Effective Propaganda?

CONFIRMING RATHER THAN CONVERTING?
1. Accurate measurement of the effectiveness of nazi propaganda is weakened by the absence of public opinion surveys and the fact that in a society that resorted so readily to coercion and terror, reported opinion did not necessarily reflect the true feeling s and moods of teh public, especially if those views were opposed to the regime.
  1. However, this is not to say that public existence did not exist. After the nazi 'seizure of power' in 1933 the Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels stressed the importance of co-ordinating propaganda with other activities. In a dictatorship, propaganda must address itself to large masses of people and attempt to move them them to a uniformity of opinion and action.
    1. The nazis also understood that propaganda was of little value in isolation. To some extent this explains why Goebbels impressed on all of his staff in the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and propaganda, the imperative necessity contsantly to gauge public moods.
2. It would be an over-simplification to think of the german public as a tabula rasa, upon which the regime drew whatever picture it wished. In any political system policy must be explained, and the public must either be convinced of the efficacy of government decisions or at least remain indifferent to them.
3. As a general statement it would be unfair to say that propaganda tended to be more effective when it was reinforcing existing values and prejudices than when it was attempting to manufacture a new value system, or indeed, whenit was encountering some resistence.
CREATE A NATIONAL COMMUNITY?
1. David Welch says that propaganda of the national community failed to break down objective class and social divisions, and, more importantly, failed to destroy the awareness of these divisions.
  1. Two sections of the population in particular were singled out as 'restricting' the blandishments of the 'national community' propaganda: the working industrial call and the Catholics.
    1. Tim Mason: the German working class remained largely resistant to the nazi regime and its ideology. Sopade reports suggested that workers, while remaining cynical about incentives, were nevertheless impressed that certain measures to improve working conditions were being implemented.
POSITIVE RESPONSE
1. The Youth
  1. Hitler Youth for boys and League of German Girls
    1. By 1935, 60 per cent of all German youth belonged to the Hitler Youth. Surprisingly, membership was not made compulsory intil the Hitler Youth Law 1939.
      1. However, the belief that the Hitler Youth successfully mobilised all young people is clearly an exaggeration. By the late 1930s the regimental nature of the Hitler Youth was alienating some young people who were forming independent gangs.
        The two most documented groups are: The Swing Youth and the Elderwiess Pirates.
        The swing Youth were certainly not anti-fascist and indifferent to national socialism. In general, the nazi's viewed them as a minor irritant.
        The Elderwieess Pirates on the otherhand reresented a more serious threat to the social conformity that the Hitler Youth intended to instil. They had a general oppositional view towards what they say as the increasingly para-military obligations of the Hitler Youth. However, though they rejected the authoritarianism and hierarchical lifestyle of the nazis, their non-conformist behaviour tended to be restricted to petty provocation.
    2. For the mass of German Youth, however, the nazi regime offered comradeship and a pioneering role. it was this generation after all that would instil the nazi Weltanschauung in their national comrades, and lay the foundations for the New order in Europe.
2. In the sense that propaganda promiting Volksgemeinschaft was attempting to disseminate the idea of social and natinal harmony as the ideological obverse of class conflict, it can be said to had succeeded by default. By turning large sections of the population into passive consumers, the nazi technique of organisation and atomisation led to a gradual process of de-politicisation which effectively achieved the desired consent.

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Effective Propaganda?

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