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Joseph Goebbels at Nuremberg
(1934)
It is difficult to define the
concept of propaganda thoroughly and precisely. This is
especially true since, in past decades, it was subject to
unfavorable, and in part extraordinarily hostile, definitions,
on the part of us Germans. First, then, we must defend it. Those
abroad sometimes claim that in the past we Germans were
particularly knowledgeable in this area, and knew how to apply
it, but that unfortunately is not consistent with the facts. We
learned the consequences of our neglect all too clearly during
the World War. While the enemy states produced unprecedented
atrocity propaganda aimed at Germany throughout the whole world,
we did nothing and were completely defenseless against it. Only
when enemy foreign propaganda had nearly won over the greater
part even of the neutral states did the German government begin
to sense the enormous power of propaganda. It was too late. Just
as we were militarily and economically unprepared for the war,
so also with propaganda. We lost the war in this area more than
in any other.
The cleverest trick used in
propaganda against Germany during the war was to accuse Germany
of what our enemies themselves were doing. Even today, large
parts of world opinion are convinced that the typical
characteristics of German propaganda are lying, crudeness,
reversing the facts, and the like. One needs only to remember
the stories that were spread throughout the world at the
beginning of the war about German soldiers chopping off
children's hands and crucifying women to realize that Germany
then was a defenseless victim of this campaign of calumny. It
neither had nor used any means of defense.
The concept of propaganda has
undergone a fundamental transformation, particularly as the
result of political practice in Germany. Throughout the world
today, people are beginning to see that a modern state, whether
democratic or authoritarian, cannot withstand the subterranean
forces of anarchy and chaos without propaganda. It is not only a
matter of doing the right thing; the people must understand that
the right thing is the right thing. Propaganda includes
everything that helps the people to realize this.
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.
Propaganda is a means to an
end. Its purpose is to lead the people to an understanding that
will allow it to willingly and without internal resistance
devote itself to the tasks and goals of a superior leadership.
If propaganda is to succeed, it must know what it wants. It must
keep a clear and firm goal in mind, and seek the appropriate
means and methods to reach that goal. Propaganda as such is
neither good nor evil. Its moral value is determined by the
goals it seeks.
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. The only thing that is important is
whether or not its words are true and genuine expressions of a
people’s values. During its period of opposition, the National
Socialist movement proved that criticism can be constructive,
indeed, that in a time which the government is in the hands of
destructive powers it may be the only constructive element.
The concept of public
enlightenment is fundamentally different. It is fundamentally
defensive and evolutionary. It does not hammer or drum. It is
moderate in tone, seeking to teach. It explains, clarifies, and
informs. It is, therefore, used more often by a government than
by the opposition. The National Socialist state, growing out of
a revolution, had the task of centrally leading both propaganda
and education, uniting two concepts that are related but not
identical, molding them into a unity that in the long term can
serve the government and people.
Even during the time when we
were in the opposition, we succeeded in rescuing the concept of
propaganda from disfavor or contempt. Since then, we have
transformed it into a truly creative art. It was our sharpest
weapon in conquering the state. It remains our sharpest weapon
in defending and building the state. Although this is perhaps
still not clear to the rest of the world, it was obvious to us
that we had to use the weapon with which we had conquered the
state to defend the state. Otherwise we faced the danger that we
could lose the people even though we had power, and that,
without the people, we would lose power. We put what we had
learned during our attack on the November pseudo-state in the
service of our state. The great wealth of ideas and never
failing creativity of our propaganda, proven during our struggle
for power, was perfected to the last detail. Now we turned it to
serve the state itself, to find meaningful ways and flexible
forms to influence the people's thinking. The people should
share the concerns and successes of its government. Its concerns
and successes must therefore be constantly presented and
hammered into the people so that it will consider the concerns
and successes of its government to be its concerns and successes.
Only an authoritarian government, firmly tied to the people, can
do this over the long term. Political propaganda, the art of
anchoring the things of the state in the broad masses so that
the whole nation will feel a part of them, cannot therefore
remain merely a means to the goal of winning power. It must
become a means of building and keeping power.
This requires alert attention
to the events of the day, and a trained and lively creativity
that must include a complete knowledge of the soul of the
people. The people must be understood in its deepest depths, or
intuitively understood, for only then can one speak in a way
that the people will understand. Propaganda must be the science
of the soul of the people. It requires an organized and
purposeful system if it is to be successful in the long run.
That is what we lacked during
the war. That is where our enemy was superior to us. We must
make up for that. We must take the techniques and dominance of
the other side's opinion apparatus. Which is all they really had,
and fill it with the fire of the soul and the glow of new ideas.
Propaganda, too, has a system.
It cannot be stopped and started whenever one wishes. In the
long run, it can only be effective in the service of great
ideals and far-seeing principles. And propaganda must be learned.
It must be led only by people with a fine and sure instinct for
the often changeable feelings of the people. They must be able
to reach into the world of the broad masses and draw out their
wishes and hopes. The effective propagandist must be a master of
the art of speech, of writing, of journalism, of the poster, and
of the leaflet. He must have the gift to use the major methods
of influencing public opinion such as the press, film, and radio
to serve his ideas and goals.
This is particularly necessary
in a day when technology is advancing. Radio is already an
invention of the past, since television will probably soon
arrive. On the one hand successful propaganda must be a master
of these methods of political opinion, but on the other it may
not become stale in using them. It must find new ways and
methods every day to reach success. The nature of propaganda
remains the same, but the means provided by advancing technology
are becoming ever broader and far-reaching. One need only
consider the revolutionary impact of the invention of radio,
which gave the spoken word true mass effectiveness. The
technology of propaganda has changed greatly in recent years,
but the art of propaganda has remained the same.
Understood in this sense,
propaganda has long since lost its odium of inferiority
inherited from the past. It holds first rank among the arts with
which one leads a nation, It is indispensable in building a
modern state. It is something of a connecting link between
government and people.
All propaganda has a direction.
The quality of this direction determines whether propaganda has
a positive or negative effect. Good propaganda does not need to
lie, indeed it may not lie. It has no reason to fear the truth.
It is a mistake to believe that the people cannot take the truth.
They can. It is only a matter of presenting the truth to people
in a way that they will be able to understand. A propaganda that
lies proves that it has a bad cause. It cannot be successful in
the long run. A good propaganda will always come along that
serves a good cause. But propaganda is still necessary if a good
cause is to succeed. A good idea does not win simply because it
is good. It must be presented properly if it is to win. The
combination makes for the best propaganda. Such propaganda is
successful without being obnoxious. It depends on its nature,
not its methods. It works without being noticed. Its goals are
inherent in its nature. Since it is almost invisible, it is
effective and powerful. A good cause will lose to a bad one if
it depends only on its rightness, while the other side uses the
methods of influencing the masses. We are, for example, firmly
convinced that we fought the war for a good cause, but that was
not enough. The world should also have known and seen that our
cause was good. However, we lacked the effective means of mass
propaganda to make that clear to the world. Marxism certainly
did not fight for great ideals. Despite that, in November 1918
it overcame Kaiser, Reich, and the army because it was superior
in the art of mass propaganda.
National Socialism learned from
these two examples. It drew the correct practical conclusions
from that knowledge. The ideal of a socialist national community
did not remain mere theory with us, but became living reality in
the thoughts and feelings of 67 million Germans. Our propaganda
of word and deed created the conditions for that. Mastering them
kept National Socialism from the danger of remaining the dream
and longing of a few thousand. Through propaganda, it became
hard, steely everyday reality.
That which we only imperfectly
and inadequately understood during the war became a virtuously
mastered art during the rise of the National Socialist movement.
Today one can say without exaggeration that Germany is a model
of propaganda for the entire world. We have made up for past
failures and developed the art of mass influence to a degree
that puts the efforts of other nations into the shadows. The
importance the National Socialist leadership placed on
propaganda became clear when it established a Ministry for
Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda shortly after it took
power. This ministry is entirely within the spirit of National
Socialism, and comes from it. It unites what we learned as an
opposition movement confronting the enemy and under persecution
from an enemy system, sometimes more from necessity than desire.
Recently some have tried to imitate this ministry and its
concentration of all means of influencing opinion, but here, too,
the slogan applies: "Often imitated, never equaled."
The organizational union of
mass demonstrations, the press, film, radio, literature, theater,
etc., is only the mechanical side to the matter. It is not so
much that all these means are in one hand. The important thing
is that this hand knows how to master and control them.
Establishing a central office is not difficult. What is
difficult is finding people who are experts in an area
previously not a concern of the state.
We could not have done that
ourselves if we had not been through the great school of our
party. She was our teacher. During 14 years of opposition we
gathered an enormous amount of knowledge, experience, wisdom,
and ability. This made us able to use the wide-reaching methods
of government propaganda without running the risk of losing the
spirit behind them. Effective propaganda avoids any form of
bureaucracy. It requires lightning-fast decisions, alert
creativity and inexhaustible inventiveness. The machinery of the
organization would remain lifeless and rigid if it were not
constantly driven by the motor of the spirit and the idea.
It is, therefore, also wrong to
think that a ministry could replace what the movement alone is
able to do. Cooperation between the party and the government was
necessary for the major successes that we are proud of. Only
when all means of propaganda are concentrated and their unified
application assured is it be possible to carry out major
educational and propaganda battles, as we did before 12 November
1933 [the referendum Hitler called to approve Germany's
withdrawal from the League of Nations] or 19 August 1934 [the
referendum called to approve Hitler's absolute power after the
death of Hindenburg], which were of true historical significance.
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.
That is also the basic
requirement for any practical political activity. A government
that wishes to be successful over the long term cannot ignore it.
Its projects and plans would fail were they not supported by the
people. But the people must understand them in order to
accomplish them.
One can but smile when one
looks over our borders at the efforts of parliamentary-democratic
parties that are all concerned with this: "How can I tell my
child?" A fear of the people is the characteristic of liberal
government theory. It has set the people free, and now does not
know what to do with them. The hunt for popularity usually leads
to nothing other than concealing the truth and speaking
nonsense. One dares not say what is right, and what one does say
leads to disaster. But that is presumably what the people want.
One no longer has the courage to say unpopular things, much less
do them. The result is that major European problems are lost in
useless debates while political, economic, and social crises of
unprecedented magnitude face the nations.
There are times when statesmen
must have the courage to do something unpopular. But their
unpopular actions must be properly prepared, and must be put in
the proper form, so that their peoples will understand. The man
on the street is usually not as unreasonable as some think.
Since it is he who usually has to bear the heaviest burdens that
result from unpopular policies, he at least has a right to know
why things are being done this way and not that way. All
practical politics depends on its persuasiveness. It is no sign
of wise leadership to acquaint the nation with hard facts over
night. Crises must be prepared for not only politically and
economically, but also psychologically. Here propaganda has its
place. It must prepare the way actively and educationally. Its
task is to prepare the way for practical actions. It must follow
these actions step by step, never losing sight of them. In a
manner of speaking, it provides the background music. Such
propaganda in the end miraculously makes the unpopular popular,
enabling even a government's most difficult decisions to secure
the resolute support of the people. A government that uses it
properly can do what is necessary without running the risk of
losing the masses.
Propaganda is therefore a
necessary life function of the modern state. Without it, seeking
great goals is simply impossible in this century of the masses.
It stands at the beginning of practical political activity in
every area of public life. It is its important and necessary
prerequisite.
Let me give several recent
examples. I need only sketch the details. They are too fresh in
our memories to require elaboration.
There are no parliamentary
parties in Germany any longer. How could we have overcome them
had we not waged an educational campaign for years that
persuaded people of their weaknesses, harms, and disadvantages?
Their final elimination was only the result of what the people
had already realized. Our propaganda weakened these parties.
Based on that, they could be eliminated by a legal act.
Marxism could not be eliminated
by a government decision. Its elimination was the end result of
a process that began with the people. But that was only possible
because our propaganda had shown people that Marxism was a
danger to both the state and society. The positive national
discipline of the German press would never have been possible
without the compete elimination of the influence of the liberal-Jewish
press. That happened only because of the years-long work of our
propaganda. Today, particularism in Germany is something of the
past. The fact that it was eliminated by a strong central idea
of the Reich is no accident, but rather it depended on
psychological foundations that were established by our
propaganda.
Or consider economic policy.
Does anyone believe that the idea of class struggle could have
been eliminated only by a law? Is it not rather the fact that
the seeds we sowed in a hundred thousand meetings resulted in a
new socialist structure of labor? Today employers and workers
stand together in the Labor Front. The Law on National Labor is
the foundation of our economic thinking, realizing itself more
and more. Are not these social achievements the result of the
long and tireless labor of thousands of speakers?
What about the shortage of
foreign currency? This affects the people in serious ways.
Propaganda once again is the key to dealing with the problem.
The Hereditary Farming Law, the
idea of the Reich Agricultural System, market regulations in
agriculture, all these need propaganda to show the people their
importance, which is necessary if they are to succeed.
We could eliminate the Jewish
danger in our culture because the people had recognized it as
the result of our propaganda. Major cultural achievements such
as the unique "Kraft durch Freude" are possible only with the
powerful support of the people. The prerequisite was and is
propaganda, which here too creates and maintains the connection
to the people.
The Winter Relief last year raised about 350 million marks. This
was not the result of taxation, but rather many gifts of every
amount. Everyone gave freely and gladly, many of whom in the
past had done nothing in the face of similar need. Why? Because
a broad propaganda, using every modern means, presented the
whole nation with the need for this program of social
assistance.
45 million Reich marks of goods
and services were provided. 85 million Reich marks worth of fuel
were distributed. 130 million Reich marks worth of food were
given out. Ten million Reich marks worth of meals were provided,
and 70 million Reich marks worth of clothing.
Some of these achievements were
the result of donations in kind, others the result of cash
donations. Street collections, donations of a part of paychecks,
contributions from companies, and gifts subtracted from bank
accounts resulted in cash totaling 184 million Reich marks. 24
million marks alone were the result of “One Pot Sundays.” [On
some Sundays, people were encouraged to have a simple meal at
home, donating the money saved to the Nazi charity.] The Reich
itself added 15 million marks to the contributions of the
people. The railway system provided reduced or free shipping
with a value of 14 million marks.
Of our population of
65,595,000, 16,511,00 were assisted by the Winter Relief. There
were 150,000 volunteers. There were only 4,474 paid workers, of
whom 4,144 were in the 34 regional party offices, and 230 at the
national headquarters.
Propaganda and education prepared the way for the largest social
assistance program in history. They were the foundation. Their
success was that, over a long winter, no one in Germany went
hungry or was cold.
Over 40 million people approved
of the Führer's decision to leave the League of Nations on 12
November 1933. That gave him the ability to speak to the world
in the name of the nation, defending honor, peace, and equality
as the national ideals of the whole German people. The issues of
disarmament were put on firm and clear foundations. Once again,
propaganda was the foundation for the nation's unity on 12
November, and therefore of the freedom of action that the Führer
had in foreign affairs.
Each situation brings new
challenges. And each task requires the support of the people,
which can only be gained by untiring propaganda that brings the
broad masses knowledge and clarity. No area of public life can
do without it. It is the never resting force behind public
opinion. It must maintain an unbroken relationship between
leadership and people. Every means of technology must be put in
its service; the goal is to form the mass will and to give it
meaning, purpose, and goals that will enable us to learn from
past failures and mistakes and ensure that the lead National
Socialist strength has given us over other nations will never
again be lost.
May the bright flame of our
enthusiasm never fade. It alone gives light and warmth to the
creative art of modern political propaganda. Its roots are in
the people. The movement gives it direction and drive. The state
can only provide it with the new, wide-ranging technical means.
Only a living relationship between the people, movement, and
state can guarantee that the creative art of propaganda, of
which we have made ourselves the world's master, will never sink
into bureaucracy and bureaucratic narrow-mindedness.
Creative people made propaganda
and put it in the service of our movement. We must have creative
people who can use the means of the state in its service.
It is also a function of the
modern state. Its reach is the firm ground on which the state
must stand. It rises from the depths of the people, and must
always return to the people to find its roots and strength. It
may be good to have power based on weapons. It is better and
longer lasting, however, to win and hold the heart of a people. |
