Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Nazi Racial Education Wall Charts

I've added a page of educational wall charts on racial issues. These were widely used in schools during the Nazi era. My copy does not have the anti-Semitic charts that came with the package. The Nazis promoted having as many children as possible, arguing that Germany faced extinction if the birthrate did not increase, and that it would be better off without various "inferior" types of people.


Friday, December 12, 2008

Hitler Speaks in Gera (1931)

The Illustrierter Beobachter, the Nazi Party's illustrated weekly, gave extensive coverage to Nazi activities. This article, from September 1931, reports on a Hitler visit to Gera.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Color Photographs from 1933

Since most pictures of the Third Reich are in black and white, it is easy to forget how colorful a phenomenon it was. I've added a page from a "bestseller" of the early years of Nazi Germany with a collection of photographs in color. I think the pictures were actually taken in black and white, since some of them pre-date the introduction of color film, but I don't know much about the process. Should any reader know more, I'd appreciate being informed.

Two examples. The first shows Hitler with the "Blood flag," carried during the Beer Hall Putsch of 1933. It was probably the most "sacred" Nazi relic. The second shows Horst Wessel, the author of the party's hymn, at the head of an S.A. column at the 1929 Nuremberg Rally.



Friday, November 28, 2008

Hitler Youth Training Material

The various sub-groups of the Hitler Youth were often led by those hardly older than those in their charge, following the policy that "youth should lead youth." These people needed to know what they were to say. I've added a page with covers of material they received.


Saturday, November 15, 2008

Nazi Anti-Semitic Speaker Information from 1935

I've added a lengthy translation of Nazi speaker information on the Jews from the fall 1935. The Nazis had a large staff of speakers who were regularly supplied with information on what they were to say in their speeches. Such material is an excellent source as to what the Nazis wanted the general public to hear.

This material presents Nazi anti-Jewish measures as moderate and reasonable, something the Jews had no right to complain about. Reality was rather different.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Peculiar Uses of the German Propaganda Archive (I)

Although this blog is primarily intended to provide information on additions to the site, every now and then I won't be able to resist noting peculiar uses to which people put the material.

The recent election was a case in point. A variety of sites decided that Obama and his followers were using a Nazi salute. They took this picture from the GPA:



and decided that the Obama campaign had adapted it:



At least a dozen blogs copied this dubious post. To suggest that in looking for a salute Obama turned to a a gesture used occasionally by Hitler is, to put it mildly, a bit of a stretch.

On the other side of the political divide, bloggers sometimes decide that the Republicans are the new version of the Nazis. This post, for example, decided that the Republicans have been using the methods of Nazi propaganda. According to the blogger, "The more you read, the more you will see uncanny parallels to the NeoCons and today’s Republican Leadership. It also employs methods that have been seen in the religious sectors of the Right Wing." Now, the problem is that the techniques of propaganda tend to be rather widely used. It wouldn't be at all hard to find parallels to Obama's campaign as well.

Both postings, I think are examples of Godwin's Law. In its original formulation, it stated:"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." These days, it applies to the Internet in general. The Nazis are the ultimate villains, so what better accusation can one make against one's enemies than that they are, basically, Nazis?

I doubt that this contributes greatly to political discussions.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The German Democratic Republic and Religion

I have a student working on East German propaganda about religion this year, which will result in a series of additions to the GPA. As Marxists, the GDR's propagandists were atheists, but a respectable percentage of the population retained ties to Christianity. What to do about that?

The first page I've added has the official definitions of "atheism" from the Kleines politisches Wörterbuch of 1967 and 1988. In 1967, the treatment of religion is entirely negative. In 1988, it is still negative, but there is now room for those with religious beliefs (outdated though their worldviews may be).

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Winston Churchill in Nazi Propaganda

The latest addition is a collection of Nazi propaganda about Winston Churchill, which includes a wide range of images from 1933-1944. It will accompany an essay I'm working on.


Monday, September 29, 2008

New Nazi Quotation Posters

The Nazis issued weekly posters with inspiring quotations by Nazi heroes. These appeared in large editions, and were posted all over Germany. They were often graphically interesting. I've added two images and about a dozen poster texts to the GPA page on the Wochenspruch der NSDAP.


Saturday, September 13, 2008

False Nazi Quotations

I sometimes get requests to verify quotations circulating around the Internet. Some of the quotations are either forged or taken out of context. The Nazis, of course, said enough objectionable things to provide lots of citations, but accuracy in these matters is good. I've added a page, which will grow with time, on fabricated Nazi quotations.

Friday, August 29, 2008

A 1943 anti-Bolshevist pamphlet

I particularly look for propaganda that had wide distribution, but a short life. Pamphlets are a good example — they are often mass distributed, and quickly discarded. My latest addition is a spring 1943 Nazi pamphlet titled What Does Bolshevization Mean in Reality? It was issued as part of a major anti-Bolshevist (the word the Nazis preferred to "communist") campaign, the directive for which is also available on the GPA. The purpose was to persuade Germans that even though the war situation was looking grimmer after Stalingrad, they had no choice but to fight or die, since Soviet victory would mean the end of everything German.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

1934 Cartoons from Kladderadatsch

I've added a page of 1934 cartoons from Kladderadatsch, a leading German satirical weekly. Several portray Germany as seeking peace while the rest of the world arms. There are also cartoons on the Night of the Long Knives, the evils of the Jews, and the threat of communism.

Two examples. One claims that the increase in the Negro and Jewish population is causing great concern in the United States. The second suggests that a peace agreement between France and the Soviet Union is not likely to bring peace to Europe.


Friday, August 22, 2008

A June 1943 Speech by Albert Speer on Armaments Production

After Stalingrad, the Nazi intensified their "total war" measures. On 5 June 1943, Albert Speer and Joseph Goebbels addressed a mass meeting of armaments workers in Berlin, at which Speer claimed enormous increases in German armaments production. I've added a translation of his speech. The speech Goebbels delivered was already on the GPA.

The illustration is the cover of the pamphlet containing both speeches.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Two Nazi Posters from April 1932

I've added two posters from the 24 April 1932 Prussian election to the pre-1933 poster page.


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Nazi Painting of Dunkirk

While looking for something else, I came across this Nazi painting of Dunkirk, which I added to the page on World War II Nazi military art.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

German Propaganda on the V-1

I've added a page from late-June 1944 on the use of the V-1 against England, taken from a special edition of Signal, a twice-monthly glossy magazine that was widely distributed in many languages.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Added Nazi Poster (1936)

I've added another poster from the 1936 referendum to the GPA poster page.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Speaker Advice on the End of the Afrika Korps

Today I added a translation of speaker material from May 1943 on the end of the African campaign. Three months earlier, Stalingrad had fallen. Now there was more bad news. Speakers are told to present the withdrawal from Africa not as a defeat, but rather as the end of a brilliant campaign that gave Germany the time it needed to fortify Europe, and prevented the British and Americans from assisting the Soviet Union.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

More Material from Nazi Racist Magazines

I've added two covers and issue summaries to the page on Neues Volk, the Nazi Party's monthly on racial policy. I've also translated an article explaining the requirements to have Hitler become the godfather for a German child (among other things, it had to be the seventh son, or the ninth child). I recently added the volumes for Neues Volk for 1934 and 1935 to my collection. There's a lot more interesting material I may get to some day.

The notion of Hitler as godfather was new to me. If anyone knows more about this, I'd be pleased to hear from you. Hitler's surviving "godchildren" would now be in their seventies. I'm curious about what happened to them.


Monday, June 23, 2008

Another Page of Nazi Speaker Guidelines

I've added another page of Nazi speaker guidelines, this one dated 5 October 1943. As the war situation worsened, the leadership decided to revitalize the Nazi Party, putting it to work to increase public support for the war effort. The duty of a party member was to be an example of absolute confidence and willingness to sacrifice all for victory.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

New Page of 1942 Nazi Speaker Guidelines

I've added another issue of the Redner-Schnellinformation, intended for party speakers. This one, dated 6 November 1942, ordered speakers to tell audiences that the Allies intended to wipe out Germany completely, should they win the war. This was significant material, since it was translated into thousands of speeches delivered in every corner of Germany.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

New Book on Nazi Propaganda

My new book Landmark Speeches of National Socialism has just been published by Texas A & M University Press. It includes an introductory essay on Nazi rhetoric, and translations of thirteen speeches. The book contains material not available on the German Propaganda Archive. It is available in hardcover and paperback editions.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Nazi Decorative Items

Flags, banners, and other decorations were part of life in the Third Reich. I've added some pages from a 1939 catalog of such items.


Saturday, April 26, 2008

German Children Playing "Concentration Camp"

While reading Peter Fritzsche's new book Life and Death in Nazi Germany, I came across a reference to children in Munich incorporating a concentration camp into their games. That I had to look up, and I've now added the April 1933 article titled "The New Game: The S.A. Cleans up the Liebknecht House," which was the Communist Party's headquarters in Berlin. The picture below shows their makeshift concentration camp.



The article is a good example of how quickly Nazi ideology penetrated German society. This issue appeared only ten weeks after Hitler had taken power.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

A 1943/1944 Anti-Semitic Pamphlet

I've added a partial translation of a nasty 1943/1944 pamphlet titled The Jew as World Parasite. Originally published by the Nazi Party for use in party education, an edition for the Wehrmacht was issued in 1944. It's a good example of late-war Nazi anti-Semitism.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

New Posters

Today, I added eleven new posters from the Nazi era, courtesy of the University of Minnesota library, which has an excellent collection. They are available on the pre-1933 page and the 1933-1945 page. Several examples:



Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Two New Covers from "Der Stürmer"

I have added two new covers from Julius Streicher's notorious Der Stürmer.



Wednesday, March 26, 2008

New Book on Nazi Rhetoric

My book Landmark Speeches of National Socialism will be published by Texas A & M University Press in May. It includes an introductory essay on Nazi rhetoric, and translations of thirteen speeches. The book contains material not available on the German Propaganda Archive. It is available in hardcover and paperback editions.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

New Article from 1929 on Nazi Successes

I've added an article from the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party's daily newspaper, from 8 November 1929 reporting Nazi successes in the town of Harburg. This is typical of the kind of reports the party press carried — successes everywhere was the theme.

Monday, March 24, 2008

New 1935 Poster

I've added another poster to the 1933-1945 poster page. I think this one was issued just after the Saar Referendum.

Material from an East German Slide Show

I tend to add more material from the Nazi period than from the East German era, since more people seem interested in the former. Every now and again, I do made an addition to the East German section, most recently some pictures from an East German slide show on Ernst Thälmann, the founder of the German Communist Party.

Friday, March 21, 2008

New Covers from Lustige Blätter

Lustige Blätter was a weekly magazine of humor and satire. I already have quite a bit of visual material from the magazine on the site, but am occasionally adding more. Today, I added two covers from 1941.


Julius Streicher's Medical Journal

Early during Hitler's rule, Julius Streicher, publisher of Der Stürmer, issued an anti-Semitic medical "journal" that was eventually suspended, in part because it argued that vaccination was part of the Jewish plot. I've added a 1934 article titled "The Jew and Healing" that attacked Jews involved in the health care system.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Articles from Signal on Allied Bombing

Signal was a twice-monthly propaganda magazine published in 25 languages. At its height, it had a monthly circulation of 2,500,000. I've added two articles to the German Propaganda Archive from 1943.

The first claims a new secret weapon against Allied bombing. The second suggests that American bombing attacks are costing the Allies an unacceptable amount.