German Ideology and Propaganda

Hitler's Ideology And Propaganda

All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to." Thus wrote Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf, while serving a prison sentence in the Bavarian capital of Munich following an aborted coup that he had attempted in the fall of 1923 -- known in history as the "The Beer Hall Putsch." Another decade was to pass before the former corporal and failed artist was to capture power and become the unchallenged dictator of Germany but the blueprint of his ideology and modus operandi were already defined at that early stage of his political career. Although the failure of the coup attempt by Hitler and a handful of his supporters had at the time looked like the end of the political career of the "Austrian upstart," Hitler's clever use of propaganda at his public trial made the failure the start of his ascent to power. This paper examines Hitler's ideology and the use of propaganda employed by him and the Nazis for the fulfillment of their objectives with particular reference to the events surrounding the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.

Hitler's Ideology

Hitler outlined his political ideology in his political autobiography, Mein Kampf (My Struggle) that was dictated to his secretary Rudolf Hess while serving a five-year sentence in a Bavarian prison in 1924. It was based on the concept (or myth) of the racial superiority of the German race, a form of social Darwinism in which a superior German / Aryan race was destined to rule over the inferior races, namely the Jews, the Slavic and the Gypsies; the concept of Lebensraum (living space) that the German race needed for expansion in the East, and the mobilization and creation of racial awareness among the masses through propaganda. The ideology also called for the rule of a strong, all-powerful dictator and the use of force for conquering the vast territories required for the German expansion.

The Nazi Racial Theory

Hitler believed that the whole history of mankind was a story of a struggle between races ("All that is not race in this world is trash." 406) and stated that mankind can be divided into three types of races: culture-founders, culture-bearers, and the culture-destroyers. (Hitler 398) He considered the Aryan race to be the most superior: "Everything that today we admire on this earth -- science and art, technique and inventions -- is only the creative product of a few peoples and perhaps originally of one race [the Aryans]." (Ibid. 396) Hitler placed races such as the Japanese and other Asiatic races in the category of "culture-bearers" who in his view were dependant on the creative inventions of the "culture-bearers" for their development. He put the Jews in the last category of "culture-destroyers" and directed all his hatred towards them, considering them sub-human and worthy only of subjugation or even extermination. According to Hitler the inferior races actually benefited from being conquered and coming in contact with the superior Aryan race, but the Jews prevented the Aryans from assuming their rightful place as the "master race" and the rulers of the world through a worldwide conspiracy. He believed that the "Jews form the strongest contrast to Aryans" (Ibid. 412) and held them responsible for hatching conspiracies to prevent the Aryan race from recognizing itself as the master race by introducing theories of equality and liberalism. Nazi propaganda dug out various Jews from history and attributed all theories and actions that the Nazi ideology abhorred to them. For example, St. Paul (in Nazi literature he is called "the Jew Paul") is held responsible for spreading the concept of "equality" among the Christians to benefit the "sub-human Jews"; the Portuguese Jew Ricardo, the "father of classical national economics," is termed "the prophet of the liberal economic theory of free trade and economic piracy." Hitler's hatred of the Jews is more than just anti-Semitism. He used his vicious propaganda campaign against the Jews to paint them as scapegoats for all the misfortunes of his country. It was a psychological ploy to channel the energies of the German people and to "unite them in hatred." The Jewish question was also used as an issue by Hitler to instill a sense of superiority in the German people, believing it to be necessary for its "reawakening." The campaign against Jews was also the implementation of Hitler's theory that the masses must not have two or more enemies put before them, to avoid the "dissipation of their fighting strength"; they needed to focus their attention on a single major enemy -- the parasitic Jew. However, Hitler's poisonous propaganda against the Jews was no mere theorizing, as the holocaust and mass extermination during the war proves.

Lebensraum

The second major part of the Nazi ideology was the demand for Lebensraum or the need for living room for the future of the Volk. In the Nazi Party program, adopted in1920, the third point states: "We demand land and territory for the nourishment of our people and for settling our surplus population." (Quoted by Bullock 316) The demand went far beyond the uniting of German territory to pre-World War I levels. One of the reasons for Hitler's desire for the eastern expansion of the German border was his obsession to re-unite Austria (the place of his birth) with Germany. The other was the need to find room for increasing German population that had undergone rapid expansion in the second half of 19th century. Hitler argues in Mein Kampf that there were four possible answers to the problem of the expanding population: population control, the intensified development of Germany's existing territories, commercial expansion overseas on the model of England, or the continental policy of territorial expansion eastwards, seeking "living room" for Germany in Eastern Europe and the rich plains of Poland, Ukraine, and Russia. Hitler categorically rejected the first two as "defeatist" while he considered the third option as being against the genius of the German people. That left him with the option of Lebensraum through conquering of the Eastern Europe. In his determination to pursue the option of expansion, Hitler was following up on an old German dream of "civilizing" the people living to the East and the continuation of the ancient German struggle against the Slavs. (Bullock 317) It is remarkable (and perhaps a reflection of Hitler's fanaticism) that he carried out most of ideological theories outlined in Mein Kampf to a "T" when he got into power. His all out attack on Russia in the summer of 1941, looking for the "living space" for the Germans in the east that he had always advocated, is a prime example of his tenacious resolve as well as his sheer audacity.

Propaganda: the Means to an End

Propaganda was a major part of Hitler's ideology. He always considered it an essential part of politics and the Nazi's effective use of propaganda as a "means to an end" took it to levels that approached an art form. Many people give credit for Nazi propaganda to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, for starting the Nazi propaganda. Although it is true that Goebbels did a brilliant job of organizing propaganda for the party at a later stage, it was Hitler himself who had been convinced about the importance of propaganda at an early stage of the movement, even before Goebbels had joined the Nazi Party. Hitler has devoted two whole chapters to the subject of propaganda in "Mein Kampf." In fact, while most of Hitler's political ideology is unoriginal having been picked up from the radical, Pan-German gutter politics and the anti-Semitic press that he had come across as a youth in Vienna, his views on how to create a mass-movement by employing propaganda are far more original, even brilliant. (Ibid. 44)

Moving the Masses

Hitler understood that to become a leader one had to "move the masses." He observes in Mein Kempf: "Whoever wishes to win over the masses must know the key that will open the door to their hearts. It is not objectivity, which is a feckless attitude, but a determined will, backed up by power where necessary." (283) Hitler realized very early on in his political career that the best way to influence the masses was through the use of propaganda. Again, writing in Mein Kampf he acknowledges: "After my joining the German Workers' Party, I immediately took over the management of the propaganda. I considered this section by far the most important.

Propaganda had to precede far in advance of the organization." (846)

Hitler also had a fair idea on how to go about imparting propaganda:

The great masses' receptive ability is only very limited, their understanding is small, but their forgetfulness is great. As a consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda has to limit itself only to a very few points and to use them like slogans until even the very last man is able to imagine what is intended by such a word. (234)

Hence Hitler advocated repetition and the importance of synthesizing complex ideas into their least common denominator to make propaganda reach the biggest audience and be effective. ("Only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on the memory of a crowd." 237) Hitler also advises the propagandist to lie big: "When you lie, tell big lies" believing that "in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility." His philosophy on the effectiveness of the big lie rather than a small lie is that most ordinary people (the "masses") are so used to resorting to "small lies" themselves in their everyday lives, that they easily recognize them as such when uttered by their leaders; "big lies" are unfamiliar territory for them.

Another advice that Hitler gives to the propagandist is the importance of never hesitating, never qualifying what one has to say, and never conceding an inch to the other side while putting across one's view point. The philosophy behind painting everything in black and white is that any hesitation by the leader is likely to be viewed at as a sign of uncertainty about the justice of his own cause. Hitler himself believed in and practiced an uncompromising, aggressive attitude while attacking a problem that reflected his conviction about what he was saying. (Fraser 60)

The Power of Speech as Propaganda

The main method of propaganda employed by Hitler in the early days of his political life was through the spoken word (speech) rather than through the written word. Although Hitler developed into a master speaker with time who could sway millions when he spoke at huge gatherings, he had a talent for making passionate speeches from the beginning. He realized that the power of speech had a magic of its own and employed it to the utmost for propaganda purposes. Writing about this in Mein Kampf he says:

The force which ever set in motion the great historical avalanches of religious and political movements is the magic power of the spoken word. The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.

Hitler developed a unique style of giving speeches that he practiced and perfected in the early days after the formation of the Nazi Party in Munich. Many of his gestures and the way in which spoke were the result of a deliberate and carefully rehearsed performance. He usually started his speech in a low, almost inaudible voice, with the audience straining to hear him, and gradually built up the tempo to a pitch of near-hysteria, ending in a crescendo of explosive climax that would leave both the speaker and the audience emotionally drained. During the speech Hitler would scream and spit out his anger and resentment and carry out a virtual assault on the audience (some have called it 'verbal violence') with the staccato-like repetition of forceful words such as "smash," "force," "hatred," "lies." The effect of his 'performance' on the audience was always electric. Most eye-witness accounts of his speeches describe the way in which Hitler managed to communicate his passion to his listeners. So much so that, caught up in the spell of powerful emotions, men groaned or hissed and women sobbed involuntarily. (Bullock 76) In his speeches, Hitler always appealed to the baser instincts of his audience -- their emotions -- rather than to their intellect. If the words of his speech are isolated from the way in which they were spoken, much of their effect is lost.

Other Means

Nazi propaganda in the early period was not confined to the spoken word alone. The other main propaganda tool was the posters, always in red, chosen to attract the attention. The ubiquitous swastika and the flag was another propaganda tool used by the Nazis. Other rituals like the mass rallies and demonstrations, accompanied by martial music, the salute, the uniform, and the hierarchies of ranks were all part of the Nazi propaganda -- never failing to intoxicate the crowds. Some of the tactics e.g. The mass meetings and the demonstrations had been borrowed by Hitler from other parties such as the Austrian Social Democrats whom he had carefully observed during his youth in Vienna. ("Nazi Propaganda")

The Beer Hall Putsch

The failed attempt by Hitler and a group of his supporters to seize power in 1923 proved to be a crucial turning point in Hitler's career and the fortunes of the Nazi Party. Before the event and the ensuing public trial of Hitler for treason, the Nazi party was one of several provincial right wing political parties and was hardly known outside the province of Bavaria. After the trial, Hitler became a well-known figure all over Germany and although the Nazi party suffered a temporary setback when Hitler was jailed, it was soon re-organized after his release and gained considerable strength from then onwards.

Background

It would be worthwhile to briefly trace the background of the Beer Hall Putsch. In 1923, the democratic Weimar government was faced with a serious crisis. The French and Belgian forces had occupied the industrial Ruhr region due to the Germans' inability to pay the war reparations imposed on it after the First World War by the victorious allied powers. Resistance was shown to the occupation by the Weimar government and the German workers through passive resistance and strikes. This led to runaway inflation and severe economic hardship for the Germans, creating fertile grounds for radical extremists such as the Nazis.

When a right wing government came to power in Bavaria 1920, it was sympathetic to the right wing groups, and the Nazi party's influence in Bavarian politics increased steadily. By 1923 it became the leading party among the right wing extremist groups, its membership reaching 55,000 with a well-organized militant arm (the SA) consisting of 15,000 members. Hitler became head of the Kampfbund, an umbrella organization for various right-wing paramilitary groups and found favor with Gustav von Kahr, the head of the Bavarian government. Inspired by Mussolini's march on Rome in October 1922 to capture power, both Hitler and elements in the Bavarian regime (including Gustav) dreamed of a similar "March on Berlin" to overthrow the Weimar government and establish a nationalist, right-wing government. They had an excuse of sorts too -- the desire to suppress the leftist governments in the states of Thuringia and Saxony that were not acceptable to right wingers including the army. (Spielvogel)

Tensions rose between the Bavarian government and the center when a new Weimar government under Gustav Stresemann took over and ended the policy of passive resistance against the French. The new Weimar government tried to force the Bavarian government to control the Nazis by banning their party newspaper. The head of the Bavarian military, General Lossow, refused the order and was relieved of his command. The Bavarian government asked him to stay on. For a time, events seemed to be moving in Hitler's favor.

Unfortunately for Hitler and the conspirators in his coup plan, the Stresemann government crushed the leftist governments in Saxony and Thuringia by sending in the army in October 1923, and much of the justification for a march on Berlin was removed. Kahr von Gustav and the right wing elements in the army, who had been enthusiastic about the coup, dropped the idea. On November 6, Kahr cautioned Hitler against any hasty military action.

Hitler, however, had aroused the paramilitary forces to a fever pitch. To back down on the promised action would threaten his leadership position. He was also becoming desperate because Weimar government seemed to be regaining control and the economic condition was beginning to improve. It was a case of 'now or never.' Hitler decided to force Kahr and other Bavarian leaders to join him in a march on Berlin. (Ibid. 138-9)

The Failed Putsch, Hitler's Trial & Use of Propaganda

On November 8 a meeting was being held in one of Munich's large beer cellars with Kahr von Gustav as the guest of honor. General Lossow (head of Bavarian military district) and Colonel Seisser, head of the police were also there. Hitler surrounded the building with SA troops, broke in, took over the meeting, and melodramatically proclaimed: "The National Revolution has begun!... The Bavarian and Reich governments have been removed and a provisional national government formed. The barracks of the Reichswehr and police are occupied. The Army and the police are marching on the city under the swastika banner!" All of this was untrue but the people inside the hall no way of knowing that.

Taking Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser into an adjoining room, Hitler pressured them to join him in overthrowing the national government but the three refused. Hitler rushed out in the hall and played another bluff: He took the podium and declared.".. The government of the November criminals and the Reich President are declared to be removed. A new national government will be named this very day in Munich. A new German National Army will be formed immediately." The crowd gathered in the hall thought that Hitler's declaration had the consent of the three Bavarian officials and began to cheer. General Ludendorff had also arrived by then, and helped Hitler to persuade the three to support the "revolution." They agreed reluctantly and pledged to support Hitler in front of the crowd. Hitler's bluff seemed to have worked and the exultant crowd cheered him on, and sang: "Deutschland uber Alles." Hitler was euphoric, but was soon informed that the German soldiers had refused to give in to Hitler's SA troopers and were holding out in the barracks. Hitler immediately left the Beer Hall to deal with the situation. General Ludendorff let Kahr, Lossow, and Seisser leave the building, believing their "solemn" pledge to remain loyal to Hitler. (Redlich 61-63)