Berlin Olympics

The Nazis also used sport as a form of propaganda. The government co-ordinated the sporting bodies under a Reich's sports Fuhrer.  The Hitler youth and DAF organised various activities for the masses. Activities which would help develop fit bodies for that of a soldier or child bearer. 

A poster for the advertising of the games.

In 1936 the government made a greater effort to ensure that sporting propaganda was a success. The Berlin games should of been held in 1916 when the stadium was ready, but instead was put back to 1936 and construction re-started on a Modernist style of stadium. Because Hitler disliked this 'glass box' and insisted on something on a gigantic scale. The existing steel structure was covered in stone to also create a memorial to fallen soldiers to link militarianism with sport; it was out of spirit with the Olympics; Hitler said "he who wishes to live must also fight. And he who will not strive in this world of struggle does not deserve the gift of life."

To Hitler the Olympics were a chance to show physical superiority of the Germans as the master race, there organisational skills and enhance the countries international status. While there was international visitors the level of anti-Semitic propaganda was reduced and the emphasis was on international instead of individual competition. 

 A photograph taken from the Games. 

Max Schmeling's success as a heavyweight boxer, who knocked out Joe Louis in New York in 1936 was used further to demonstrate Nazi supremacy. Football however wasn't Germany's strongest game and wasn't able to match Italy's triumph of winning the world cup. But overall the games meant a rise in Germany's status and they managed to get the English to give the Nazi solute before the 1938 game; giving them a boost. And for those 2 weeks in August 1936; Adolf Hitler's Dictatorship covered its racist, militaristic character; calming down on it anti-Semitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion. Allowing the games to dazzle many foreign spectators and journalists with a peaceful and tolerant Germany illusion. 

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. 

Press.

The Nazi's had three main methods of control over the press:

Firstly, it controlled all of these involvements in press - journalist, editors, publishers - through compulsory membership of co-ordinating bodies. The Reich Press Chamber included the Reich Assoication of the German Press which kept a reigister of acceptable editors and journalists. A law created in October 1933 made editors respsonible for infrigements of government directives. Thus meaning that anything published against the government were removed, so everything publised in newspapers about the government were positive. 

Secondly, the RMVP controlled the content of the press through the state-controlled Press Agaency which provided roughly half of te content of the newspapers. The RMVP helded daily press conferences and issued detailed directives on content, including the length and position of articles. 

Lastly, control was exercised by by extending Nazi ownership of the press. The Nazi Party's publishing house, Ether Verlag, gradually took over, directly or indrectly, most of the press. Thus Nazi ownership of the media grew from 5% (of circulation) in 1933 to 69% in 1939 and to 82% in 1944.