How Significant Was The Use Of Propaganda In Germany

Propaganda was extremely significant in Ggermany in the period 1933 to 1945 as it affected the people of Germany’s lifestyles greatly due to the fact that propaganda was presented to people in their everyday lives in some manner or form, making it inescapable. The main methods of propaganda were achieved through radio, posters, newspapers, films, music and the arts, which are popular forms of entertainment and leisure and therefore influenced the majority of the German public – which were Hitler’s intentions. The Nazi Party used their propaganda to persuade Germany to support them and gain more votes, but equally as significant, they used their propaganda to scapegoat and ridicule the Jews.
Propaganda was extremely significant in Germany in
Hitler mainly used simple themes in posters to make sure that the least intelligent Germans could understand the message he was trying to get across to them as he said the message had to reach the ‘least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach,’ In this way the Ministry of Propaganda created posters with repeated slogans and motifs – some posters consisted of just one word or ‘Hitler’ to highlight the importance of that word and draw all focus to it when it was being viewed. The repetition of ‘Hitler’ on many posters made him seem more powerful and he appeared as having great authority and rapport, which impacted the German society by making them believe the Nazi party would make Germany more powerful. In other forms of propaganda, he was idealised and a common slogan used in these posters were 'One People, One Nation, One Leader,’ which depicts how he was represented in a deified way as the use of ‘one’ makes him sound like he is singularly achieving power and wealth for Germany – without any other help. However, posters could also be tampered with and people who were anti-Nazi and opposed Hitler could easily manipulate posters with spray cans and such so that the poster would reflect Hitler and his messages in a negative
Hitler used terror to control Germany by creating the SS, who were able to wipe out the brown shirts in the ‘night of long knives’ because Hitler was in fear that they had become too powerful. This caused the German public to have the impression that if people went against Nazi ideals, Hitler would be able to easily use the SS to terrorise and murder them. These significantly changed the attitudes of the German public as they were forced to passively agree with Nazi views and were restricted of publicising and sharing any opposing opinions. Furthermore, the Gestapo – the Secret Police state – were responsible for rounding up Jews and anyone thought of as a threat to Nazi Germany by trying to murder them. Germans believed that the Gestapo was everywhere, which created a never ending fear of them. Most of the public believed that you could trust no one as they may be part of the Gestapo, who were capable of immediately prosecuting and even executing you if you were not a completely loyal state member. The fear created by the SS and the Gestapo made people suppress their anti-Nazi thoughts and even brainwashed the people of Germany to believe that any belief that was not approved of by the Nazis was completely wrong. It was so much of a risk to publicise