Alex Nissani Professor Marcuse UCSB History 133B Source Exploration Essay March 19, 2019 What propaganda meant to Joseph Goebbels and Nazi Germany
Speech to the Press on the Establishment of a Reich Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (March 15, 1933), in: Joseph Goebbels, Revolution der Deutschen: 14 Jahre
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Nationalsozialismus. Oldenburg, 1933, pp. 135-50. http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/docpage.cfm?docpage_id=2430
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Source of English translation: Jeremy Noakes and Geoffrey Pridham, eds., Nazism, 1919-
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1945, Vol. 2: State, Economy and Society 1933-1939. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1983-88, p. 393, source 275.
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Joseph Goebbels gave speeches to the Reich Ministry with how the propaganda was
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going to proceed. This particular speech was given in 1933 and its accompanying book was published also in 1933. Goebbels was the Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. He
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was born in 1897 and died in 1945. His main goal was to mobilize the people under the party. The Nazis controlled the press and entertainment and it was his job to disseminate all the party
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propaganda in order to have the people on the Nazis’ side and unite the nation. These texts of his speeches can be found in Revolution der Deutschen: 14 Jahre Nationalsozialismus (pages 135-
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150), or on the GHDI webpage that published excerpts of his speech.
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On March 15 and March 25 1933, Joseph Goebbels gave two incredibly important speeches about his new role in the Reich Ministry of propaganda, and the use of propaganda.
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Goebbels wanted a united Germany and his belief was that propaganda was how to achieve this. In his first speech, he calls the Nazi government the “people’s government,” implying a link between the party and the people, achieved through propaganda.
Goebbels kept extensive diaries and wrote about the two speeches in them. There are
quite a few differences between his speech and what he wrote in his diaries. The speeches are grandiose and give a sense of incredible importance to his role and the role of the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. The diary entries show all the work to be done within the Ministry to make it as successful as he envisions it being, namely getting rid of old time leaders and putting in new Nazi ones. He gave these speeches as a way to move the Ministry