"Propaganda, the Secret of the Nazi's Success?"
James Fletcher
0-03-02
"Propaganda, the Secret of the Nazi's Success?"
In 1928 only 2.6% of the German people voted Nazi. This figure had increased by 27.4% in 1932 along with their membership in the Riechstag, which had gone up by an amazing 218. In this essay I am going to look at several different factors, which led people to vote Nazi.
Some of the points that I will look at are: -
* The weakness of the Weimar government and the depression.
* The organization of the Nazi party.
* PROPAGANDA.
* Hitler as a leader and speaker.
* The promises that the Nazi's made- the nazi message.
By the end of my essay I will come to a conclusion on whether propaganda was the secret to the Nazi success.
One of the factors that probably helped the Nazi party gain so many votes was the failure of the Weimar government. The problems that they experienced during the Depression may have led many people to look for alternative political parties i.e.- the Nazi party.
The problem with the new German government was that there were too many small political parties in the Reichstag and they took too much time arguing. Another problem was that the German people were not used to voting and didn't have a clue of how to go about it.
Germany definitely faced huge problems during the depression. Germany had been known to many of its inhabitants as an economic success for 50 years. When unemployment figures began to increase along with poverty people saw that their country was 'going down the drain'. The Weimar government didn't know what to do and failed to pull the country out of the depression. The government knew that they could not print money as they had done in 1923-this would cause inflation. Instead they raised taxes, which would not please anyone, especially businessmen who had just seen their businesses destroyed and their income fall, and could hardly afford essentials like food or clothing. They also cut wages and reduced unemployment benefit, which would anger young graduates who were unemployed as a result of the depression. Factory workers also suffered greatly from the depression- 40% of them were unemployed and because the government had reduced unemployment benefit this led to extreme poverty. This obviously didn't go down very well with the German people, and many of them turned against the Weimar republic.
The Weimar government had only existed for 10 years and they had already failed their country once, and there was a 2nd time to come. The Weimar government were managing the country so badly in the eyes of the German people that people who had never even voted in an election before had now become involved. This shows just how badly the country was being managed.
Extremist parties such as the Nazi's were shouting out to the German people that they could solve the problems and pull Germany out of the depression. The Nazi's said that they would get rid of 'the enemy within' who were destroying Germany. By this they meant that they would get rid of the people, groups and even races that they thought were to blame for the German depression or whom they didn't agree with.
In the period of 1928-32 there were many elections. This was because no party had the overall majority of votes. I would expect that the Nazi party were disliked in the government because they tried to dictate everything that happened. Therefore the other parties would then request another election to try and get rid of the Nazi party. The Nazi party would then make many promises to the German people in the election campaign, so that they could get the majority of the votes. The promises they made were much more appealing to the German people than the other parties and the number of Nazi's in the government soon increased.
The Nazi's were offering different solutions that appealed to different groups of people and also made promises that had widespread appeal.
This was a very good idea because it gained the support of almost the entire country instead of just the working class or just the self-employed. The Nazis could have aimed their promises at the majority group of Germany, but instead the covered the entire spread of social classes in Germany to try and secure a Nazi majority in Reichstag.
One example is the promise they made to the self-employed- which was to 'control department stores'. Small businesses such as corner shops were under threat from stores such as Woolworth's. Hitler promised to 'control' these stores so that small businesses could survive and not lose business. The problem was that in department stores such as Woolworth's the prices were very low, but this promise still won the votes of may small businesses. Hitler also had an advantage over stores such as Woolworth's because they were American stores, and almost all Germans hated Americans after WWI. This meant that this promise could probably have had widespread appeal also.
Hitler also made a promise to peasants and farmers-'that food imports shall be restricted'. This obviously would have pleased almost every farmer in Germany because it meant that his or her profits would increase.
One example of a widespread appeal is shown in one of the Nazi posters. The poster shows many different people (German citizens) looking miserable.
It says: -
"Our Last Hope"
"HITLER"
This poster was putting across the message that Hitler could pull the country out of the depression and restore the country. So, in other words, Hitler was ...
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Hitler also made a promise to peasants and farmers-'that food imports shall be restricted'. This obviously would have pleased almost every farmer in Germany because it meant that his or her profits would increase.
One example of a widespread appeal is shown in one of the Nazi posters. The poster shows many different people (German citizens) looking miserable.
It says: -
"Our Last Hope"
"HITLER"
This poster was putting across the message that Hitler could pull the country out of the depression and restore the country. So, in other words, Hitler was making the promise that if he was elected, he would pull Germany back to the way it was when the Kaiser ruled. He was saying what the people wanted to hear.
Another factor that definitely helped the Nazi party to succeed was the organisation of the party. I have already written in my previous paragraph about how they thought carefully about who they were going to aim their propaganda at and how they were going to display it. The success of this mainly simmered down to the way the Nazis organised themselves.
The party organised themselves in areas. They built up a series of associated organisations for young people, women, students, lawyers, factory workers, etc, which gained the support of many different groups of people and made the Nazi party much more popular. The Nazis also ran soup kitchens and organised food donations for people in distress, which put their idea of a Volksgemienschaft into practice, this gained the votes of the unemployed, poor and homeless and sick who were a majority group in Germany at the time.
Most of the Nazi voters were won over by personal contacts or by attending a meeting addressed by a local speaker. The Nazi party actually trained people to speak in a very persuasive way, which would gain votes for them. Over 6000 had passed through their training school by 1933. These speakers sounded enthusiastic, confident and determined to save Germany, and therefore gained the Nazi party votes because it made Germans feel confident about voting Nazi.
The Nazi party didn't just use posters as propaganda. They organised the distribution of 600,000 copies of their Immediate Economic programme during the July 1932 election campaign. They used direct mailing, which possibly had a much greater impact on the target audience because it made them feel as if they are being recognised by this party so they would give their recognition to the Nazi party. A poster is aimed at a more general audience, not just you; it doesn't make you feel as important.
The Nazis used the latest technology, such as, loudspeakers, slideshows, films, radio and planes! This was to portray their simple yet clever messages in a way that would be recognised. Using the latest technology made the Nazi party look clever, important and more sophisticated than other parties- perhaps giving the message of a new era. The idea that the Nazi party was clever sophisticated and used amazing new technology would have made the people in Germany think that because they are so clever, they may have the answers to all of our problems, and therefore they gained even more votes.
The Nazis thought very hard and organized what types of propaganda to use, where to use it, when to use it, and how it should contrast to other parties propaganda. For example, on the last day of an election, all parties would put out bright colourful posters in order to attract peoples attention. The Nazi party however thought very carefully and put a black and white poster out, which contrasted with other posters and grabbed more attention. They thought hard about the timing of this particular poster, the way it should contrast and also what type of propaganda it was.
The Nazis also formed the SA, which was an organisation whose methods of violent intimidation played a key role to Hitler's success. It consisted mainly of ex-soldiers, Friekorps and random young men attracted for a variety of reasons ranging from hatred of communism, a love of violence, or basically for free soup. The SA provided many poor people with what they lacked at home, such as a warm bed at night! Their main jobs were to protect party meetings, march in Nazi rallies, and physically assaulting political opponents. They focused mainly on smashing the communist threat. The SA were involved in a lot of street violence and there were many SA casualties- nearly 100 in July 1932 alone. These casualties were held up as martyrs for the cause. With the massive amount of violence and disorder that the SA caused you would have thought that people would have disliked the Nazis, but the SA's disciplined marches showed that they could provide a firm government unlike the Weimar Republic. The SA was said to be,
"One of the most powerful forms of propaganda"
Organised by the Nazi party because it showed the strength of the party in a disciplined manor.
Nazi propaganda was also a very strong factor that led to the success of the Nazi party.
Nazi propaganda was very powerful; their messages were contained in simple slogans such as,
"Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Furher"
[One people, one Nation, One leader]
The Nazi propaganda was also always one step ahead from the other parties.
I believe that the success of Nazi propaganda was due to the way the party organised its propaganda and how it used the problems of the country and individuals.
The next two pages show two Nazi posters used in election campaigns. I have annotated them and analysed them to show what message they were conveying, how they were conveying it and who it was aimed at.
Nazi propaganda was not just posters. The Nazi party portrayed its simple messages through other forms of propaganda as well.
The Nazis had many newspapers under their control and each paper was designed to appeal to its own readership. This propaganda gained the votes of many people because again it was telling the reader what he or she wanted to hear. The Nazi party also used pamphlets, direct mailing, soup kitchens, and huge rallies in many towns as very successful forms of propaganda.
Josef Goebbles was appointed head of propaganda in 1929. It was his ideas that made the Nazi propaganda such a success. It was he who came up with the idea of using the aeroplane and the latest technology, he organised massive press and poster campaigns and the distribution of free newspapers. His idea of having Hitler use an aeroplane rather than a car to travel enabled him to travel across the whole country in a matter of days, this was called 'Hitler over Germany'. It gave the Nazis a great advantage over the other parties because it made Hitler look efficient and very important. He could make a bigger impact on the whole of Germany because he could actually be seen live, rather than on the TV- much like Roosevelt did in 1932.
Another powerful form of propaganda was the SA, as I have already mentioned. They portrayed the message that the Nazi party was powerful, disciplined and well organised. The SA's work entailed distributing propaganda leaflets and anti communist propaganda.
This quote simple proves that the SA were organised to spread propaganda and be propaganda.
"Their 'propaganda by deed'"
The sentence I have lifted this quote from goes further to say that the SA focused their propaganda on the communist threat and the Nazi determination to smash it.
One leader explained the power of the SA in a short passage. It stated: -
"The only form in which the SA appears to the public is that of military
formation. This is one of the most powerful forms of propaganda"
The leader explains that this is because, when the Storm troopers were seen on the streets in such large numbers of calm, disciplined men with a total will to fight, it gave such an impression of strength that it stayed with you forever. Seeing the storm troopers in the streets like this would give the impression that if you voted Nazi you would be secure under the protection from these powerful men. The SA also could have scared people into voting Nazi with this form of propaganda.
The SA focussed a lot of their propaganda on the communist threat. The increasing communist threat was actually a good thing for the Nazis! This was because the communist threat worried many German businessmen, industrialists and landowners such as farmers because they thought that a communist government would takeaway their land or nationalise their industries. The Nazis then gained the support of these groups by using anti-communist propaganda partly created by the SA. The Sa portrayed the impression that they were peacekeepers by stopping fights with communists, this made communists look like an organisation that would bring violence into Germany, and make the Nazis look like the party which could control the country well and avoid further problems such as inflation or another depression.
The Nazis didn't just use propaganda against the communists; they even aimed some propaganda at them. The Nazis tried to make it look like they had a communist element within them so that the communists would vote for them.
On one of the posters it says,
"We Nazis help each other"
This is what the communists liked to hear all over the country- everyone helping one another and seeing each other as equals. There is then a passage that follows, which says that the Nazi party shared everything and that in the Nazi party everyone was treated equally. I couldn't image a Nazi SA man being treated the same as Hitler was- the Nazis were spreading lies to eliminate the communist threat.
This communist friendly propaganda also associated Nazis with an every day communist. It almost went as far as befriending the communists! It describes the lives of all Germans in the country at the time, especially communists, as dull and never getting better, it then says,
"Things are the same for us as they are for you".
This would make a communist reader feel that something had to be done, it would make him or her realise that he o she had to take some action if they didn't want to carry on living like they were for the rest of their life.
The poster then goes further to say that communism had no hope in Germany and that it had already lost 3/4 million votes since September 1930. This would have made communists at least think about becoming Nazi because: -
. It sounded like a slightly communist party anyway, so they would be joining someone with the same views that they have.
2. Communism wasn't doing very well in Germany anyway.
3. They needed to make a change in their lives and do something drastic if their lives were going to change, just like the Nazi party.
I have written about what types of propaganda the Nazis used but I have not explained why it was so successful over other parties. I believe that one of the main reasons was that nazi propaganda always stood out from the other parties propaganda- it showed huge contrast, therefore grabbing more attention, and therefore increasing the popularity of the party.
A very good example of the contrast in propaganda is the one when the Nazi party used a black and white poster.
On the last day of an election all parties put out bright coloured posters. The nazi party however put out a black and white poster, which stood out a lot more and gained the Nazis votes.
Another example is the more advanced, sophisticated approach that the Nazis took. They were always one step ahead of the other parties and were always the ones to pounce on new ideas before the other parties. Slideshows, films, radio advertisements and the aeroplane showed great difference in propaganda from other parties. Because this form of propaganda had never been seen before it attracted more people, therefore gaining the Nazis popularity and more importantly, votes.
Another reason that the Nazi parties propaganda was such a success was because it appealed to every social group in Germany. It exploited the problems of the country as a whole and also targeted individual groups.
One other reason that may have led the Nazis to success was Hitler himself. His personality, himself as a speaker and as a leader made the Nazi party look even more powerful and strong.
He was portrayed as a superman, because he travelled to 20 cities in 6 days, which, at the time was thought to be almost impossible. This made Hitler look like their saviour- if he could travel like that then he must be strong, powerful, important, and something unique.
Hitler was a naturally loud, confident and aggressive speaker. His voice got through to people and delivered the Nazi message because they could hardly avoid paying attention to him. He used actions with his arms to emphasise points.
The strength of his personality was said to have given a 'real sense of unity to the party'
One passage written by Otto Strasser, Hitler and I, 1940, said,
"His words go like arrows to their target,
he touches each private wound on the raw"
This quote backs up my point about Hitler being able to get through to people and also shows how he made people feel important by making it seem like he was speaking directly to them, not thousands of people.
E.A.Buller, an anti-Nazi German teacher who left Germany heard one person say,
"He speaks for me, He speaks for me"
"Ach Gott [Oh God], he knows how I feel"
This quote shows how convincing a speaker Hitler was. It shows how he almost, brainwashed people with his speeches at rallies.
Hitler also used to arrive late for every rally he went to purposely. This was very clever because it built up an atmosphere so that when he arrived he would be cheered and applauded, and people would pay more attention to him.
Finally, in conclusion I believe that propaganda did have a main role in the success of the Nazis, as did the other factors I have discussed. I think that all factors were linked, and without one another, the Nazi party would not have succeeded as well as it did or not at all.
Links
Propaganda and Hitler's image- Propaganda helped to improve Hitler's image, as did his talent as a speaker.
Propaganda and the Nazi message- Propaganda was used to show the Nazi message and without it there would be no use for propaganda.
Propaganda and the failure of the Weimar government- Propaganda was used to show the problems caused by the depression, and without the depression there would have been no problems to exploit and therefore there wouldn't be any problems in the government to start with.
Propaganda and organisation- Propaganda wouldn't have got anywhere without the thought behind it and the organisation in the Nazi party.
The Nazi message and Hitler's image- Hitler helped to send a personal message at rallies when speaking to live audiences.
The Nazi message and the failure of the Weimar government- the Nazi message mainly contained the problems that the Weimar government had experienced, and exploited them.
Hitler's personality and organisation- Hitler's power as a speaker could be taught to people so that they could be persuasive as he was at rallies as local leaders.
Looking at the links I have made and the investigating I have done throughout this essay, I would say, that in response to the question at the beginning of this essay,
"Propaganda, the secret of the Nazis success?"
I would have to say that I don't believe that it was.
I believe that the main reason for the Nazi success was because of the failure of the Weimar government during the depression. I think that the depression made more people concerned about the way the country was being ran, people who probably didn't even bother voting when the country was fine. As for the people who did usually vote, I believe that because the Weimar government failed they were forced to look for a strong alternative party than they had previously voted for. And since the Nazi party were a small party, and they pounced on the opportunity for power people voted for them. I do not think that the nazi party would have been taken as seriously if the Weimar government had not failed.
However, I am not saying that all of the nazi efforts were totally useless. If the had not made the efforts then they would have been easily beaten by the other parties. I think that it was a mixture of propaganda, organisation, Hitler's personality, the Nazi message and the depression that led to the Nazi success, but I believe that the main factor was the failure of the Weimar government and the depression of the early 1930's.
