 has been criticized heavily by politicians, human rights
groups, journalists and academics for incentivising social media
platforms to pre-emptively censor valid and lawful expression, and
making them the arbiter of what constitutes free expression and
curtailing freedom of speech in Germany.
The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi policies.
Adolf Hitler devoted two chapters of his 1925 book Mein Kampf, itself a propaganda tool, to the study and practice of propaganda. He claimed to have learned the value of propaganda as a World War I infantryman exposed to very effective British and ineffectual German propaganda. The argument that Germany lost the war largely because of British propaganda efforts, expounded at length in Mein Kampf,
reflected then-common German nationalist claims. Although untrue—German
propaganda during World War I was mostly more advanced than that of the
British—it became the official truth of Nazi Germany thanks to its
reception by Hitler.
Mein Kampf contains the blueprint of later Nazi propaganda efforts. Assessing his audience, Hitler writes in chapter VI:
Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses
of the people. (...) All propaganda must be presented in a popular form
and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of
the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. (...) The art of
propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination
of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the
appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal
to the hearts of the national masses.
The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or
professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to
form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human
children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another.
(...) The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and
outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than
by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however, is not complex, but simple
and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the
negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth
and falsehood.
As to the methods to be employed, he explains:
Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively
and, in so far as it is favorable to the other side, present it
according to the theoretical rules of justice; yet it must present only
that aspect of the truth which is favorable to its own side. (...) The
receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their
understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such
being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare
essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped
formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very
last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward.
(...) Every change that is made in the subject of a propagandist message
must always emphasize the same conclusion. The leading slogan must, of
course, be illustrated in many ways and from several angles, but in the
end one must always return to the assertion of the same formula.
Early Nazi Party (1919–1933)
Hitler put these ideas into practice with the reestablishment of the Völkischer Beobachter, a newspaper published by the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from December 1920 onwards, whose circulation reached 26,175 in 1929. It was joined in 1927 by Joseph Goebbels's Der Angriff, another unabashedly and crudely propagandistic paper.
During most of the Nazis' time in opposition, their means of
propaganda remained limited. With little access to mass media, the party
continued to rely heavily on Hitler and a few others speaking at public
meetings until 1929. One study finds that the Weimar government's use of pro-government radio propaganda slowed Nazi growth.
In April 1930, Hitler appointed Goebbels head of party propaganda.
Goebbels, a former journalist and Nazi Party officer in Berlin, soon
proved his skills. Among his first successes was the organization of
riotous demonstrations that succeeded in having the American anti-war
film All Quiet on the Western Front banned in Germany.
In power (1933–1939)
A 1937 anti-Bolshevik Nazi propaganda poster. The translated caption: "Bolshevism without a mask – large anti-Bolshevik exhibition of the NSDAP Gauleitung Berlin from 6 November to 19 December 1937 in the Reichstag building".
A major political and ideological cornerstone of Nazi policy was the
unification of all ethnic Germans living outside the Reich's borders
(e.g. in Austria and Czechoslovakia) under one Greater Germany. In Mein Kampf,
Hitler denounced the pain and misery of ethnic Germans outside Germany,
and declared the dream of a common fatherland for which all Germans
must fight. Throughout Mein Kampf, he pushed Germans worldwide to make the struggle for political power and independence their main focus, made official in the Heim ins Reich policy beginning in 1938.
On 13 March 1933, Nazi Germany established a Ministry of Propaganda,
appointing Joseph Goebbels as its Minister. Its goals were to establish
enemies in the public mind: the external enemies which had imposed the Treaty of Versailles on Germany, and internal enemies such as Jews, Romani, homosexuals, Bolsheviks, and cultural trends including "degenerate art".
For months prior to the beginning of World War II
in 1939, German newspapers and leaders had carried out a national and
international propaganda campaign accusing Polish authorities of
organizing or tolerating violent ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans living in Poland. On 22 August, Adolf Hitler told his generals:
I will provide a propagandistic casus belli. Its credibility doesn't matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth.
The main part of this propaganda campaign was the false flag Operation Himmler, which was designed to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany, in order to justify the invasion of Poland.
Research finds that the Nazis' use of radio propaganda helped it consolidate power and enroll more party members.
There are a variety of factors that increased the obedience of
German soldiers in terms of following the Nazi orders that were given to
them regarding Jews. Omer Bartov, a professor on subjects such as
German Studies and European History, mentioned in his book, Hitler’s Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich,
how German soldiers were told information that influenced their
actions. Bartov mentioned that General Lemelson, a corps commander,
explained to his German troops regarding their actions toward Jews, "We
want to bring back peace, calm and order to this land…"
German leaders tried to make their soldiers believe that Jews were a
threat to their society. Thus, German soldiers followed orders given to
them and participated in the demonization and mass murders of Jews.
In other words, German soldiers saw Jews as a group that was trying to
infect and take over their homeland. Omer Bartov's description of Nazi
Germany explains the intense discipline and unity that the soldiers had
which played a role in their willingness to obey orders that were given
to them.
These feelings that German soldiers had toward Jews grew more and more
as time went on as the German leaders kept pushing further for Jews to
get out of their land as they wanted total annihilation of Jews.
Until the conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad
on 2 February 1943, German propaganda emphasized the prowess of German
arms and the humanity German soldiers had shown to the peoples of
occupied territories. Pilots of the Allied bombing fleets were depicted
as cowardly murderers and Americans in particular as gangsters in the
style of Al Capone.
At the same time, German propaganda sought to alienate Americans and
British from each other, and both these Western nations from the Soviet
Union. One of the primary sources for propaganda was the Wehrmachtbericht, a daily radio broadcast from the High Command of the Wehrmacht, the OKW. Nazi victories lent themselves easily to propaganda broadcasts and were at this point difficult to mishandle. Satires on the defeated, accounts of attacks, and praise for the fallen all were useful for Nazis. Still, failures were not easily handled even at this stage. For example, considerable embarrassment resulted when the Ark Royal proved to have survived an attack that German propaganda had hyped.
Goebbels instructed Nazi propagandists to describe the invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) as the "European crusade against Bolshevism" and the Nazis then formed different units of the Waffen-SS consisting of mainly volunteers and conscripts.
After Stalingrad, the main theme changed to Germany as the main
defender of what they called "Western European culture" against the
"Bolshevist hordes". The introduction of the V-1 and V-2 "vengeance weapons" was emphasized to convince Britons of the hopelessness of defeating Germany.
Nur für deutsche Fahrgäste ("Only for German Passengers"),
a Nazi slogan used in occupied territories, mainly posted at entrances
to parks, cafes, cinemas, theatres and other facilities.
On 23 June 1944, the Nazis permitted the Red Cross to visit the concentration camp Theresienstadt to dispel rumors about the Final Solution, which was intended to kill all Jews. In reality, Theresienstadt was a transit camp for Jews en route to extermination camps.
In a sophisticated propaganda effort, fake shops and cafés were erected
to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort. The guests enjoyed
the performance of a children's opera, Brundibar, written by inmate Hans Krása. The hoax was so successful for the Nazis that they went on to make a propaganda film Theresienstadt. The shooting of the film began on 26 February 1944. Directed by Kurt Gerron, it was meant to show how well the Jews lived under the "benevolent" protection of Nazi Germany. After the shooting, most of the cast, and even the filmmaker himself, were deported to the concentration camp of Auschwitz where they were murdered. Hans Fritzsche, who had been head of the Radio Chamber, was tried and acquitted by the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal.
Antisemitic wartime propaganda served a variety of purposes. It was
hoped that people in Allied countries would be persuaded that Jews
should be blamed for the war. The Nazis also wished to ensure that
German people were aware of the extreme measures being carried out
against the Jews on their behalf, in order to incriminate them and thus
guarantee their continued loyalty through fear by Nazi-conjectured
scenarios of supposed post-war "Jewish" reprisals. Especially from 1942 onwards,
the
announcement that Jews were being exterminated served as a group
unification factor to preclude desertion and force the Germans to
continue fighting. Germans were fed the knowledge that too many
atrocities had been committed, especially against the Jews, to allow for
an understanding to be reached with the Allies.
— David Bankier (2002) The Use of Antisemitism in Nazi Wartime Propaganda
Nazi media vilified arch-enemies of Nazi Germany as Jewish (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) or in the cases of Josef Stalin and Sir Winston Churchill abject puppets of an international Jewish conspiracy intent on ruining Germany and Nazism.
Problems in propaganda arose easily in this stage; expectations
of success were raised too high and too quickly, which required
explanation if they were not fulfilled, and blunted the effects of
success, and the hushing of blunders and failures caused mistrust.
The increasing hardship of the war for the German people also called
forth more propaganda that the war had been forced on the German people
by the refusal of foreign powers to accept their strength and
independence. Goebbels called for propaganda to toughen up the German people and not make victory look easy.
The
Nazis and sympathizers published many propaganda books. 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 theorized 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 "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. Ludwig Ferdinand Clauß [de] (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 "colored" 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" emphasized 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 text books 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 (inferior 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.
Fairy tales were put to use, with Cinderella
being presented as a tale of how the prince's racial instincts lead him
to reject the stepmother's alien blood (present in her daughters) for
the racially pure maiden. Nordic sagas were likewise presented as the illustration of 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 glamorizing 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.
Books in occupied countries
In
occupied France, the German Institute encouraged the translation of
German works although chiefly German nationalists, not ardent Nazis,
produced a massive increase in the sale of translated works.
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.
Comics
The Nazi-controlled government in German-occupied France produced the Vica comic book series during World War II as a propaganda tool against the Allied forces. The Vica series, authored by Vincent Krassousky, represented Nazi influence and perspective in French society, and included such titles as Vica Contre le service secret Anglais, and Vica défie l'Oncle Sam.
The Nazis produced many films to promote their views, using the party's Department of Film for organizing film propaganda. An estimated 45 million people attended film screenings put on by the NSDAP.
Reichsamtsleiter 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.
On 22 September 1933, a Department of Film
was incorporated into the Chamber of Culture. The department controlled
the licensing of every film prior to its production. Sometimes the
government selected the actors for a film, financed the production
partially or totally, and granted tax breaks to the producers. Awards
for "valuable" films would decrease taxes, thus encouraging
self-censorship among movie makers.
Under Goebbels and Hitler, the German film industry
became entirely nationalized. 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 propagandizing
children. Films specifically created for schools were termed "military education."
Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1935) by film-maker Leni Riefenstahl chronicled the Nazi Party Congress of 1934 in Nuremberg. It followed an earlier film of the 1933 Nuremberg Rally produced by Riefenstahl, Der Sieg des Glaubens. Triumph of the Will features footage of uniformed party members (though relatively few German soldiers), who are marching and drilling to militaristic tunes. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including Adolf Hitler. Frank Capra
used scenes from the film, which he described partially as "the ominous
prelude of Hitler's holocaust of hate", in many parts of the United
States government's Why We Fight
anti-Axis seven-film series, to demonstrate what the personnel of the
American military would be facing in World War II, and why the Axis had
to be defeated.
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
characterize 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 the Nazi enemies.
Fine art
Arno Breker's sculptures of the Nordic man made him Hitler's favorite 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. Explicitly political paintings were very rare. Still more rare were antisemitic paintings, because the art was supposed to be on a higher plane. 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 emphasized the strong and active German woman.
Signal was a propaganda magazine published by the Wehrmacht during World War II 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 civilization
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 to be seen today come from Signal. The magazine contained little to no antisemitic propaganda, as the contents were mainly military.
Newspapers
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;
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 Nazis cracked down on the papers, 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.
In Norway during the 1930s the newspaper Aftenposten was supportive of Nazi Germany, and after Norway was occupied in 1940 the newspaper was used by the Germans to spread propaganda. The editor was replaced by a member of Vidkun Quisling's government.
Photography
Adolf Hitler rehearsing poses for his speeches in photos reportedly taken in 1927.
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 NSDAP 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 1933 he was elected to the Reichstag and in
1938 Hitler appointed him a 'Professor'.
Hitler's field headquarters, Hitler with staff, May or June 1940, Heinrich Hoffmann front row far right
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. 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
"We have only one goal... Victory at all costs!" — Parole der Woche 29 April 1942Wochenspruch der NSDAP 11 January 1943 quotes Hermann Göring: "We do not want to leave to our children and descendants what we can do ourselves."
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 Wochewall 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".
Jeffery Herf, author of The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust,
described the poster campaign as a "combination of a newspaper
editorial, political leaflet, political poster, and tabloid journalism". Adolf Hitler personally appointed artist Hans Schweitzer, known as Mjölnir, with the task of translating Nazi ideology into images for the wall newspaper. The posters were 100 centimeters high and 212 centimeters wide.
The visual style of the posters was bold text and Nazi-influenced
colors, it meant to capture the attention of the German passersby. The
text was big so that several people could read it at the same time and
from a distance of a few feet.
The majority of the posters were centered on Jews and the Allied
countries of Great Britain, the United States of America, and Russia.
During the time period when antisemitic articles decreased in
publications, the antisemitic rhetoric was ramped up in The Word of the Week posters. From 1941 to 1943 about twenty-five percent of The Word Of The Week posters included an attack on Jews. The Jews were depicted as enemies because of their supposed economic war, capitalism, and connection to the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.
The Nazi regime fostered the idea that the Jews were the masterminds
behind all oppositional political forces. Images often showed a Jewish
figure positioned behind, or above, symbols of economic and political
influence.
Additionally, it was also common to depict the Allied forces of Great
Britain, the United States, and Russia as overtaken by Jewry.
Posters were also used in schools, depicting, for instance, an
institution for the feeble-minded on one hand and houses on the other,
to inform the students that the annual cost of this institution would
build 17 homes for healthy families.
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.
Hitler's speeches became so significant to the Nazis that even
restaurants and pubs were expected to have their radios on whenever he
was delivering one, and in some cities public speakers were used so
passersby could hear them.
The Nazis also sold cheap radios so that people could hear speeches at
home. These were called the People's Receivers, and were sold for 76
marks, while cheaper versions were sold for 35 marks.
Nazi propaganda emphasized and portrayed his speeches so that their
main points appeared in weekly posters and were all over Germany by the
hundreds of thousands.
Nazi propaganda also used radio as an important tool to promote genocide.
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 airplane and the radio. ...[Radio]
reached the entire nation, regardless of class, standing, or religion.
That was primarily the result of the tight centralization, the strong
reporting, and the up-to-date nature of the German radio....Above all it
is necessary to clearly centralize 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. Radio broadcasts were also played over loudspeakers in public places and workplaces.
In private homes, however, people could easily turn off the radio
when bored and did so once the novelty of hearing the voice from a box
wore off; this caused the Nazis to introduce many non-propaganda
elements, such as music, advice and tips, serials and other
entertainment.
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
William Joyce,
who was "Lord Haw-Haw" to British wartime listeners, now under arrest,
lies in an ambulance under armed guard before being taken from British Second Army Headquarters to a hospital.Philippe Henriot 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 the Jews in the U.S. and the leadership of Franklin Delano 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. Hitler, in Mein Kampf,
recounted that he had realized 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. Schools were instituted to substitute for the political conflict that had formed the old speakers. In 1939, Walter Tiessler [de], 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, for instance, were created specifically for Hitler Youth. These would, among other things, lecture Hitler Youth 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
Nazi propaganda is a relatively recent topic of close study. Historians of all persuasions, including Eastern Bloc writers, agree about its remarkable effectiveness. Their assessment of its significance, however—whether it shaped
or merely directed and exploited public opinion—is influenced by their
approach to wider questions raised by the study of Nazi Germany, such as
the question of whether the Nazi state was a fully totalitarian dictatorship, as argued by Hannah Arendt, or whether it also depended on a certain societal consensus.
In addition to media archives, an important primary source for
the study of the Nazi propaganda effort are the reports on civilian
morale and public opinion that the Sicherheitsdienst and later the RMVP compiled from 1939 on. Another are the Deutschland-Berichte, reports gathered by underground agents of the Sopade that particularly dealt with German popular opinion.
