5B EOB 2 Assessment 2021

Time
Planning 30 mins
Writing 40 mins

Show the planning rationale here:

Hitler

General Thesis: Hitler’s use of propaganda maintained authoritarian control over Germany by expanding Nazi ideology
in the popular mindset, and allowing this ideology to permeate into legal and social reforms, as well as incline people
towards the regime and disincline them from opposition.

Argument 1: The use of language in the construction of ideological concepts allowed for the superposition of Nazi
ideology on the state structure
● Volksgemeinschaft
○ Associated an ideology to a people and inextricably bound them to it
○ “Popular community” the ends are shown, rather than the means. Ambiguous, so people could
interpret it positively (the inclination to support it positively was supported by posters and rallies)
● Führerprinzip
○ Centered the state structure around the person of Hitler
○ ‘Fuhrer’ became almost synonymous with good and became incorporated in everyday language
● Gleichschaltung
○ Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda controlled the media as part of gleichschaltung
○ Gleichschaltung comes from electricity and means rectification
○ Claudia Koonz: scientific etymology captures a mechanistic and biological mindset that treats people
as a racial collective

Argument 2: Propaganda united society behind a common enemy, ‘Der Jude’, and simultaneously presented the Nazi
regime as the protector of the country
● Stab in the back myth
○ Perpetuated through propaganda posters, books, movies, articles in the press, speeches and rallies
○ Association of Jews with Marxists, united against the Folkish worldview
○ Jews as destroyers of culture
■ Again we see the role of language. Mein Kampf employs “Jew” as an adjective synonymous
with “undesirable”, even when the subject matter is not dealing with Jews or racial policy
○ (link) Hitler emerged from a cultural crisis (Ian Kershaw). Propaganda was used both to exacerbate
this cultural crisis and to draw a contrast with the Germany that the Nazis had built.
■ Tried again in the war, but encounter with reality made it less succesfull
● Aryan Germans from different ideologies were united under the racial banner.
○ Hitler captured a feeling of nationalism
○ Propaganda about pan germanism and the aryan
○ Propaganda about British colonisation of India

Argument 3: Propaganda inspired an emotional response in the population to the effect that they were attracted
towards Hitler and dissuaded from opposing him
● Attract people
○ Pseudo-religious nature of Nazism
■ Positive Christianity
■ Occultism
 ■ Symbology in rallies
● Fire
● Swastika
○ Recognition
■ Medals for women
■ Young people rewarded for serving in Hitler Youth
● Dissuasion from opposition
○ Fear of persecution
■ Propaganda expanded fear amongst the population, and fear of persecution became more
significant than persecution itself
■ 1 Gestapo informant per 3,000 Germans (approximately on average), yet propaganda made it
seem as if the Gestapo was had an overarching grasp over the population and saw everyone
■ Proportionally as propaganda infiltrated everyday life, a subconscious fear emerged that the
subject matter of propaganda would also infiltrate everyday life
■ Goebbels wanted people to be unaware of the purpose of propaganda

Conclusion: Propaganda was very significant in preserving authoritarian control in Nazi Germany, but it didn’t act on
its own, rather being useful insofar as it was a complement to Nazi ideology and allowed this to be integrated with
German society (with the exception of the fear factor)

Q. To what extent was the role of propaganda used to consolidate and maintain one authoritarian state.

Propaganda is often associated with several authoritarian regimes, who have employed various means to influence
the collective mindset so as to not rely completely on coercive mechanisms, which are unsustainable in the long-term.
At its most basic level, propaganda alters the views of the population, and when employed by totalitarian
governments, it gives the state a certain omnipresence in society. Hitler’s use of propaganda maintained authoritarian
control over Germany by expanding Nazi ideology in the popular mindset, and allowing this ideology to permeate into
legal and social reforms, as well as incline people towards the regime and disincline them from opposition.

Firstly, we see that propaganda, in particular linguistic constructions used to refer to ideological concepts, allowed for
the superposition of Nazi ideology on an existing state structure. Niall Ferguson, in arguing that this unique ideological
overlay over the German state is what accounts for Hitler’s authoritarianism, recognizes that the use of propaganda
was essential to integrate this ideology with society and both preserve and expand Nazi rule. There are three primary
concepts that relied on linguistic constructions and supporting propaganda: volksgemeinschaft; führerprinzip and
gleichschaltung. On the first of these, the use of ‘popular’ and ‘community’ to describe the Nazi view of a true German
society made use of a natural inclination to support those close to you and with which a communal relationship is
shared. The emphasis on the results of Nazi policy, rather than the policy itself, were in themselves a form of
propaganda designed to allow people to project their own ideals and values on Nazi ideology, and consolidate as a
community around Hitler’s aims and government. This leads us to the second of these concepts: the fuhrerprinzip.
This was the most supported by traditional propaganda, that is, posters, films, articles, etc. The emphasis on the
fuhrer was not descriptive of Nazi ideology, but rather constructive, in the sense that the integration of the figure of
the fuhrer in the collective view of authority and guidance is what afforded the Nazi state apparatus its personalist
character. Furthermore, propaganda exploited this to such a degree that the image of the fuhrer entered common
discourse, used as a representation of goodness. For example, pleasant weather could have been described as
“agreeable to the fuhrer”. The most subtle, yet most effective of the three, was gleichschaltung. This policy of
“coordination” was pursued by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, headed by Goebbels, which
took control of the media under the banner of gleichschaltung, and to support its aims. Claudia Koonz also highlights
the importance of the scientific etymology of gleichschaltung to depict people as a racial collective which, as a result
of its mechanistic nature, was subject to totalitarian rule. Hence, the use of propaganda with regards to the state
structure and its role in society, through linguistic constructions, integrated Nazi ideology with the popular mindset
and allowed for the eventual reconstitution of the German government in 1934 and 35, when an ideological
possession allowed for the Law Concerning the Reconstruction of the Reich and the elimination of the Reichsrat.
Propaganda would reach its peak with regards to political reconstruction through legal reform when, in the
Nuremberg rally of 1935, the Nazi symbols were united witht he German flag, and the state apparatus became fully
encompassed by Hitler’s ideology.

Secondly, propaganda was also used to perpetuate a particular domestic social attitude that simultaneously divided
and united society to preserve Hitler’s authoritarian control. This was done with regards to the treatment of
minorities and nationalism, independently. With the treatment of minorities, we have the depiction of Jews as
“destroyers of culture”. Propaganda was used to show them as enemies of Germany, to inculcate the view that they
were a race rather than a creed, and to associate them with marxism. This allowed for blame to be laid upon the Jews
for the revolution of 1918 and the stab-in-the-back myth, as well as later being used as scapegoats for the failures of
Germany. In a similar manner to the Fuhrer’s association with goodness, ‘Jew’ was adopted by Nazi propoaganda as
synonymous with undesirable. Mein Kampf makes several uses of ‘Jew’ as an adjective to describe things not related
at all to Jews or racial ideology, such as the comparative failure of Germany in establishing a colonial empire. The
effect of this for Hitler’s authoritarian control is that it created an enemy against which the majority of the German
population could rally. As Roger Scruton argues, society is rarely ever united as a body and acts towards a common
goal, save for the notorious exception of when it has a common enemy. Hitler, by fabricating an enemy for Germany,
united the Aryan Germans as a single body, and rendering himself as their protector, ensured that everything was
“within the state”, and that his ideology and policies could direct society in an exertion of authority in and of itself.
This was shown to have been successful during Kristallnacht, when the majority of atrocities, although encouraged by
the SS, were carried out by civilians who had subscribed to this collectivist and tribalistic mindset. With regards to
nationalism, its important to note that despite Nazi pangermanism and their adoration for the fatherland, Hitler
benefitted from the cultural crisis that ensued after WW1. In fact, Ian Kershaw contends that rather than the
economic struggles of the Great Depression, it was the social and cultural crisis that accounted for the rise of Nazism.
Therefore, Hitler also used propaganda to exacerbate this cultural crisis and depict Germany as, even if once great, a
broken nation. This directly led to support for him and the Nazis when, as a counterpart, propaganda was used to
render him the saviour of the nation and Germany as Grossdeutschland; once more a great nation. This allowed for
social support for the Nazis, but also for the justification of emergency powers at a legal level. For example, the
propaganda that followed the Reichstaf fire led to support for the intervention of the SA, which consolidated Hitler’s
power. Therefore, by dividing society and uniting it under him, Hitler preserved authoritarian rule.

Finally, propaganda was used to elicit an emotional response from the population to the effect that they were
attracted towards Hitler and dissuaded from opposing him. The pseudo-religious character of Nazism was, to a great
degree, only sustainable through the ingenious use of propaganda. Symbolism and a cult of personality that presented
Hitler as a messianic figure complemented rallies and the fuhrer’s rhetoric to create a strong attraction to him.
Propaganda was also used via Positive Christianity to further afford the Nazi movement a quasi-religious dimension
that captivated people not on a rational basis, but on a deeper emotional basis, and that in practice made Germans
not the subjects of Hitler, but his disciples. In parallel to this, propaganda was used to inculcate fear in the population.
This was especially the case with the Gestapo, which even though, on average, had only approximately one officer per
3,000 GErmans, maintained a strong control over the population. Propaganda made it seem as if the Gestapo was
overarching, omnipresent and omniscient. It emphasized the uncertainty of whether a person you knew belonged to
the Gestapo, and depicted the persecution of opposition as despotic and equivalent to the salvation of the nation - on
this last point, this also meant that the repercussions for opposing Hitler would be accordingly proportional. The fear
and intimidation became much more relevant than the persecution itself, which meant that Hitler was able to move
from purges to an emotional control over the motivations of the population. Hence, propaganda created an emotional
response that both presented Hitler as a messianic figure and depicted successful opposition to him as inconceivable.
Therefore, propaganda ensured that instead of there being a suppression of opposition, there was a suppression of
motivation for opposition, which made Hitler’s preservation of power a sustainable pursuit.
In conclusion, propaganda was used in Nazi Germay to a great extent in order to maintain authoritarian rule. With the
exception of the promulgation of fear of persecution in the population, propaganda served primarily as a complement
to ideology. THus, insofar as this allowed Hitler to claim the state apparatus and the minds of millions of Germans for
himself and the Nazis, propaganda was a key pillar of totalitarian consolidation in 1930s Germany.