Joseph Goebbels' Mark on Nazi Germany
A deep dive into the life and legacy of one of the most dangerous politicians in history
This essay was written by Faraz Islam: a high school student from Vietnam
Joseph Goebbels was a Nazi politician who began his career as a member of the Nazi party in 1924 and served as the Reich Minister of Propaganda (1933-45), before eventually committing suicide as the Chancellor of Germany in 1945 (Britannica). As a leading member of the Nazi party, he left his shadow on the sphere of German politics as well as in shaping German public opinion. The significance of Goebbels varied throughout his political career and can be measured through his effect on the German people and the extent of that impact. This essay will explore Goebbels's short-term political impacts in the ascension of the Nazi party to power, before exploring his longer-term social impacts in the revolutionization of German culture and entrenchment of Nazi ideology and virulent anti-Semitism into German society. Finally, it will examine his economic prominence and declining social influence in the context of the Second World War. The purpose of this essay is to examine the economic, social, and political effects of his actions to assess the overall mark he made on Nazi Germany and the German people.
Section A: Pre-Election
Goebbels had limited political power in the German capital. He was appointed as the Nazi party's Gauleiter for Berlin in 1926, with authority and responsibility over the area (Longerich, 2015). In attempts to garner publicity for the Nazi cause, he deliberately provoked beer-hall brawls and street fights, particularly against the Communist Party of Germany (Manvell & Fraenkel, 2010). Goebbels's strategy of violent provocation in a bid to draw attention to the party was only initially successful, although lawless, which prompted the Berlin police to ban the Nazis from the city (Evans, 2005). This underscored a greater failure on the part of Goebbels to raise support for the party in the nation's capital, evidenced by the minuscule 1.4% of the vote that the Nazis won in Berlin in the election of 1928. Therefore, Goebbels was largely insignificant for the German people in Berlin, as further evidenced by the fact that Berlin remained the city with the highest percentage of opponents to the Nazi party even until 1933 (O'Loughlin, 1994).
Goebbels was significant for his role in the ascent and consolidation of Hitler and the Nazi party to power in the first place. In the same time that Hitler's competitor in the Presidential elections of 1933, Paul von Hindenburg, gave just one speech, Goebbels recognized the political importance of presenting Hitler to the German public, chartering Hitler across the nation to attend between 4 and 5 rallies on a daily basis (Lacey & Shepherd, 1997). The results of this relentless exhibition paid dividends in elections 3 months later, when the Nazi party won 37.7% of the Reichstag, up from 18.3% in 1930. This demonstrates Goebbels' profound shadow on Germany and its people because of the extent of the role that he played in Hitler's rise to power. It could well be argued that without his political influence, Hitler and the Nazis would not have achieved the height of power they ultimately attained.
Additionally, he commissioned a cheap and mass-producible radio, widely known as the 'People's Receiver', to be disseminated across German households to effectively communicate Nazi messages (Lacey & Shepherd, 1997). This turned out to be highly successful as the number of radio listeners grew exponentially from 4.5 million listeners at the radio's introduction in 1933 to an astonishing 70% coverage rate in 1938 (Longerich, 2015). This allowed the Nazis to streamline their propaganda messages to almost every household in the nation, solidifying their support across the country, including rural areas where it may have otherwise been difficult to send speakers to (Lacey & Shepherd, 1997). It is evident that the impacts of Goebbels, in terms of technological development and garnering support for the Nazi party, were socially and politically significant for Germany, by means of the 'People's Receiver'.
Section B: Third Reich
Goebbels continued to cast a shadow on Germany through his ability to shift and manipulate the perceptions of the German people via the censorship and suppression of books, art, and films. As the Reich Minister of Chamber and Culture, he established the Reichsfilmkammer, a regulatory body for the German film industry that was designed to ensure filmmakers adhered to Nazi principles and produced films that aligned with the regime's ideology (Shirer, 1960). This was significant for German filmmakers as they were now severely restricted in the content they were allowed to produce, as well as facing numerous hurdles in the production process. This was particularly consequential for Jewish filmmakers, who were now prohibited from working in the film industry altogether (Lacey & Shepherd, 1997). In addition, other forms of media also faced restrictions. For instance, the novel Heidi was adapted to exclude Christian elements while Robinson Crusoe was modified to display a 'master-slave dynamic' between him and the Native American character (Koonz, 2003). This censorship had a great social impact on the German people, as it meant that all forms of entertainment were now stripped of anything deemed to be opposing the Nazi doctrine. Especially, these included authors and creators perceived to be either democratic, communist, or Jewish (Dietrich, 1970), and so these policies had the greatest impact on them.
Not only did Goebbels attempt to control public perceptions through outright censorship and suppression of information and ideologies, but also through antagonization of ideas deemed to be 'anti-Nazi'. For instance, through the 'Degenerate Art Exhibition' in Munich, Goebbels sought to vilify thousands of modern artworks interpreted to contain themes of decadence, mental disease, and racial impurity (Kimmelman, 2014). This was consequential for the German people due to its sheer scale of success as it reached an audience of 2 million people, making it the 'most popular modern art show of all time' (Shirer, 1960). This also left a terrible mark on Germany, as it demonstrated that the democratic norms of freedom of thought and expression under the Weimar government were now obsolete and that the only ideology acceptable was that propagated by the Third Reich.
Joseph Goebbels' manipulation of the German people went beyond simply the purge of Weimar German culture; he also orchestrated a cultural and ideological indoctrination. Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis financed numerous films to serve their political agenda such as 'Triumph of the Will', 'The Rothschilds', and 'The Eternal Jew' (Evans, 2005). These efforts weren’t restricted to the film industry; the Nazis incentivized the production of all forms of media that endorsed Nazi ideology through tax breaks, among other tactics (Romani, 1992). By weaponizing the mass production of media, art, and films, Goebbels ensured the German population was bombarded with implicit underlying messages that reinforced Nazi ideology. Coupled with the lack of exposure to opposing views due to Nazi censorship, this created a society where the population was fundamentally incapacitated of the ability to question the established norm of Nazi ideology. This ideological indoctrination left a profound mark on the German people, who were conditioned to blindly accept Nazi values and ideology without regard to the potential for any opposition. The combined impact of Goebbels's aforementioned social indoctrination was also greatly consequential for Germany as a whole. Such was the extent of Goebbels's revolutionization of German culture that even the American General Eisenhower estimated it would take approximately 50 years to 'de-Nazify' Germany (Norgaard, 1945).
Additionally, Goebbels was a huge threat to Germany's Jewish population. He was immensely influential in the antagonization of the Jews through his newspaper, Der Angriff, where he affiliated them with the political enemies of the Nazis: Marxists, Communists, and those in favor of democracy (Shirer, 1960). In doing so, Goebbels and the regime transformed them into scapegoats for all of Germany and the world's problems (Lemmons, 2021). As a result, this depicted the Jews as enemies and threats to both the German state and its people, leading to their dehumanization, routinely being referred to as 'rats' (Evans, 2005). The demonization of the Jews justified and facilitated the subsequent administration of anti-semitism and anti-semitic policies. For instance, it allowed Goebbels to carry out the boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933 (Britannica). Eventually, the antagonization of the group paved the way for the implementation of the Holocaust, which killed 6 million Jews.
However, Goebbels’ ability to shape public opinion and boost morale during the war effort became weaker. Even after German military defeats in Stalingrad and Africa, he continually raised hopes and boosted morale by drawing up 'historical parallels', and even referring to 'secret miracle weapons' (Britannica). This was pertinent for the German people; it underscores that such was their 'blind faith' in Goebbels and Hitler (Beevor, 2007), that they would continue to believe even in such objectively bleak circumstances. However, the extent of Goebbels' impact to influence public perceptions was limited. Even before the defeats in Stalingrad, in 1942 approximately 15 million Germans were defying the censorship laws of the Third Reich to listen to the German-language broadcasts of the BBC, an offense punishable by death (Evans, 2016). This demonstrates the limitations of Goebbels's significance to the German people as such was the dwindling level of trust in his propaganda, that 15 million Germans were willing to potentially risk death to listen to foreign news outlets.
Goebbels had a huge economic impact on both the German people and state. At The Reich Plenipotentiary for the Total War Effort, he revolutionized the German economy to dedicate all civilian resources and infrastructure to the war effort (Reuth, 1993). This was preceded by his famous Sportpalast speech in which he encouraged women to join the workforce as part of the total war effort (Shirer, 1960). This was greatly consequential for German women as it marked a stark contrast to the previous narrative propagated by the Nazi regime which entailed pervasive discouragement of women in the workforce, to prioritize birthing. It was also economically impactful for Germany as a whole, as 75% of the German GDP was converted to armament production (Evans, 2006). However, in practical terms, the historian Richard Evans writes 'Germany's economic resources were never adequate to turn German fantasies of imperial domination of Europe into reality'. Thereby, Goebbels's involvement in these economic measures was muted and short-lived.
In conclusion, Joseph Goebbels was more than just a politician - he left a terrible economic, social, and political mark on Germany and its people during the years of the Third Reich. Although he had limited political significance in his role as Gauleiter of Berlin, he was instrumental in the ascent of Hitler and the Nazi party to power in the 1930s, such that without him the explosion of Nazi ideology might never have occurred. After being appointed Reich Minister of Propaganda in 1933, Goebbels played a pivotal role in the revolutionization of German culture to incapacitate the German people from disagreeing with the regime's ideology. The extent of this indoctrination was so profound that Eisenhower predicted it would take half a century to reverse his 'Nazification' of the country. Moreover, he helped destroy the Jewish population of Germany; his dehumanization of them facilitated widespread anti-semitism and the eventual administration of the Holocaust.
However, his impact waned substantially from the mid-stages of the war as the German people grew increasingly distrustful of Goebbels's propaganda. Concurrently, he also assumed the role of Reich Plenipotentiary, which granted him limited influence in the German economy, although his involvement was negligible at best. In conclusion, Goebbels was of limited prominence politically and socially both before and after the rise of the Third Reich. However, at the peak of his influence between 1932 and 1940, Goebbels left a terrible mark both politically and socially for Germany and the German people, with the impacts of his actions reverberating for decades to come.
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