Goebbels small people are needed for big things. Dr. Goebbels, the man who made Kafka come true

Joseph Goebbels said - give me the media and I will make a herd of pigs out of any nation.

Do you know how to fool an entire nation? How to make a clerk become a killer? How to turn thousands of good-natured and fat burghers into hordes of fanatical executioners?

Not?. Dr. Goebbels knew very well.

Outwardly, Reichsminister Goebbels looked least of all like a true Aryan. Nevertheless, it was he who became the main cheerleader on the Nazi field and remained so until his last minute. Even a few days before the suicide, when everyone, from children to old women, already knew about the imminent surrender of Germany, the head of the imperial propaganda ministry literally flooded Berlin with leaflets, making a last attempt to maintain the morale of the German troops.

He was an exceptionally gifted propagandist; more than 80 million Germans accepted his ideas. In the end, Goebbels himself turned out to be a victim of his own achievements - after all, if at one time he had decided not to go into politics, but, for example, to promote vacuum cleaners, he would almost certainly have survived. However, Joseph Paul Goebbels made the wrong bet when he undertook to promote the concept of Gleichschaltung - the political program of the Nazis, aimed at subordinating the entire life of Germans to the interests of Nazism. Under the control of Goebbels were cinema and the press, radio and theater, sports, music and literature.

The main principles of Goebbels propaganda were scope, simplicity, concentration and complete absence truth. It was false information that made it possible to modify the consciousness of the crowd: “A lie told a hundred times becomes the truth. We seek not the truth, but the effect. This is the secret of propaganda: those who are supposed to be convinced by it must be completely immersed in the ideas of this very propaganda, without noticing that they are absorbed by them. Ordinary people are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Therefore, propaganda, in essence, should always be simple and endlessly repetitive, ”Goebbels wrote.

Goebbels successfully used effective methods Americans, who traditionally deftly manipulated the mass consciousness: an everyday story (when murders, violence and executions were reported on the radio and on TV in a calm voice), emotional resonance (a method that removes the psychological protection of the crowd and knocks out emotions even from rather phlegmatic people) and much more . In addition, Goebbels continuously replicated slogans of his own composition, wrote and rewrote texts for propaganda posters and leaflets, held endless rallies and meetings, turning them into enchanting processions, carnivals and parades in honor of the “new messiah” - Hitler. Most of these events were held exclusively in the evening, when the physical and mental capabilities of a person are weakened.

Absolutely all magazines and newspapers were under the strictest control of Goebbels. From the media, the minister demanded loyalty to the Nazi regime and strict compliance with National Socialist ideas. And the entire press obediently sang about the superiority of one race over others, about the existence of biological inequality, about a “higher civilization”. To keep the press under control, Goebbels daily oversaw a huge number (some historians give the number 3600) of German newspapers and magazines, demanding reports from editors and personally issuing instructions. Foreign correspondents followed a special article: in an effort to create a positive image of Nazism in the world press, the Reich Minister focused on the fact that the Nazis eliminated unemployment, improved working conditions, and spread a healthy lifestyle everywhere. But more often than not, Goebbels simply bribed visiting journalists.

Knowing that the spoken word is stronger than the printed one, Goebbels created the main weapon of fascist propaganda from radio broadcasting: from morning to night, radio stations extolled the Fuhrer, called him the harbinger of the beginning of the golden era of the Aryan nation, talked about true patriotism and the grandiose tasks facing the Germans. From the generosity of the Nazis fell, again, to foreigners: in 1933, the Reich Minister approved a program of radio broadcasting abroad - with performances and concerts stuffed with hidden Nazi propaganda. So, on the orders of Goebbels, the sentimental hit “Lili Marlene” turned into a military march and was broadcast daily on the radio at 21.55. The music could be heard by soldiers of all fronts, on both sides of the line of military operations.

Before the Nazis came to power, German cinema was considered promising and original thanks to directors Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, actresses Marlene Dietrich and Elisabeth Bergner, actress and director Leni Riefenstahl, and a dozen other talented people. The high status of German cinema played into the hands of fascist ideologists, and Goebbels carefully controlled film production at all stages. At the same time, a "racial purge" was being carried out, forcing many filmmakers to leave Germany, and anti-Jewish films like "The Eternal Jew" and "The Jew Süss" were being created at a rapid pace. AT last years During the war, Goebbels changed tactics - he insisted on the production of a movie that would support the spirit of a warring Germany and be as grandiose as the recognized propaganda masterpieces of Leni Riefenstahl - Triumph of the Will and Olympia. As a result, from 1933 to 1945. (that is, for the entire existence of the Third Reich) 1363 full-length films were released, plus a huge number of short films and documentaries, and none of them escaped the personal control of Goebbels.

By the first day of the war, on the orders of Goebbels, more than 30 million brochures and leaflets were printed for the peoples of the USSR, each of which contained sensible and accessible information in 30 languages ​​of the Land of Soviets. The leaflets called for opposition to the Stalinist regime and promised citizens who agreed to German patronage warm homes, food, and well-paid jobs. Goebbels skillfully processed the target audience: the peasants were promised land, the Tatars, Chechens, Cossacks and other national minorities - freedom "from Muscovites", and the Russians, on the contrary, liberation from minorities.

The Goebbels cause, as history shows, does not die. Never forget the main principle of countering manipulation: filter everything you see and hear, and you will be free. At least - from dangerous prejudices.

6 principles of Hitler's propaganda

The son of Maria Schicklgruber admitted that he learned the art of propaganda from the socialists. That is, the insane Fuhrer was inspired by ideas that were born from the strange alliance of Marx and Engels, and even earlier climbed into the bright heads of Thomas More and Tommaso Campanella.

First principle
There should be a lot of propaganda, a lot. It must be dumped into the masses continuously, day and night, at all territorial points simultaneously. There is no excess of propaganda, since the people are only able to assimilate the information that is repeated to them thousands of times.

Second principle
The ultimate simplicity of any messages. This is necessary so that even the most backward individual is able to comprehend what he heard or read: if the fighter of the cesspool team copes with the information, then the school teacher will digest it even more so. But the more people accept something, the easier it will be to cope with the rest: even the most advanced minority will be forced to follow the majority.

Third principle
The maximum monotony of clear, concise, biting messages. "We can and must propagandize our slogan from the most varied sides, but the result must be the same, and the slogan must invariably be repeated at the end of every speech, every article."

Fourth principle
No differentiation: propaganda should not allow doubt, hesitation, consideration various options and opportunities. People should not have a choice, because it has already been made for them, and they should only understand and then accept the information, so that later they can perceive the imposed ideas as their own. “The whole art here should be to make the masses believe: such and such a fact really exists, such and such a necessity is really inevitable.”

Fifth principle
Influence mainly on feelings and only in the most small degree appeal to the brain. Remember? Propaganda is not science. But it helps to bring a crowd of thousands to emotions - and twist ropes out of this crowd. And the mind is useless here.

Sixth principle
Shock and lies are the two pillars on which perfect propaganda rests. If people are brought to this or that thought gradually, slowly, there will be no proper result. If you lie on the little things - too. Therefore, information should be shocking, because only shocking messages are maniacally transmitted from mouth to mouth. The right information goes unnoticed. “Ordinary people are more likely to believe a big lie than a small one. This corresponds to their primitive soul. They know that they themselves are capable of lying in small things, but they will probably be embarrassed to lie very much ... The masses cannot imagine that others were capable of too monstrous a lie, too shamelessly distorting facts ... Only lie stronger - let something of your lies remain.

Paul Joseph Goebbels is a small man, only 154 cm tall, with a crooked foot and an overly long nose.

With his insidious speeches, he lured and "pushed into the abyss" the entire German people.

Paul Joseph Goebbels was born on October 29, 1897 - statesman and political figure of Nazi Germany, Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda of Germany (1933-1945), Imperial NSDAP propaganda leader (since 1929), Reichsleiter (1933), penultimate Chancellor of the Third Reich ( April-May 1945), Commissar of Defense of Berlin (1942-1945).

He studied at the Universities of Freiburg, Bonn, Würzburg, Cologne, Munich and Heidelberg, where he studied philosophy, German studies, history and literature.

What is the secret of his power?

Some researchers are convinced that the path that led Goebbels to the "funeral pyre" in the bosoms of the imperial office was paved from the very beginning with his meanness and lies.

Others insist that the character of this sadistic cynic was tempered in childhood.

Goebbels knew early the pangs of unsatisfied vanity. His family was ready to make any sacrifice to get into the respectable middle class. On cold winter evenings, the boy played the piano (a symbol of bourgeoisness) with freezing fingers, pulling on his hat, because there was no money for heating.

He dreamed of serving his fatherland during the First World War, but the draft board only laughed at him, because his foot was twisted from birth.

Goebbels persistently studied history, literature and German studies at six German universities.

Students from wealthy families mocked the lame young man, he paid them contempt, and he was so proud that he preferred to starve, but refused the offerings of his landlady, from whom he rented a corner.

A handicapped young idealist and intellectual, embittered by constant pricks of self-esteem, Goebbels resembled some of Dostoevsky's characters, and it is not surprising that Dostoevsky became his favorite author.

In 1922, Goebbels completed his doctoral dissertation on the history of romantic drama.

Goebbels wanted to see himself as a revolutionary. In 1924, he joined the left wing of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party, a political party in Germany).

Goebbels proclaims the slogan: "It is better to perish on the side of the Bolsheviks than doom yourself to eternal slavery on the side of the capitalists" and demands "to expel the petty bourgeois Adolf Hitler from the National Socialist Party."

However, in 1926 his political sympathies changed sharply in favor of Hitler. Goebbels began to perceive him "either as Christ or as Saint John."

But Hitler was the first to see the non-Aryan dark hair of little Tsakhes (the hero of Hoffmann's short story of the same name, The Mean Dwarf). Hitler skillfully, quickly charmed the lame party fighter, and Goebbels writes in his diary: "Adolf Hitler, I love you!"

The Fuhrer appoints Goebbels Gauleiter ( executive in Nazi Germany, exercising full power in the administrative territory of Berlin entrusted to him) and he develops vigorous activity.

In the capital, Goebbels' oratorical abilities were fully revealed.

Goebbels was an obsessed romantic - he considered the rally a failure if no one was beaten at it. He seeks fame at any cost and attracts masses of people whom the post-war crisis in the country threw to the "roadside of life."

His speeches attract tens of thousands of people. Hitler appoints the "little doctor" NSDAP Reichsleiter for propaganda (the Reichsleiter, an appointed position, headed one of the main departments of the Nazi Party in the NSDAP Imperial leadership system).

In 1926, Goebbels began publishing the Angriff newspaper. The newspaper was a great success and eventually became, along with the People's Observer, one of the main mouthpieces of the NSDAP.

In 1928, Goebbels was elected to the Reichstag from the Nazi Party.

Since 1929, Goebbels was the imperial propaganda leader of the NSDAP.

In 1932, he organized and led Hitler's election campaigns for the presidency.

On March 13, 1933, Hitler appointed Goebbels as Chancellor of the Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda.

On February 18, 1943, at the Palais des Sports in Berlin, he gave the famous total war speech in which he called on the German people to wage total war. This performance, according to eyewitnesses, produced a stunning psychological effect.

During the suppression of the July conspiracy of 1944 (an assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944 during a military meeting), Goebbels was very active, after which Hitler appointed him as a commissioner for total military mobilization.

In January 1933, the Nazis took power in the country, in March the Ministry of Propaganda was created, in May bonfires from books were already blazing in all university cities in Germany. This action was organized by Goebbels.

And in 1938, he staged "Kristallnacht" or "Night of broken windows" - a series of grandiose Jewish pogroms that swept across the country.

Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda, wanted to see for himself the truth of Hitler's words: "He who carries faith in his heart has the mightiest power in the world." In fact, he was a failure until he associated himself with the Nazi Party. By believing in Nazi ideals, he gained the fullness of life. But his faith in the myth, which he created with his own hands, was clearly insufficient.

Having destroyed the books of Heinrich Heine all over the country, he himself collected a large collection of his lifetime editions in order to enjoy them alone. Alone with himself, it didn't matter to Goebbels that Heinrich Heine was a Jew. That was the whole of Goebbels and his faith in Nazism.

He only took on the appearance of a zealot of "racial purity" to please the Fuhrer, but at the same time, with cynicism, he poured jokes from Jewish humor, inserted words in Hebrew and Yiddish (Jewish dialects) into his speech, and told his subordinates who had been fined that the Jews would cope with their a better job: "If only I could replace you with Jews!"

These words and his ruthless sarcasm drove two ministerial employees to suicide.

For the merits and devotion of Goebbels, in his political testament, Hitler promised to appoint him as his successor as Chancellor.

Goebbels repeatedly declared that he would follow Hitler until his death. But after Hitler's suicide, he makes an attempt to negotiate a truce with the Soviet troops surrounding Berlin.

The Soviet side did not agree to discuss anything other than unconditional surrender, which Goebbels could not agree to - "There will be no act of surrender under my signature!"

As is known from history, the last victims of Goebbels were his wife and six children (the children were poisoned, his wife was shot). Goebbels followed his family on 1 May 1945.

 Dr. Joseph Goebbels is one of the most famous propagandists of the twentieth century. Minister of Public Education and Propaganda of the Third Reich. For a long twelve years, it was his department that decided which front pages of newspapers would appear, which songs would be played on the radio, which films would hit the screens of cinemas and what the repertoire would be on the stage. Largely thanks to the Ministry of Propaganda, the Germans continued to fight on the Eastern Front until the very end, when the outcome of the war was obvious to everyone. Many Germans, unable to escape to the rear, committed suicide after killing their wives and children. And Goebbels himself and his wife also committed suicide, having poisoned six of their children before that.

The future Reich Minister was born on October 28, 1897 in the town of Reidt in the Rhineland in the family of a devout accountant. His father dreamed that young Josef would become a Catholic priest, but his son dreamed of a career as a writer and playwright. With the financial support of the Catholic "Society of Albert Magnus" attended a course in the humanities in almost all major universities in Germany. On April 21, 1922, after defending his thesis "Wilhelm von Schutz as a playwright. On the history of the drama of the romantic school," he received a Ph.D. from the University of Heidelberg. The First World War did not interrupt Goebbels's study of the history of the drama of the romantic school - a student of the humanities was called unfit for military service from a congenital defect - crookedness (one leg was shorter than the other). The career of the playwright, which he dreamed of, did not work out - no one wanted to stage the play he wrote "The Wanderer" ("Der Wanderer"). It did not work out from Goebbels and the writer - the novel "Michael", which tells about the tragic fate of Germany, did not arouse interest among publishers. The novel was completed in 1924, and it was only possible to publish it five years later, when Goebbels was already a well-known politician, journalist, member of the Reichstag. Until 1924, Goebbels had to earn a living working as a modest bank clerk.
In 1923, after the Beer Putsch (November 9, 1923) - an attempt to seize power in Bavaria, all of Germany learned about the existence of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, led by Adolf Hitler. Hitler used the trial of himself to tell the whole country about himself, his party and his views. And Goebbels decided that this party (officially banned after the trial) suited him. By 1924, a branch of the NSDAP appeared in Goebbels' hometown and he was not slow to join this party (party card No. 8762).

There was a strong left wing in the Nazi party at that time - part of the Nazis, led by Gregor Strasser, took the word "socialist" in the name of the NSDAP too seriously. The failed writer and playwright joined this radical socialist wing. And Strasser entrusted young man editorial post in his newspaper "NS-Brief". In the meantime, in December 1924, without spending even a year from the five-year term to which he was sentenced, Adolf Hitler was released. He was more than cool about socialism and the party flared up between his supporters and Strasser's followers. In the course of this controversy, the radical Goebbels went so far as to demand that "bourgeois Hitler" be expelled from the party ranks. But in 1926, after a personal meeting with the Fuhrer, Goebbels unconditionally went over to his side. The tone of Goebbels' articles changed dramatically - his articles turned into real laudatory odes to the leader. And Hitler appreciated this flow of praise - in October of the same 1926, he appointed his new admirer Gauleiter (head of the party cell) in Berlin. It is difficult to say whether Goebbels was pleased with such an honor - Berlin, with its vast working-class quarters, has traditionally been a "red" city. The NSDAP party cell in the capital numbered only a thousand people, and almost all of them were supporters of Strasser. And the party budget consisted of nothing but debts. Goebbels carried out a decisive purge of the party ranks, expelling almost a thousand people from the party. But at the expense of new supporters, the number of Nazis in Berlin grew steadily. Goebbels organized rallies and fights with the communists. Subsequently, about this period of his political career, he wrote the book "Struggle for Berlin" (Kampf um Berlin, 1934).

The growing popularity of the Nazis and their Berlin leader was appreciated by the Berlin authorities - on May 5, 1927, the Nazi Party and SA units in Berlin were banned, and Goebbels himself was banned from any public speaking in the city. However, the ban does not prevent Goebbels from engaging in publishing activities - he publishes the weekly Angrif. The protest campaign he launched in the press leads to the resignation of the head of the Berlin criminal police, the Jew Weiss. In the same 1927, one of Goebbels's subordinates, the Sturmführer (company commander) of the SA, an aspiring poet named Horst Wessel, put his words to the melody of the old German song "Der Abenteurer" ("Adventurer"), about the squeezed ranks in which they invisibly stand fallen heroes. It turned out to be a peppy combatant song, which was willingly performed by both attack aircraft and ... communists. Only in the original, stormtroopers marched at Wessel, and the communists changed the SA to Rot Front (Union of Red Front Soldiers - paramilitary units of the Communist Party of Germany, the main opponents of stormtroopers in street skirmishes). Perhaps this song would have remained a local Berlin hit, which no one would remember now, but thanks to Goebbels, at least the name of this song is known to the whole world. In 1930, its author himself joined the "closed ranks of fallen heroes", being shot dead by a communist, and Goebbels turned a young man named Horst Wessel into a symbol of struggle and martyrdom, and the song he wrote became the official party anthem (after January 30, 1933, it also became part of the state anthem, which consisted of two parts - one verse from the "German Song", followed by the first verse of "Horst Wessel"). In 1932, he used the death of Herbert Norkus, a teenager from the Hitler Youth, for the same propaganda purposes. Immediately after the Nazis came to power, in the summer of 1933, the UFA film concern would promptly release two films dedicated to these heroes - Hans Westmar - One of Many and Kveks from the Hitler Youth.
But back to the "fight for Berlin". The ban on the Nazi Party did not last even a year - on May 31, 1928, it was lifted. And on April 20, 1928, Goebbels became a member of the Reichstag from the city of Berlin. On January 9, 1929, Goebbels added to the post of Gauleiter of Berlin the post of Imperial Propaganda Director (Reichspropagandaleiter). One of the "achievements" of Goebbels in this post can be called the fact that in December 1930 he achieved a ban on the German screening of the American film adaptation of Erich Remarque's famous novel All Quiet on the Western Front.
In 1932, he persuaded Hitler to put forward his candidacy for the election of the Reich President. Hitler initially refused. And besides, he could not stand as a candidate for any elections at all - he did not have German citizenship. He had no citizenship at all! After the Beer Putsch, fearing deportation to his homeland, he renounced Austrian citizenship, and no one was in a hurry to grant him German citizenship. But on February 25, 1932, the Minister of the Interior of Braunschweig appointed the Führer attache in the Berlin representation of this land, and the assignment of such a position meant the automatic granting of German citizenship. Goebbels led the leadership of Hitler's election campaign and on March 13, the Fuhrer took second place with 30.1% of the vote (the first went to Paul von Hindenburg - 49.6% of the vote). In 1932, not only the head of state was elected in Germany, but twice, with an interval of less than six months - on June 4 and November 6, elections to the Reichstag were held. If Hitler took second place in the presidential elections, then the Nazis achieved more success in the parliamentary elections - 37.8% of the vote (230 seats) in June. In November, the successes were no longer so significant - the Nazis got only 196 deputy seats. But by that time, the Germans were simply tired of the endless elections. Be that as it may, according to the constitution of the Weimar Republic, the government can be formed by the party (or coalition of parties) that wins more than 50% of the votes in the Reichstag elections. The Nazis only approached this result in the summer of 1932. But in the same year, an important change was made to the German constitution - now the Reich Chancellor (head of government) could appoint the Reich President (head of state) at his own discretion. Which, in fact, he did by appointing Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor on January 30, 1933. On March 13 of the same year, the Imperial Ministry of Public Education and Propaganda was organized especially for Goebbels.

And Goebbels immediately began to establish a "new order" in the cultural life of Germany. Books imbued with a "non-German spirit" were withdrawn from libraries. The list of harmful books included 14,000 titles by 141 German authors. On May 10, 1933, many of these books flew into huge fires. He did not immediately become an all-powerful speaker in the field of culture and the media - he had to fight for control over the press with Max Amann, who held the position of Imperial Printing Manager and director of the NSDAP Central Publishing House Echer Verlag, Alfred Rosengberg tried to interfere in art affairs, among the posts which was such as the Commissioner of the Fuhrer for control over the general spiritual and ideological education of the NSDAP. But he has more and more power - on September 22, 1933, he created the Imperial Chamber of Culture, which all representatives of creative professions were required to join. Two years later, the Imperial Senate of Culture was added to the Chamber of Culture (of course, also headed by Goebbels). May 14, 1934 under the control of Goebbels pass all the theaters in Germany. He controls the process of creating films even at the stage of writing a script. For the press, he issues lengthy briefings - instructions containing detailed instructions on how to cover certain events in the life of Germany and beyond.

All of Germany knew how Goebbels used his official position - he often had affairs with theater and film actresses. True, not everyone accepted his importunate courtship. For example, the famous actress and director Leni Riefenstahl did not reciprocate his feelings. But the quarrel with the all-powerful Minister of Propaganda did not affect her brilliant career in any way - the Fuhrer himself was among the admirers of her talent. It was he who instructed her in 1934 to make a film about the Nuremberg Party Congress. In her memoirs, she talks about the fact that her small film crew faced open opposition - but as soon as she complained to Hitler, he gave Goebbels a real dressing down. The film "Victory of Faith", however, had to be shelved - there was too much Ernst Roehm, who was killed during the "night of long knives". But a year later, Riefenstahl made a new film about the next congress - "Triumph of the Will", recognized as a classic of world documentary.

By the way, the famous song of Lily Marlene became a world hit also against the will of Goebbels (we talked about this in more detail).

In 1938, the Goebbels department began preparations for an imminent inevitable war. General Keitel and Goebbels conclude an agreement governing the conduct of propaganda in wartime. And in the same year, the creation of propaganda troops began. Propaganda companies are formed with a staff strength of 115 people. The composition of such a company included photographers, artists, cameramen, journalists. At the same time, they all underwent military training. The presence of military specialties was also welcomed - after all, a person who knows well military equipment will not make embarrassing mistakes in his reporting. So, among the propagandists there were not only infantrymen, but also representatives of all branches of the armed forces. In peacetime, propagandist soldiers worked among their colleagues. And in wartime, their task was to work with the enemy, for this these companies were assigned translators and specialists in the countries to be conquered. Each such company was given over to an army corps.

It was the propaganda troops who during the war made the famous film magazine Die Deutsche Wochenschau (Weekly German Review), which appeared in 1940. Before that, there were as many as four film magazines in Germany - Ufa-Tonwoche, Deulig-Tonwoche, Fox Tönende Wochenschau and Emelka-Tonwoche, left over from the days of the Weimar Republic. But then they were released by various private film companies, under Hitler they all came under the strict control of the German Weekly News Center under the Ministry of Education and Propaganda (Deutsche Wochenschauzentrale beim Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda). And with the outbreak of war, to simplify production, instead of four newsreels, there was only one, lasting 45 minutes. It was printed in an edition of 2,000 copies and without fail shown before each film. Another thousand copies were printed for foreign viewers - the film magazine was translated into 15 European languages. One release required 1,200 meters of film, but the creators of spectacular stories chose the best shots from tens of thousands of meters filmed by front-line cameramen. This film magazine became the favorite brainchild of Goebbels.
In the meantime, another one was added to Goebbels' posts - on November 16, 1942, he was appointed Imperial Defense Commissioner of Berlin. The battle for Berlin is still far away, but the intensity of allied air raids on the capital of the Third Reich is growing every day. And on April 1, 1943, he becomes the imperial president of Berlin. The failure of the coup on July 20, 1944 was facilitated not only by the unfortunate location of the explosive device at Hitler's headquarters, but also by the decisive actions of Goebbels as head of Berlin.

On February 18, 1943, he delivers his famous speech on total war at the Berlin Sports Palace. And on July 25, 1944, he becomes the imperial commissioner for this very total war - he organizes Volkssturm detachments. The Third Reich throws old people and teenagers to the front - its last reserve. The Goebbels department does its best to create a terrible image of the enemy - bloodthirsty savages from the East who go to rob, rape and kill. In 1943, Goebbels gave lengthy, dozens of typewritten pages, instructions to the press on exactly how to cover the execution of Polish officers in the Katan forest. In this case, he controls every little thing - the whole world should be horrified by the cruelty of Russian barbarians (during the years of perestroika, our country took the blame for this execution, but there was no official trial and our guilt was not legally proven). In October 1944, Soviet troops held the German town of Nemersdorf for several days. East Prussia. On October 23, the Germans recaptured this town and found 11 bodies of executed civilians there. Through the efforts of Goebbels, this incident turned into a real massacre - the number of victims increased by 6 times. All the women in Nemersdorf were allegedly raped, murdered, their mutilated bodies were nailed to barn doors. The continuous hysteria in the Goebbels press, indeed, cost the lives of thousands of German women and children - when our troops approached, their husbands and fathers killed them before committing suicide.
However, the Ministry of Propaganda was engaged not only in intimidation, it also tried to raise the morale of the defenders of the Reich. For example, in January 1945, the large-scale historical drama Kolberg, which tells about the heroic defense of this city during the Napoleonic Wars, was released on the screens of German cinemas. Kolberg then withstood a two-year siege and did not surrender to the French. The film's budget was an astronomical sum of 8 million marks, and soldiers sent to the set straight from the front line starred as extras. But in January 1945, no historical movie dramas could influence the outcome of the war (and the city of Kolberg itself was taken by Soviet troops immediately after the film premiered). The logical finale was approaching - Soviet troops crossed the Vistula and Oder and approached Berlin. Goebbels and his family stayed with Hitler in a bunker under the ruins of the Reich Chancellery. On April 30, Hitler committed suicide, leaving Goebbels as his successor as Chancellor of the Reich. Goebbels was head of the German government for only one day. He tried to negotiate a truce with the Russians, but the Soviet command considered only one outcome of the negotiations - unconditional surrender.

On May 1, 1945, Joseph and Magda Goebbels poisoned all six of their children with cyanide. Then Goebbels shot his wife and shot himself.
Many of the developments of the Goebbels department were used in the propaganda struggle against our country during the years of the Cold War and perestroika, and they are used today. Of his creative heritage, only numerous anti-Semitic materials remained unclaimed, and much of the rest is used even without changes. For example, it is worth remembering

On November 20, 1978, the world was shocked by the Jonestown massacre. From 18 to 19 November in this colony on the territory of Guyana ( South America) were shot, stabbed and poisoned 918 US citizens. However, even now, few people know that in fact these people were no longer Americans. De facto those killed were citizens of the USSR.

Silent about the fact that all the facts testified to the murder, the main US media (New York Times, Associated Press, etc.) immediately called the tragedy a "mass suicide". Official version The tragedy described in the American and then the world media is well known. According to her, a certain Jim Jones announced his prophetic ability to heal and made himself into Jesus. This attracted many members to the "Temple of the Peoples" community he organized. Any dissent here was suppressed. He who entered the "Temple of the Peoples" could not voluntarily leave it. Renegade was punished by death and damnation. Being totalitarian, the community needed self-isolation, an iron curtain. This was the reason for the emigration of the "Peoples Temple" to Guyana. The colony of Johnstown was founded there - the city of Jones. The colony had a system of subordination. At the foot were the rank-and-file members of the congregation, above them stood the Temple Planning Commission, Jones' meritorious followers. Even higher were the "12 angels". The pyramid was crowned by Jim Jones himself. He had "personal protection", "death squadron" and "order service".

The cult of Jones flourished, but then he began to cloud his mind. At this moment, Congressman Leo Ryan arrives in Guyana with a group of journalists to see on the spot how the rights of American citizens are ensured in the colony. During the visit, he reveals the savage background, tries to escape and take out a group of colonists, but Jones sends a chase that shoots both the fugitives and the congressman. Jones then orders all the cultists to commit suicide. Those who did not want to die were killed. The American army and the CIA tried to rescue the cultists, but they showed up too late...

This story was offered to the world as an explanation for the shocking shots, where hundreds of corpses of men, women and children lay among the tropical vegetation. .

Capitalism with a human face. How they were killed.

You see human bodies. The photo shows a top view of Jonestown, the Temple of the Peoples peasant community in Guyana. On November 18, 1978, at the call of community leader Jim Jones, 918 people committed suicide here. This photograph was one of the first to capture the monstrous massacre in Jonestown.

JONESTOWN, GUYANA — NOVEMBER 18: (NO U.S. TABLOID SALES) Dead bodies lie around the compound of the People's Temple cult November 18, 1978 after the over 900 members of the cult, led by Reverend Jim Jones, died from drinking cyanide-laced Kool Aid; they were victims of the largest mass suicide in modern history. (Photo by David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images)

On November 7, 1978, a reception was held at the Soviet embassy in Guyana in honor of the anniversary of the October Revolution. Among the 300 invited were six people from the Temple of the Nations. Their presence caused excitement among American diplomats. The reason for concern is the intention of the leadership of the "Temple of the Peoples" to resettle the entire community in the USSR.

Four days later, Temple functionary Sharon Amos arrived at the Soviet embassy in great agitation and announced an imminent visit from US Congressman Leo Ryan. Trouble was expected from his visit to Jonestown. She asked if their request for resettlement in the USSR had been sent to Moscow, and received an assurance that everything was sent immediately. Consul Fyodor Timofeev handed her visa forms and applications for Soviet citizenship. Sharon left reassured.

On November 17, on her next visit to the Soviet embassy, ​​Sharon was glad that the first day of Ryan's visit to Jonestown had gone very well. Congressman said he never saw more happy people than here in the jungles of Guyana. Sharon also told the Russians that a group of journalists and relatives, 18 in all, had arrived with Ryan. However, in addition to them, on the same day, about 60 tourists from the USA arrived in Guyana, all men. They stayed at the Park and Tower hotels and rented planes for their purposes.

The CIA agents introduced into the “Temple” and the “group of tourists” became the first echelon in the act of liquidating people who applied for Soviet citizenship. The former organized a series of provocations and ensured the actions of armed agents. The second was directly involved in the liquidation.

On November 18, Congressman Ryan and reporters arrived at Port Kaituma Airport for their flight to the United States, where the following happened:

“The runway was being crossed by a truck and a tractor with a platform. Meanwhile, three unknown persons were approaching the planes. Bob Brown and Steve Sung aimed their cameras. And suddenly the shooting started. There were screams."

According to Charles Krause (Washington Post journalist), one of the few surviving witnesses, the case went like this:

“I ran around the plane, passed the NBC crew filming it, and hid behind the wheel. Someone fell on me and rolled down. I realized that I was hurt. Another body fell on top of me and rolled down. I lay helpless, waiting for a shot in the back. The shooters did their job well, finishing off the wounded at close range. How I got past death, I will never understand.”

According to Soviet embassy officials, on the evening of November 18, at the height of the tragedy, the Jonestown radio station broadcast its program using a code recorded for the first time. It is not known what key the cryptographer used and to whom the messages were addressed.

Four hours before Congressman Ryan and the journalists left Jonestown, a plane chartered by American "tourists" ostensibly to inspect Port Kaitum took off from Georgetown. According to local residents, about two dozen young men got off the plane and went to inspect the surroundings. Obviously, some of these people participated in the attack on the congressman. Journalists took pictures of the attackers, but no one could identify the killers. But the inhabitants of Jonestown knew each other by sight ...

At the same time, transport planes with US Marines took off from the airfields of Panama and Delaware and headed for Guyana. An airborne assault was dropped in the vicinity of Jonestown.

Two hours later, three helicopters took off from the territories of Venezuela and the private missions Nuevos Tribos and Resistance (the "rooftops" of the CIA bases). Flight time was 1 hour 10 minutes.

The ring around Jonestown slammed shut. The CIA task force was one of the first to kill Jim Jones. According to Mark Lane, who gave a press interview in Jonestown on November 20, he personally counted 85 shots. Jones shouted:

"Oh, mother, mother, mother!" Lane recalls, “and then the first shot rang out.”

23 Nov 1978, Jonestown, Guyana - People's Temple Cult mass suicide at Jonestown, Guyana. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

A mass extermination of people began. When the shots stopped, no more than half of the demoralized inhabitants of the commune remained alive, mostly women, children and the elderly. They were gathered around the central pavilion, then divided into groups of 30 people and dispersed under escort around the village. Each group was lined up to take a "sedative," which was a mixture of tranquilizers and potassium cyanide. After the appearance of the first victims twisted in convulsions, panic began again, shots rang out again. Children were injected with poison by force, holding their noses. The rest were laid on the ground and injected with syringes with the same “cocktail” right through their clothes into their backs. Then the corpses were stacked for the alleged mass burning ...

For two days, the US Army and intelligence agencies were engaged in "it is not clear what" in Jonestown. Only on November 20, Guyanese officials and three journalists (including Krause, who was wounded in the thigh) were allowed into the village.

From the testimony of the Soviet consul in Guyana Fyodor Timofeev:

“At about 20:00 (November 18) I was called out of the hall by an embassy employee, and I saw Deborah Tushet and Paula Adams (members of the Peoples Temple).

I asked the policeman to let them into the embassy grounds. Everyone was extremely excited. Deborah said she received a message from Jonestown:

“Something terrible is going on. I don't know the details, but the lives of all members of the commune are in danger. The village is surrounded by armed men. Something's wrong with Ryan. Someone attacked him on his way back to Georgetown. Please take care of this."

And Deborah handed me a heavy case. I asked what was in it.

“Here are very important documents of our “Temple”, money and recordings on tape cassettes,” she answered.

I asked how much money. She replied that she did not know for sure, since there were cash, and checks, and financial guarantees. In view of the extraordinary circumstances, they request that they be kept, as it is possible that the headquarters in Georgetown may be attacked, or perhaps it has already been destroyed. I could not refuse these people and took what they brought. The case was later handed over to the Guyanese government. When I got back, my wife said she called Sharon Amos. It was around the same time that Paula and Deborah were looking for me. Sharon cried and said that Jonestown was surrounded by armed men. Despite the interference, she received a radiogram, which reported that helicopters were circling over the village.

“Help, Jonestown is dying! she shouted. They won't spare anyone! Someone is breaking into my apartment! Do whatever you can to save us!"

The line has disconnected. My wife immediately called the police, but she was told that a reinforced detachment had already been sent to the Amos house. However, Amos and her three children died. They were stabbed to death by a CIA agent, an ex-Marine Blakey, embedded in the Jones organization. Then he was declared insane, and he disappeared from view. So, on that terrible night of November 18-19, a monstrous massacre was going on in Jonestown. The United States committed one of its most terrible crimes - they shot, stabbed, poisoned 918 of their citizens ... ".

Temple of the Communists.

All the organizations of the USSR and the USA that were related to the "Temple of the Peoples" knew perfectly well that the "religious sect" in Jonestown was not religious. Jim Jones really was a preacher in his youth, but over time he became disillusioned with religion and became an atheist, moreover, a Marxist socialist, which was no secret to his associates. Why did he call his organization "Temple"?

The reasons are simple: Jones, being a practical man, took advantage of the tax advantages given by American law to religious organizations. And, finally, he decided to use the authority of the church: those who came "just to church" under the influence of Jones' sermons often became a convinced socialist.

Incidentally, Jones was not alone in this. A month before the tragedy in Guyana, Cardinal Wojtyla, Archbishop of Krakow, became Pope John Paul II. True, this church leader was a staunch anti-communist.

Jones, under the church roof, allowed himself to blow his nose at the US national flag during sermons, trample on the Bible with sayings, they say, how can you pray to such a god who blesses the oppression of the poor, etc.

Jones and his wife adopted and adopted eight children of all races (having their own son). He lived an emphatically ascetic life: he dressed only in second-hand clothes, to save money he refused to travel by plane, using only buses belonging to the organization, he never stayed in expensive hotels and restaurants.

All decisions of the "Temple of the Peoples" were made by voting on general meetings, and it happened that the decision did not coincide with the opinion of Jones. By the mid-70s, the number of its parishioners reached 20 thousand people, the "council" consisted of 50 permanent members. During the existence of the commune in Guyana, it was visited by more than 500 visitors - Guyanese and foreign citizens - officials, journalists, politicians, employees of embassies accredited in Guyana. In the thick book of reviews, according to the Soviet consul Timofeev, all the reviews were positive, “I noticed that in these records the word “paradise” was often found. People wrote about the impression that they had, as if they were in paradise and saw happy, spiritual people living in harmony between themselves and wild, primordial nature.

Cleanup results.International Herald Tribune, December 18, 1978:

“Among those who, according to some former followers of Jones, received political support from him were San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and city manager Harvey Milk. They were both shot dead in their offices three weeks ago by "unidentified persons".

Iosif Grigulevich, Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Professor:

“The first thousand dissident Americans in the jungles of Guyana were only the vanguard of a huge army of potential political refugees from the United States. Such an exodus from the "capitalist paradise" was not expected by the authorities in Washington, and "extraordinary means" were needed to stop this progressing process. The massacre in Jonestown was part of a large complex of measures by the US punitive authorities, the purpose of which was to eliminate political protest movements: the Black Panthers, the Weathermen, the New Left, and others. Members of the Black Panthers and Weathermen declared "terrorist" organizations "killed right on the streets and in apartments, opening fire without warning. Thus, the radical movements of political protest were completely crushed.”

Dr. Nikolai Fedorovsky, doctor at the USSR Embassy in Guyana:

“Everything that is written about Jim Jones and his community in the American press and then reprinted on the pages of other Western newspapers is a complete and malicious fiction. "Suicides", "religious fanatics", "sectarians", "depressive maniacs" - these are the labels that propagandists diligently pasted on enthusiastic dreamers who began to build in the jungles of Guyana a naive, but honest, disinterested and noble world for all the destitute and warped Americans.

I remember Jim Jones said that the members of the cooperative had two ships, where all the members of the commune with their movable property could fit. Jim Jones wanted to embark on a long voyage with his like-minded people and get to our country, which became his ideal. He felt that clouds were gathering over his community, that "someone" was planning a conspiracy and was ready to carry it out at any moment. And so it happened…”

A logical question arises: why did the government of the USSR agree to hush up this nightmarish story? main reason on the surface, the murder of about a thousand people by punishers from the United States, who de facto had already become Soviet citizens, could lead to only one adequate reaction: an ultimatum, which was inevitably followed by the outbreak of the Third World War. And the decrepit Brezhnev was terribly afraid of her.

Documents that members of the "Temple of the Peoples" were going to emigrate to the USSR were published only during the time of glasnost in the book "The death of Johnstown is a crime of the CIA" (S. F. Alinin, B. G. Antonov, A. N. Itskov, " Legal Literature, 1987).However, in the late 80s, the leaders of the USSR again could not inflate this story with their hands. The Soviet press has already begun working on a new political thinking and discussing the concept of universal human values. All this history did not contribute to the formation of the image of the "civilized world" in the West.

The US government also drew its own conclusions from this story. In the States, T-shirts with the inscription "Kill the commies for the mammies" are becoming fashionable among young people. Before the surrender of the USSR in ‘ cold war' Only 10 years left...

Will of the slain.

"Peoples Temple Agricultural Mission, Johnstown, Port Kaituma, Northwest Region, Guyana, P.O. Box 893, Georgetown, Guyana, South America, March 17, 1978:

His Excellency the Ambassador Soviet Union.

Urgent request. The Temple of the Peoples, a Soviet-style socialist agricultural cooperative of more than 1,000 US immigrants living in Guyana, is being brutally persecuted by American reactionaries determined to destroy it. Our funds are at risk. We appeal to the Soviet Union through Your Excellency with an urgent request to help us open a special bank account for the Khram Narodov agricultural cooperative in a Soviet bank in order to ensure the safety of our funds and, if our organization is destroyed, to leave them under Soviet control ...«

"PO Box 893, Georgetown, Guyana (South America), September 18, 1978, To His Excellency the Ambassador of the Soviet Union

Georgetown, Guyana.

Dear sir! In the interests of the security of our cooperative, which is threatened by American reactionaries because it is a successful socialist collective with a Marxist-Leninist perspective and fully supports the Soviet Union, we declare on behalf of the community (a group of Americans who came to Guyana to help build socialism) about your desire to send a delegation of members of our leadership to the Soviet Union to discuss the issue of moving our people to your country as political emigrants.

Information about the population of the cooperative. Total population:

1200 (including 200 US residents due to arrive in Guyana soon). Under 18 years old - 450 people; 18 and older - 750 people ...

... Grounds for this request: Under the leadership of Comrade Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple actively fought against injustice for civil rights for 25 years in the United States.

The "Temple of the Peoples" has always had a deep respect for the Soviet Union. Your impressive successes in the 60 years of building socialism, the victory in the war full of sacrifices that the Soviet people endured in defending their homeland (and thus the whole world) from fascism, the Soviet Union’s resolute and constant support for the liberation struggle throughout the world have been an inexhaustible source of great inspiration for us . In all his public speeches, Comrade Jones proclaims his complete solidarity with the Soviet Union. At every rally, the anthem of the USSR is played ...

For many years, and especially since the Peoples Temple donated several thousand dollars to the Angela Davis Defense Fund, we have been harassed by agents of government agencies, especially intelligence agencies. We managed to find out then that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) decided to punish the "Peoples Temple" and planned to do away with Comrade Jones, as they did with Martin Luther King ...

With fraternal regards, Richard D. Tropp, General Secretary.

The Peoples Temple is an agricultural community in Jonestown.

Joseph Paul Goebbels- Minister of Public Education and Propaganda of the Nazi government of Germany, a man who left a mark not only on the history of the Third Reich, but also in world history in general. A brilliant speaker and propagandist, he is called the "father of lies" and the "father of PR", the "father of mass communications" and the "Mephistopheles of the 20th century."

His statements became the commandments of propaganda and black PR:

“Give me the media, and I will make a herd of pigs out of any nation!”

“We are not seeking truth, but effect.”

"A lie told a hundred times becomes the truth."

“The information had to be simple and accessible, and it should be repeated, that is, hammered into the heads, as often as possible.”

It can be noted with bitterness that, despite the fall of the fascist empire, Goebbels' ideas for the manipulation of consciousness live and win. Their influence is noticeable in various areas of influence on human consciousness:

The need to study the methods, forms and theoretical ideas of Goebbels' propaganda is currently associated with two problems.

The first is the existence of neo-fascist movements, and, as a result, the possibility of using Dr. Goebbels' propaganda arsenal by them. Their current weakness cannot be a source of complacency - the NSDAP was also weak in the early 1920s, and the Beer Putsch looked like a parody of the revolution. The well-known similarity of the situation in the late 1920s and early 1930s can also contribute to the effective use of the Goebbels legacy. last century and in the modern world:

• The global economic crisis, which is systemic in nature and requires a radical restructuring of the existing economic system.
• As a result - the deterioration of the material situation of the general population.
• Increasing political and social instability, global threats such as the activity of various revolutionary groups in the last century and terrorism today. These factors lead to longing for order and a "strong hand" in a significant part of the people.
• Growth in the activity of left-wing organizations (Although the centers of activity have changed. At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe was the main center, now it is Latin America.), which can reactively lead to the stimulation of extreme right movements from influential political and economic circles.
• Destruction of former ideological systems and related systems of moral values.

For Germany, the beginning of the century is the fall of the Second Reich and the onset of the culture of the 20s. with its cult of money and pleasure, the denial of spiritual values, the flourishing of drug addiction and prostitution. In our time, this is the destruction of traditional Christian culture and the arrival of the “MTV civilization” in the West and the destruction of the USSR and the entire socialist system with its rather traditional ethics in the East.

The situation of "spiritual vacuum" does not seem comfortable to everyone and also pushes some part of the population to fascism with their clear and intelligible system of values.

Goebbels' techniques in modern politics (direct link to video):

The prevalence of historical ignorance makes it possible to reuse the propaganda methods of the "old" fascism. Accordingly, their thorough research and development of information countermeasures, such as:

• maintaining historical awareness of the crimes of fascism, its influence on the fate of Germany and other countries with victorious fascist dictatorships, the fight against pro-fascist falsification of history;
• prevention of glorification of Nazism;
• maintaining a bright memory of the fighters against fascism;
• development of systemic thinking, in particular the ability to competently and comprehensively assess the consequences of a particular historical choice on the political, economic, spiritual life of the country. Ignorance is the breeding ground of demagogues;
• critical thinking, the ability to resist the manipulation of consciousness.

The phenomenon of Nazi propaganda in general and the personality of Goebbels in particular attract the close attention of researchers. Let us note several books published in Russian in the last two decades.

As an introductory book, we can offer the book of Lyudmila Chernaya “Brown Dictators”, dedicated to the most important figures of the Third Reich: Hitler, Goebbels, Goering, Himmler, Bormann and Ribbentrop. Without delving into the topic of Nazi propaganda, the author focuses on the study of the personality of its main creator, Joseph Goebbels. The book is intended for a wide range of readers and is of a popular nature, but at the same time it provides rich factual material.

The biography of Goebbels is also presented by the book of foreign researchers Bramstedte, Frenkel and Manvell "Joseph Goebbels - Mephistopheles grins from the past". The authors are especially interested in the oratorical skills of the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, his methods of manipulating the masses.

A deeper study of the personality of Goebbels is undertaken by Kurt Riess in the book Bloody Romantic of Nazism. Doctor Goebbels. 1939-1945". The time frame of the book is limited by the Second World War, but the book is interesting due to the emphasis on the use of primary sources - Goebbels' diaries, eyewitness accounts and relatives. It combines ease of presentation with factual reliability, which is quite rare.

Elena Rzhevskaya during the war was an interpreter at the headquarters of the army, which passed from Moscow to Berlin. In defeated Berlin, she participated in the identification of the bodies of Hitler and Goebbels and in the initial sorting of documents found in the bunker. Her book Goebbels. Portrait against the background of a diary "explores the phenomenon of the Nazis coming to power, primarily from the point of view of the impact on human psychology.

A deep study of Nazi propaganda was undertaken by Agapov A. B. in the work “Joseph Goebbels and German Propaganda”, published as part of the book “The Diaries of Joseph Goebbels. Prelude of Barbarossa. The publication also includes the full text of Goebbels' diaries from November 1, 1940 to July 8, 1941, and notes to them.

Of the primary sources, the most important are the diaries of Goebbels, which he kept throughout his life. Unfortunately, there is no complete edition in Russian. The diaries of 1945 are collected in the book by J. Goebbels "Last entries", 1940-1941. - in the book of Agapov mentioned above, there are also journal publications.

Unfortunately, in Russian it is difficult to find the works of Goebbels. Some materials can be found on the Internet. So selected speeches and articles of the Minister of Propaganda (translated from English and German) are posted on the site "Thus Spoke Goebbels". An extensive selection of speeches and articles on English language contained on the "Nazi Propaganda by Joseph Goebbels" page of the Calvin College website.

This is enough to start studying the topic.

Goebbels' propaganda methods in and before the fascist party came to power

Joseph Goebbels joined the NSDAP in 1924, and initially joined its left, socialist wing, then led by the Strasser brothers and opposed to the right, led by Hitler. Goebbels even owns the statement:

"Bourgeois Adolf Hitler must be expelled from the National Socialist Party!" .

Since 1924, Goebbels worked in the Nazi press, first as an editor in Völkisch Freiheit (People's Freedom), then in Strasser's National Socialist Messages. In the same 1924, Goebbels made a significant entry in his diary:

“I was told that I gave a brilliant speech. It is easier to speak fluently than according to a ready-made text. Thoughts come by themselves.

In 1926, Goebbels went over to the side of Hitler, becoming one of his most devoted associates. Hitler reciprocated and in 1926 appointed Goebbels Gauleiter of the NSDAP in Berlin-Brandenburg (However, we note that this position was not easy, because Berlin was considered a “red” city and at the time Goebbels arrived, the local Nazi cell numbered only 500 members.) . It was at this work that Goebbels' oratorical abilities were revealed at numerous rallies and demonstrations. He also became the founder and (from 1927 to 1935) editor-in-chief of the weekly (from 1930 - daily) "Der Angriff" ("Attack"). From 1929 he was the Reichsleiter of the propaganda of the Nazi Party, in 1932 he led election campaign Hitler in the struggle for the presidency. Here he achieved remarkable success, doubling the number of votes cast for the Nazis.

Goebbels proclaimed the following propaganda principles:

1. Propaganda must be planned and directed from a single point of view
2. Only authority can determine whether the result of propaganda should be true or false.
3. Black propaganda is used when white propaganda is less possible or has undesirable effects.
4. Propaganda should characterize events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans.
5. For the best perception, propaganda must arouse the interest of the audience and be transmitted through an attention-grabbing communication medium.

In life, Goebbels clearly adhered to these principles.

The centralization of the propaganda process was fully embodied after the Nazis came to power in the form of the creation of the Ministry of Propaganda. However, even earlier, Goebbels managed to largely concentrate propaganda activities in his own hands, becoming officially the Reichsleiter of NSDAP propaganda.

Boundless cynicism in the choice of means became the hallmark of Goebbels. It is believed that it was he who came up with the division of propaganda into white (reliable information from official sources), gray (doubtful information from obscure sources) and black (outright lies, provocations, etc.). This or that distortion of information is a characteristic feature of any propaganda. But, perhaps, it was Goebbels, for the first time after Ignatius Loyola, who began to use direct lies constantly, in large quantities and purposefully. He completely abandoned the criterion of truth, replacing it with the criterion of efficiency.

Let's take a look at his quote again:

“We are not seeking truth, but effect.”

Parenthetically, this is strikingly reminiscent of modern advertising textbooks, where all attention is paid to the effectiveness of getting the message across, and ethical issues are left completely behind the scenes. As a journalist from one of the publications in the field of marketing noted:

Slogans are a characteristic feature of Goebbels' style. Being a mediocre writer (all publishers rejected his youthful works), Goebbels was truly talented in the art of the slogan. His first exercise in the lapidary style was the 10 commandments of the National Socialist, composed by him shortly after joining the party:

1. Your fatherland is Germany. Love him above all and more in deed than in words.
2. The enemies of Germany are your enemies. Hate them with all your heart!
3. Every compatriot, even the poorest, is a part of Germany. Love him like yourself!
4. Demand only duties for yourself. Then Germany will find justice!
5. Be proud of Germany! You should be proud of the fatherland for which millions gave their lives.
6. Whoever dishonors Germany will dishonor you and your ancestors. Point your fist at him!
7. Beat the scoundrel every time! Remember, if someone takes away your rights, you have the right to destroy him!
8. Don't let the Jews fool you. Be on the lookout with Berliner Tagesblatt!
9. Do what you need without shame when it comes to New Germany!
10. Believe in the future. Then you will be the winner!

Just as masterfully, Goebbels knew how to stir up public interest by dressing Nazi propaganda in a bright, attractive form. He was one of the first to understand the attractive power of the scandal. At the beginning of his oratorical activity in Berlin, he considered the rally a failure if no one was beaten at it.

Goebbels also discovered one of the principles of the "correct" presentation of information, which today is considered the basics of the journalistic profession - information is better absorbed through specific human images. The public needs victims and heroes. The first experiment of this kind for Goebbels was the formation of the image of Horst Wesel.

Horst Wessel - SA Sturmführer. In 1930, at the age of 23, he was wounded in a street clash with the Communists and died from his wounds (NSDAP opponents spread the version according to which the fight happened because of a woman and had no political overtones.). From this banal story (hundreds were killed in street clashes between fascists and communists) Goebbels squeezed everything possible. He spoke at Wessel's funeral and called him a "socialist Christ".

The scholar of fascism Herzstein writes about Goebbels' speech:

“The principle of camaraderie in the ranks of the storm troopers (SA) was the “life-giving force of the movement”, the living presence of the Idea. The blood of the victim-martyr nourished the living body of the party. When, in early 1930, Horst Wessel, the eternal student and man with no particular occupation, who wrote the words to the Nazi anthem "Above the Banners!", died a violent death, mourning for the hero and an emotional salute sounded in Goebbels' words, demonstrating the brilliance of his method of organizing mourning ceremonies. He made Vesel die with a peaceful smile on his lips, a man who believed in the victory of National Socialism until his last breath,

“... forever remaining with us in our ranks ... His song immortalized him! For this he lived, for this he gave his life. A wanderer between two worlds, yesterday and tomorrow, so it was and so it will be. Soldier of the German Nation!

Goebbels immortalized the memory of Wessel, who was killed by the Reds; in fact, his death was more like the consequences of a quarrel that arose as a result of a collision with another such scumbag because of a prostitute. It is very possible that in the last weeks of his life Wessel was going to move away from the party altogether. But all this did not play any role: Goebbels knew what was required of him, and acted as expected.

Song to the verses of Wessel "Above the banners!" became the anthem of the SA (and later the unofficial anthem of the Third Reich). Each anniversary of his death was solemnly celebrated, and the speech at the grave was delivered personally by the Fuhrer, dressed in a brown shirt of an attack aircraft, despite the cold. The family grave of the Wessel family was re-registered with party money. In memory of the hero in 1932, the 5-1 "standard" SA "Horst Wessel" was formed. The Wessel cult developed even after the Nazis came to power. Goebbels was well aware that the presence of heroes, role models is an important factor in the stability and reproducibility of society, and if necessary, they must be created artificially!

If we talk about the directions of Goebbels' propaganda at this time, then they come down to increasing the popularity of the NSDAP and its teachings, denigrating its political opponents, harsh criticism of the existing government and anti-Semitism. As an audience, Goebbels considered the broad masses of the people. He said :

“We must speak in a language understandable to the people. Anyone who wants to speak to the people must, according to Luther's words, look the people in the mouth.

Oratory speeches, newspaper publications, as well as pre-election campaign materials were used as forms of propaganda before coming to power.

As you know, before the start of political activity, Goebbels tried to find himself in the writing field, and later did not leave these attempts. However, his literary works were unanimously rejected by publishers (naturally, before coming to power). They were distinguished by verbosity, pomposity, unnatural pathos, sentimentality. Here is an example of Goebbels' style - the hero of the novel "Michael" describes his feelings when returning to his homeland from the front of the First World War:

“A blood stallion no longer snorts under my hips, I no longer sit on cannon carriages, I no longer step on the clay bottom of the trenches. How long have I been striding across the broad Russian plain or across the joyless fields of France pitted with shells? Everything is gone! I rose from the ashes of war and destruction like a Phoenix. Motherland! Germany!".

However, the same qualities that caused Goebbels' failure as a writer ensured his success in the field of oratory. Hysterical pathos, hysterical cries, romanticism had a strong effect on the crowd gathered for a rally or demonstration.

During the speech, Goebbels was extremely excited and turned on the crowd. His plain appearance was compensated by a strong and sharp voice. His emotionality was expressed in violent theatrical gestures:

He attacked the Berlin city government, the Jews and the Communists, but became sublimely romantic when speaking of Germany. Here is an example of Goebbels' speech:

“Our thoughts about the soldiers of the German revolution, who threw their lives on the altar of the future in order for Germany to rise again ... Retribution! Retribution! His day is coming... We bow our heads before you, the dead. Germany begins to awaken in the reflections of your spilled blood...

Let the marching tread of the brown battalions be heard:

For freedom! Soldiers of the Storm! The army of the dead marches with you into the future!”

Goebbels did his journalistic work, as mentioned above, in the newspaper Narodnaya Svoboda, where major Jewish publishers became the main target of his attacks (revenge for the rejection of his literary works!). Then there was a short work in the left-Nazi "NS-Brief". Goebbels really unfolded in the newspaper he founded Angriff. The new newspaper was conceived as a "publication for all tastes", had the motto on the first page:

"Long live the oppressed, down with the exploiters!"

In order to attract, Goebbels tried to write in a popular manner, refusing any objectivity. He was convinced of the unpretentiousness of mass consciousness and the predilection of the masses for simple unilateral decisions. Goebbels used modern methods of advertising to notify the world about the appearance of his newspaper.

“The public needs to be intrigued even before the product appears!”, for this purpose, three advertising posters were released, one after the other, pasted on the streets of Berlin. The first one asked:

"Attack with us?"

the second declared:

and the third explained:

Ataka (Der Angriff) is a new German weekly newspaper published under the motto “For the oppressed! Down with the exploiters!”, and its editor is Dr. Joseph Goebbels.

The newspaper has its own political program. Every German, every German woman should read our newspaper and subscribe to it!

I can't help but draw parallels with modern advertising again. Now it has become a worn out technique - placing billboards with incomprehensible content (to intrigue the public) with a subsequent explanation.

The new newspaper "attacked" in two main directions. Firstly, it incited readers to speak out against democracy, against the existing Weimar Republic, and secondly, it fueled and exploited anti-Semitic sentiments. So, at first, Bernhard Weiss, the head of the Berlin police and a Jew, became the main target of attacks. Newspaper slogan:

"Germany, wake up! Damn the Jews! In the end, starting with a tiny piece of paper, the newspaper was a resounding success and became the main mouthpiece of the party.

Goebbels also paid great attention to the production of campaign materials, especially posters. Truly poster art flourished after the Nazis came to power, but even earlier posters were widely used. In the election campaign, two directions can be distinguished: the image of enemies in a satirical form and the creation of an image "Real Germany"- workers, front-line soldiers, women, etc., voting for Hitler:

An important theme of the posters is the unity of the working German people - workers, peasants and intelligentsia; Goebbels tried to unite the broadest possible masses in voting for the Nazis.

Goebbels himself praised the achievements of Nazi poster art:

“Our posters have become simply excellent. Propaganda is being done in the best possible way. The whole country will definitely pay attention to them.”

Actually, that's how it happened.

Fascist State Propaganda Methods

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Goebbels was appointed Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda. Under his leadership, this modest department actually became the second most important after the military. Goebbels turned the Ministry into a "propaganda machine", subordinating all forms of art and all channels of communication to this goal. The essence of propaganda is glaishaltung, literally - "turning into a monolith" - the unification of the German people under the National Socialist slogans.

In addition to the previous types of propaganda - oratory and the press, Goebbels made extensive use of new technical means - cinema and radio. He attached an important role in the "unity of the people" public holidays(including sports) and mass rituals. Poster art flourished. No less importance was attached to non-verbal propaganda - architecture, sculpture, the use of various symbols. However, Goebbels had a minimal relation to the latter direction.

Oratory still remained Goebbels' strong point. He spoke a lot at various public events: party congresses, rallies, and during the war - in solemn burials. At the end of the war, Goebbels was practically the only one of the leaders of the Reich who appeared in public. He often visited the wounded in hospitals, the homeless in the ruins of their destroyed homes. And wherever he appeared, he delivered fiery speeches that returned fanatical faith in German weapons and the genius of the Fuhrer to people who had lost their strength to fight.

Goebbels was the first to give paramount importance to the propaganda power of mass communications. For that era, it was radio.

“What the press was in the nineteenth century, broadcasting will be in the twentieth,” said Goebbels.

After becoming minister, he immediately reassigned national broadcasting from the General Post Office to the Ministry of Propaganda. The mass production of cheap radios ("Goebbels' muzzle") and their sale in installments to the population was organized. As a result, by 1939, 70% of the German population (3 times more than in 1932) turned out to be radio owners. The installation of radios in businesses and public places such as cafes and restaurants was also encouraged.

Joseph Goebbels also experimented with television. Germany was one of the first countries where television broadcasting began. The first experience took place on March 22, 1935. Goebbels' subordinate, radio chief Eugen Hadamowski, appeared on the screen as a blurry image and uttered a few words of praise for Hitler. During the Berlin Olympiad in 1936, there were attempts (not very successful) to broadcast the competition live.

Despite technical imperfections, Goebbels highly appreciated the potential of television:

“The superiority of the visual picture over the auditory is that the auditory is translated into the visual with the help of individual imagination, which cannot be controlled, anyway everyone will see his own. Therefore, you should immediately show how it is necessary so that everyone sees the same thing.

And further:

“With television, a living Fuhrer will enter every home. It will be a miracle, but it should not be frequent. Another thing is us. We, the leaders of the party, must be with the people every evening after a working day and explain to them what they misunderstood during the day.”

Goebbels developed a plan for the approximate content of television programs:

* news;
* reports from workshops and farms;
* sports;
* entertainment programs.

Interestingly, Goebbels considered building a viewer feedback mechanism into television (now called interactivity) and using it as a valve to release discontent. The following quotes speak of this:

“One should not be afraid to immerse the viewer in a political dispute, in the struggle between the good and the best… And the next day, provide an opportunity to express one’s opinion at one’s enterprise by voting, for example.”

“If some kind of discontent is brewing in society, one should not be afraid to personify it and bring it to the screen. As soon as we can provide at least half of the population with telefunkens (i.e. televisions) of the fifth model, we need to put our working leader, Leah, in front of the telegun, and let him sing his songs about the hardships of the working man.

However, with the outbreak of the war, the technical development of television slowed down, and it did not play a significant role in the propaganda activity of this period.

The press was also placed under tight control. All opposition publications were banned, liberals and Jews were expelled from the editorial offices. Jewish-owned newspapers were expropriated. The quality of newspaper materials and their sharpness have fallen sharply and, accordingly, the interest of the population has fallen.

Under Goebbels, the organization of mass events rose to the level of art. These included rallies, congresses, parades, etc. Goebbels' personal invention was the introduction into Nazi circulation of exceptionally colorful night torchlight processions involving thousands of young people.

An example of Nazi propaganda is the 1936 Berlin Olympics directed by Goebbels. It should be noted that Hitler was initially against the Olympics, because he considered it humiliating for "Aryan" athletes to compete with "non-Aryans". Goebbels made every effort to convince the leader to reconsider his attitude towards the Olympic Games. According to him, holding the Olympics will show the world community the revived power of Germany and provide the party with first-class propaganda material. In addition, the competition will demonstrate the superiority of the Germans.

Especially for the Olympics, a monumental sports complex was built, decorated with "Aryan" figures:

Both the Olympic complex and the entire city were lavishly decorated with Nazi symbols. The opening ceremony of the Olympics was impressive with artillery salute, thousands of doves released into the sky and a giant airship "Hindenburg" with the Olympic flag.

The talented director Leni Riefenstahl shot the film Olympia at the Olympics. In general, the propaganda campaign was a success. William Shearer wrote in 1936:

“I'm afraid that the Nazis succeeded in their propaganda. First, they organized the Games on a grand scale and with a bounty never seen before; Naturally, the athletes liked it. Secondly, they made a very good reception for all other guests, especially big businessmen.”

It was from the Berlin Olympics that the tradition of holding the Games as a monumental celebration began.

Before the Nazis came to power, German cinema was one of the strongest in the world. His fate in Nazi Germany resembles the fate of the press - many talented filmmakers were forced to leave Germany, as a result of which the level of films fell. Nevertheless, Germany produced 1300 paintings during the 12 years of the Reich. Individual gifted artists such as Leni Riefenstahl worked for the Nazis, incl. and in propaganda tapes.

Poster art developed most strongly after the Nazis came to power.

During the 2nd World War, the Goebbels department switched to serving the interests of the war. There are several themes that were actively exploited in the Nazi poster.
Leader theme. Recurring slogan:

"One people, one Reich, one leader."

Poster "One people, one Reich, one leader"

Family, mother and child theme. Reich advocated "healthy Aryan family":

The theme of the man of labor. The Nazi Party drew strength from the broad strata of the population, and the appeal in the poster to the image of a worker or peasant is not accidental.

Since 1939, of course, the theme of war, heroism at the front, sacrifices in the name of victory, and the theme of labor heroism adjoining it, have occupied a lot of space.

The theme of enemies was also widely used in military propaganda: Jews, Bolsheviks, Americans. By the end of the war, this topic acquired the shade of "horror stories" -

“It is better to die for the motherland than to fall into the clutches of bloodthirsty Jewish communists.”

It is worth dwelling separately on the work of the Goebbels department during the Second World War, when not only the troops of the opposing sides, but also their propaganda apparatus clashed in battle. The Ministry of Propaganda worked in two directions: at the address of the army and the population of the enemy, and at domestic consumption.

External propaganda achieved the following goals.

Convince the population of the friendliness of Germany, the need for an “alliance” with her. Similar propaganda was used in relation to "racially close" countries: Denmark, Norway, etc. An example is the poster below, in which the silhouette of a Viking recalls the common ancient Germanic past of Norway and Germany:

To convince the civilian population of the friendliness of the German troops and a good life under the conditions of German power.

Such propaganda was used mainly in the Soviet Union. It was assumed that the Soviet workers and peasants, who did not live in the best material conditions, would “bite” on the promise of a heavenly life. However, the problem turned out to be a striking discrepancy between the appeals of the leaflets and the actual behavior of the German troops in the occupied territory. In the conditions of the atrocities of the occupiers, Goebbels' propaganda had no effect on the population.

Convince enemy soldiers of the futility of resistance and the need to surrender. In addition to appealing to the natural desire to survive, the technique “Why would you die for this power!” Was used. Leaflets, appeal over loudspeakers, “Pass in captivity” were used:

Setting the population against the authorities. Again, it was widely used in the Soviet Union. The current government was presented as "Jewish-communist", it was reminded of the famine of 1932-1933. and other fictional "crimes".

An attempt to split the ranks of the allies. The most striking episode is an attempt to unwind the Katyn case, which we will consider below.

On the domestic front, the lines of propaganda were as follows.

Belief in the invincibility of the German troops. It worked well at the beginning of the war, but with an increase in the number of defeats, it ceased to work.

Stimulation of labor enthusiasm - "Everything for the front!".

Intimidation of the population by the atrocities of the Bolsheviks. An effective technique that makes people fight even in hopeless conditions. "Better to die than fall into their hands!"

If we talk about the forms of propaganda, then the same channels were used in internal practice as in peacetime. To influence the enemy, radio stations, leaflets, broadcasting through a loudspeaker across the front line were used. The Nazis sought to use traitors from among the local population, preferably famous people, such as popular artists.

Falsification of facts was very widely used, from the banal reporting of false information in news releases, to the forgery of photos and film documents, there were even attempts to fake live television broadcasts. For example, residents of occupied Krasnodar were told that a convoy of Soviet prisoners would be led through the city and that food could be handed over to them. Gathered big number villagers with baskets. Instead of prisoners, cars with wounded German soldiers were driven through the crowd - and Goebbels was able to show the Germans a film about the joyful meeting of the German "liberators". The method of mixing genuine and false documents was often used. In some cases, historians still cannot separate the truth from the lies. Such cases include the Katyn case and the murders in Nemmersdorf.

According to the Soviet version, Polish prisoners of war fell into the hands of the Germans during the 1941 offensive and were shot by the German side.

In 1943, Goebbels used this mass grave for propaganda purposes against the Soviet Union in order to drive a wedge between the allies. A demonstrative exhumation of the corpses of Polish officers was arranged with the involvement of representatives of dependent states and British and American prisoners of war as witnesses. At the same time, a propaganda campaign coordinated and controlled by the Goebbels department was launched by the dependent press, which was supported from London by the Polish government in exile, despite the lack of an opportunity for an independent investigation in the territory occupied by German troops and the efforts of the British, then allies of the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition, to keep the Poles from hasty and unfounded conclusions. At the moment, it has been established that the execution in Katyn was organized by Stalin, the Rosarchive has published secret documents on this case.

In the village of Nemmersdorf on the territory of East Prussia, according to Goebbels propaganda, mass rape and murder of civilians by Russian soldiers took place. Terrible details were reported, bloody photographs were published. The purpose of this action was to persuade the population of the Third Reich to continue senseless resistance. It is extremely difficult to establish the truth now, but apparently the fire of the Soviet troops on civilians really took place, and about 3 dozen people died. Goebbels used a real fact, increased the number of those killed several times, added fictitious vile details and fabricated pictures. Nevertheless, it is the Goebbels version that is still popular in Western publications.

These cases well illustrate the methods of work of the Ministry of Propaganda. However, the streams of lies also brought a negative result for the ministry. Often the department rushed things, and he was caught in a juggling. This led to the spread of disbelief in any official communication by the end of the war. Many Germans during this period preferred to listen to English or Soviet radio in search of more reliable information. Goebbels himself admitted his mistakes after the defeat at Stalingrad:

“... propaganda from the very beginning of the war took the following erroneous development: 1st year of the war: We won. 2nd year of the war: We will win. 3rd year of the war: We must win. Year 4 of the war: We cannot be defeated. Such a development is catastrophic and should not continue under any circumstances. Rather, it must be brought to the consciousness of the German public that we not only want and must win, but in particular also that we can win.

However, he remained true to himself to the end - and in last days war bombarded the defenders of Berlin with leaflets with assurances of inevitable victory.

Propaganda is the force that made it possible for the Nazis to come to power in Germany. Along with military power, she is one of the pillars of the Third Reich. The head of the propaganda department, Joseph Goebbels, turned propaganda into a high art. Completely freed from the ethical principle, propaganda has become a powerful tool for manipulating consciousness. We list some of the principles introduced into mass circulation by Goebbels:

Sadly, these and other Goebbelsian techniques are widely used in modern advertising, public relations and media work. It is worth recalling a couple more lessons from the life and work of Dr. Goebbels:

the most brilliant lies do not withstand a collision with reality; sooner or later the lie turns against itself.

This was confirmed in May 1945.

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