Nazi Propaganda

The rise of fascist Germany has taught society that we must be aware of who controls the media, otherwise we are vulnerable to manipulation by today's propagandists. Propaganda is defined as the dissemination of ideas and information for the purpose of inducing or intensifying specific attitudes and actions. Although propaganda was not new a new phenomena founded in Nazi Germany, never before had it influenced public opinion to the extent that it did. By communicating ideas that played on the public's emotions, the Nazis justified their military aggressions, the arresting of their political rivals and their systematic extermination of six million Jews. The Nazis were able to involve themselves in virtually every aspect of the German people's lives through propaganda. The creation of a new ministry intended to promote public enlightenment demonstrates the importance of propaganda to the success of the German National Socialist Party. At the head of this newly created ministry was Joseph Goebbels.

Together, Goebbels and Hitler were tremendously effective in their persuasion of the German people. They mobilized the masses, stimulated the German economy during the Great Depression and harnessed the might of German industry and her people in order to create a formidable war machine that nearly conquered all of Europe.

        Mein Kampf, considered to be the bible of the Nazi party, outlined the importance Adolf Hitler placed on propaganda. In his book, Hitler explained that German troops were ill-prepared for the enemy during the First World War as he wrote,

In Germany...the school, the press, and comic magazines cultivated

a conception of the Englishman's character, and almost more so of his

empire, which inevitably led to one of the most insidious delusions; for

gradually everyone was infected by this nonsense, and the consequence

was an underestimation for which we would have to pay most...