Nazi Propaganda and ‘Coordination’: The Haphazard Path to Totalitarianism

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Notes

 [1] Griffin, Roger D. The Nature of Fascism. London–New York: Routledge 1994, 47ff.

 [2] Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Meridian Books, 1958; Friedrich, C. J. “The Unique Character of Totalitarian Society.” In Totalitarianism, edited by C. J. Friedrich. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1954: 47–60; Friedrich, C. J. and Brzezinski, Z. K. Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956: 15–26; cf. Bracher, Karl Dietrich. Totalitarianismus und Faschismus. Eine wissenschaftliche und politische Begriffskontroverse. Munich–Vienna, 1980.

 [3] De Felice, Renzo. Mussolini il fascista, vol. II: L'organizzazione dello Stato Fascista, 1925–1929. Turin: Einaudi, 1968.

 [4] Bracher, K. D. Die nationalsozialistische Machtergreifung. Studien zur Errichtung des totalitären Herrschaftssystems in Deutschland 1933/34. Cologne, 1960; Broszat, Martin. The Hitler State: The Foundation and Development of the Third Reich. London: Longman, 1981.

 [5] See, for example, Lyttelton, A., “Fascism in Italy: The Second Wave.” In International Fascism, edited by G. L. Mosse. London: Sage, 1979: 50ff.

 [6] Lewin, Moshe. “The contradictions of continuous revolution,” and Mommsen, Hans. “‘Working towards the Fuhrer’: reflections on the nature of the Hitler dictatorship.” Both in Stalinism and Nazism, edited by I. Kershaw and M. Lewin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

 [7] Kallis, Aristotle. “‘Fascism’, ‘Para-Fascism’ and ‘Fascistization’: On the Similarities of Three Conceptual Categories.” European History Quarterly 33, no. 2 (2003): 219–249.

 [8] Griffin, 26–55; Eatwell, Roger. “Towards a New Model of Generic Fascism.” Journal of Theoretical Politics 2 (1992): 161–94. On Weber's theory of ‘ideal-types’ see Coser, Lewis A. The Sociology of Max Weber. New York: Vintage Books, 1977: 223ff.

 [9] Fischer, C. “Ernst Julius Röhm: Chief of Staff of the SA and Indispensible [sic] Outsider.” In The Nazi Elite, edited by R. Smelser and R. Zitelmann. Houndmills–London: Macmillan 1993: 173–182. For the purge see Messerschmidt, M. “Reichswehr und ‘Röhm-Affäre.” Militärgeschichtliche Mitteilungen 3 (1986): 107–144; Noakes, Pridham, ed. Nazism, vol. I: The Rise to Power, 1919–1934. Exeter 1983: 167ff. For the significance of the SA purge for the internal structure of the party see Orlow, D. The History of the Nazi Party, 1919–1945, vol. II: 1933–1945. Pittsburgh: University Press of Pennsylvania, 1973: 111ff.

[10] On the removal of Blomberg and Fritsch see Deutsch, Hitler and his Generals. The Hidden Crisis, January–June 1938. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1974: 78–215. See also Craig, G. A. The Politics of the Prussian Army 1640–1945. London, 1966: 489ff; Deutsch, H. C. Das Komplott oder die Entmachung der Generale. Blomberg- und Fritsch-Krise. Hitlers Weg zum Krieg. Zurich, 1974.

[11] Ian Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation. London 1989. 2nd ed. Ch 6.

[12] Wollenberg, Hans H. Fifty Years of German Film. London: Falcon Press, 1948; see, in general, Weinberg, David. “Approaches to the study of film in the Third Reich: a critical appraisal.” Journal of Contemporary History 19, no. 1 (1984): 110ff.

[13] Welch, David Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933–1945. Rev. ed. London–New York: I. B. Tauris, 2001: 10–12.

[14] Albrecht, Nationalsozialistische Filmpolitik, 12ff.

[15] Welch, op. cit., 8–10.

[16] Welch, Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933–1945, 14–15.

[17] Taylor, Philip M. Munitions of the Mind: A History of Propaganda from the Ancient World to the Present Era. 3rd ed. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003: 1–18; Albrecht, Gerd. Nationalsozialistische Filmpolitik. Eine soziologische Untersuchung über die Spielfilme des Dritten Reichs. Stuttgart, 1969.

[18] Rentschler, Eric The Ministry of Illusion. Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife. Cambridge, MA–London: Harvard University Press, 1996: 43ff; Witte, Karsten. “Film im Nationalsozialismus.” Jacobsen, Wolfgang, ed. Geschichte des deutschen Films. Stuttgart/Weimar, 1993: 119–170; Hoffman, Ilmar. The Triumph of Propaganda—Film and National Socialism 1933–1945. Providence, RI–Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1996: 96ff.

[19] Reichsgesetzblatt, I, 694–695.

[20] For this reading of National Socialism as a ‘neo-feudal’ system of rule see Koehl, Robert. “Feudal Aspects of National Socialism.” American Political Science Review LVI, no. 4 (1960): 921–933.

[21] See, for example, the September 1933 law that banned Jewish artists and writers from the Reich's cultural production: Trial of German War Criminals, IMT, Vol VI.

[22] For figures on film production under the Third Reich see Welch, 20ff.

[23] Welch, 23–25; Moeller, Felix. Der Filmminister. Goebbels und der Film im Dritten Reich. Berlin, 1998, Ch 2.

[24] See in general Quanz, Constanze. Der Film als Propagandainstrument Joseph Goebbels. Cologne, 2000.

[25] Kallis, A. “The ‘Regime Model’ of fascism: A Typology.” European History Quarterly 30, no. 1 (2000): 77–104.

[26] Taylor, 242–248; cf. Albrecht, Gerd. Nationalsozialistische Filmpolitik. Stuttgart: Enke, 1969: 478–479. speech to the Reichsfilmkammer, February 1941.

[27] Phillips, M. S. “The Nazi Control of the German Film Industry.” Journal of European Studies 1, no. 1 (1971): 67ff; Schoenberner, Gerhard. “Ideologie und Propaganda im NS-Film: Von der Eroberung der Studios zur Manipulation ihrer Produkte.” Jung, Uli, ed/ Der deutsche Film. Aspekte seiner Geschichte von den Anfängen bis zu Gegenwart. Trier, 1993: 91–110.

[28] Bunderarchiv, RH, Nr. 6984, Bl. 86 and 87.

[29] Welch, 25–26.

[30] For the T-4 programme see Burleigh, Michael. Death and Deliverance: ’Euthanasia' in Germany, 1900–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Friedlander, Henry. The Origins of Nazi Genocide from Euthanasia to the Final Solution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995; for the radicalisation of Nazi foreign policy from the Hossbach conference onwards see Weinberg, G. L. The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany. Starting World War II, 1937–1939. Chicago–London: Chicago University Press, 1980: 35–42.

[31] Geyer, Michael. “Restorative Elites, German society and the Nazi pursuit of goals.” In Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Comparisons and Contrasts, edited by R. Bessel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996: 139–140.

[32] In general, see Vande Winkel, Roel. “Nazi Newsreels in Europe, 1939–1945: the many faces of Ufa's foreign weekly newsreel. Auslandstonwoche versus German's weekly newsreel. Deutsche Wochenschau.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 24 (2004): 5–34; Töteberg, Michael. “Unter den Brücken. Kino und Film im ‘totalen Krieg’.” In Das UFA-Buch, edited by Michael Töteberg and Hans-Michael Bock. Frankfurt, 1992: 466–468.

[33] A variety of Italian official reports from the 1936–43 period documents the increasing competition between the two regimes [Archivio Centrale dello Stato, MinCulPop, ‘Cinema’. folders 235, 339]; cf. Welch, 26ff.

[34] Paret, Peter. “Kolberg. 1945 as a Historical Film and Historical Document.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 14 (1994): 433–448; Culbert, David. “Kolberg: Film, Filmscript and Kolobrzeg Today.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 14 (1994): 449–466; Leiser, ‘Deutschland Erwache’: Propaganda im Film des Dritten Reiches. Duesseldorf, 1987: 36ff; Reeves, 106; Taylor, 216–229; Petley, 114ff.

[35] Heiber, 340ff., 21 April 1945.

[36] There is substantial bibliography on this subject. Amongst others, see Neumann, F. Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism. New York, 1963, esp. 467ff; Caplan, J. Government without Administration: State and Civil Service in Weimar and Nazi Germany. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988: 321–381.

[37] Hale, Oron J. The Captive Press in the Third Reich. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973: 127ff; in general see Frei, Norbert. “Nationalsozialistische Presse und Propaganda.” In Das Dritte Reich. Herrschaftsstruktur und Geschichte, edited by Martin Broszat and Horst Möller. München, 1986: 152–175.

[38] Larson, C. “The German Press Chamber.” Public Opinion Quarterly 9, no. 10 (1937): 53–70; Alexander, Kiefer. “Government control of publishing in Germany.” Political Science Quarterly 57 (1938): 80–88.

[39] This measure was accompanied by the announcement of the ‘cleansing’ of the profession of ‘Jews’. See Baumann, Gerhard. Der organisatorische Aufbau der deutschen Presse, 46ff; Hagemann, Publizist im Dritten Reich, 39; Hale, 76ff; Wulf, Joseph. Presse und Funk im Dritten Reich. Eine Dokumentation. Reinbek, 1966: 137ff.

[40] Frei, Norbert, and Schmitz, Johannes. Journalismus im Dritten Reich. 3rd ed. Munich, 1999: 22–26.

[41] Amann, Max. Interview Notes at Nuremberg. 22 August 1945. In Spruchkammer Muenchen, I, file for Max Amann.

[42] Quoted in Zeitungsverlag 18 March 1933: 1.

[43] For an analysis of the law see Schmidt-Leonhardt, H. Das Schriftleitergesetz, 34ff; and Abel, Karl Dietrich. Presselenkung im NS-Staat. Eine Studie zur Geschichte der Publizistik in der nationalsozialistischen Zeit. Berlin, 1990.

[44] Koszyk, Kurt. Deutsche Presse 1914–1945. Berlin, 1972: 367ff.

[45] See in particular Longerich, Peter. Propagandisten im Krieg. Die Presseabteilung des Auswärtigen Amtes unter Ribbentrop. Munich, .1987

[46] Hale, 83–90.

[47] Schmidt, Fritz. Press in Fesseln. Berlin, 1947: 84ff.

[48] Hale, Ch 4; cf. Zeitungsverlag 21 October 1933: 1.

[49] Hale, 231ff.

[50] Handbuch der deutschen Tagespresse, 1937, 394–399.

[51] Koszyk, 370ff.

[52] Amann, Ein Leben, 67ff.

[53] Hale, 117–122.

[54] Kallis, A. Fascist Ideology. Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1919–1945. London: Routledge, 2000: Ch 3.

[55] Amann, Max. Address to the Party Rally at Nuremberg, published in Der Parteitag der Ehre vom 8. bis 14. September 1936. Offizieller Bericht über den Verlauf des Reichsparteitages mit sämtlichen Kongreßreden. Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1936: 212–224.

[56] Hale, 136; Frei, 170ff.

[57] Cf. Hitler's speech at the Reichstag. 20 February 1938, in Domarus, I, 864–869, where he did not enter into a discussion of the impact of the regime's press policy on the political dailies' circulation.

[58] Abel, 16ff.

[59] Cf. Rienhardt, Rolf. “Vertraune, Eigenarbeit, Entfaltungsfreiheit.” Zeitungs-Verlag 9 October 1937: 3.

[60] Hale, 236ff.

[61] See in general Frei and Schmitz; Hale, 255–264.

[62] Renthschler, 215–223; Töteberg, “Unter den Brücken. Kino und Film im ‘totalen Krieg’”, 466ff.

[63] Cf. Goebbels's comments; see Heiber, H., ed. Goebbels Reden, vol 1: 1922–1939. Duesseldorf, 1971: 94–95; translated excerpt in Nazism 1919–1945: A Documentary Reader, vol 2: State, Economy and Society 1933–1939, edited by J. Noakes and G. Pridham. 2nd ed. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2000: 191.

[64] Schleunes, Karl. The Twisted Road to Auschwitz. Nazi Policy Toward German Jews 1933–1939. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1970.

[65] Kallis, “Fascistisation.” 238ff.