German Propaganda Power

[Tolga Alkan]

What do you think about propaganda power of Third Reich?Did ministry do their works excellent?

[Phil V]

Propaganda is all about getting people to do as you wish.

Mostly this is facillitated by using and illiciting emotion.

The Propaganda Ministry of the Third Reich remains unparalleled in it's success in this area.

Everything in the Reich was designed to encourage a common thought - the success and greatness of Hitler and the Nazi regime. Nothing was left to chance.

The organisations (Hitler Youth, RAD, Womens orgs etc.), the uniforms, the party rallies, the colours of the different Reich flags were all specifically designed in line with propaganda.

One only has to look at period footage or pictures from the era to realise how brilliant the Nazis were at propaganda.

Judging by the huge interest in the Third Reich in modern times it could be said that maybe the propaganda is still performing it's role.

[valadezaj]

What propoganda? All the Germans told was the truth.

[Mark Alinsky]

Propaganda is not necessarily the antithesis of truth.

Dictionary definition:

"Propaganda n. 1. The systematic propagation of doctrine or words.
2. Material disseminated by the advocates of a doctrine or cause."

That being said, propaganda does not have to incorporate truth in order to be considered propaganda.

[Zachary]

I think the Germans did a heck of a job for propaganda. In 1919 the Nazi Part had 55 members in just 20 years they had 5.3 million+ members. Plus, I would definately feel soemthing if I were living there at that time by those posters, most were so nice.
Regards,
Zachary

[Tolga Alkan]

There famous propaganda poster the made about HJ.(A young Hj member and a panzergrenadier)I think if i was a younger in third reich when i could see this poster,it would be very attractive to enlisted in SS.

[Luca]

What do you think about propaganda power of Third Reich?Did ministry do their works excellent?

Probable one of the best "oilated machine" of all the times.

[tonyh]

Actually I would suggest that the allied propaganda machine was far better than anything the Germans could operate. In fact it worked so well that we are left today with the image of evil Germans wanting to take over the world. This in turn was replaced in the fifties by the "Evil empire" of Russia wanting to take over the world, which is now replaced by the "Axis of Evil" wanting to destroy "peace loving peoples everywhere" or in other words wanting to take over the world.

German propaganda never worked on the levels that the allied version did.

Tony

[Richard Miller]

Actually I would suggest that the allied propaganda machine was far better than anything the Germans could operate. In fact it worked so well that we are left today with the image of evil Germans wanting to take over the world. This in turn was replaced in the fifties by the "Evil empire" of Russia wanting to take over the world, which is now replaced by the "Axis of Evil" wanting to destroy "peace loving peoples everywhere" or in other words wanting to take over the world.

German propaganda never worked on the levels that the allied version did.

Tony

Tony, I think you hit it.

I read a poll the other day, in which 59%of Americans want the US to attack Iraq. This manner of "waging of agressive war" is exactly what the Germans were charged with at Nuremberg.

[Matt Gibbs]

I was interested to read the two viewpoints, of course the Nazis did a great job in the propaganda ministry as Tolga mentioned about posters, also postage stamps, the peoples radio etc etc, clubs and societies all amalgamated into the state in some way made poele think the state was really looking after them.
Then of course the nazis have been at the recieving end of the huge propaganda war against them.
Looking back at history which empire do you think in European borders caused the most damage to the peoples of europe...? I am sure that there is more who caused major upheval of peoples than the nazis, just the fact they are within living memory makes the propaganda work so well.
Regards
Matt Gibbs

[Tolga Alkan]

Then of course the nazis have been at the recieving end of the huge propaganda war against them.

Yeah good point,
All the world made a great propaganda against Germany after world learnt holocausts and other evil&unclean behaviours of Germans during War period.

[White Leopard]

By the time World War One was over, Hitler had taught himself just about everything to know about Propaganda. It is not surprising that the Third Reich had one of the best propaganda machines in the history of the world.

Here is a quote that will illustrate what I say:

[From: Hitler, the Path to Power by Charles B. Flood--Houghton Mifflin Company--cc 1989, pg. 21-22]

...."Hitler did yet another kind of reading: he studied the propaganda leaflets that were dropped from British. As the Germans captured Allied prisoners and advanced into and remained in Belgian and French territory, he became aware of the propaganda that the Allies were using to motivate their own troops and civilian populations. His conclusion was that 'the war propaganda of the English and Americans was psychologically sound. By representing the Germans to their own people as barbarians and Huns, they prepared the individual soldier for the terrors of war, and thus helped to preserve him from disappointments. After this, the most terrible weapon that was used against him seemed only to confirm what his propagandists had told him.'

....In broader terms, Hitler scorned what he termed, 'the inner abiguity' of German propaganda, whereas the British bombarded their own public and the Germans with endless repetition of the idea that Germany was solely responsible for the war, the German line was that Germany might be partly responsible for the conflagration, but no more than anyone else. The English approach succeeded with the German public: 'At first the claims of the propaganda were so impudent that people thought it insane; later it got on people's nerves; and in the end, it was believed.'

Quickly convinced of the uncompromising nature of warfare, Hitler studied this psychological weapon as if he were stripping down a machine gun. 'It's effect,' he decided, 'for the most part must be aimed at the emotions and only to very limited degree at the so-called intellect.' The target was 'the primitive sentiments of the broad masses.' Selectivity and repetition were everything: 'It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.' Reassembling the machine gun, Hitler outlined its operation:

'The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan.' ......"

With this cynical analysis, one of the great propaganda machines of all time was set in motion. It was Hitler's great good fortune that he acquired the aid and assistance of a man who understood the mechanics of propaganda as thoroughly as he did himself: Joseph Goebbels. In fact, the machine worked so well that in the end it's builder became it's chief victim.

[Romulus]

Just look at this poster, tell me it isn't one of the coolest posters EVER.