Hitlers control of the media

ESTABLISHING CONTROL OF THE PRESS 

In 1929, Hitler chose Josef Goebbels as his Minister of Propaganda. Goebbels developed extremely successful campaigns using simple slogans and images repeated over and again in order to win public support for the party. The Nazis spent huge sums on newspapers, leaflets and poster campaigns.

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When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the Nazis controlled less than three percent of Germany’s 4,700 papers. 

The elimination of the German multi-party political system not only brought about the demise of hundreds of newspapers produced by outlawed political parties; it also allowed the state to seize the printing plants and equipment of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties, which were often turned over directly to the Nazi Party. In the following months, the Nazis established control or exerted influence over independent press organs. 

During the first weeks of 1933, the Nazi regime deployed the radio, press, and newsreels to stoke fears of a pending “Communist uprising,” then channeled popular anxieties into political measures that eradicated civil liberties and democracy. SA (storm troopers) and members of the Nazi elite paramilitary formation, the SS, took to the streets to brutalize or arrest political opponents and incarcerate them in hastily established detention centers and concentration camps. Nazi thugs broke into opposing political party offices, destroying printing presses and newspapers. 

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Once they succeeded in ending democracy and turning Germany into a one-party dictatorship, the Nazis orchestrated a massive propaganda campaign to win the loyalty and cooperation of Germans. The Nazi Propaganda Ministry, directed by Dr. Joseph Goebbels, took control of all forms of communication in Germany: newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings, and rallies, art, music, movies, and radio. Viewpoints in any way threatening to Nazi beliefs or to the regime were censored or eliminated from all media.

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Censorship was rampant throughout Nazi Germany. Censorship ensured that Germans could only see what the Nazi hierarchy wanted people to see, hear what they wanted them to hear and read only what the Nazis deemed acceptable. The Nazi police dealt with anyone who went outside of these boundaries. Censorship dominated the lives of the ordinary citizen in Nazi Germany.

LINKS
The Press in the Third Reich
Nazi Propaganda and Censorship
JOSEPH GOEBBELS
Censorship in Nazi Germany
How did the Nazis use propaganda?
GOEBBELS CONTROL OF THE MEDIA
Nazi book burnings
Propaganda in Nazi GermanyReich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
Nazism
Night of the Long Knives
Antisemitism
Propaganda
Disinformation
10 Propaganda Techniques Used by the Nazis
Big lie
Nazi and East German Propaganda
Goebbels’ Speech at the 1927 Nuremberg Rally
Knowledge and Propaganda
Will and Way
General guide to Nazi propaganda