Goebbels played a tremendous role in popularizing the Nazi ideas. Before the Nazis came to power, Goebbels used the techniques of incessantly ridiculing and attacking the opponents. He was a fantastic politician telling the masses what they wanted to hear and trying to convince those who did not want to hear, hammering his own ideas into their hearts and heads.
Goebbels used all media of education and communications to further Nazi propagandistic aims, instilling in the Germans the concept of their leader as a veritable god and commander of their destiny and as the ruler of the world. In 1938 he became a member of the Hitler cabinet council. Late in World War II, in 1944, Hitler placed him in charge of total mobilization.
Goebbles directed a sophisticated system of propaganda. He wanted to aim his propaganda crusade exclusively toward the masses. In doing so they would accept it as a decree. Furthermore, it was extremely important that the material exposed to the masses appeal to the interests of the majorities, and not address itself to just the intellect. Propaganda had to be popular and be geared in order for even the most simple-minded individuals to understand. Equally as important, was the necessity to give the people the "conceptual truth," but really only spreading the information the leader wanted to disseminate.
To achieve his goal, he began using all means of media. Early on, the Nazis began showing very anti-Semitic movies and shows, as did they air such programs on the radio. Goebbels was very interested in the potential of film as a propagandistic tool and took an active role in its development during the twelve years of the Third Reich
A new generation of radio, press, cinema, and arts manipulation was brought forth. He recruited the brightest, most intelligent young men he could find to work in his department. In the Nazi’s industrial takeover of Germany, the propaganda machine was then set up into seven different sections, each in charge of the a department: Administrative and Organization, Propaganda, Radio, Press, Films, Theatre and Adult Education.
Anyone who produced, distributed, broadcasted, published, or sold any form of cinema, media, press, or literature had to first join one of the departments and then follow all rules of the department head. That person was usually Joseph Goebbels. Naturally, no Jews, non-Aryans, or any of Hitler’s adversaries were not allowed to join. Thus, without a license to practice their businesses, all artists, writers, publishers, producers, or directors could not work or do any business in their field. Also along with those quotas, came the prohibition of all Jewish newspapers, radio, and cinema.
Children were indoctrinated at every turn, especially in such groups as the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls. Spectacular rallies were staged to galvanize the German public into support of Hitler’s agenda.
During the first years of the Second World War, 1939 to 1942, Goebbels' job as Propaganda Minister was relatively easy. With an almost unbroken string of German and Axis military victories, maintaining public morale was not difficult. His greatest challenge came during the final two years of the war, as Germany's armies suffered ever more terrible military reverses, her great cities crumbling into ruins under a growing storm of British-American bombings, and with utter defeat looming.
It was during this period that Goebbels' most dramatically proved his skill as a master molder of public opinion. In spite of the drastically worsening situation (both militarily and on the home front) he largely succeeded in maintaining public morale, confidence in Hitler's leadership, and even hope.
Speaking in the aftermath of the Stalingrad catastrophe, Goebbels stressed the grim truth that catastrophic defeat was a real possibility, and concluded with a rousing call for national mobilization.
Goebbels' frankness and even courage won him a measure of popular admiration.
In addition to his work as the nation's chief propagandist, during the war Goebbels took on ever greater organizational and policy-making responsibilities, playing an increasingly important role in keeping the nation's industrial and social machinery functioning.
In 1942, Hitler entrusted him with special authority to oversee assistance to people ravaged in Allied air attacks - a post that was to assume ever greater importance as the aerial bombardment of Germany steadily escalated.
In 1944, Hitler named him "Reich Plenipotentiary for the Total War Mobilization." Thus, during the final catastrophic months of the war Goebbels (along with Armaments Minister Albert Speer) directed Germany's human and material resources for maximum war production, while simultaneously continuing somehow to operate the nation's electric power and water plants, transportation and telephone systems, food and fuel supply networks, public schools, radio broadcasting and daily newspaper publishing.
There remains the problem of Goebbels' reputation. He wore the title of Big Liar (bestowed by Anglo-Saxon propaganda) and yet he never stopped battling for propaganda to be as accurate as possible. He preferred being cynical and brutal to being caught in a lie. He was always the first to announce disastrous events or difficult situations, without hiding anything. The result was a general belief between 1939 and 1942 that German communications not only were more concise, clearer and less cluttered, but were more truthful than Allied communications (American and neutral opinion) and, furthermore, that the Germans published all the news two or three days before the Allies. All this is so true that pinning the title of Big Liar on Goebbels must be considered quite a propaganda success.
Goebbels also had a major role in the destruction of Germany by contributing to drawing a map that showed the path that lead Germany to it’s doom. He helped ignite a world war that eventually ended with a bitter German defeat, and so the downfall of Germany. A war the consequences of which were far too bad for the either Goebbels or Hitler to imagine. A war that resulted in a very humiliating end of Germany, as the three Allied leaders discussed how it was to be divided between them in Yalta, and how it was to be disarmed, the Nazi party banned and it’s leaders tried as war criminals.
