Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Module #6

Reading Assignment: Chapters 13,14 & 15

The Influence of Modern Art, Pictorial Modernism & A New Language of Form


This week's reading really reminded me of the Nazi Party. I'm slightly obsessed with WWII and Nazi Propaganda. It's just so mind boggling how a group of individuals brainwashed people into thinking genocide was a great idea! So ridiculous. I also know it's a little weird to be obsessed or interested in this topic since millions of Jews were murdered but it's history and I kinda love it. Not the murder part though. The fact that an artist like Ludwig Hohlwein could tarnish his reputation by just being associated with the Nazi Party and Hitler is impressive. His work was brilliant but used in the wrong way. I've researched this topic so many times and each and every time I'm always amazed how simple propaganda could work so well. Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda, didn't create the art behind the posters so much as gave speeches that spread the party's ideas. He did have a great eye for what to look for and put together a great strategy to address the public. I've read that he was quite "obsessed" with Hitler and was in love with him. Weird. Also, he was on the shorter side so he would always wear taller headpieces or gear to give him height at large gatherings. Small man syndrome was clearly in effect here. But all jokes aside here is a little mini lesson on Nazi Propaganda. Enjoy!

The mastermind behind all things propaganda would be the loyal Goebbels who stayed by Hitler’s side till death. Being one of Hitler’s most trusted allies Goebbels had a great eye for propaganda to make it look easy and really acceptable. The trick would be to make the Jews less than human by stripping away all their human rights and dehumanizing them. “The growing distance – social, economic, legal and psychological – between Jew and Gentile helps explain how the Nazis could ‘remove’ a community virtually without protest from the rest of the population – a population which gradually felt, and was gradually persuaded, that it had precious little in common with the unfortunate Jews. The problem ‘they’ (the Jews) faces could be shrugged off as remote, as happening ‘somewhere else’, as ‘nothing to do with us’” (Landau 119). Goebbels position as Reich Minister of Propaganda seemed even more important in Hitler’s rise to power. One of his major accomplishments was screening the public on what they really needed. Now in a sense it could be seen as ineffective because the Nazis made so many rules that when they went out to poll people they could easily throw you behind bars if you did not agree with what they were saying. So all the information was skewed into what the party wanted to hear. Not saying that a lot of people didn’t believe in Hitler but it was wiser to go with the party’s ideas than to stray from the group. By getting a sense of what the people wanted Goebbels’ demands were easier to sell. Listening to the public was the golden ticket and Goebbels intended to maintain control of the public through his advertisements. After all how could a person not be for their wonderful fatherland of Germany, It would be so traitorous of them.

Joseph Goebbels
August 25, 1934

What made the Nazi Party so powerful was their ability to break down Germany’s perspective of Jewish people. Goebbels made it clear to the people that a Jew free world was needed. In a sense the propaganda had a way of desensitizing the Germans to the idea of Jews. Hitler believed that his superior “Aryan” race would prevail and the effective way of instilling his idea would be the proper propaganda campaign. “Hitler saw propaganda as a vehicle of political salesmanship in a mass market; he argued that the consumers of propaganda were the masses and not the intellectuals,” (Welch 11). By targeting large groups the use of propaganda made it easier to accept. If everyone had the same idea of the new Germany than less people would question it. Almost like the bandwagon theory, everyone jumps on and you would look dumb if you didn’t hop on. Sooner or later everyone would jump on the Nazi train to a “new and improved” Germany. Hitler believed that “propaganda for the masses had to be simple, it had to concentrate on as few points as possible, which then had to be repeated many times, with emphasis on such emotional elements as love and hatred,” (Welch 11). He believed that persistence was the most important requirement for success. If he could repeatedly program every German to believe what he thought was right then no one would fight against him. His dictatorship grew strongholds in the German government, as he became the face of the new German society that cared about the people and was for the people.

“Youth Serves the Führer. All 10-year-olds into the Hitler Youth.” (1940)
Membership in the Hitler Youth had become mandatory in 1936.

In the documentary film The Third Reich they discuss children being part of the campaign and how they knew what was going on. The children would create games where some would be Nazis and some would be Communists. They used garbage cans as the headquarters and as the game went on the Communists would get captured and sent to concentration camps. The children even knew which songs to sing and what would happen to the “bad” people. Attack and triumph would be the motto, just like the real Nazis. The children even learned their first mandatory German greeting: Heil Hitler!

Propaganda films also started to focus on the unwanted Jewish genes. They produced movies that showed mental hospitals where people looked insane and unclean. They told lies of the people having dysfunctional genes that were not German pure blood. The films made it seem like these people were the result of a bad mixture of blood. They wanted to show Germans that if the public continued to mix with Jews that it would result in bad blood. The films were effective in convincing people to stay away from the Jews. The public complied to the new laws of not mixing blood with other races or Jews. The Germans would sterilize anyone who had a genetic flaw. At least 400,000 Germans were sterilized for blindness, mental depression, alcoholism, homosexuality, deafness, physical deformity, sexual promiscuity or epilepsy. 

Hans Schweitzer 1934/1944
Translation: "The Jew: The inciter of war, the prolonger of war.”

What made the propaganda of the Third Reich so powerful was the ability to defeat all competition. The Nazi party became so powerful that opposition would only mean death. The ability to create a strong national power was in fact Hitler’s greatest triumph. He had little resistance, he had Goebbels brainwashing the public to think what they were doing was perfectly legal and had the perfect timing to become a savior to the people and guide them to a new Germany, a Germany they could be proud of. Ultimately it was Hitler’s idea to issue the Jewish death warrant. “The extermination of the Jews did not figure among the original Nazi aims,” (Poliakov 110). The moment to move ahead with plans came when the party realized they had gone too deep and couldn’t turn back. They invested everything that they had and knew that the war coming would not end quickly. The Nazi power was at its peak and the gamble to burn all the bridges tying the public to Jews was the next step. Goebbels even mentioned in his diary that the “Jewish problem was so entangled it was impossible to retreat” (Poliakov 110) and plans must progress forward. Goebbels was a huge fan for the extermination of the Jews. In his world it seemed right to due away with the vermin of the Jews. It was only a matter of time until the world caught up with the Nazis. Unfortunately they were able to kill six million before anything was done. The power of the propaganda to brainwash an entire nation was powerful. Hitler became one of the most hated dictators in the world yet loved by so many Germans who just wanted a simpler life.

Sources:
  • Landau, Ronnie S. The Nazi Holocaust. Chicago: I.R. Dee, 1994. Print. 
  • Poliakov, Léon. Harvest of Hate: The Nazi Program for the Destruction of the Jews of Europe. New York: Holocaust Library, 1979. Print. 
  • Welch, David. The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda. London: Routledge, 1995. Print. 

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