Graphic Design Styles, Techniques of Propaganda and Persuasion by the Nazi Govt. 1933-1939
Discuss the Graphic Design Styles and Techniques of Propaganda and Persuasion used by the Nazi Government 1933-1939
“Nothing is easier than leading the people on a leash. I just hold up a dazzling campaign poster and they jump through it.” (Goebbels, 1934). By the time Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he already understood the power that propaganda could have on the masses; so quickly hired Joseph Goebbels as Reich Minister of Propaganda to control the news, media and art in Germany. Propaganda then grew to become a very strong and powerful tool for the Nazi party up to and throughout the Second World War under Goebbels power. Propaganda is the use of, usually, biased or misleading information within design, media, news and a most other public spaces to persuade the masses in favour of a certain political message or cause. Within my writing I am going to analyse and review the Nazi governments use of Propaganda through their techniques, graphic design styles and their successfulness to persuade the German population. I will examine how the party controlled the mass media by controlling the press and employing their own designers to create designs that followed their party’s principles to create an identity for Germany. I will finally look at how they rejected modern styles to maintain a traditional Germany to create and rebuild the superior Nazi ideal.
The Nazi party had used propaganda strongly up to and beyond the time I will be discussing, you can see how confident the party were with propaganda from the election campaign posters of 1932. Here you can see how “in an age when the mass media was only just being recognised as a potent political force, [Hitler] had largely been established by his astonishing election schedule.” (Welch, 2014) and understood that his familiarity was sufficient enough to put across his message without the need for a slogan. The Nazi party also understood how, among a sea of coloured election posters, this striking
“Nothing is easier than leading the people on a leash. I just hold up a dazzling campaign poster and they jump through it.” (Goebbels, 1934). By the time Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he already understood the power that propaganda could have on the masses; so quickly hired Joseph Goebbels as Reich Minister of Propaganda to control the news, media and art in Germany. Propaganda then grew to become a very strong and powerful tool for the Nazi party up to and throughout the Second World War under Goebbels power. Propaganda is the use of, usually, biased or misleading information within design, media, news and a most other public spaces to persuade the masses in favour of a certain political message or cause. Within my writing I am going to analyse and review the Nazi governments use of Propaganda through their techniques, graphic design styles and their successfulness to persuade the German population. I will examine how the party controlled the mass media by controlling the press and employing their own designers to create designs that followed their party’s principles to create an identity for Germany. I will finally look at how they rejected modern styles to maintain a traditional Germany to create and rebuild the superior Nazi ideal.
The Nazi party had used propaganda strongly up to and beyond the time I will be discussing, you can see how confident the party were with propaganda from the election campaign posters of 1932. Here you can see how “in an age when the mass media was only just being recognised as a potent political force, [Hitler] had largely been established by his astonishing election schedule.” (Welch, 2014) and understood that his familiarity was sufficient enough to put across his message without the need for a slogan. The Nazi party also understood how, among a sea of coloured election posters, this striking