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.

Nazi Satire about the USA (1943)

In 1943 the Nazi party’s illustrated magazine ran a series of back page cartoons titled “The Latest from God’s Own Country” satirizing the United States.  I find them interesting, and may add a page of them one of these days.  Meanwhile, here is an example from the Illustrierter Beobachter in March 1943.

The occasion was a report from the New York Times that Christ Episcopal Church in St. Joseph had turned itself into a nightclub for the youth. At the bar, a gentleman says “He would be happy if we occasionally sang a pious hymn.  Let’s do him that favor.”  At the bottom, the priest is praying under pictures of FDR and Stalin: “Dear God, give the President and above all Comrade Stalin the strength to clobber the Nazis! And I thank you from the depths of my heart for the great success of our night club! I can protect my sheep from evil and even make a few dollars.” The woman talking to the deacon says: “You know, Deacon, I have nothing against the nighttime activities here —there must be propaganda, I know — but this is the second time I found a bra underneath the pew during morning prayers — that is going a bit too far.”

Goebbels on Hitler’s Takeover (1933)

Today I’m adding Goebbels’s article “The Miracle” published four days after Hitler’s takeover on 30 January 1933.

Goebbels on a Lost Election (1932)

After great success in the July 1932 Reichstag election, Nazi vote totals sank four months later during  the 6 November election.  The party’s momentum seemed at an end and there was considerable depression among the Nazis.

The day after the election Goebbels wrote an article titled “The Chancellor without a People.” He minimized Nazi losses while claiming (with some justice) that the election had been a disaster for Reich Chancellor von Papen.  With no hope of a parliamentary majority, he dissolved the Reichstag before it was able to do anything.

The Battle of Midway

Germany coverage of the war in the Pacific was never very good.  It depended on Japanese information — which was often unreasonably optimistic.

Today’s addition is an article on the Battle of Midway, which reports that the Japanese had lost one carrier and had a second damaged (the actual number was four), and that the Americans had also lost two (one in reality). The significant news in German eyes was that Japan had occupied several insignificant islands in the Aleutian chain.

My Research Files Available

I am making my research notes available on Zotero.  There is a wide range of material regarding both Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic. The notes are from both printed sources and archives I have visited.

Feel free to use my notes in your research. I would appreciate appropriate credit.

Comparative Living Costs: GDR vs. FRG

I tend to translate whatever is interesting to me at the moment, but a while back I asked for suggestions on things to add to the site.  I got a number of requests for more material from East Germany. It is true that I’ve rather neglected the GDR over recent years.  I’ll see what I can do over time.

Today I’m adding a piece from WAS und WIE, the GDR monthly for agitators.  In this 1978 article, agitators how told how to deal with the disparity in living standards between East and West Germany.  Agitators are told that although things like cars and televisions are less expensive in West Germany, costs for food, child care, and transit fares are much higher.