Mass Manipulation: The Use of Internal Propaganda in Nazi Germany

Mass Manipulation: The Use of Internal Propaganda in Nazi Germany. How did the Nazi regime manage to manipulate the minds of its population to gain enough support to survive for over a decade and engage in perennial atrocities? A central theme through the Nazis internal propaganda operations was the emphasis on the state or community being more important than the individual. Slogans such as - ‘One People! One Reich! One Führer!’ – were relentlessly used to persuade the population to value the community over the individual. Cheap cinema tickets, radios and the introduction of the Volkswagen (or people’s car), were all designed to symbolise the triumphs of the national community.

The Nazi regime also introduced social initiatives to amplify this sense of national community. The Winter Help program was one, which consisted of collections of clothing, food and money to help those families who had been hit hardest by unemployment. Another major feature of the Nazi regime was its focus on targeting the German youth for propaganda operations. The Nazis understood that indoctrinating the young people of the country was the most effective way to ensure you had an obedient citizenry in the future. The Nazi party progressively gained control over the teaching profession until almost completely dominating it by 1937. These avenues to maintain control were supplemented by the youth comradeship organizations in the form of the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls, organizations where Nazi ideology was reinforced and Hitler was worshipped as a demigod.

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Sources:
Goutam, U., & Gautam, U. (2014). Pedagogical Nazi Propaganda (1939-1945). Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 75, 1018-1026.
Welch, D. (1993). Manufacturing a Consensus: Nazi Propaganda and the Building of a 'National Community' (Volksgemeinschaft). Contemporary European History, 2(1), 1-15.
SPEIER, H. (1943). Nazi Propaganda and its Decline. Social Research, 10(3), 358-377.

Note: the sources consulted to construct this narrative do not necessarily endorse the narrative constructed.

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