How Nazi Propaganda Worked, and How Effective It Was in Influencing Its Recipients - Essay Example

How Nazi propaganda worked, and how effective it was in influencing its recipients Name of Student: Institutional Affiliation: Instructor’s Name: Date Propaganda can be defined as the use of media to successfully support a point of view. In other words, propaganda is a type of brainwashing so that an individual can make the people to think its way. Nazis under the rule of Hitler were of the idea of convincing the people in the republic of Germany to believe in the ideology of anti-Semitism. There were various individuals who worked with Hitler to promote Nazi propaganda that included Joseph Goebbels (Scott, 1998). Goebbels was different from Hitler in that he was very young and intellectual with powerful kills in public speaking hence, was capable of using various literature and philosophical techniques to promote Nazi propaganda. The Nazi propaganda worked effectively in that it was supported by young intellectuals who were promised by Hitler. Nazi party spread its ideologies by using government posters to advertise Nazis ideologies and the government airplanes were used to transport Hitler very fast so that he could interact with millions of the German citizens. Nuremberg was used as a central point where mass rally was carried out annually to create the notion of the unity to the German citizens and in the real sense was one way of advertising the Nazi ideologies (Scott, 1998). Goebbels believed that telling a lie and repeating it several times would make people believe it and hence he based his propaganda on the idea of telling lies to the citizens. Being the right man of Hitler, Goebbels believed that the truth was the worst enemy of the state and hence, was able to spread the lies to make people in Germany believe that they were superior to other races of the world especially with the Nazi party of unity. The Nazi propaganda worked because it used press to change the view point of the German citizens. The news papers were controlled by the representatives of the Nazi party by ensuring that there was no freedom to the press in Germany and what was written in newspapers was of pro- Nazi ideologies. The journalists were always briefed on what to publicize on the newspapers and at times even instructed on what to write and on what not to write. It was through this that Nazi party publicized their ideas to the citizens in that they could just read the Nazi ideas with empty promises and anti-Semitism and the way they wanted to spread their territory. Nazi propaganda also worked in Germany through the use of radio. The radio was used as propaganda by Joseph Goebbels in that all the radio stations were put under the control of the Nazi personnel headed by Goebbels the Hitler’s right man. The technical teams were instructed to produce special radios that could only tune to Nazi stations (Scott, 1998). The very special radios were cheaper compared to the normal radios and hence the individuals who were not able to buy the normal radio took advantage of buying the special radio tunable to the Nazi stations. As a matter of fact, those individuals who own such radios were brainwashed in that they could constantly listen to Nazis and hence, the Nazi propaganda worked through the use of radio. The Nazi propaganda also worked through the use of cinema. Mickey Mouse films were very popular during the reign of Hitler and hence he noticed its popularity and took advantage of the films to spread the Nazi propaganda. The propaganda carton was made by Gobbles whereby the leading character of the films Hansi contained the Hitler’s lick of hair across his forehead. The people were made to believe that Hitler was a superior being in that he appeared everywhere including in the films that people loved watching during that period. The propaganda also used music to spread its ideologies. Nazi banned the Jazz music because of the feeling that it was black music hence, was inferior and could not be heard by the superior German people. The songs sung by Jewish people were also banned for example the songs of Mendelssohn with the fact that he was partly a Jew. The traditional German music including folk songs were favored and given priority during official activities attended by government personnel. Beethoven music was sung even in the military camps to give the notion of the German superiority (Scott, 1998). Books were also used to spread the Nazi propaganda. Just like music, films and press, any book that never supported the Nazi ideologies were banned. All the books were supposed to have some tips of the Nazi importance in one way or the other. Millions of books were removed in universities libraries as well as public libraries and burned in presence of police and government officials. Any book that was talking about capitalism and interests of other nations of the world were burned and made illegal and hence no one could access such books (Scott, 1998). A good example is when students in the capital city Berlin burned twenty thousand books written by communists, capitalists, Jewish and anti-Nazi authors. The books that spread the Nazi ideologies were given out free by the government and hence many people accessed them and read them. In some period in time, the syllabus was made to contain the Nazi chapters and topics whereby students could learn the Nazi ideologies at school. The Nazi propaganda also used sports to spread its ideologies. The 1936 Olympics games were held in Germany. The government controlled by Hitler under Nazi builds a very huge stadium that could hold up to one hundred and ten thousand spectators. It was the largest stadium in the world during that period and hence reflected the Germans power. This was a strategy used by Hitler to make people feel secured and superior than any other race in the world. All the races were organized by the state to ensure that there was many wins to demonstrate the Germans power and superiority. They won 33 gold medals that no other country managed. However, the Nazi was embarrassed by the black American Jesse Owen who broke the Olympic records 11 times. Because of the anti-Semitism, Hitler refused to present the medals to all black Americans. This is because the Nazis believed Africans were less humans but Jesse was proving it wrong publicly in presence of Hitler by breaking records. The Nazi propaganda was effective in influencing the recipients whom in this case is the German citizens in that Hitler send messages to them that they would like to hear. First of all was the idea of the German expansion called the Blut and Boden. This Nazi ideology mainly focused on race. Boden literally meant the space, the ideology that Hitler instilled to people that they needed more space to leave thus making Germans to hate the Jew (Scott, 1998). The Germans were thought how they could regain their previous glory would they push the Jews out. The Blut which carried the meaning of the superior and the inferior was also used by the Nazis in their propaganda to make the propaganda effective. Although the primary target were the Jews, all the individuals who had no fair skin and blue eyes like the Slavs and Gypsies as well as handicaps and homosexuals were leveled inferior and hence, were to be eliminated to leave the space for the superior race. The German people were made to believe that their economy was crawling because of the presence of these inferior persons and hence the propaganda was effective to the recipients. The Nazi propaganda was effective in influencing its recipients in that the Jews who were the primary target of the Nazi Propaganda were labeled with all counts of accusations ranging from socioeconomic to political. Socially, the Jews were blamed for crucifying Jesus Christ and that they were killing innocent children to use their blood during Passover. The citizens were also made to believe that the Jews were planning to take over the world and that Germany lost the First World War because they were betrayed by the Jews. Economically, the Jews were blamed for remaining stable even after the 1930s recession and that they were taking money from hard working citizens through money lending with excess interest (Scott, 1998). The German citizens were also made to believe that the Jews were behind the Bolshevik revolution that would make Germany to lose control of the world. All these negative pictures were painted on the Jews against the Germans resulting in holocaust thus making the Nazi propaganda effective. In conclusion, the Nazi propaganda used media, books, music, films, and even Radio to spread their propaganda to the German people. The propaganda was effective in that the German citizens were made to believe that they were superior beings and the Jews were inferior greedy and betrayers of the state. Children were thought at a tender age to hate the Jews who were the primary target of the Nazi propaganda under the leadership of Hitler. The propaganda resulted in the killing of 6 million Jews and to extend the outbreak of the Second World War. Reference Scott, J. (1998) ‘Nature and Space’ (Chapter one), in seeing like a State. Yale University Press, New Haven. Read More