The Nazi Regime, By Josef Goebbels And The Nazi Regime

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The Nazi regime, beginning in 1924 and moving through till 1945, accomplished the perversion of an entire peoples’ principle through the sustained and all-encompassing use of propaganda. Without outside influence the German people were exposed to an influx of Nazi co-ordinated information that perpetrated no views but their own; the acceptance of views by those around them prevented free-will through a semi-national belief in the ideology of one party.
The domination of the mass media by Josef Goebbels and the Nazi regime corrupted the German ideals through the spread of misinformation. Goebbels was appointed the Minister for Propaganda and Public Enlightenment in 1933 after Hitler’s rise to Chancellor and was responsible for all propaganda spread throughout Germany. The Reich Chamber of Commerce was set up, again in 1933, and was Goebbels first act to centralise and control Germany’s media. The majority of media in Germany was privately owned and it was decreed that all individuals and enterprises involved in media had to join in order to publish work. Nazi party members were allowed membership whilst all Jews, Communists and Socialists were denied; this brought forth the majority rule, effectively preventing minorities from representing their views in the media whilst removing their issues away from the public eye. As Hitler stated “by the skilful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see…an extremely wretched life as paradise”. By preventing the public from hearing their views and by presenting ‘undesirable’ people negatively, Goebbels managed to dehumanise Nazi enemies and through this separation allowed Germany’s people to believe that their wretched life could really be a heaven.
Foreign views and informatio...

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...ch aspect of propaganda slowly managed to desensitise and separate Germans from the truth, by giving the people a perfect leader he united Germany around a pariah that could forge a new Germany, and with this hope Germany’s people were forced to change their beliefs for the good of their country.
Through the manipulation of information and people the Nazi party succeeded in making the German people complicit in their plans. By surrounding everyone with the same ideas and ideals independent thought was effectively removed and the only choice was an acceptance of the Nazi’s and an acceptance of their beliefs. Film and radio showed the people what to think and the ‘Hitler myth’ bred by Goebbels gave them someone to lead, it was not until the war had ended and Germany was exposed to the world once more that it was possible how far from their principles they had erred.

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