How effective was Nazi propaganda 1933-1945?
How effective was Nazi propaganda 1933-1945? Propaganda was recognized by Hitler and his men as an important tool for the success of a regime. As Goebbels said in 1934, “Propaganda was our sharpest weapon in conquering the state, and remains our sharpest weapon in maintaining and building up the state.” Practically, propaganda was aimed at winning support for policies and keeping the population contented. Yet more than that, it was aimed to indoctrinate the nation to believe in a ‘people’s community’ and to ‘mobilize the spirit’. Goebbels wanted to create ‘one single public opinion’ that was committed to the regime, yet the effect of propaganda varied across different social groups, and changed over time. Some such as Welch thought the youth was particularly receptive to the regime, while Mason suggests that the working class was more resistant to propaganda. Moreover, effectiveness changed over time, most evidently reflected by the turning points in 1939 when war broke out and in 1943 with the defeat in Stalingrad. Propaganda could be said to be the most successful from 1933 to 1936, while the focus had to be shifted to prepare the nation in the years leading up to the war, and faith in the regime collapsed by 1945 as people realized the looming defeat. More importantly, the use of terror and coercion poses a challenge to the effectiveness of propaganda in generating genuine and active support instead of terrorizing the population into passive submissiveness. Ultimately, the effectiveness of propaganda lay in its ability to build on existing prejudices rather than create new beliefs, and in creating the ‘Hitler Myth’ (Kershaw) that focused on the cult of Hitler himself rather than the Nazi Party as a whole. However, it can also be argued that the regime lived on people’s passive conformity and acceptance rather than genuine commitment, and that the success of the regime was partially due to practical economic stability the state provided rather than the