The Nazi's Use of Propaganda

The Nazis were considered to be masters of propaganda, because they used numerous sources such as literature, radio and the press, to convey their views of society and the world to the public, and these sources were everyday things in a German's life, making it that much easier for the Nazis to persuade the general population that their views were right. The Nazis use of propaganda further solidified their power and their cleverness in doing so by using everyday things in a Germans life made it that much easier.

Literature was a one of the biggest tools the Nazis used to solidify their power by use of propaganda through it. Literature suffered greatly in Nazi Germany. As with other aspects of culture, a very simple rule existed for literature: it was either acceptable to the Nazi state or it was not. As a result a number of internationally recognised authors left Nazi Germany for their own safety while the state gave prominence to authors who wrote about what the government expected them to: the glorification of war, the glorification of the Aryan ideal, the glorification of Adolf Hitler, the glorification of Nazi Germany and more. When Hitler came to power, he was acutely aware of the power of authors – both within Nazi Germany and internationally. At that time Germany had a number of authors who had an international reputation: Erich Maria Remarque, Thomas Mann and more. Hitler knew that they had the power to undermine Germany abroad if they were allowed to write as they wished. Hitler took the decision that literary freedom had to be curbed at all costs and that authors only wrote in a manner that the government approved of. On the night of May 10th 1933, the German public witnessed the first mass book burning ceremony organised by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Men from the SA heaped ‘unacceptable’ books into a pile on Unter den Linden opposite the University of Berlin. They then used the torches from their torchlight parade to set alight the books....