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12 Political Ideologies<br />
How was Hitler able to promote<br />
Nazism in 1930s<br />
Germany?<br />
B<br />
y 1933, Germany had already suffered<br />
a depression and its streets<br />
were plagued with hyperinflation<br />
and poverty, so they were in desperate<br />
need of a new ideology to steer them to<br />
success. As Nazism spread through Europe<br />
like an infection in the 1930s, it<br />
seemed this would result in a reinvigorated<br />
Germany, a far cry away from the<br />
one who had been humiliated at Versailles.<br />
However, the challenge of maintaining<br />
and enforcing this new regime<br />
proved to be the test of Nazism; how<br />
much did German citizens want this new<br />
ideology and what methods did Hitler<br />
employ to ensure they wanted it?<br />
Dr Joseph Goebbels and the mighty propaganda<br />
machine were pivotal to the survival<br />
of Nazism. He had the power to not<br />
only censor any media criticising the<br />
Reich but also the power to control mainstream<br />
media. <strong>The</strong> organization of the Nuremberg<br />
rallies, pro-Nazi radio broadcasts,<br />
Nazi cinema and newspapers all<br />
helped to<br />
ensure Hitler<br />
stayed<br />
in power<br />
and continually<br />
promoted<br />
Nazism.<br />
Books<br />
and works<br />
of art were restricted to only ones promoting<br />
the Nazi message and those deemed<br />
unacceptable were burnt. Hitler did this to<br />
attempt to censor all media and appeal to<br />
the German multitudes but also as a public<br />
demonstration of the rejection of alternative<br />
ideas.<br />
Goebbels<br />
was able to<br />
marry his<br />
fascination<br />
with new<br />
technology<br />
to his<br />
power of<br />
media censorship.<br />
In<br />
this way,<br />
he was able<br />
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s<br />
to tap into the mind of every<br />
propaganda minister<br />
German as his media was so<br />
mainstream and cheap. Consequently,<br />
everyone was exposed to propaganda no<br />
matter their social status or education.<br />
Germany was in a depression, but Goebbels<br />
combated this by putting speakers in<br />
bars and creating cheap radios. It was on<br />
these radios that Hitler’s speeches were<br />
repeated – guaranteeing that his ideas<br />
were heard by all.<br />
Posters aimed at the poorly educated<br />
had simplistic<br />
bright<br />
“Goebbels had the power to not only censor<br />
any media criticising the Reich but also<br />
the power to control mainstream media”<br />
pictures to attract<br />
them. <strong>The</strong><br />
content and design<br />
typically<br />
featured povertystricken<br />
Germans<br />
and exposed Communists and Jews<br />
as the cause of this problem. This visual<br />
propaganda meant that it appealed to<br />
those who couldn’t afford to visit an art<br />
gallery or visit the cinema but at the same<br />
time it attracted Germans everywhere<br />
with its dramatic slogans and shocking
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