Methods of Nazi propoganda

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  • Created by: Holly
  • Created on: 21-05-13 10:22

Parades and public spectacles

  • Military-style parades had been used in the 1920s and 1930s to raise Nazi profile, to intimidate opposition and to create an impression of a large, well supported and disciplined organisation.
  • Effect increased through use of uniforms and medals, banners and party songs.
  • On national holidays, householders were expected to show support to the parades by hanging a Nazi flag out of their windows.
  • Was this proof that the population were behind the regime?
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Newspapers

  • Reich Press Chamber established. All those involved in publishing newspapers had to be members.
  • Membership was vetted for 'radical and political reliability' (1,300 Jew and marxist journalists removed from their jobs.
  • The state-controlled news agency (DNB) help daily conferences and issued detailed instructions on what could and could not be printed. Sometimes they would provide articles which newspapers were oblidged to print.
  • Control over official advertising and printing contracts put pressure on the press to 'fall into line' (Gleichschaltung)
  • Gradually tightened through 1933-39. 
  • Newspapers became bland and conformist, and circulation figures fell.
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Radio

  • Regarded by Hitler as one of the most powerful propoganda instruments as he could speak to people in their own homes.
  • Mass production of radios, also very cheap.
  • 70% of Germans owned a radio set
  • In plays and talk shows, emphasis placed on the volksgemeinschaft.
  • Gobells realised that an overwhelming concentration of political propoganda on the radio would alienate listeners, and so instead he intrstucted radios to concentrate on music and light entertainment.
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Music

  • Weimar period was a time of diversity in German music.
  • American jazz music was starting to become popular with the German Youth, but the Nazi's denounced this due to its roots in black American culture.
  • Music was what the Nazi's found most difficult to control.
  • A Reich Music Chamber was established to control music production and promotion of Nazi-approved music.
  • Experimental jazz was banned from being performed, published or played on the radio.
  • No clear policy on what music the Nazi's wanted to promote.
  • There was a long tradition of playing and singing music within the home, which made music almost impossible to control.
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Cinema

  • Gobbels recognised the potential of film to work on the subconcious.
  • Film companies were nationalised in 1942. (Gleichschaltung)
  • Reich Film Chamber was set up to regulate the content of films and employment within the industry, and films were carefully checked for political and racial content. As a result, most american films were banned, although the popularity of disney cartoon meant that many of them were approved.
  • Leadership, 'blood and soil' and the demonising of jews and communists were common theme.
  • The planned invasion of Britian was filmed with actors and portrayed the surrender of the British forces, although it was never shown.
  • The triumph of the will.
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Education

  • Method to indoctrinate the Youth
  • School textbook vetted for ideological correctness
  • National Socialist Teachers League. 97% of teachers were members in 1936 - noncompulsory. It sent teachers on political education courses.
  • Jewish teachers found 'politically unrelaible' and dismissed.
  • Emphasis on physical education to promote 'racial health'
  • German lessons emphasised the 'consciousness of being German' through traditional stories and Nordic sagas.
  • In biology children were taught about race and hereditary and there was an emphasis on evolution and survival of the fittest.
  • Geography was used to develop awareness of lebensraum, blood and soil and racial superiority.
  • Maths problems were set on the trajectories of artillery shells or pupils were asked to calulate the relative costs of the mentally ill versus the cost of building worker's housing.
  • Girls were oblidged to study needlework and homecraft in order to comply with volksgemeinschaft
  • Sex education was banned. There was a moral message that individuals had to have as many children as possible.
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