Showing posts with label Geobbels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geobbels. Show all posts

Monday, 11 November 2013

The Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda

As Minister of Enlightenment, Goebbels  had two main tasks:
to ensure nobody in Germany could read or see anything that was hostile or damaging to the Nazi Party.
to ensure that the views of the Nazis were put across in the most persuasive manner possible.
To ensure success, Goebbels had to work with the SS and Gestapo and Albert Speer. The former hunted out those who might produce articles defamatory to the Nazis and Hitler while Speer helped Goebbels with public displays of propaganda.
To ensure that everybody thought in the correct manner, Goebbels set up the Reich Chamber of Commerce in 1933. This organisation dealt with literature, art, music, radio, film, newspapers etc. To produce anything that was in these groups, you had to be a member of the Reich Chamber. The Nazi Party decided if you had the right credentials to be a member. Any person who was not admitted was not allowed to have any work published or performed. Disobedience brought with it severe punishments. As a result of this policy, Nazi Germany introduced a system of censorship. You could only read, see and hear what the Nazis wanted you to read, see and hear. In this way, if you believed what you were told, the Nazi leaders logically assumed that opposition to their rule would be very small and practiced only by those on the very extreme who would be easy to catch.
Hitler came to power in January 1933. By May 1933, the Nazi Party felt sufficiently strong to publicly demonstrate where their beliefs were going when Goebbels organised the first of the infamous book burning episodes. 

Sunday, 10 November 2013

Films.

Films was seen more as a means of relaxation than directly for explicit propaganda purposes. 

The number of flimgoers quadrupled between 1933 and 1942. The state over time increasing got control over both film companies and the content of films. The government left 4 major film companies to stay private because they didn't want to effect or harm the amount of export sales. However, the RMVP gradually brought up shares, and increasingly financed films, so indrectly comapnies became state owned. In 1942 all were nationalised under Ufi (Ufa Film GmbH)

Several American films were banned in Germany. 

Goebbels personally looked over each film broadcasting in Germany to see it was fit for German citizens to watch. For example if it was 'politically and artistically valuable', 'culturally valuable', a 'film of the nation', 'valuable for youth' - and given money accordingly. During the Nazi regime over one thousand feature films were produced. With one-sixth bein overtly propagandist. 

Leni Riefenstahl a producer was in charge of get detailed recording rallies and festivals, to tell/explain to people what's happening. Her most famous films were 'Triumph of the Will' about the Nuremberg Rally and 'Olympia' about the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Films were probably more effective in keeping support for the regime than in indoctrinating people with Nazism. The need for entertainment took priority.