The Department of Film was one of five departments that comprised the Central Party Propaganda Office of the German Nazi Party (NSDAP), established by Adolf Hitler in 1933 as part of the Party's Reichspropagandaleitung. The Central Party Propaganda Office was separate from the official government Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, although both groups were run by Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels was named Reichspropagandaleiter and given total control of Germany's press and film "for the spreading of the National Socialist world view to the entire German people" [1] . The Department's main duty was organizing film shows "suitable for public enlightenment and education". [1] The head of the Department of Film (called Reichsamtsleiter) was Karl Neumann.
Film was one of the most important forms of propaganda in Nazi Germany because it was easily attained by all people. Hitler himself declared it superior to the written word, which required "arduous reading" to understand. [2] The importance of film propaganda is underscored by the fact that 45 million people attended the film shows put on by the NSDAP. [3] Reichsamtsleiter Neumann declared that the goal of the Department of Film was not directly political in nature, but was rather to influence the culture, education, and entertainment of the general population. [3]
The strong emphasis the Nazi Party placed on film was also influenced by the personal feelings of Hitler and Goebbels, both of whom were fascinated by the medium. Both men regularly showed films in their homes and often discussed movies and moviemaking. [4]
The Department of Film consisted of seven distinct offices, each of which oversaw a specific area related to Germany's film propaganda: [1]
The Office of Slides was actually a separate body, known as the Gaubildstelle, which was under the supervision of the Department of Film. The Gaubildstelle archived all slides and images of important events, which were then organized and screened by the Department of Film. The Department selected and screened films that focused on "the virtues of the Aryan type, German military and industrial strength, and the evils of the Nazi's enemies". [5] Often these propaganda films focused on Germany’s enemies, particularly to foster anti-British sentiment among the public. [4] The Film Office provided local groups with films, while the leader of the local group was responsible for all preparations. [6]
The Department produced few films before 1939, when Neumann pushed for a greater output. The precise number of films produced during the Nazi era has been lost, but scholars estimate that between 1150 and 1350 feature films were made. [4] One example of film created and endorsed by the Department for Film was the 1940 antisemitic film The Eternal Jew .
The Nazi term Gleichschaltung or "coordination" was the process of Nazification by which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party successively established a system of totalitarian control and coordination over all aspects of German society and societies occupied by Nazi Germany "from the economy and trade associations to the media, culture and education". Although the Weimar Constitution remained nominally in effect until Germany's surrender following World War II, near total Nazification had been secured by the 1935 resolutions approved during the Nuremberg Rally, when the symbols of the Nazi Party and the State were fused and German Jews were deprived of their citizenship.
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German 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 acolytes, 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.
The German American Bund, or the German American Federation, was a German-American Nazi organization which was established in 1936 as a successor to the Friends of New Germany. The organization chose its new name in order to emphasize its American credentials after the press accused it of being unpatriotic. The Bund was allowed to consist only of American citizens of German descent. Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany.
Gregor Strasser was an early prominent German Nazi official and politician who was murdered during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. Born in 1892 in Bavaria, Strasser served in World War I in an artillery regiment, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. He joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1920 and quickly became an influential and important figure. In 1923, he took part in the abortive Beer Hall Putsch in Munich and was imprisoned, but released early for political reasons. Strasser joined a revived NSDAP in 1925 and once again established himself as a powerful and dominant member, hugely increasing the party's membership and reputation in northern Germany. Personal and political conflicts with Adolf Hitler led Strasser to renounce his Reichstag seat and leave politics. This did not save him from political retribution, and he was murdered in July 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives.
Jacob Otto Dietrich was a German SS officer during the Nazi era, who served as the Press Chief of the Nazi regime and was a confidant of Adolf Hitler.
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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.
Karl August Hanke was an official of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) during its rule over Germany and served as the fifth and last Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel (SS). He also served as Gauleiter of Gau Lower Silesia from 1941 to 1945 and as Oberpräsident of the Prussian Province of Lower Silesia. Captured on 6 May 1945, he was shot and wounded during an escape attempt and then beaten to death by Czech communists on 8 June, after the war had ended.
Eugen Paul Hadamovsky was a politician and radio production director in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1942.
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.
Nazism created an elaborate system of propaganda, which made use of the new technologies of the 20th century, including cinema. Nazism courted the masses by the means of slogans that were aimed directly at the instincts and emotions of the people. The Nazis valued film as a propaganda instrument of enormous power. The interest that Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels took in film was not only the result of a personal fascination. The use of film for propaganda had been planned by the Nazi Party as early as 1930, when the party first established a film department. The goals of the department included using the economic power of German moviegoers to self-censor films globally, resulting in all but one Hollywood producers censoring films critical of Nazism and even showing news shorts of film produced by the Nazis in American theaters. No American films between 1933-1939 were critical of Nazism.
Fritz Hippler was a German filmmaker who ran the film department in the Propaganda Ministry of Nazi Germany, under Joseph Goebbels. He is best known as the director of the propaganda film Der Ewige Jude .
The Winterhilfswerk des Deutschen Volkes, commonly known by its abbreviated form Winterhilfswerk (WHW), was an annual donation drive by the National Socialist People's Welfare to help finance charitable work. Initially an emergency measure to support people during the Great Depression, it went on to become a major source of funding for the activities of the NSV and a major component of Germany's welfare state. Donations to the WHW, which were voluntary in name but de facto required of German citizens, supplanted tax-funded welfare institutions and freed up money for rearmament. Furthermore, it had the propagandistic role of publicly staging the solidarity of the Volksgemeinschaft.
The Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, also known simply as the Ministry of Propaganda, controlled the content of the press, literature, visual arts, film, theater, music and radio in Nazi Germany.
The Nazi Party and its ideological allies used cartoons and caricatures as a main pillar in their propaganda campaigns. Such techniques were an effective way to spread their ideology throughout Nazi Germany and beyond. The use of caricatures was a popular method within the party when pursuing their campaign against the United States, in particular its then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
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Alfred-Ingemar Berndt was a German Nazi journalist, writer and close collaborator of Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels.
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".
The National Socialist Working Association, sometimes translated as the National Socialist Working Community was a short-lived group of about a dozen Nazi Party Gauleiter brought together under the leadership of Gregor Strasser in September 1925. Its full name was the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der nord- und westdeutschen Gaue der NSDAP. Aligned with the more "socialist" wing of the Party, it unsuccessfully sought to steer the Party leadership in that direction by updating the Party program of 1920. Perceived as a threat to his leadership by Party Chairman Adolf Hitler, its activities were curtailed shortly after the Bamberg Conference of 14 February 1926 presided over by him, and it was formally dissolved on 1 October of that year.