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The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation of Nazi policies.
The Nazi regime used propaganda effectively to mobilize the German population to support its wars of conquest until the very end of the regime. Nazi propaganda was likewise essential to motivating those who implemented the mass murder of the European Jews and of other victims of the Nazi regime.
The Nazis used propaganda to win the support of millions of Germans. Censorship helped to suppress ideas that the Nazis saw as threatening. More information about this image
Jews and Communists also featured heavily in the Nazi propaganda as enemies of the German people. Joseph Goebbels was key to the Nazis use of propaganda to increase their appeal. Goebbels joined the Nazi Party in 1924 and became the Gauleiter for Berlin in 1926.
The Nazi regime tried to transform German society to fit Nazi ideas of race and national unity. Authorities used propaganda to define who could belong to Nazi visions for Germany—and who was excluded. Propaganda targeting so-called “Aryan” Germans tried to make membership in the Nazis’ “New Germany” seem appealing.
Hitler, a former German soldier, joined the newly formed Nazi Party in September 1919 and became its first director of propaganda. His skills as a public speaker increased the party’s profile and attracted new members. Hitler’s ideas about propaganda guided Nazi strategy until his death in 1945.
The Nazi regime used propaganda as a way of mobilizing Germans to take up arms and to mask military aggression. Nazi propagandists falsely claimed that the nation’s enemies had started the war. They portrayed Germany as a victim that was fighting to defend itself from foreign threats.
