Two Articles from Unser Wille und Weg (1935)

I’ve added two 1935 articles from Unser Wille und Weg, the monthly for propagandists. The first concerns how to make propaganda to farmers, the second criticizes Germans who were only outwardly National Socialists. For those interested in Unser Wille und Weg, issues from 1934 until the final issues in 1941 are available on Google Books.

On Nazi Speaking Guidelines

The Nazi Party had a large speaker corps.  They needed regular instruction on what to say in meetings throughout Germany.  There is a fair amount of material on the system on the GPA.

Recently, I added to my collection of the Aufklärungs- und Redner-Informationsmaterial issued by the party’s central propaganda office in cooperation with the  German Labor Front, although I am not sure how much of a contribution the latter organization made

I am adding some anti-Semitic instructions from March and April 1943.

That got me to review material on the GPA issued during the anti-Semitic campaigns of spring 1943.  There are general campaign guidelines, speaker information, articles by Joseph Goebbels, and directives for magazine editors.  Since it might be interesting to compare what was said in various places, here is a list of the material available on the GPA.

• Directives for the Anti-Bolshevist Propaganda Action: 20 February 1943
• Goebbels’s essay “The European Crisis”: 28 February 1943
• What Does Bolshevization Mean in Reality?: March 1943
• Speaker Express Information (“The Jewish Question as a Weapon at Home and Abroad”): 5 May 1943
• Goebbels’s essay “The War and the Jews”: 9 May 1943
• Speaker Express Information (“Twilight of the Jews”): 18 May 1943
• Anti-Semitic directives for magazine editors: 21 May 1943
• Goebbels’s essay “Driving Forces”: 6 June 1943

I don’t know of a complete set of this material.  I have most, but all of it.  For those who might find it useful, I provide an index to my collection.

Nazi Propaganda Guidelines in January 1944

I’ve had a long interest in the lower levels of the Nazi propaganda system.  It had tentacles reaching down to the neighborhood level.  These propagandists needed to be instructed.  The Reichsring für nationalsozialistische Propaganda und Volksaufklärung was the subsection of the party propaganda office responsible for that.  Today I’m adding the January 1944 newsletter for the lower Danube area.

 

It discusses Allied bombing, street collections for the party charity, occupational choices for the youth, and more.

Anti-American Propaganda from Fall 1944

Late in the war the Nazis revived an old  propaganda method, the discussion evening.  These were to be gatherings where party members could discuss the themes of the day, then transmit the material to others.  I’ve got a variety of such material on the site, and have recently added late-1944 material  about what to say regarding the United States.

The problem the system faced is that people didn’t need to be persuaded to fear the Russians, but many Germans thought victory by the Western allies wouldn’t be nearly as bad.  This material is an example of Nazi attempts to combat that view.

How to Use a Nazi Wall Poster

The Parole der Woche was a weekly “wall newspaper” issued by the Nazi Party.  There are a variety of examples on the German Propaganda Archive. The issue below is from 1940 and promotes the idea that World Jewry was out to destroy Germany.

Today I am adding a 1940 article from Unser Wille und Weg, the monthly for propagandists, that encourages greater use of the poster.  Old editions were not to be discarded, but reposted in different locations.

Erwin Schockel's "The Political Poster"

Erwin Schockel’s book Das politische Plakat is one of the most interesting Nazi books on propaganda.  Published in 1938 (with a second printing in 1939), it was intended as the first of a series of books for Nazi propagandists.  The outbreak of war put an end to the plan.

I’ve translated what to me is the most interesting chapter: a discussion of good and bad posters, with many examples.  For example, this poster from the Economic Party is discussed as an amusingly bad poster.

This, on the other hand, is a good one:

Schockel thinks it has a serious weakness: Hitler looks like a Hollywood film actor in soft focus rather than the all-powerful Führer.

Training Nazi Propagandists

By 1939, the Nazi propaganda apparatus faced a challenge.  Experienced propagandists now had important jobs and new ones had to be trained.  The propaganda leadership was discussing how to do that.  There had to be practical training. As Goebbels said, one could no more produce propagandists by theoretical lectures than one could teach swimming on dry land.

In an article I’m adding today, the Gaupropagandaleiter of East Prussia outlines his methods. Forty new propagandists were sent out with ten experienced ones for 2-3 day stints in towns and villages, where they gained experience and guidance.

The article was published in the party’s monthly for propagandists.  Many other articles from Unser Wille und Weg are also available on the GPA.

Nazi Christmas Speech for Wounded Soldiers (1944)

The Nazis developed a large array of rituals and ceremonies.  There is a fair amount of material on them on the GPA.

Today I’m adding a model speech used by party leaders all over Germany to give to wounded soldiers for Christmas 1944.  The war situation was grim by then, but party leaders are told to assure soldiers that victory will be theirs.

The speech comes from Die neue Gemeinschaft, a periodical that provided party leaders with material to use on ceremonial occasions.  There were a lot of those.  Besides traditional holidays like Easter and Christmas, there were the party holidays (e.g., Hitler’s birthday, the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch), as well as Nazi rituals of birth, coming of age, marriage, and death.

Goebbels Suggests Killing Allied Airmen

In 1943 as German air defense capacities declined, Goebbels began suggesting that German civilians kill captured Allied airmen.  He didn’t directly ask them to do so, but suggested that it was understandable if they took such actions.

Today’s addition to the German Propaganda Article is an article titled “A Word about Enemy Air Terror,” dated 27 May 1944.  Unlike most articles on the site, it was published in the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party’s daily newspaper, rather than in Das Reich.  It was also sent to the party’s speaker corps.  It surely encouraged them to make similar suggestions to the audiences they addressed. In the end, about 350 Allied airmen were killed by German civilians.

More Directives for Propagandists

Thanks to the Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen I’ve added four new issues of the Redner-Schnellinformation, an irregular newsletter for the Nazi Party’s speakers.  There is no complete collection of these anywhere that I have been able to find, so I am always happy to discover new ones.  These deal with a variety of topics and provide interesting insight into the focus of the propaganda system at various times.

 The new material includes one issue of the successor to the newsletter, the Redner-Schnellbrief, which contained much less material.  I suspect it was because the staff at party propaganda headquarters had been reduced (and sent to the military), so there was less time to prepare material.

More Information Bulletins for Nazi Speakers

Goebbels was only the top of the Nazi propaganda apparatus.  It extended down to every corner of the country.  Speakers were a major part of the system.  They could be mobilized on short notice, and could be a little more open about some issues than the press.

They needed to be informed, and the party’s Reichspropagandaleitung put out a variety of publications to assist speakers.  The one I find most interesting is the Redner-Schnellinformation (Speaker Express Information) which provided them with material they were expected to put to immediate use.  Although the material had nothing all that confidential (despite the claims that it was “strictly confidential”), it provides a window into the specific content of Nazi propaganda at various times.

The first issue I’ve seen is from September 1941, although since that is #19 there were numerous earlier issues. The last issue I’ve seen is from February 1944. 

Today I’m adding six new issues, including interesting ones on the Russian murder of thousands of Polish officers at Katyn, training sessions for party members, and the loss of Sicily.

I have now translated all the issues I have access to (with two exceptions that I think of less interest).  Should you know of others I’ve not yet found, please let me know.

A Lot of New Material on the Nazi Speaker System

I have a particular interest in the lower levels of the Nazi propaganda system.  A significant part of that was the speaker corp that delivered the Nazi message to people throughout Germany.  These speakers needed to be informed  — and kept from saying the wrong things.

Today I’m adding a dozen or so editions of the Redner-Schnellinformation, an irregular publication for speakers. Some are from the beginning of the crisis on the Eastern Front.  Others deal with how to treat foreign leaders, how to present Rommel’s victories in Africa, or what to say to women.

This material was done in haste, often in response to immediate events.  Mistakes sometimes occur.  For example, in #24 (4 January 1942) speakers are instructed:

We have a political interest in distinguishing clearly and intentionally that part of the American continent, namely North America, that is waging war against us from the other countries of the American continent. Avoid, therefore, speaking of America as the enemy, but rather always heed the fact that our enemy is not all of America, but rather onlyNorth America or the United States of North America, or the USA. Speakers should be sure to clearly distinguish these terms.

Issue #26 (21 February 1942) followed these instructions.  However, they were forgotten by issue #28 (14 March 1942), in which there is this passage:

Given the continuing attempts through using reports of German losses in the East, through lying reports of vast armaments capacity in America, through political agitation in the occupied territories and in the neutral world, etc., they try to create the impression that they have not been affected by the results of the war and that we have no chance of final victory. 

I also added two essays by Joseph Goebbels from Das Reich that speakers were instructed to use as the basis of their speeches: “What is Sacrifice” and “A Word to All.”

Wochenspruch Pages Updated

I’ve updated my pages on the Wochenspruch der NSDAP, the weekly poster with inspiring quotations issued by the Reichspropagandaleitung.

I now have posted all of the images available to me.  There are  some images I don’t have, and I am far from having a complete set of texts.  I have almost everything after 1940, but am missing many from the years 1937-1939.

If you can help me to fill the gaps, I’d appreciate it.

Nazi Posters from Early 1941

While looking through early 1941 issues of Unser Wille und Weg (the Nazi monthly for propagandists) for another reason I came across black and white photographs of three posters that I've added to the poster section of the GPA.

This could be used by local party groups to advertise political meetings.

This also served the same purpose.  It was part of a campaign that had soldiers on leave speak to audiences about their experiences at the front.

This was a nationally-distributed poster promoting unity between the front and the homeland.

All three posters were probably in color (and the bottom one certainly was). 

Despite the strains of the war effort, which had led many formerly engaged in making propaganda to join the military, propaganda activity remained intense.

Wochenspruch der NSDAP

I have hundreds of examples of the Wochenspruch der NSDAP on the site.  This was a weekly poster with inspiring quotations issued between 1937 and 1944.  Before 1940, many were issued by the Gauleitungen, afterwards (mostly) by the Reichspropagandaleitung.  My page is the most complete collection available, but it is not complete.   New ones surface every now and then.

Just yesterday I found confirmation that the final issue (which I have not seen) was #15/1944.  The image is courtesy of MAR Historical.

I, and others, are attempting to find as many of these as we can.  Should you have ones not on my site, I’d appreciate hearing about them.

Germans to be Exported (1931)

Fritz Reinhardt was a significant figure in Nazi propaganda.  Before 1933 he instituted a correspondence school that trained about 6,000 Nazi speakers.  He issued a barrage of material to support those speakers.

In 1929 he issued a pamphlet claiming that under the Young Plan, an international agreement on German reparations, Germans would be sent abroad to work for the French.  This is a follow-up pamphlet that appeared in October 1931, making the same claim.

Although like all good propaganda it provides enough evidence to make the argument at least superficially plausible, he does make the astonishing (and completely unsupported) statement that twenty to thirty million Germans would have to be sent abroad under the Young Plan.

A Wochenspruch Mystery

There are something over 500 examples of the Wochenspruch der NSDAP on the German Propaganda Archive.  It was a weekly poster with inspiring quotations that was displayed in prominent public places throughout Germany.

They were first issued in 1937 (I think), some coming from the individual Gaue, others from the Reichspropagandaleitung in Munich.  This situation continued until early in 1939, when all issues came from Munich — with the exception of Gau Sachsen, which continued to issue its own well into 1941.  I just bought the latest one I’ve seen, dated 6-12 April 1941.

I am curious as to why Gau Sachsen kept producing its own two years longer than anyone else.  Should anyone uncover the reason I’d be delighted to hear it.

Advice to New Nazis (1933)

I’ve been browsing through my collection of material from Unser Wille und Weg, the Nazi Party’s monthly for propagandists, looking at what happened immediately after Hitler’s takeover in 1933.  Suddenly, the propaganda system had to make dramatic adjustments to new conditions.

The article I add today contains advice for new party members.  They are advised to be modest and respectful of older party members who might be less educated and polished, but who had heeded Hitler’s call before the rest of Germany.

New Nazi Propaganda Methods (1933)

The article I add today was obsolete when published.  It proposes a new method of propaganda, assigning speakers to go house-to-house during the periods between elections.

This was a strategy that had been used during the campaign in Lippe in January 1933, with some success.  The author, Leopold Gutterer, later a high official in the Propaganda Ministry, proposes that the method be applied throughout the country.

However, by the time the article appeared Hitler was Chancellor and the proposal was outdated.

Gau Party Rallies

Anyone familiar with Nazism has heard about the annual Nuremberg Party Rallies.  However, the regional units of the Nazi party (Gaue) often held their own annual gatherings.  They were not as large or impressive as those in Nuremberg, but were still major events.

I’m adding a 1935 article from Unser Wille und Weg, the monthly for Nazi propagandists, that discusses what such Gau rallies should accomplish.  The GPA also has material from a booklet commemorating the 1936 Gautag in Niedersachsen.