Völkischer Beobachter Front Pages

I've gotten a start on a long-term project: Posting the front pages of the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party’s daily newspaper, for the war years. It is an interesting way to follow the trajectory of the war, beginning with victories in Poland and ending in disaster.

Since there are 1500 or so issues this will take me a while, but if you check the page occasionally new months will be added.

Goebbels’s Penultimate Speech

 Goebbels delivered his penultimate speech over the radio on 28 February 1945, which I am adding today.  His final speech was on 19 April on the occasion of Hitler’s birthday. 

The military situation was grim. The Soviets were charging in from the east, the Americans and British from the west. Goebbels had no good news to give, as he commented privately in his diaries.  He was forced to resort to what Earnest Bramsted called the “lure of historical parallels.” If Frederick the great had done it then, Germany could to it in 1945.

Goebbels on British Propaganda (April 1941)

 In April 1941 the war was looking good from the Nazi perspective.  Goebbels published the article I am adding today that gloated over the failures of British propaganda.

Goebbels mentions a British Ministry of Information campaign on the theme “How Not to Do It.” I’ve tried to chase down that campaign, with limited success. The MoI did began a campaign in June 1941 with the theme “Mend and make do.” Professor David Welch tells me that one element of that campaign was advice on “How not to do this,” which is close to the theme Goebbels provides.  Perhaps information on the campaign was released before it began?

If anyone has more information I would surely appreciate it.

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.”

More Material from Gau Sachsen

Two days back I posted an item from Gau Sachsen.  I decided to add the rest of the material I gathered from a recent visit to the German National Library in Leipzig.

It consists of seven issues of a newsletter to propagandists and one issue of advice for propagandists holding evening discussion meetings with party members. The party members were expected to use the material in their conversations with friends and work mates.  A particularly interesting aspect to the material is its reliance on enemy newspapers and magazines.  By the end of the war Germans had decreasing confident in their own media, which steadily predicted final victory even as German forces steadily retreated.  Unused to material in their press that did not support the party line, such material was persuasive (and often taken out of context).

Nazi Speaker Information on Wendell Willkie

I’ve had a bit of extra time the last two days, so I’ve translated another example of the material intended for Nazi speakers.  This one is from November 1942, and mines a speech by Wendell Willkie (who had run against Roosevelt in 1940) for evidence to use in speeches attacking the Allies. It also spends some time on submarine warfare, which at the time was one of the few bright spots from the Nazi perspective.

1943 Nazi Speaker Guidelines on U-boats

In February and March of 1943, there was not a lot of good news for the Nazis. Stalingrad had fallen in early February. The one bright spot was submarine warfare, where German U-boats were still sinking Allied ships in large numbers. I've translated instructions to Nazi speakers on what to say in their speeches about U-boat warfare. This was significant material, since it formed the basis for thousands of speeches delivered by Nazi orators throughout Germany.