Master of Nazi Propaganda

Faith moves mountains, but only knowledge moves them to the right place.
Joseph Goebbels

Hitler had as many haters as admirers. Though this may be well known, many fail to
realize the amount of help he received while in power. Joseph Goebbels was the most loyal
follower, and the one who helped him the most. He was one of the few Nazi members that
received a college education. He was completely intelligent, but used his knowledge as a form
of revenge. Goebbels was a creative art advocate who set out to advance the Nazi party
agenda by manipulating the masses with brilliant propaganda.
Joseph Goebbels was an extremely creative art advocate who worked for the Nazi
party. This was a man who believed that to control a nation you needed massive art to explain
politics. It was really difficult for German citizens to understand what the country was going
through by hearing only facts, but what made it easy was when people could get the idea
which Goebbels believed was through art. In many of his speeches, he pointed out that
propaganda needed art, and art didnt have to attack but just appear to be ethical and moral.
In his speech of Total War at Nuremberg in 1934 he tells the German people that:
Political propaganda in principle is active and revolutionary. It is aimed at the broad
masses. It speaks the language of the people because it wants to be understood by the
people. Its task is the highest creative art of putting sometimes complicated events
and facts in a way simple enough to be understood by the man on the street. Its
foundation is that there is nothing the people cannot understand, but rather things
must be put in a way that they can understand. It is a question of making it clear to
him by using the proper approach, evidence, and language. (Goebbels, 1934)
Furthermore, Goebbels explained that art in propaganda was the most effective way to help a
countrys nationalism. For example, in the same speech he exclaims that:
If such an art of active mass influence through propaganda is joined with the long-term
systematic education of a nation, and if both are conducted in a unified and precise
way, the relationship between the leadership and the nation will always remain close.
From authority and following will develop that type of modern democracy for which
Germany is the model for the entire world in the twentieth century. (Goebbels, 1934)
With his speeches, he showed how his ideas flowed based on art so that everyone could make
clear connections between Germany and World War II. During his speech he also considered
the point of how an artist can make propaganda a way to introduce goals and promote ideas,
and he reveals himself to be the real artist in Germany. He exclaims in his speech that
propaganda needed a true artist and in fact he was the Minister of Propaganda in Germany:
Propaganda must be creative. It is by no means a matter for the bureaucracy or official
administration, but rather it is a matter of productive fantasy. The genuine
propagandist must be a true artist. He must be a master of the popular soul, using it as
an instrument to express the majesty of a genuine and unified political will.
Propaganda can be pro or con. In neither case does it have to be negative. (Goebbels,
1934)

Hitler and Goebbels had an intimate relation. Moreover, Hitler admired Goebbels
because of his high quality writings and speeches. His main way of getting Germans involved in
the Nazi movement was through propaganda, but he manipulated other communication
systems as well. Both Hitler and Goebbels edited Der Angriff, which was a newspaper to
promote German nationalism and support. In reading his biography, the text quoted that:
They shared an interest in propaganda and together they planned how the NSDAP [Nazi
Socialist Party] would win the support of the German people (McMillan, n.d). Goebbels had a
close relationship with Hitler, and if Goebbels hadnt promoted German nationalism, Hitler
would have never had the amount of followers that he had.
Goebbels started to create propaganda for two main reasons: resentment and Hitler.
During his early years, Goebbels had a bone operation. In 1914 he was rejected by the German
Army. In disgrace, he started writing novels and poems, but they were all rejected by
publishers. His hate for Jews began when he claimed that all publishing companies were
owned by Jews. He was mocked and jeered because of the handicap that his operation
yielded, and his physical features, and thus he acquired a crude personality. Goebbels became
a member of the NSDAP, in which the first encounter with Hitler was one of the most
comfortable and welcoming encounters he ever had. More than liking Hitler, Goebbels
admired him, as quoted in the following text from his dairies:
Shakes my hand. Like an old friend. And those big blue eyes. Like stars. He is glad to
see me. I am in heaven. That man has everything to be king (Goebbels, 1962).
From the first day on he became a loyal follower in which he was convinced that Hitler was
totally correct. Hitler never doubted Goebbels, and in 1933 he named Goebbels Minister of
Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Once he was Minister he didnt doubt his revenge; He
banished Jewish writers, journalists, and artists from the German cultural scene and placed the
news media under government control (McMillan, n.d).
His cunning but evil side helped him create an intimate relation with Hitler and assure
a high position in German politics. Hitler trusted in Goebbels completely, and in a letter from
him in his final days, states that:
Years ago I dispatched you, dear Dr. Goebbels, to the most difficult post in the Reich, in
hopes that your energy and vigor would succeed in creating a tight, unified
organization. You have fulfilled this task in such a way that you are assured of the
movement's gratitude and my own highest recognition. Today I must ask you, in
pursuit of this same task, to carry out the most ruthless purge of the party. You have
behind you the entire organization of the movement, the entire leadership staff, the
entire SA and SS, all representatives of the party and against you a half dozen
professional malcontents and literary types! (McMillan, n.d)
Goebbels brilliant propaganda was what made Hitler crazy about him. Goebbels was brilliant
even when speaking, but he had an evil side which compared to Hitlers:

The evil genius of the second half of Hitler's career was Goebbels. ()It was he who
finally turned Hitler fanatically against all established institutions and forms of
authority. He was not only schizophrenic but schizopedic, and that was what made him
so sinister. (Hillinbrand, 1995)
However, people said he was brilliant because of his amazing power with art and propaganda.
He was able to put the most brilliant and complex political theories into a form that all
Germans understood. His propaganda didnt just convince people; he taught and explained
politics which imposed knowledge to have an effect on their national thinking.
Goebbels was a friend and ally of Hitler, and stayed with him until his last day.
Goebbels knew that Hitler was lost, and with Hitler, he was too. After seeing Hitler and Eva
Braun dead, he immediately sent SS commandants to kill his whole family.
Goebbels thanked him for helping his wife "put the children to sleep." Around 8:40
p.m. Kunz gave the children morphine injections. () After it he had an SS orderly
shoot both himself and his wife Magda in the back of the head. (McMillan, n.d)

Goebbels was a dark genius. He managed to move masses and still never lost his
power in propaganda. Goebbels was one of the most important characters in political
influence in Nazi Germany and he never doubted that what he did was always the right thing.
When I think of a Holocaust without Goebbels, I think as an alone Germany trying to retaliate
some past angers but still completely alone. The main reason I choose this specific character
among others is because of his confidence and strength. I have always thought about strength
as physical, but Goebbels taught me that a confident person can get whatever they want but
only by acting firm and clout. Finally Goebbels created a great impact on me, and not because I
agree with Nazis but is still amazing how someone moved people in the most brilliant way as
easy as moving chess pieces. He started and promoted many anti-Semitic movements which
lead to the rise of the power of the Fhrer. Moreover, if there is someone who really made a
change in Germanys population it was Goebbels.