Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject History of Germany - National Socialism, World War II, grade: 1,0, Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH, language: English, abstract: The essay deals with the reasons for and two major concepts of Nazi propaganda, trying to answer the questions “Why was there so little resistance against the discriminative actions of the Nazis, especially against their genocide of the Jews? How did the Nazi regime manage to convince people of the alleged righteousness and necessity of eliminating the Jewish race?”. The situation at the end of the Weimar Republic plays an important role in the success of the Nazi propaganda. Key concepts of this propaganda were the creation of a common enemy (the Jews) and a ‘people’s community’ to tie the population together against this enemy. However it must be stated that a comprehensive attempt to answer the question of “How could it happen?” would have to include various other aspects and that there will still remain unresolved questions.

The Poisonous Mushroom is translated from the Third Reich original Der Giftpilz. That rare picture book, published by the St�rmer Verlag of Julius Streicher, is much sought after by collectors. Softcover. 64pp.

Based on a detailed examination of specific aspects of Nazi propaganda, this book (originally published in 1983) enhances the understanding of National Socialism by revealing both its power and its limitations. The work tackles aspects of Nazi propaganda which had been neglected in the past, but together they demonstrate the disproportionate role assigned to propaganda in one of the most highly politicised societies in contemporary European history.

Why do totalitarian propaganda such as those created in Nazi Germany and the former German Democratic Republic initially succeed, and why do they ultimately fail? Outside observers often make two serious mistakes when they interpret the propaganda of this time. First, they assume the propaganda worked largely because they were supported by a police state, that people cheered Hitler and Honecker because they feared the consequences of not doing so. Second, they assume that propaganda really succeeded in persuading most of the citizenry that the Nuremberg rallies were a reflection of how most Germans thought, or that most East Germans were convinced Marxist-Leninists. Subsequently, World War II Allies feared that rooting out Nazism would be a very difficult task. No leading scholar or politician in the West expected East Germany to collapse nearly as rapidly as it did. Effective propaganda depends on a full range of persuasive methods, from the gentlest suggestion to overt violence, which the dictatorships of the twentieth century understood well. In many ways, modern totalitarian movements present worldviews that are religious in nature. Nazism and Marxism-Leninism presented themselves as explanations for all of life—culture, morality, science, history, and recreation. They provided people with reasons for accepting the status quo. Bending Spines examines the full range of persuasive techniques used by Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic, and concludes that both systems failed in part because they expected more of their propaganda than it was able to deliver.

Hitler was one of the few politicians who understood that persuasion was everything, deployed to anchor an entire regime in the confections of imagery, rhetoric and dramaturgy. The Nazis pursued propaganda not just as a tool, an instrument of government, but also as the totality, the raison d'être, the medium through which power itself was exercised. Moreover, Nicholas O'Shaughnessy argues, Hitler, not Goebbels, was the prime mover in the propaganda regime of the Third Reich - its editor and first author. Under the Reich everything was a propaganda medium, a building-block of public consciousness, from typography to communiqués, to architecture, to weapons design. There were groups to initiate rumours and groups to spread graffiti. Everything could be interrogated for its propaganda potential, every surface inscribed with polemical meaning, whether an enemy city's name, an historical epic or the poster on a neighbourhood wall. But Hitler was in no sense an innovator - his ideas were always second-hand. Rather his expertise was as a packager, fashioning from the accumulated mass of icons and ideas, the historic debris, the labyrinths and byways of the German mind, a modern and brilliant political show articulated through deftly managed symbols and rituals. The Reich would have been unthinkable without propaganda - it would not have been the Reich.

The time of the Third Reich is one of the ugliest periods in human history. To execute Adolph Hitler’s plan to destroy all Jewish people in Europe, Nazi propagandists demonized and dehumanized the Jews, leaving people desensitized to the discrimination and destruction heaped on them. This book details the way the Nazis turned a nation against a people, provides sidebars on people caught up in both sides of the great conflict, and outlines the ramifications of the persecution of the Jews. It also contains a persecution timeline.

The acclaimed and comprehensive account of Germany's transformation under Hitler's total rule and the inexorable march to war, by the author of The Coming of the Third Reich and The Third Reich at War. “[Evans's] three-volume history . . . is shaping up to be a masterpiece. Fluidly narrated, tightly organized and comprehensive.” —The New York Times "Mr. Evans's magisterial study should be on our shelves for a long time to come."—The Economist By the middle of 1933, the democracy of the Weimar Republic had been transformed into the police state of the Third Reich, mobilized around the cult of the leader, Adolf Hitler. In The Third Reich in Power, Richard J. Evans chronicles the incredible story of Germany's radical reshaping under Nazi rule. As those who were deemed unworthy to be counted among the German people were dealt with in increasingly brutal terms, Hitler's drive to prepare Germany for the war that he saw as its destiny reached its fateful hour in September 1939. This is the fullest and most authoritative account yet written of how, in six years, Germany was brought to the edge of that terrible abyss.

A history of Nazi propaganda based on never-before-published posters, rare photographs, and historical artifacts from the USHMM’s groundbreaking exhibition. “Propaganda,” Adolf Hitler wrote in 1924, “is a truly terrible weapon in the hands of an expert.” State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda documents how, in the 1920s and 1930s, the Nazi Party used posters, newspapers, rallies, and the new technologies of radio and film to sway millions with its vision for a new Germany—reinforced by fear-mongering images of state “enemies.” These images promoted indifference toward the suffering of neighbors, disguised the regime’s genocidal actions, and insidiously incited ordinary people to carry out or tolerate mass violence.The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is addressing this topic today because, in an age of instant electronic communication, disseminators of messages and images of intolerance and hate have new tools, while at the same time consumers seem less able to cope with the vast amounts of unmediated information bombarding them daily. It is hoped that a deeper understanding of the complexities of the past may help us respond more effectively to today’s propaganda campaigns and biased messages.

"A fascinating story....Essential to an understanding of America's use of propaganda". -- Warren F. Kimball, author of The Juggler: Franklin Roosevelt as Wartime Statesman. "Lively and revealing. There is much that is new and important in this book. All students of the war, as well as of intelligence, will benefit from it". -- Robin W. Winks, author of Cloak and Gown. "A 'must' acquisition for anyone with any interest in espionage, intelligence, and propaganda". -- Dennis Showalter, author of Tannenburg: Clash of Empires.