Hitler's Ideology and Propaganda: Mein Kampf to the Beer Hall Putsch

Introduction

"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 Munich following an aborted coup he had attempted in the fall of 1923 — known in history as the Beer Hall Putsch. Another decade was to pass before the former corporal and failed artist would 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 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 starting point 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), 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 inferior races, namely the Jews, the Slavs, and the Roma. The ideology also incorporated the concept of Lebensraum (living space) that the German race allegedly needed for expansion into the East, and the mobilization and creation of racial awareness among the masses through propaganda. It further called for the rule of a strong, all-powerful dictator and the use of force to conquer the vast territories deemed necessary for German expansion.

The Nazi Racial Theory

Hitler believed that the whole of human history was a story of struggle between races — "All that is not race in this world is trash" (Hitler 406) — and stated that mankind could be divided into three types: culture-founders, culture-bearers, and culture-destroyers (Hitler 398). He considered the Aryan race 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 peoples in the category of "culture-bearers," whom he viewed as dependent on the creative inventions of the Aryans for their development. He placed Jews in the last category — "culture-destroyers" — and directed all his hatred toward them, considering them sub-human and worthy only of subjugation or even extermination. According to Hitler, inferior races actually benefited from being conquered and coming into contact with the superior Aryan race, but the Jews prevented the Aryans from assuming their rightful place as the "master race" through a worldwide conspiracy. He believed that the "Jews form the strongest contrast to Aryans" (Ibid. 412) and held them responsible for introducing theories of equality and liberalism to undermine Aryan self-recognition.

Nazi propaganda drew on this framework extensively. St. Paul — called "the Jew Paul" in Nazi literature — was held responsible for spreading the concept of "equality" among Christians to benefit the "sub-human Jews." The Portuguese-born economist Ricardo, the "father of classical national economics," was labeled "the prophet of the liberal economic theory of free trade and economic piracy." Hitler's hatred of the Jews went beyond conventional anti-Semitism. He employed a vicious propaganda campaign against them, painting them as scapegoats for all of Germany's misfortunes — a psychological ploy to channel the energies of the German people and unite them in hatred.

The Jewish question also served as an instrument for instilling a sense of superiority in the German people, which Hitler believed necessary for their national "reawakening." The campaign against the Jews additionally reflected Hitler's theory that the masses must not be presented with two or more enemies simultaneously, as this would dissipate their fighting strength; they needed to focus on a single major enemy — in his rhetoric, the parasitic Jew. Hitler's poisonous propaganda against the Jews was no mere theorizing, as the Holocaust and mass extermination during the war would ultimately prove.

Propaganda: The Means to an End

Propaganda was a major pillar of Hitler's ideology. He always considered it an essential part of politics, and the Nazis' effective use of propaganda as a "means to an end" elevated it to levels approaching an art form. Many credit Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda minister, with originating Nazi propaganda. Although Goebbels did a brilliant job of organizing party propaganda at a later stage, it was Hitler himself who had been convinced of propaganda's importance from the very beginning of the movement — before Goebbels had even joined the Nazi Party. Hitler devoted two entire chapters to the subject in Mein Kampf. While most of his political ideology was unoriginal, having been absorbed from radical Pan-German politics and the anti-Semitic press he encountered as a youth in Vienna, his views on creating a mass movement through propaganda were 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 Kampf: "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). He realized very early in his political career that the best way to influence the masses was through propaganda: "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 clear idea of how propaganda should be delivered:

"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)

Hitler thus advocated repetition and the simplification of complex ideas into their least common denominator in order to reach the broadest possible audience: "Only constant repetition will finally succeed in imprinting an idea on the memory of a crowd" (237). He also advised the propagandist to lie boldly — "When you lie, tell big lies" — believing that "in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility." His reasoning was that ordinary people are so accustomed to resorting to small lies in their everyday lives that they easily recognize them; "big lies" are unfamiliar territory and therefore more readily believed.

Another key piece of advice Hitler offered the propagandist was never to hesitate, never to qualify, and never to concede an inch to the opposing side. He believed that any hesitation would be perceived as uncertainty about the justice of one's own cause. Hitler himself practiced an uncompromising, aggressive attitude that reflected his absolute conviction in his message (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 the spoken word rather than the written word. Although he developed into a master orator who could sway millions at huge gatherings, he had a talent for passionate speechmaking from the outset. He recognized that speech possessed a power of its own and employed it to the utmost. Writing in Mein Kampf he states: "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 speechmaking style that he carefully practiced and perfected in the early days after the formation of the Nazi Party in Munich. Many of his gestures and his manner of delivery were the result of deliberate, carefully rehearsed performance. He typically began a speech in a low, almost inaudible voice, with the audience straining to hear him, then gradually built up the tempo to near-hysteria, ending in a crescendo of explosive climax that left both speaker and audience emotionally drained. During speeches he would scream and spit out his anger and resentment, carrying out a virtual assault on the audience — some called it "verbal violence" — through the staccato-like repetition of forceful words such as "smash," "force," "hatred," and "lies."

The effect on audiences was invariably electric. Eyewitness accounts describe how Hitler managed to communicate his passion to his listeners so powerfully that, caught up in the spell of strong emotion, men groaned or hissed and women sobbed involuntarily (Bullock 76). In his speeches, Hitler consistently appealed to the baser instincts of his audience — their emotions — rather than to their intellect. If the words of his speeches are isolated from the manner in which they were delivered, much of their effect is lost.

Other Means

Nazi propaganda in the early period was not confined to the spoken word alone. Another principal tool was the poster, always printed in red — chosen, as Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, because "it is vivid and was the color that most aroused our opponents. It forced them to notice and remember us." The ubiquitous swastika and the Nazi flag were additional propaganda symbols. Mass rallies and demonstrations, accompanied by martial music, the salute, the uniform, and elaborate hierarchies of rank, were all part of the Nazi propaganda arsenal — never failing to intoxicate the crowds. Some of these tactics, such as mass meetings and demonstrations, had been borrowed by Hitler from other parties, including the Austrian Social Democrats, whom he had carefully observed during his youth in Vienna ("Nazi Propaganda").

Conclusion

Hitler was one of the most evil and yet fascinating political figures of the twentieth century. His ideology was based on the crudest racist theory, brazenly declaring the German/Aryan race superior to all others and therefore destined to rule the world. He identified the Jews as the enemy of the German race, undeserving of sympathy, while asserting that Germans had the "right" to "living space" in the east to be conquered by force. All these objectives were to be achieved through the rule of a ruthless dictator — the Führer — and the incessant use of propaganda aimed at the masses through repetition and emotional rather than intellectual appeal.

Hitler began implementing his ideological plan from the very start of his political career and possessed the ability to turn apparent political defeat into victory through the clever exercise of his undoubted rhetorical powers and propaganda. He demonstrated this ability most dramatically during the Beer Hall Putsch and his subsequent trial, transforming a failed coup — which should logically have signaled the end of the Nazi Party — into a major political victory. The event proved a turning point in Hitler's career: his successful use of propaganda gave him national exposure and immense confidence in his own ability to overcome any adverse situation.