How effective was Nazi propaganda?

Question

1)How effective were the Nazis at using propaganda.
2)How did Goebbels and the Nazi regime sought to control and use the media to their advantage?

Dont give me pointless information, or information not needed. Thanks

Answer 1

1.) They were amazing. Hitler was a terrific public speaker and almost literally mesmerised his audiences. He once wrote that if you tell a lie often enough people believe it. Using this maxim the Propaganda Ministry under Goebbels was able to censor unwanted news, films and even music and instead thrust the Nazi message directly and covertly into the brains of the German people. Not many people study the de-nazification programme from after World War Two, so they don't know the difficulty that the Allies had of RE-EDUCATION of the people who had spent 13 years listening to Nazi propaganda.

2) Censorship and Propaganda. Foreign newspapers banned. Foreign radio stations blocked. Movie industry and radio channels run with Nazi Party input. Jazz was banned (they called it ****** music - sorry about the term, but it's theirs not mine). They promoted German composers (Wagner was a great favourite). No books could legally be published without being proof read for hidden messages by the Ministry.
Even before January 30 1933 the Party had its own newspaper to ensure the 'right' message was promoted.
Don't forget either the value of big rallies and torchlight parades. In a Germany crippled by the Depression of the early 30s it was a display of order within chaos and that was a great propaganda image.

Answer 2

Propaganda still happens today.
Just because something is written, doesn't make it true.

If propaganda' is needed in the UK to create a way of thinking, just read the 'comic newspapers'. If the 'comics' decide Labour is 'the party' - then everyone else will, because that is all they are able to read about. The editor and writers opinions...

I don't know which party is best, only that around the last elections there was lots of propaganda to knock each other's chances.

If nobody voted at all, like to see them get out of that one. Would they make it compulsory? Would they rig it?

Answer 3

Review Nazi history and you will soon realise how successful Goebbels and Hitler were.

If the propaganda did not work then the hit squad assassinations, prison camps and executions did the rest.

Look at recent history in regards to Iraq, without the propaganda of lies and deceit Bush/Balir would never have had the moral support from their respective supporters.

Answer 4

www.bbc.co.uk the bitezize website great

they had like nazis are great look what we do messages at the beginings of films

they sold cheap radios that only broadcasteed nazi stuff

they controlled the newspapers

they sent kids off to umm whats it called hitler youth where basically everything they did had an underlying message about propaganda and they taugh it them at school eg. it costs £x for a ill person there are x ill people how much would they save if they killed x ill people who dont help germany
when you tell a kid something everyday from when they are 5 tehy belive it automatically :(

they had huge posters everywhere so you couldnt avoid loooking at them

cant remmemebr anything else

ooh yeah they killed people who argued
such nice people NOT

Answer 5

I know this might sound pointless but the effect of the Nazi using the media was replicated in Rwanda just before the Rwandan genocide.

Answer 6

I don't know if you would find this information pointless or not, but here goes: this might shed some light on just how systematized Nazi propaganda was, although this is a secondary source and distillation of the main tenets of the philosophy of propaganda as interpreted by Leonard W. Doob.

This is a list from based upon "Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda" by Leonard W. Doob published in "Public Opinion and Propaganda; A Book of Readings edited for The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues."

GOEBBELS' PRINCIPLES OF PROPAGANDA

These principles purport to summarize what made Goebbels tick or fail to tick. They may be thought of as his intellectual legacy. Whether the legacy has been reliably deduced is a methodological question. Whether it is valid is a psychological matter. Whether or when parts of it should be utilized in a democratic society are profound and disturbing problems of a political and ethical nature.

1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion.

2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority.

a. It must issue all the propaganda directives

b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale

c. It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences

3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action.

4. Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action.

a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence

b. By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions

c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself

d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity

5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign

6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium.

7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.

8. The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted.

9. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored.

10. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective.

11. Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects.

12. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige.

13. Propaganda must be carefully timed.

a. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda.

b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment

c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness

14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.

a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses

b. They must be capable of being easily learned

c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations

d. They must be boomerang-proof

15. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events.

16. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.

a. Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat

b. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and which cannot be reduced by people themselves

17. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration.

a. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated

b. Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective

18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred.

19. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both.

Answer 7

Very! Almost every station in germany spoke of how 'great' Nazis where so it wasnt surprising to see why people began to believe it. At one stage small, cheap radios where handed out to every german citizen and the only station the played was a Nazi station...to make things even more in favour of the Nazis speakers where placed in every cafe and town arround germany! haha mad bastard hitler was! lmao!

Answer 8

They were not as effective as they thought, but just enough to subdue the population.

You control what people think by managing the outlets, they will come to assume since everyone says and thinks this, it must be correct

Answer 9

Extremely effective.
the media was the fastest way to reach the people...

the people were a post war (ww1) labor society, rebuilding and developing a sense of national unity..

Answer 10

eventhough their goal was bad, their propaganda to meet their objective was very effective. they not only controlled the media but also the were effective in rallying their people towards their goal.