The answer is simple. Who was the person in charge of the propaganda of Nazi Germany?
Joseph Goebbels.
A wordsmith. A master manipulator. A terrific orator. A man who knew how to whip up a crowd in a frenzy. A man fraught with insecurities over his looks and his military rejection. An over compensator for the things he lacked; compensated with a PhD in German Philology from the University of Heidelberg. A man who was blessed with the talent of communication; the talent of writing his thoughts and views into persuasive and eloquent speeches.
There is nothing more soothing than a beautiful sentence. Many were crafted and utilized as a weapon to subjugate Germany.
A talent that was much admired by Adolf Hitler, whom as great as an orator as he was, was horrid at executing eloquence with his thoughts. Not to say that Adolf Hitler was only a puppet but when it comes to every speech Hitler gave to the German public since 1926, Adolf Hitler was only reading the words written on paper by his comrade, Joseph Goebbels.
You might ask yourself how a person can get sucked into the party and truly write such a horrific word. We often forget how easy it is to hate others and blame others for our own shortcomings. It is easier to look outward than it is to look inward. And, Joseph Goebbels held much hatred inside of himself, hatred and anger that he was willing to use to his own agenda, and that of the Nazi Party for the world.
Born into a strict, Catholic, working-class family in the Rhineland – Rheydt, Germany – on October 27, 1897, Joseph Goebbels grew up to be one of the most intelligent men in the Third Reich. First, he studied in a Roman Catholic school for primary school and then at the premiered University of Heidelberg, he studied history and literature, which culminated into a doctorate in German Philology. Yet, for all his worldliness and intellectual pursuits, Goebbels still found ways to think of himself as inadequate. Maybe, because he was rejected from the German Army because of his club foot, the outcome of his childhood affliction of osteomyelitis, which caused him to limp throughout all his adult life. Or, maybe his inadequacy came from his physical complexion of a big head, small frame, and black hair instead of the Nordic complexion. The Nordic complexion of blonde hair and blue eyes was the ideal.
Living up to the ideal is extremely hard.
Joseph Goebbels was not a soldier, but he was incredibly loyal and meticulous organizer. He was sharp, clear-sighted, and he knew how to seize an opportunity to promote his ideological beliefs about German difficulties and methods necessary to help Germany regain its national.
When Goebbels first joined Adolf Hitler and his political party, the National Socialist German Worker’s Party, Joseph was stationed out in Berlin-Brandenburg, where the party was not well-known or liked and needs to be completely built up from scratch. So, with the opportunity to make the Berlin-Brandenburg Nazi Party into a success and prove to Hitler that he is great, Goebbels turned the miniscule and conflict-ridden organization into a powerful machine that riled up its people. He put out a weekly newspaper called Der Angriff, or The Attack, meaning the newspaper voiced anti-Semitism.
As well as the newspaper, Goebbels designed posters which exhibited the strength and vigor of the Nazi Party, a party that was for Germany’s best interest. He entertained the crowds with various parades, street battles, beer-hall brawls, and shooting affrays – Goebbels knew how to get the people hyped up and he did it tirelessly in Berlin. Not only pleasing the crowds in Berlin, Joseph Goebbels created a hero, a hero who passed away unjustly with his life unfulfilled from former law student and Nazi Brownshirt paramilitary officer Horst Wessel.
It was thought that Horst Wessel lived with his girlfriend, a former prostitute, in his apartment owned by the widow of a Communist Party member. Joseph Goebbels took this and transformed it into, Horst Wessel rescues his girlfriend from a life from prostitution to one with dignity by introducing the Nazi Party values to her. Horst Wessel was not a figure who died alone with a prostitute.
Horst Wessel, through propaganda, became the man to aspire to, according to the Nazi Party as he was “said” to be a brilliant and militaristic man who brought about a reformation through Nazi Party values, starting with the “prostitute” who quit her day job and joined the Nazi Party.
The Nazi Party Anthem was reportedly written by Horst Wessel. In 1933, the Nazi Party gained control and this statement become a fact, one that could not be argued without serious consequences.
Poster for the Hans Westmar film (1933)
It’s amazing how the truth can be twisted. It’s amazing at what we can believe.
Regardless of what Goebbels did to make the Nazi Party great, nothing was permanent until 1929 when the American Stock Market crashed. The economic downturn inevitable turned the tide into Nazi Party’s favor and no one took advantage more than Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, and the Nazi Party.
A master propagandist and terrific wordsmith, Joseph Goebbels proved himself to be invaluable. Adolf Hitler was impressed by Goebbels’ ability to transform the recklessness in Berlin into a powerhouse for Nazi Germany, so Hitler appointed him to Reich Propaganda in 1929 as he did have a paralyzing intellectual gift to mobilize the masses that have been left unemployed into a frenzy by giving them someone to blame and letting them know it was not their fault.
1929 was the perfect year for the Third Reich to take advantage of a disenfranchised Germany. For everything that Adolf Hitler had prophesied has come to turn and the loss of financial income scared the people. The German people were terrified and were finally ready to listen to the Nazi Party.
Joseph Goebbels was needed more than ever to truly craft the Adolf Hitler into the role of the savior of Germany, into the Fuhrer who can bring Germany back to greatness and free it from the clutches of the Jews, the gypsies, the communists, and the socialists.
The day the stock market fell was the turning point. The world fell into an economic depression. The countries were spiraling. Every country was calling in their reparations owed from Germany for their World War I spoils yet there was no money to be found. Germany knew not what to do.
Luckily Joseph Goebbels, Reich Propaganda Minister, knew what to do and knew how to get the German people on his side he needed to tell them what they wanted to hear; he let them know that it was not their fault but the fault of schemers, schemers who mean to suck the life out of Germany from the inside.
And these schemers were none other than the Jewish people.
The Jewish people, according to Nazi Propaganda, were outsiders. They were dirty, greedy people who cared only for themselves and wanted Germany to suffer.
True degradation of the Jewish people did not come until five years later when Joseph Goebbels oversaw the entire film industry. 1933: An imperfect year, depending on who you ask.
Joseph Goebbels might have thought 1933 was an excellent year. Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor. Goebbels, himself, was appointed Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
It was a frightening time.
It was the time for cleansing, for the purification of Germany. For everything that makes Germany looks weak must be thrown out, burned, and cancelled. Everything that went against and challenged the Nazi philosophy was to be destroyed, cancelled.
Be wary of cancel culture.
There was nothing more detrimental to the Nazis’ control than an opposing viewpoint.
It’s often wondered how the German people remained so ignorant and docile during the Nazi Era. The German people never knew what was truly happening. The truth was hidden from the people by their government – the Nazis.
Books were cancelled first – with a book-burning!
All books that showed even the tiniest bit of German frailty were to be burned. Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front tells a story of a group of friends who at the behest of their high school teacher signed up to fight the Great War in 1914. They were boys, who just graduated high school, and they signed up for war, to their work as proud and dutiful Germans. But a war held on two fronts of a country was an impossible feat and Remarque writes that, sort of, as his main character Paul grows weary of the war and fighting and of his duty to continue fighting.
All Quiet on the Western Front was to be burned.
Marcel Proust, Hellen Keller, Albert Einstein, H.G. Wells, Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, Arnold Zweig, André Gide, Jack London, Émile Zola, and Sigmund Freud. All their work was ordered to be destroyed as well. Opposing viewpoints to the Nazis were not to be read in Nazi Germany.
Works destroyed. Businesses operated by any Jews were to be boycotted. Jewish Professionals in the theatre, law, medicine, and any other artistic pursuits were to be blackballed and fired.
As the Minister of Entertainment, Goebbels took his powerful power of transformation to the screens and into history. Using his deep-rooted hatred for the Jewish people, Goebbels transformed the history of Jewish people in Europe into the history of how parasites disrupt a good world.
Poster for The Eternal Jew exhibition, 1937
1934 UK cinema poster for the film Jew Süss
Let’s start with the film The Eternal Jew, or Der Ewige Jude. It is a straightforward film; one that illuminates the “the degeneracy of the Jewish race” and how “the Jewish people travel from country to country, destroying all their countries.” Der Ewige Jude was a film that appealed more to Adolf Hitler.
It was a simple film that cut straight to the point. It was this film that was encouraged by Heinrich Himmler – the wannabee soldier and leader of the SS – to be watched by the Nazi and SS soldiers.
There was once a man, Josef Süss Oppenheimer, who worked for the Duke of Württemberg in the 18th century. Oppenheimer was Jewish and he was also the financial consultant to Duke Karl Alexander. Not only did Oppenheimer consult with the Duke on his financials but Oppenheimer also collected taxes from the people for Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg.
After the Duke’s death, Josef Süss Oppenheimer lost his job and was put on a trial for execution.
The story of Josef Süss Oppenheimer was one of human tragedy ¬— of how humans can turn their backs on one another just because of who they are, either professionally or personally.
The story of the 18th century Jewish financial consultant to the Duke of Württemberg was given a transformation – one that shows only the Jewish self-importance and greed.
This movie was not to the point. It is a story from history that has been transformed to appeal to the popular culture.
Only one message was filtered out into the German public. It was the message that the Jewish people were not to be seen as pitiable or generous or intelligent or kind or amiable. The Jewish people, in the films from the Nazi Era, were narcissistic, greedy, dirty, and manipulative. Jews are the villainous people that cause devastation and conflict, at least according to the Nazi propaganda that was released to the public.
When you only ever receive one message over and over, it is hard to truly find a reasonable and practical argument against the message you are receiving.
It is hard to fight back when everything can be taken away from you.
The Nazi Party was in charge. Adolf Hitler was the Fuhrer, or the leader, of Germany but he was not the one who made the ultimate decisions on what is and should not be.
We credit him for the rise of Nazism, but Adolf Hitler did not bring about the empire of the Third Reich alone. He was not able to do it by himself. Hitler may have been a great orator but his writing skills, leadership skills, and military strategy skills were not up to par.
It was Joseph Goebbels who created the image of Adolf Hitler, the brilliant military strategist on the battlefield and at home and without whom Germany would be lost and descend further in the darkness.
Adolf Hitler was not a decision-maker. His circle of trusted advisors and ranking officials made all the decisions that brought upon Nazism in Germany. And, of Hitler’s closest advisors and his most loyal was Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, as it was him that did his best to enthrall the whole country under the idealism of Nazism while Heinrich Himmler authorized his SS guards to terrorize those who fought against Nazi terrorism inside the country of the Third Reich. The SS were not military. They were the personal guards to the Fuhrer and his advisers that terrorized and tortured their countrymen if they went against the Nazi policies.
The agenda of the Third Reich was not to go to war with the world. Their agenda was to exterminate their enemies and their enemies were the Jews. They were not prepared for an all-out war, for a war fought on two fronts but they could not just surrender at least not while Adolf Hitler still lived.
There was a devotion that inspired awe and loyalty within all the Reich advisors for Adolf Hitler. No one would have wanted to go against Hitler, especially not Joseph Goebbels. For Goebbels’ devotion to the cause was devotion to Adolf Hitler but also their shared hatred of the Jewish people.
The inevitable defeat of the Third Reich by the British, American, and Soviet Army led to the Nazi Party officials scrambling to secure their future past their eventual government demise.
For the propaganda minister that meant hiding away in the Führerbunker with the Führer and their loved ones because the propaganda minister could not stand to live in a world without Adolf Hitler.
When defeat was near and the Nazi Party came to realize that Germany had no chance in rising back, Joseph Goebbels gave one last speech to the people in Berlin commanding that:
The German people should support the war always but if Germany is fated to lose, then it would be fitting that the German nation and her people be razed.
One last speech to the German people and then Joseph Goebbels scurried away with his family, Eva Braun, and Adolf Hitler to Hitler’s subterranean air raid shelter outside of Berlin, where Soviet troops were beginning to amass.
Spurning his country into a frenzy with mythological images and stories, Joseph Goebbels most likely knew that there was no way any of the Allied forces would have let him live peacefully nor did he want to live in the world without Adolf Hitler. His wife, Magda Quandt-Goebbels, did not want to live either for she had her own infatuation with Hitler (even going to him for marriage advice every now and then). The Goebbels’ family was devoted but not to the Nazi cause, to Adolf Hitler, and so the day after Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun committed a murder-suicide so did the Goebbels’ family.
Be wary of those who are blindly devoted. Be wary of those who follow someone purely because of who they are and how they perceive them.
The lesson here to learn is to be wary of anyone knows how to craft a truly pleasing and beautiful sentence. Be wary of writers. They can be malicious with their words.
Because anyone who can mince their thoughts into charming and pleasing sentences that can be memorized and repeated and reverberated with such awe is dangerous.
Works Cited
History.com Editors. “Joseph Goebbels.” HISTORY, A&E Television Networks, 24 March 2010, https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/joseph-goebbels
Joseph Goebbels, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-goebbels.
