...Cinema: Nazi Propaganda Films German propaganda films were used by the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler in order to convey a message to the citizens of Germany. The messages would vary depending upon what Hitler and his party wanted to tell the people of Germany at that particular time. If it was pre-war propaganda it was Hitler on his rise to power. If it was wartime propaganda it was to keep Germany unite in their fight against the enemy and to keep them inspired with hope and promises of victory. "One of the most philosophically fascinating uses of cinema, is a vehicle for propaganda. Granted all mass media-books, television, music, newspaper, radio and nowadays the internet - can be used for propaganda, that is, as tools for getting a message broadly accepted in a target audience. But, it has been argued that film-as opposed to literature, the plastic arts, music and the other performing arts-has a unique power as a tool for propaganda" (Jason203). "The films of a nation reflect its mentality in a more direct way than other artistic films because films are never the product of an individual and the films address themselves and appeal to the anonymous multitude" (Kraucer, 5). This is why Hitler and the Nazi party decided to use film as a method for spreading their ideology. Film allowed them to reach the masses in a way that other mediums just couldn't do. Plus the "anonymous multitude" would be able to view the films and accept the ideology without...
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...government to leave their homes and be kept in a military-style camp. These acts of genocide were caused because people did not stand up for themselves and do something about the hate and political lies. The Jewish Holocaust is another example of genocide and many suffered due to intolerance of others. Nazi propaganda lead to Nazi ideology, Nuremberg laws, and anti-semitism which justified genocide and caused 6.3 million Jews dead. Ultimately, Nazi propaganda was a big role in a 12 year tragedy called the Jewish Holocaust. Nazi ideology united the germans and economy growth. Also, Nuremberg laws created mistrust over the non-Jews, Jews, and Nazis. Lastly, anti-semitism was another form of propaganda and it made many grow a hatred for Jews. These were a few reasons why the Holocaust was caused. Nazi ideology: Nazi ideology was a mixture of...
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...How effective was Nazi propaganda 1933-1938? One of the main tools of Hitler’s rising Nazi regime was the scrupulous propaganda which enabled the Nazi party to keep the German people in check and under their control, exposing them to only what they saw necessary and vital for Nazi prosper. This helped raise the ideal race that the Nazis strived so wholeheartedly to create. But, how can we determine whether it was effective? To do this, we must look at the various techniques that were used by the ministry of propaganda, and to what extent they worked and helped the Nazi prosper. However, we can only speculate. We will never fully know statistics about how effective Nazi propaganda was, since there was no market research, very few non-Gestapo conducted opinion polls to look at, and even if there were many others, the information would not be accurate and the opinions affected. If there had been polls conducted, the results would have shown exactly what Goebbels and Hitler wanted people to think - this was achieved by making sure that only certain things were safe to think - and more importantly safe to say. Hitler was able to gain more and more followers and appeal to the people due to the severe state of the German economy and the critical state of the people that had no savings, no assets and practically no food. The Versailles treaty had simply been a recipe for destruction for the Weimar Republic and the crisis was the last straw leading to its demise. Hitler was the only...
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...According to Fredrich’s “six point syndrome”, a totalitarian state must consist of an official ideology, a single mass party, terroristic police control, monopoly control of the media and arms and central control of the economy. During the Nazi Reich between 1933-1939, under Hitler as Fuhrer (supreme leader), the Nazi regime was able to successfully achieve aspects of totalitarianism by exerting tight control of the media and police; leading to control of certain aspects of German social, political, legal, economical and cultural life. However, there are significant features of the Nazi regime that simply fail to fit Friedrich's six, all encompassing concepts of totalitarianism. Central to the concept of totalitarianism is an official ideology encapsulating a monolithic party led by an omnipotent, almost God-like figurehead. Whilst Hitler, supported by the Fuhrer myth, certainly fits the totalitarian leader definition, the Nazi Party structure contradicts the characteristics of a coordinated central party. Within, power rested on individuals and not in party structure; leading to increasingly fragmented party policy and intensifying interpersonal frictions as individuals radicalised in attempts to please the Fuhrer. In this structure, accountable and rational decision making in the long term became impossible; leaders lost any sense of stability and improvised agencies and policies to enact the amorphous will of the leader. The most radical policy of all, the extermination...
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...The Author Guida Diehl was the founder and leader of the Newland Movement, which pre-dated the Nazi Party by at least six years. She came from a nationalist and anti-Semitic family, and only joined the Nazi Party in August 1930. Following the advice of Adolf Stocker, who hated Jews and supported the emancipation of unmarried women, she attended social-work school and later worked as a teacher of social work in Frankfurt. Diehl constantly preached a spiritualist, quasi-Christian, and nationalist message, that went against the postwar values of Americanism, materialism, and mammonism, which threatened to overpower Volk, God, and fatherland. Diehl wholly supported National Socialist goals, the Nazi’s anti-communism and anti-Semitism, and was particularly concerned with stemming the tide of moral ‘filth’ including the campaign to legalize abortion. Diehl was installed as ‘cultural advisor’ in the Nazi Party, but by 1936 had lost any appreciable political influence or organizational role. The Document in its Historical Context The title of the document undergoing analysis is, “A New Type of Woman”, and “Principles of the National Socialist Women’s Organizations” (the document), both from the book ‘Die deutsche Frau und der National Sozialismus (The German Woman and National Socialism), and published in 1932. “A New Type of Woman”, as written by Guida Diehl, outlines what characteristics a German woman should possess, and what type of woman she should aspire to become....
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...changes in the lives of German women under the Nazi system driven by Nazi ideology?’. The origin of the first key source are extracts of a 1936 speech given by Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, who was chosen by Hitler to be the leader of the National Socialist Women’s League. This source is relevant to the investigation due to its direct link to Nazi Ideology and the expected role of women in Nazi Germany. Her speech is valuable as a resource as she states, in her role as a top Nazi official, that ‘The woman, besides caring for her own children, should first care for those who need her help as mothers of the nation.’ (Bytwerk,1936) Within her speech, at the beginning of 1936, Scholtz-Klink expounds official Nazi policy to German women in alignment with Nazi Ideology. The limitations of the origin were that Scholtz-Klink, though the head of a huge organization, was ranked very low in the Nazi Hierarchy and was only a figurehead within a system guided by men. (When Hitler’s perfect woman came to call, 2018)...
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...German public were in cooperation with the Nazi regime and agreed with both the enforced and promoted concept of the regime. Hitler had mainly achieved this by trying to ‘ win over the hearts and minds of all non-Jewish Germans’ this would mean he would have the majority of the Germans citizens on his side. However, it is also suggested that many of the people had only consented due to fear which can be inferred from source 5 that it was the methods of the Nazi apparatus of terror that had led to the people conforming. Although source 6 suggests, even without terror which wasn’t completely enforced on ordinary Germans, the German public had ‘little difficulty in conforming’. As source 6 suggests ‘Nazi terror posed no real threat to most ordinary Germans’ so most people were easily persuaded by popular policies to consent to the Nazi regime. Source 6 agrees that the Nazi Regime was a consensus dictatorship as the public knew of the terror the minority groups faced but chose to ignore it due to their own self-interest and advantages of Hitler’s policies. Evidence from reports produced by the SOPADE and SPD who were in exile indicates that the people viewed Nazi policies positively. Unemployment had also reduced falling to 350, 000 by January 1939. This prosperity the public faced due to Nazi reforms such as The Unemployment Relief Act in 1933 and the KDF where working class people could enjoy more leisure activities provided by the Nazi party had made the public consent and ignore...
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...the element of fear among the citizens. Totalitarianism was able to exercise influence, by garnering devotion from regime loyalist. Its prominent execution was purported to collectively influence the success of a country. Supporters of the regime were rewarded by significant posts and incentives while non-loyalists were expected to remain silent without questioning the administrations motives. Use of violence was supported by the administration system to neutralize any emergent form of oppression. Fascism was a prominent governing system that was established during the early twentieth century, based on the need to respond to western influence and assert dictatorial states as new world leaders. The common character present in both ideologies is the nation or state was put before the rest. If a state was conceived by fascist regimes then the nation would speaks would be organized, structured and from its unity arise above the rest (Eatwell, 2011).Stalwarts were the propellers of the movement, their role was to obey and follow the chain of command nurturing a controlled...
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...Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. As opposed to impartially providing information, propaganda, in its most basic sense, presents information primarily to influence an audience. Propaganda often presents facts selectively to encourage a particular synthesis, or uses loaded messages to produce an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented. The desired result is a change of the attitude toward the subject in the target audience to further a political agenda. Propaganda can be used as a form of political warfare. While the term propaganda has acquired a strongly negative connotation by association with its most manipulative and nationalistic examples, propaganda in its original sense is neutral. It may also be construed to refer to uses which are generally held to be somewhat benign or inoffensive, such as public health recommendations, signs encouraging citizens to participate in a census or election, or messages encouraging persons to report crimes to the police, among others. Propaganda was not invented by the Americans. It began with the Roman Catholic Committee for the Propagation of the Faith, an order of the church which was established by a papal bull in 1622. (Baran & Davis, 2013). Throughout the beginning of the twentieth century, the meaning of propaganda was debated as to whether or not it was a good or bad form of communication that could be corrupted...
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...was nothing, no program, no leaflet, no printed matter at all, no membership cards, not even a miserable rubber stamp…” Hitler’s immediate notice of the lack of propaganda or symbol hints at his political intelligence and manipulative behaviour. On October 16th, 1919, Hitler successfully attracted an audience of just over 100 (a significant improvement from previous public meetings) with an advertisement in an anti-semitic newspaper. 1920 saw to Hitler’s takeover of the party’s propaganda where he recruited young men he knew in the army suggesting that he learned early propaganda techniques which would then eventually help him gain dictatorship. Hitler realised there was recognisable symbol or flag representing them, thus in the summer of 1920, the swastika was formed. A uniform symbol to unite the people. Another example of his propaganda intelligence was the commotion he started, when 2 truckloads of party members sent out to drive around with swastikas and throw out leaflets. This was the first time this tactic was used by the Nazis and showed that even in the early years, Hitler understood the power of propaganda. His emotional speech at the Beer Hall Putsch was filled with propaganda content (promises) to rebuild Germany. Hitler also capitalised his trial and used his speech as a propaganda tool to spread his ideology internationally through the massive press coverage. He used analogies to sell his ideas as a dictator to the public. “The man who is born to be a dictator is not...
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...women’s roles in different countries have been very diverse, and some cultures still adhere to traditional views. Depending on historical conditions, the role of women in Germany varied according to the principles of different epochs. When the Nazi Party came to rule, it dictated its perspective on women’s rights and duties, which was based on their ideology of Nazism. At that time, the role of women was quite specific and thought-out. In the beginning of 20th century, German women demanded that they get the right to vote, and succeeded in 1919. They also began working in spheres that were previously considered as dominated by men, stepped out of fashion boundaries by shortening their hair and skirts, and were freer...
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...Max Kiehne The Body Prof. Gordon Nazi Aesthetics The regime of the Nazi party had an explicitly approved form of art. Unlike the other totalitarian regimes of the era, the approved forms of art were firmly integrated into their iconography and ideology, and excluded any other art movement, including those that were popular at the time. These approved forms of art held a limited number of themes, which were repeated as often as necessary, in order to portray the values the Nazis deemed relevant to their cause. These values were, of course, fundamentally nationalistic, and those themes approved by the government were meant to glorify not only the Aryan race, but specifically the German nation. The Harvest: The painting Out To Harvest, by Oskar Martin-Amorbach, is a typical, governmentally approved, work of Nazi art. It depicts a family of farmers going out to harvest on what seems to be a summer day in a typical German countryside. It shows three generations of that family, a young boy at about 4-5 years of age, his mother, and what appear to be his father, grandfather, and a young woman who might be his older sister or aunt. As it’s title implies they are going out to harvest, for they are carrying scythes and rakes for harvesting and a small handheld basket, presumably holding their lunch for the day. In the background is portrayed a typical German landscape, rolling hills as far as they eye could see, symbolizing the Nazis’ slogan of Blood and Soil. Farm Life: What...
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...million Germans unemployed. In 1928, the Nazi party, a political member only had 12 seats in the Reichstag (the German parliament), but during the depression Hitler, the leader, and the rest of the Nazi’s started gaining massive support from many businessmen etc. and by July 1932 they had 230 seats. The young politician, Adolf Hitler, was penetration the nation with his intriguing, powerful propaganda with his promise to re-establish Germany and remove the high unemployment rate. This was a massive pull factor for the Germens civilians, who could not effort the hyper inflated prices of bread, which had by November 1923 increased to an incredible 201,000,000,000 marks . This was resulting in people needing to spend their life saving and more on just one loaf of bread. Hitler became Chancellor in 1933 with plans of becoming an absolute leader When Hitler came to power, the optimism was enormous with belief in the new leader, who by the very beginning enforced new jobs with an intention to ignore the treaty signed in 1920 in Versailles. Yet people were not aware of what Hitler was doing. When Hitler made himself “Der Führer” , the Nazis started to brainwash the German people making sure the support still was high. He started reducing religion, imposing Nazification (making it a kind of culture), educating children about Nazi’s in School, using violence on anyone who spoke poorly about the Nazi party and using mass amount of propaganda to generate support. Hitler started to abolish...
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...The creation of a nazi mass movement In july 1932 the nazi gained 13,745,000 votes and their voters represented 37.3% of the electorate, making hitlers party the largest in the Reichstag. The results of the elections 1928-32 showed the changes in political parties. It was clear that the Nazis made gains from parties with a middle class/protestant identity. Catholic, communist and social democrat parties were able to withstand the Nazi advances. Geography and denomination Nazi support was higher in the North and east of the country and lower in the south and west. Across the North German plain from east Prussia to Schleswig Holstein, the Nazis gained their best results and reflects the significance of religion and degree of urbanisation. The areas with significant numbers of catholics, was were the Nazis gained the less support but the more protestant regions was were they gained more support, and didn’t do so well in large industrial areas but did well in rural areas. The Nazis did the worst in the west catholic areas such as Cologne. And it was at its highest in areas such as Pomerania. Class Nazi voters reflected the rural/urban division in terms of their social groupings. They gained the most support from peasants and farmers, the mittlestand (lower and middle class shop keepers), established ,idle class- teachers and white collar workers. High proportion of the middle class supported the party, but although the working class did join the Nazis in smaller proportions...
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...The 1936 Games were organized and convened under the shadow of the Nazi Party. The government used the Olympics as a means to promote their ideology and position within the international community. As such, the art and advertising associated with the Games had strict standards and symbolism embedded into their design. Adolf Hitler used the 1936 Games in an attempt to prove the superiority of the Aryan race, which failed when Jesse Owens won four gold medals. The Games were meant to be an international meeting of amateur athletes and instead became a showcase and propaganda machine for the National Socialist German Workers' Party leading up World War II. The Third Reich used posters in order to portray the Aryan race’s dominance and higher status...
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