-March Dr Josef Goebbels appointed Reich Minster of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Head of the Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. -September 1933 – Reich Chamber of Culture created. -BUT – he did not have full control. E.G. Hitler appointed Leni Riefenstahl to make the Triumph of the Will (1935). -Censorship important too – April 1935 – Reich Chamber of Literature. -Propaganda not just used to convince people of the legality of the regime but was also used as a weapon of war. -Hitler important too – ‘Propaganda, propaganda, all that matters is propaganda’. -Dramatic images and giant lettering. -Focus after March 1933 of enforcing conformity and winning over Germans to the cause of creating a national community and New Germany. -Glorified the Fuhrer, desensitised attitudes towards the Jews by using stereotyped, dehumanised images. -Used to raise morale during the war: ‘Adolf Hitler is Victory!’ in 1943.

- Less easy to exploit. – only 2.5% of sales were for Nazi papers in Editors Law of October 1933 – Jewish, Communist and socialist journalists dismissed. - Also put restrictions on what editors could publish. - Association of German Publishers (VDZV) was purged of non-Nazis and Max Amman (the head of Eher Verlag – the Nazi publishing house) was appointed its chair. - April 1935 – Amman gained the power to close non-Nazi publications. - December 1933 – state press agency – DNB – set up to monitor news material and gave daily press briefings. - Goebbels allowed some Liberal papers like Frankfurter Zeitung and Berliner Tageblatt to continue to avoid scepticism at home and abroad. - BUT overt propaganda was put across in the Volkischer Beobachter, Der Sturmer, Der Angriff and DerReich. - Central role of the press to reinforce the prejudices of believers rather than to convert. - New technology quickly harnessed. -4.5m out of 20m households possessed a radio (largest radio audience in Europe). By 1942, 16m Germans could be broadcast to. - People’s Radio – 35 Reichsmarks. - Broadcasts had the twin advantage of commanding authority and creating a fire-side intimacy broadcasts for 1933 in time of flux. - Communal usage in factories, schools, offices and shops.

-Loud-speaker pillars erected in public places. - Used to sustain morale in World War Two (talk of ‘miracle weapons’ and ‘deals with the West’ did much to improve resistance in the last days of the war’) -Goebbels again realised that a degree of honesty was important at times (e.g. After Stalingrad in January 1943). - Cinema – ideal for the Nazis to propagate their ideology. Excitement and spectacle. - Weimar Germany had seen the growth of the film industry and the Nazis used the UFA film company to their advantage. - Goebbels was a cinema enthusiast but... - Leni Riefenstahl produced some of the most powerful propaganda films: e.g. Olympia in JG understood that in the wake of the Depression, film was important in creating a ‘feel good’ factor. So, pre 1939, most films were light entertainment. - Film also played an important role in dehumanising the Jew (Eternal Jew and Jud Suss – 1940). - Also good at generating nationalism and militarism with stories of heroism and sacrifice (e.g. Koberg – 1945)

-Torch light parade through the Brandenburg Gate on 30 January Reichstag Fire used to clamp down on communists. -Potsdam Day – 21 March Potsdam was the HQ of the German Army and the seat of the Hohenzollern dynasty. - Book burning – May Olympic Games – Anti-Semitic programme suspended to give Germany an air of respectability. - JG’s ‘Total War’ speech in the Berlin Sportpalast, to rally Germans after the defeat at Stalingrad. - ‘perhaps his greatest propagandist achievement’. -Holy Days were transplanted by a series of festival or celebration days: E.G. Seizure of Power, National Day of Labour and Anniversary of the Munich Putsch. - Marginalised Christianity and softened the appearance of the regime. -Strength Through Joy and Beauty of Labour aimed at workers. -Winterhelp organised charity help for the needy. -Occasional ‘Days of National Solidarity’ where leading members of the party would collect money on behalf of the party. -All of this aimed to give people a positive or, at least, uncritical reaction to the dictatorship.

-Jewish and Left wing teachers dismissed. -New syllabus. -Special elite schools – Adolf Hitler schools, Napolas and Ordensburgen. -Propaganda deliberately tried to appeal to the energy and anti-authoritarian spirit of youth by using colourful portrayals of glory and conquest. -Balder von Schirach appointed Youth Leader of the Riech. -Boys were to be fearless soldiers. Girls were to be prolific mothers. - German Young People, and Hitler Youth, League of Young Girls, and League of German Girls, 14 upwards. -Compulsory from 1936 and an oath to Hitler had to be sworn from Culture should not be for its own sake but should be an expression of national will. - Jewish composers were banned (e.g. Mendelssohn). As was jazz. -Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner were favoured. There was an annual Wagner festival at Bayreuth which continued into wartime. - Modern art was rejected as decadent, -Art should be simple, crude and accessible to ordinary Germans – it often featured Hitler and was featured as a god-like figure. -The Nazis opened a House of German Art in 1937 in Munich to encourage interest and this stayed open throughout the year. -An exhibition of ‘degenerate’ art was also opened in the same year and was embarrassingly popular.

-Architecture was to be the symbol of Nazi power. -Hitler’s favourite architects were Paul Ludwig Troost and Albert Speer. -There were extensive construction programmes involving the building of administrative buildings, social building and bridges. Often adorned by muscled figures or Aryan heroes. -Olympic Stadium in Berlin reflected Speer’s brutish, menacing and monumental style. - For public housing, the Nazis favoured thatched roofs, wooden balconies and rustic beams in keeping with their promotion of their volkisch blood and soil ideal. -Autobahn used as a propaganda weapon too. - Depends on the issue, audience and the year. - Four advantages for the regime: 1. Goebbels. 2. Monopoly. 3. Law abiding and deferential population. 4. Stirred fears and reinforced prejudices. -Projected the image of a legal seizure of power; Strength Through Joy impressed some workers; young people were impressed by the excitement, adventure and dynamism projected; anti-Semitic propaganda gradually eroded sensibilities; the cult of the Fuhrer was created and Hitler was used sparingly to preserve his god-like mystique.

- Propaganda was, in part, responsible for ensuring that the majority in German society followed the regime unquestioningly. - Many still had faith in the Fuhrer even when Germany was close to losing World War Two. BUT - Berliners (not from a traditional area of Nazi support) remained unmoved. - Large sections of the working classes had become bored by the flood of propaganda by On moral issues, the Nazis had failed to overcome the Christian values and basic decency of most Germans. - The central issues of war, expansionism and racial persecution were not popular with the majority. -Anchluss, Kristallnacht, and failure in the war were all unpopular. -David Welsh – ‘the history of Nazi propaganda during the war is one of declining effectiveness’. OVERALL - Highly prevalent in Nazi society. -Only able to convince Germans of what they wanted to believe. -Could not uproot traditional loyalties or win converts to the cause. - However, promoting the Fuhrer principle was quite successful.