The Nazi party in Germany extensively censored information and used propaganda techniques to control public opinion and influence the masses. They tightly controlled the press, universities, arts, literature, music, and all forms of media to spread Nazi ideology and suppress opposing views. This widespread censorship and propaganda helped Hitler consolidate power and present himself as a strong leader of a unified Germany.

1. CENSORSHIP AND
PROPAGANDA

2. INTRODUCTION.
 Censorship is the control of information and ideas that are
circulated within a society.
 Propaganda is the manipulation of information to influence the
public's opinion it uses a number of techniques such as emphasizing
the bits of information that support a position and minimizing and
excluding the bits that don’t .

4. T H E P R E S S I N N A Z I G E R M A N Y.
 The newspapers in Nazi Germany were encouraged by the Nazi’s,
but they had to provide views which the ministry agreed with or face
the consequences.
 If they said anything bad about the Nazi’s and the Nazi Party then
they would be in serious trouble, because Hitler was such a strong
leader they knew they weren’t allowed to dis-respect their chancellor/
president.

5. CONTINUED.
 Journalists were given regular briefings containing the information
the government were willing to publicise they were sometimes given
direct instructions on what to write.
 Under these circumstances, there could be no free press in
Germany every newspaper was a Nazi Newspaper.

6. UNIVERSITIES.
 The Nazi’s had little respect for academic research and had often viewed it as a waste
of time. The Nazi Education Minster once said “ A road-sweeper sweeps 1000
microbes with a stroke; a scientist preens himself on discovering a single
microbe” . Between 1933 and 1938, 3000 professors of lecturers were dismissed from
jobs.
 Research was heavily directed by the Ministry and results were expected to support
Nazi views. All academics who remained had to agree publicly to things which were
clearly made no sense.
 “Physics is the creation of the German mind… in fact, all European science is
the fruit of Aryan thought.”

7. THE ARTS. (LITERATURE)
 The Nazi’s decided what literature German people could access.
Books with views which they didn’t like was censored. Millions of
books were taken from university and public libraries and burned on
huge public bonfires. On one occasion students in Berlin burned
20,000 books written by Jews, communists and anti-Nazi authors
destroying books, For example of Freud, Einstein and Thomas
Mann.

8. THE ARTS. (MUSIC)
 Music was also censored. Jazz music was banned; it was seen as
black music and therefore inferior. The work of Mendelssohn was
also banned because he was partly Jewish.
 Richard Wagner, in contrast, was promoted because he put to
music heroic legends from the past. Beethoven, Bach and Traditional
German folk music were also favoured.

9. This is the type of music that
was allowed in Nazi Germany
,as it was Beethoven a famous
and successful German it was
not banned or censored.

10. THE ARTS. (ART)
 As an artist Hitler had very strong views in this area it was heavily
censored on racial and political grounds, or just as a matter of taste.
 The Ministry disapproved, for example, of almost all modern art.
The Nazi’s preferred art which showed images of perfect German
men and women or heroic German folk tales.

11. THE ARTS. (THEATRE)
 In the theatre, plays about German history and politics were
favoured as long as they reflected Nazi views. For this reason, cheap
theatre tickets were made available- plays were a good way of getting
Nazi views across.
 This effected the public greatly as it suppressed free expression
and creativity.

12. The Nazis frequently staged
plays about German history
and politics.
Frederich schiller and
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
were shown to create a greater
sense of national community

13. This is one of the
Paintings in Nazi Germany
which shows Aryan men and
women , something the Nazis
considered to be perfect and
“true” Germans.

15. INTRODUCTION.
 Goebbels learned many ways to publicise the Nazi Party. But from
1933, Goebbels could use all the resources of the government to
publicise Hitler and his views on every aspect of society. Some of
these ways just continued methods used by the Nazi’s in the 1920’s.
For example:

16. Posters
This is an example of a
Nazi propaganda
poster showing Hitler
as a god like being with
rays of light beaming
on him. Posters like
this were used to
promote the Hitler
Myth “one empire, one
people, one leader”

17. RADIO.
 Goebbels started to use the power of the radio.
 All radio stations were put under the Nazi control.
 Hitler and other Nazi officials made frequent broadcasts.
 Cheap mass-produced radios were sold or placed in frequent café’s,
factories and schools; speakers were even placed in the street. By the
1930’s there were more radio’s per person in Germany than anywhere
in Europe.

18.  Hitler held mass rallies every year to
emphasise and advertise the strength, unity
and organisation of the Nazi party.

19. CINEMA.
 Goebbels also influenced films shown at cinemas. With audiences of over 25o
million in 1933, they obviously had excellent potential for getting the Nazi views
across.
 Films were shown along side a 45-minute official newsreel, publicising
Germany’s achievements
 Film-makers had to send the plot of every new film to Goebbels for approval.
 Some films had overtly political messages, like Hitlerjunge Quex (1933) in which
a young member of the Nazi party was killed by communists.

20.  Triumph des Willens
("Triumph of the Will")
was a documentary depicting the
Third Reich's 1934 Nuremberg Party Rally.
Featuring a cast of thousands as well as, of course,
Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Hess, Goering and
other top party officials.
It was used to glorify the Nazi party and give it a sense of idealism to
the public.

21. SPORT.
 Hitler and Goebbels also used sport to show Nazi Germany a good light. Their
best opportunity to do this came in 1936 when the Olympic Games were held in
Berlin.
 The Nazi’s built an Olympic stadium which could hold 110,000 people and was
the largest in the world, to reflect the power of Germany.
 All the events were faultlessly organised, to show off German Effiency.
 Germany won 33 gold medals, more than any other country- and more silver
and bronze too. The Nazi’s claimed this was proof of Aryan superiority.

22. CONTINUED.
 There was only 1 embarrassment for the Nazi’s at the Olympics;
the black American athlete, Jesse Owens, broke Olympic records 11
times in heats and finals and won four gold medals. Hitler refused to
present medals to any of the nine black US medal winners.

23.  This helped the Nazi’s gain more control and power over Germany
and it helped to get them more votes in the Reichstag. It also Hitler
made look good and strong leader.
 I think this helped him get into power because it publicised what
he did and the way he wanted to run the country.

24. ON WHITEBOARDS!
What is the difference between
Censorship and Propaganda?

25. ON WHITEBOARDS.
Do you think this helped Hitler get
into power?
If so, why?
If not, why?

26. ON WHITEBOARDS.
How do you think the Nazi
censorship and propaganda
effected the German people?
Do you think you would have
been influenced by it if you
were in Germany at the time?

27. What do you think was the most effective
technique used in getting Hitler into power?
Censorship?
Or
Propaganda?