After the burning of the books ceremony, in Berlin, when 20,000 books; fiction and non fiction were burnt to cleanse Germany. many novelists such as Thomas Mann and Stefan Zweig went into exile. others stayed but were forbidden to publish and some were put into prison. Novelist were expected to promote Nazi ideology or be neutral in there writing styles and opinions. Favorited novels of the time included about comrades in the trenches, and the 'blood and soil' novels which stressed the traditions rural peasant values.
Many children's books included stories about the 'dirty Jews' and how they were not to be trusted ect, these were taught in schools as well as for 'bedtime' reading. When you look at the grand scheme of things to do with education of the youth and the parental upbringing, of which of course wasn't going to go against the Nazis due to the fear of being taken away and killed; it shows how effective propaganda was in literature sense. Especially in the younger generations as they were bought up reading and following Nazi ideology, knowing no different.
The propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbles did not think a lot of the books however and didn't see why Hitler put up with some of the publications as they were so 'terrible'. For example; one children's book called the 'poisoned mushroom, or Der Giftpilz, which is the German word for toadstool. This publication was by Julius Streicher and his publication house. It was aimed at kids and sometimes used in schools. It's stories included; 'how to recognise a Jew' 'how Jewish traders cheat' 'are there any decent Jews?' and many more awful titles.
To read some of the stories; click on the link below.
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.
