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Das Reich (German: The Reich [1] ) was a weekly newspaper founded by Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany, in May 1940. [2] It was published by Deutscher Verlag.
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Das Reich (German: The Reich [1] ) was a weekly newspaper founded by Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany, in May 1940. [2] It was published by Deutscher Verlag.
Das Reich was mainly the creation of Rudolf Sparing, Rolf Rienhardt and Max Amann. [3]
Its circulation grew from 500,000 in October 1940 to over 1,400,000 by 1944. [4]
Aside from a weekly editorial, Goebbels was not involved in the publication. [5] Most, but not all, of his articles after 1940 appeared in it. [6] In the 1930s his articles had appeared in Der Völkische Beobachter but then he wished to target a more sophisticated and intellectual readership. From May 1940 he wrote 218 editorials. [7]
When Allied forces landed in Italy, and Mussolini was briefly deposed, Goebbels decided not to write an editorial. [8]
The paper contained news reports, essays on various subjects, book reviews, and an editorial written by Goebbels. [9] Some of the content was written by foreign authors. [10] With the exception of Goebbels’ editorial, Das Reich did not share the tone of other Nazi publications. [11]
Among other topics, it covered the uncertain casualty lists from Stalingrad, [12] distinguished between German and Allied invasions to suggest the latter would be unsuccessful, [13] discussed the bombing raids [14] and the V-1, [15] deplored American culture, [16] portrays American morale as poor (though not suggesting they would give up because of it), [17] and finally declared that Berlin would fight to the end. [18]
Goebbels's editorials covered a wide range of topics. His first bragged of the accomplishments of Nazi Germany, which was then conquering France. [19] He spoke with continuing confidence as France fell, of the opportunities the "plutocracies" had missed for peace. [20] Later he issued vitriolic anti-Semitic articles, [21] [22] [23] [24] argued against listening to enemy propaganda. [25] encouraged them for total war [26] declared England bound to lose the war, [27] attacked the still neutral United States, [28] discussed the significance of its entry into the war, [29] talked about prospects for a new year, [30] presented German radio as a good companion (when, in fact, he hoped to lure them from enemy propaganda broadcasts), [31] professed to be delighted that Churchill was in command in Britain, [32] discussed cuts in food rations and severe treatment for black market dealings, [33] urged that complaints not get in the way of the war effort, [34] accused Douglas MacArthur of cowardice (ineffectually, as the Germans knew he had been ordered to leave), [35] talked of the Allied bombing, [36] describes the sinking of Allied ships by German U-boats, [37] explained Soviet resistance in Sevastopol as product of a stubborn but bestial Russian soul, [38] decried the United States as having no culture, [39] urged that Germans not allow their sense of justice be exploited by their enemies, [40] [41] and claimed that the Allies were as weary as the Axis. [42]
His final article in April 1945 called for last-ditch resistance. [43]
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German philologist and Nazi politician who was the Gauleiter of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler's closest and most devoted followers, known for his skills in public speaking and his deeply virulent antisemitism which was evident in his publicly voiced views. He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust.
Der Stürmer was a weekly German tabloid-format newspaper published from 1923 to the end of World War II by Julius Streicher, the Gauleiter of Franconia, with brief suspensions in publication due to legal difficulties. It was a significant part of Nazi propaganda, and was virulently anti-Semitic. The paper was not an official publication of the Nazi Party, but was published privately by Streicher. For this reason, the paper did not display the Nazi Party swastika in its logo.
The Sportpalast speech or Total War speech was a speech delivered by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large, carefully selected audience on 18 February 1943, as the tide of World War II was turning against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies. The speech is particularly notable as Goebbels almost mentions the Holocaust, when he begins saying "Ausrotten", but quickly changes it to "Ausschaltung". This was the same word Heinrich Himmler used on 18 December 1941, when he recorded the outcome of his discussion with Adolf Hitler on the Final Solution, wherein he wrote "als Partisanen auszurotten".
The Völkischer Beobachter was the newspaper of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from 25 December 1920. It first appeared weekly, then daily from 8 February 1923. For twenty-four years it formed part of the official public face of the Nazi Party until its last edition at the end of April 1945. The paper was banned and ceased publication between November 1923, after Adolf Hitler's arrest for leading the unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, and February 1925, the approximate date of the relaunching of the Party.
Das Schwarze Korps was the official newspaper of the Schutzstaffel (SS). This newspaper was published on Wednesdays and distributed free of charge. All SS members were encouraged to read it. The chief editor was SS leader Gunter d'Alquen; the publisher was Max Amann of the Franz-Eher-Verlag publishing company. The paper was hostile to many groups, with frequent articles condemning the Catholic Church, Jews, Communism, Freemasonry, and others.
The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi policies.
Johann Heinrich "Hans" Hinkel was a journalist, Nazi Party official and politician in Nazi Germany. He mainly worked in the Reich Chamber of Culture and the Reich Ministry of Propaganda. He was involved in executing the policy of excluding Jews from German cultural life, and headed the Ministry's film division. He was also an SS-Gruppenführer, and was imprisoned in Poland for several years after the end of the Second World War.
Wilhelm Weiss was, in the time of the Third Reich, an SA-Obergruppenführer as well as editor-in-chief of the NSDAP's official newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter.
Der Panzerbär—Kampfblatt für die Verteidiger Gross-Berlins was a German daily tabloid newspaper printed in the final days of the European theater of World War II in Berlin.
Der Angriff was the official newspaper of the Berlin Gau of the Nazi Party. Founded in 1927, the last edition of the newspaper was published on 24 April 1945.
The Deutsche Zeitung in den Niederlanden was a German-language nationwide newspaper based in Amsterdam, which was published during almost the entire occupation of the Netherlands in World War II from June 5, 1940 to May 5, 1945, the day of the German capitulation in the "Fortress Holland". Its objective was to influence the public opinion in the Netherlands, especially the one of the Germans in this country.
Illustrierter Beobachter was an illustrated propaganda magazine which the German Nazi Party published. It was published from 1926 to 1945 in Munich, and edited by Hermann Esser.
Nazi propaganda towards the United Kingdom changed its position over time in keeping with Anglo-German relations. Prior to 1938, as the Nazi regime attempted to court the British into an alliance, Nazi propaganda praised the "Aryan" character of the British people and the British Empire. However, as Anglo-German relations deteriorated, and the Second World War broke out, Nazi propaganda vilified the British as oppressive German-hating plutocrats. During the war, it accused "perfidious Albion" of war crimes and sought to drive a wedge between Britain and France.
Ewald von Demandowsky was a German film producer who held the office of a Nazi German Reichsfilmdramaturg and was head of production at the Tobis Film company in the Third Reich.
Theodor Seibert was a German National Socialist journalist and writer. Seibert travelled throughout the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1929 as press representative of the Hamburger Fremdenblatt, the Münchner and the Leipziger Neueste Nachrichten. His book Red Russia criticised Soviet Russia. In the late 1930s Seibert was London correspondent of the Völkischer Beobachter and local head of the German Press Association in London. He was active as an anti-Semitic propagandist, characterising Bolshevism and 'Rooseveltism' as two aspects of 'international Jewry'.
Alfred-Ingemar Berndt was a German Nazi journalist, writer and close collaborator of Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.
During a speech at the Reichstag on 30 January 1939, Adolf Hitler threatened "the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe" in the event of war:
If international finance Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will be not the Bolshevization of the earth and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.
On 30 January 1939, Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler gave a speech in the Kroll Opera House to the Reichstag delegates, which is best known for the prediction he made that "the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe" would ensue if another world war were to occur.
Wolfgang Diewerge was a Nazi propagandist in Joseph Goebbels' Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. His special field was anti-Semitic public relations, especially in connection with trials abroad, which could be exploited for propaganda purposes. He also played an essential role in the preparation of a show trial against Herschel Grynszpan, whose assassination attempt on a German embassy employee in Paris had been used by the Nazis as a trigger for the November pogroms in 1938. In 1941, his pamphlets on the so-called Kaufman Plan and the Soviet Union were published in print runs of millions. After the war, Diewerge managed to re-enter politics via the FDP North Rhine-Westphalia. However, the intervention of the British occupation authorities and a commission of the FDP's Federal Executive Committee put an abrupt end to this intermezzo. In 1966 Diewerge was convicted of perjury for his statements made under oath about the Grynszpan trial planned by the National Socialists. After all, he was involved in the Flick donations affair as managing director of two associations.
Parole der Woche was a wall newspaper published by the Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP from 1937 to 1943. Historian Jeffrey Herf describes Parole der Woche as "the most ubiquitous and intrusive aspect of Nazism’s visual offensive ... no form of Nazi visual propaganda made so crucial a contribution to the regime’s presentation of ongoing events".
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