Making of the Modern World: Fascist Propaganda Introduction Why a special lecture on fascist...

Making of the Modern World: Fascist Propaganda

Introduction

• Why a special lecture on fascist propaganda?

• Why could fascism appeal to people (focus on Nazi Germany)?

• Context: propaganda ‘war’ in Weimar Germany

• Analysing examples of propaganda

Making of the Modern World: Nations and Nationalism

Example 1: Hitler Youth Quex

• Film was based on a 1932 novel, released in 1933; celebrating the life (and death) of a young working-class boy who joined the Hitler Youth



• Communists represent disorder on multiple levels: violence, sexual morals, social organization: this was the threat Germany was facing if Communists would prevail

• Nazis present order, restraint, inclusiveness and a positive outlook towards the future


Example 2: Goebbels’s Radio Speech (1932)• Nazis skilfully employed

radio propaganda, especially after they came to power, to directly address their audience; people would listen to the radio in groups, which created a sense of community


Example 2: Goebbels’s Radio Speech (1932)


Example 2: Goebbels’s Radio Speech (1932)• Germany as being

enslaved by foreign powers

• German workers are suffering under this situation; appeal to the working classes!

• Call for a ‘government of national labour’; glorification of physical labour


Example 2: Goebbels’s Radio Speech (1932)Communist and Nazi posters


Example 2: Goebbels’s Radio Speech (1932)• Germany as being

enslaved by foreign powers

• German workers are suffering under this situation; appeal to the working classes!

• Call for a ‘government of national labour’; glorification of physical labour

• Expansionism; living space for Germans to settle


Example 3: Song

• Hitler Youth Song, from Hitler Youth Quex

• Collective singing as a way to create a community (‘Singing Dictatorship’)


Example 3: Song


Example 3: Song

• Future oriented ideology: we will create a ‘new age’

• Celebration of the youth as the dynamic and relentless generation that would accomplish this future (the Nazi movement as the largest youth movement in German history)

• Reversal of age hierarchies


Example 4: Triumph of the Will

• Documentary of the NSDAP Party Congress in Nuremberg, 1934; produced by Leni Riefenstahl

• Shows how the ‘community of soldiers and workers’ was produced and staged



• Joyous elements of community building

• Inclusiveness of the nation beyond regional or class differences

• Glorification of WWI soldiers and the ‘trench community’

• Glorification of physical labour as a prerequisite for belonging to the nation


Example 5: Violence as Propaganda• Nazis (and Italian

Fascists) celebrated violence and frequently engaged in violent street battles with their opponents

• Violence created the impression of a looming civil war, and only the Nazis would be able to provide order in this situation


Example 5: Violence as Propaganda• Violence provided the

Nazis with an opportunity to prove themselves strong, virile, and willing to take radical action to solve problems


Conclusion

What was appealing about National Socialism?

•A force of order in times of chaos

•A force for the future, willing to do whatever it took (young, dynamic, violent)

•A force of unity in a situation of social and political ruptures

Making of the Modern World: Fascist Propaganda Introduction Why a special lecture on fascist...

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