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. 

Art propaganda took several forms...

Sculpture;

Sculptures were mire immediately accessible to people through the fact many had been placed inform of public buildings. And by 1934 it was decreed that all new public buildings should be embellished by statues which conveyed the Nazi message. Many showed the typical stereotype of the Nazi race and virtues with the ‘perfect’ exterior. A series of sculptures were of muscled men parading; these were in-front of Nazi buildings to reflect on the biologically pure, vigorous Aryan race.

Hitler’s favourite sculptures were Arno Breker and Josef Thorsk and so were given great studios to produce masses of heroic German figures with dominating animals attached, such as the eagle.   

the eagle representing power, protection and
domination. 

muscle man, represent strong perfection of the master race!

statues were placed outside of public
buildings so people saw them a lot.

Art Propaganda

In 1937 two exhibitions were held in Munich (the city of art in Hitler’s eyes) one exhibition represented the regime that was considered as the best German art and the other was of what was deemed degenerate art. 

The exhibition of great German art was held in a newly built museum, the first of many of Hitler’s grand public buildings, the exhibition held had two purposes. Firstly it was an opportunity for artists to display and sell their work but more importantly an opportunity for people to see ‘true’ German art. Over 16,000 pieces were submitted, only 6,000 of which were chosen. This art was deemed to represent the healthy instincts of the master race. More than 60,000 people attended the exhibition; and was preceded a ‘day of German art’ which later became an annual pageant of 2,000 years of German history parading through Munich. 

The exhibition of degenerate art was opened a day later on the 19th July and was opened by the president of the Art chamber. The exhibition displayed 5,000 degenerate pieces labelled as the work of ‘degenerates’. They all reflected on the disruption of established values under the Weimar Republic that had been the downfall of Germany. The work displayed distorted forms, unnatural colours and unsettling subjects they included works of Emil Nolde, Max Bechmann, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Picasso ect. Over two million people attended this exhibition and after going on a national tour the works were destroyed, sold abroad or kept by Goering. 

Hitler said; ‘its not art that creates new ages, but the ordinary life of a people that adopts new forms and accordingly often seeks a new expression…’ this was a short extract of his speech on opening the exhibition of Great German Art in 1937.

Parade - Nuremberg Rally

 The Nuremberg Rally was the annual rally of the Nazi Party in Germany, held from 1923 to 1938. They were large Nazi propaganda events. These events were held at the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg from 1933 to 1938 and are usually referred to in English as the Nuremberg Rallies. The Nazi Party rallies took place in 1923 in Munich, 1926 in Weimar, 1927 on they took place in only Nuremberg. The Party selected Nuremberg for pragmatic reasons: it lay in the center of the German Reich and the local Luitpoldhain was well suited as a venue. In addition, the Nazis could rely on the well-organized local branch of the party in Franconia, then led by Gauleiter Julius Streicher. The Nuremberg police were sympathetic to the event.

Meetings and Rallies!

Meetings and Rallies were one of the most effective ways of gaining support. Supportivers commitment would have strengthen attending rallies. They also won over bystanders. Rallies also even made non-participants fell they wanted to become art of such an impressive movement. Rallies were carefully organised.

Goebbels described how rallies transformed a person 'from a little worm into a part of a large dragon!' Speer specialised in choreographing the displays etc. by using architecture of light, to create an effect similar to today's pop concerts!

The combination of uniforms, disciplined mass movements, stirring music, striking flags and symbols, often at night, created a powerful feeling of wishing to belong. Then came the adress by Hitler, the master of manipulating mass emotions. 

A few pictures of a typical Nazi rally!! 

From these pictures you can see the amount of people that would of have been attending. HUGE!