David Welch argues that the concept of a
'national' or 'peoples' community was a key
element in the 'revolutionary' aims of the nazi
regime, and illustrates the remarkably ambitious
nature of its propaganda.
propaganda presented an image of society that
had been successfully re-organised into a
Volksgemeinschaft.
INTERNATIONAL JEWRY
David Bankier concluded both
that the ability of nazi
propaganda to penetrate the
German population has been
exaggerated but also that it was
effective in fostering indifference
and hostility towards the Jews
because large sections of
German society were
predisposed to be anti-semitic.
SEIZURE OF POWER
ITS TASK
The Ministry of popular Enlightenment and Propaganda set itself
the task of re-educating the population for a new society based on
national socialist values. goebbels defined the task of his new
Ministry as 'achieving a mobilisation of mind and spirit.
The prevailing goal of nazi propaganda was radically to restructure German society so that the prevailing
class, religious, and sectional loyalties would be replaced by new heightened national awareness.
TOOLS
The press, radio, newsreels and
film documentaries concentrated
on the more prominent schemes:
Beauty of Labour and Stregnth
though Joy.
Both the Beuty of Labour and Strength Through Joy
programmes can be seen as part of an attempt to improve the
status and working conditions of workers as a substitute for
wage increases and for the growing demand for consumable
goods.
Cheap theatre and cinema tickets, along with cheap radio sets
and the 'people's car', were all intended to symblise the
achievements of the people's community.
Labour Front (DAF): The nazis viewed
TUs as vehicles of the class struggle and
were determined they should be
de-politicised. By co-ordinating the TUS
into the Labour Front (DAF) they were
transforming organised labour into an
organ for vocational representation that
placed stregnthing the national economy
above self-aggrandizment.
An idealised image of the worker was
invoked in an attempt to raise the status (if
not his wages) and fulfil the psychological
assimilation of the worker into the life of the
nation. New nation holidays were invented:
Accession to Power Day; Labour Day;
Harvest Day; Memorial Day; Hitler's
Birthday.