UC Santa Barbara > History Department > Prof. Marcuse > Courses > Hist 133D Homepage > 133D Book Essays Index page > Student essay
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The Ideology of Nazi Germany Through Film Book Essay
on:
David Welch,
Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945:
by Kate Mazzeo for Prof. Marcuse's lecture course |
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& Abstract |
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Bibliography |
Plagiarize! |
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About Kate Mazzeo I am currently a fourth year graduating Global Studies major at the University of California Santa Barbara. My specific areas of study are Europe and Eurasia, which have exposed me to some great courses regarding European history. I have always been fascinated with the history of Nazi Germany and my deep interest in the subject matter prompted me to take History 133D with Professor Marcuse. Abstract (back to top) In this essay, “The Ideology of Nazi Germany Through Film,” I assess David Welch’s vivid account of film propaganda in Nazi Germany prior to and during World War II. Of the many reasons why the Nazi party’s rise to power was so successful, one of the most prominent is that of propaganda, specifically in German cinema. Welch helps explain how, with a collective effort from filmmakers, Nazi leaders, and the German populace, cinema became an immediate source for promoting National Socialist ideology. Like much of Nazi propaganda during the early-mid 20th century, films that promoted these ideologies did so discretely and ingeniously. In Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945, Welch essentially proves how German culture and way of life, as most had known it, had been permeated by Nazi ethics and propaganda through the medium of film. |
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Essay (back to top)
It was through symbolic art forms, complex representations, and pervasive messages that the National Socialist party's message successfully reached the German populace and became embedded in the ideals of countless citizens. Specifically, however, one art form prevailed in its success of influencing so many people towards the Nazi way: film. In Propaganda and the German Cinema, David Welch recounts the history of German cinema both prior to the Third Reich and while it presumed power and the methods it implemented in order to actively influence the nature of film as a tool for promoting National Socialist ideals. Through careful assessment, Welch discusses how members of the Nazi party permeated into multiple, if not all, facets of German culture. One of the most important and influential of these figures is Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (RMVP), who gained full control of every aspect of mass media under the reign of the Third Reich (Welch, 9). Goebbels proclaimed, "Films were to have an important place in the culture of new Germany" (Welch, 12). Upon assessing the nature of the German film industry during the reign of the Third Reich, Welch divides the themes of cinema into five separate categories in order to properly portray maneuvers film took to infiltrate the minds and opinions of the German populace. He groups the films under the themes of Comradeship, Heroism and the Party, Blood and Soil, Principle of Leadership, War and Military Image, and lastly Image of the Enemy. This vivid account of the movement towards National Socialist political, social, and cultural radicalism proves, through analysis of multiple themes and historical recollection, that film was an influential form of media used to psychologically manipulate the German nation.
The extent to which the German government, specifically the National-Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei (NSDAP) during the Third Reich, controlled cinema, was undeniably immense. Within the arena of the German film industry, a variety of tactics were taken in order to assure that movies would be produced in order to portray only the images and messages that the National Socialist party desired for the people to experience. An early maneuver to gain control of German cinemas was the selection of Adolf Engl (Nazi leader) to become the head of the German Cinema Owner's Association. It was tactics such as this one that created an upward slope of accession of power by the Nazi party in the film industry. Further along in the early years of the Third Reich, the Reich Chamber of Culture (RKK) was formed by Goebbels, which legally controlled all aspects of public media including theatre, literature, music, press, radio, fine arts, and film. Goebbels was to act as "President of the seven Chambers" and coordinate every move in which the RMVP would take in creating its propaganda agendas (Welch, 10). As infiltration of members of the Nazi party into German cinema became more prevalent, an even more aggressive tactic was instilled as the RMVP gained control of the financial aspects of the film industry by creating a Filmkreditbank (FKB). The FKB, as Welch describes, financed films of which the National Socialists, particularly Goebbels, approved. This became even more intense as it covertly "took the form" of a private bank, disguising its tendency to finance films for propaganda use only. The success of this upward slope in power was very much due to the fact that by the early 1930s a large number of cinema owners, along with the German film industry in general, were having extreme difficulty financing their films. This substantially increased the chances of success for the RMVP and Nazi party in order to eventually control the entire film industry, at least up until the end of the Second World War. Welch assesses these maneuvers to be strategic in nature, such that "FKB was inaugurated to assist the small independent producers, however by 1936 it was financing over 73 percent of all German feature films" (Welch, 11). Eventually, the Reich Cinema Law of 1934 was created in order to provide the censorship necessary to assure that National Socialist ideals were being represented properly, opposing ideologies were not included in film production, and subtle messages were cleverly woven into the premise of what was to be observed. By the start of the war, Nazi control over film production had become unwavering. As Welch recounts the history of National Socialist involvement in film production, he quotes Goebbels stating, "Film production is flourishing almost unbelievably despite the war. What a good idea of mine it was to take possession of the films on behalf of the Reich several years ago!" (Welch, 29)
In Welch's description of the theme Comradeship, Heroism and the Party, he not only describes three films within this era of German cinema, but also closely examines scenes in which those responsible have created these specific "lie-directs." A "lie direct," according to Welch, is a film created solely for propaganda use and has no further or integrated meaning other than to overtly convince the audience of its political and cultural agenda. This specific category of film is undeniable in proving how film was one of the most powerful forms of propaganda deliberately used to sway the German populace towards the Nazi creed. More specifically, these three films- SA-Mann Brand, Hitlerjunge Quex, and Hans Westmar "openly glorified the Party and its martyrs" (Welch, 40). The first film Welch evaluates from 1933 is SA-Mann Brand, which tells the story of the Brand family separated by two conflicting ideologies. It most simply, as Welch describes, utilizes symbols of unruly people representing Communist ideology while "disciplined Aryans" represent National Socialist ideology (Welch, 42). In context of the term "lie direct," Welch's account of this particular film is irrefutably accurate such that an audience experiencing this film knows exactly what they are getting and exactly what the principles behind the film represent. Welch considers the scene in which the characters Fritz Brand and his mother discuss Nazism as Fritz states "It's not an association mother. It's a movement-- yes, a Freedom Movement. Our fight concerns something very important-- Germany's freedom" (Welch, 45). It is undeniable that the persuasion occurring during the reign of the Third Reich was deliberate and that a successful way to reach the minds of the German population was to blatantly advertise them through popular culture, in this case film.
By the time the films characterized under Welch’s category Blood and Soil were pertinent, Joseph Goebbels had achieved full reign of power of the German film industry. The mission with films of this category was to show audiences the importance of national pride and devotion to the "homeland." It focused on German tradition rooted decades before and presented the need for German citizens to recount their past and live for the future of a new Germany. Welch articulately explains this genre of film as a method of persuasion, stating that "the type of nationalism espoused by the National Socialists was an attempt to recapture a morality attributed to the Volk's past" (Welch, 81). The films included in this genre that Welch examines closely are Ewiger Wald (The Eternal Forest, 1936), Olympiade (1938), and Heimkehr (Homecoming, 1941). Olympiade, a documentary recording the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, is a vivid recap of the coming together of a nation and "young women and men rejoicing in their health and strength" (Welch, 93). The presence of the Olympics within a nation can have a profound way of bringing together a nation in the spirit of "friendly competition" and within the German nation at the time of the Third Reich, the concept of a powerful Aryan race was prominently portrayed within the film. Following the financial and social success of Olympiade, to further gain more "capital" out of the Olympic games, Wunkschkonzert was produced, which was "concerned with the unity of the front and homeland" (Welch, 98). The success of films of this genre further drove the National Socialist ideals by creating an image of the Aryan race as the only powerful race while further supporting the traditional values rooted in German culture.
Welch continues to report the presence of film in the late 1930s and early 1940s as an era of focus on the leadership extensively seen within German life in his category of The Principle of Leadership. In this category of film, Welch recounts four particular films that were extremely successful in portraying the leaders of Nazi Germany in an esteemed light: Triumph des Willens, Der Herrscher, Bismark, and Friedrich Schiller. One of the most well-known films at the time was one portraying Adolf Hitler, Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1935). It was the only film at the time that represented Hitler, the Führer, while he assumed power over Nazi Germany. However, fascinatingly enough, the production of the film went against the wishes of Joseph Goebbels such that he remained adamant, at that moment, about the need for more "subtle" messages within film propaganda (Welch, 125). Essentially, Welch depicts the nature of this genre flawlessly when he states, "Just as National Socialism needed its enemies, so it also required its heroes, for no revolution, even if only a cultural one, has succeeded without its heroic leaders" (Welch, 123). With these multiple representations of National Socialist leaders during the Third Reich, it becomes evident to readers that Welch considers this category of films to be one of the most prominent.
Furthermore, a change of goals regarding film propaganda naturally occurred as Germany entered into the Second World War and representations of military tactics and power became necessary for the populace to be convinced of. Within Welch's category of War and the Military Image (which he mostly assesses in the early 1940s) the "highest concentration of political film propaganda in the Third Reich" transpires. This shift towards a portrayal of more militant and violent imagery is shown in Welch's assessment of Pour Le Mérite (For Honour,1938). Because war was one of the more important aspects of National Socialist culture, representations (positive or negative) were necessary. Goebbels and Hitler "appreciated the burden that a war would place on the RMVP" such that it provided them a drive to create additional propaganda, film propaganda, to sway German citizens’ ideals (Welch, 161). Welch states that "the main point of Hitler's message was that it was the task of propaganda to instill in the German Volk an absolute obedience, a willingness to die, and an unshakeable belief in final victory" (Welch, 161). By creating films that blatantly portray the tactics and methods the Nazi party imposed on their "enemies," the population found it hard to argue that what was happening was necessarily wrong since the regime was willing to openly advertise them.
In Welch's final category of Nazi film propaganda, The Image of the Enemy, he shows how previous film propaganda aimed to portray the specific ideals of the National Socialist party, but now goals for the RMVP began to focus on vividly exposing the enemy (the Jewish population along with other minority groups of Germany). These films further drove the ideals that the only acceptable race in Germany was the Aryan race. Through careful development, the RMVP produced multiple films showing a contrast between enemies and ideal Germans. Welch explains, "The most outstanding stylistic device in film propaganda is the use of contrasts. Not only do strong contrasts contain a greater emotional intensity than the more subtle nuances, but they also guide the audience's sympathies with more certainty" (Welch, 204). Welch continues to prove to readers, through specific examples of films, that propaganda used to expose the enemy was some of the most chauvinistic and violent of film propaganda created during the Third Reich. Near the end of this period, after changes occurred in Germany’s military system, specifically Stalingrad’s gain of power, "the military situation no longer permitted Goebbels to utilize the image of the enemy in this fashion" (Welch, 257). Though Goebbels did not appreciate having the power removed from his hands, Nazi leaders saw this as a strategic tactic in order to hide the brutality of the Holocaust. It is unequivocal that multiple forms of propaganda were instilled upon from the years 1933-1945 and some can argue that film wasn't necessarily the most prevalent. Billboards, posters, swastika flags, rallies, bonfires and continuous radio coverage were among the most everyday and consistently viewed forms of propaganda used to persuade the German populace, as discussed in William Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (Shirer, 194). However, like many of these various forms of Nazi propaganda, films promoting National Socialist ideology did so discretely and ingeniously, with careful consideration regarding plot, imagery, and even the budget. Members of the National Socialist party had "infiltrated" many aspects of social, political, and economic culture, therefore their control over the film industry was not only inevitable but expected. Welch's exceptional appraisal of the specific maneuvers and methods in which the National Socialist leaders employed throughout German cinema is undeniably thought-provoking as readers of Propaganda and the German Cinema can see. It is essentially impossible not to consider film propaganda in Nazi Germany as an effective tool in convincing the German populace of National Socialist ideology.
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Annotated Bibliography and Links (back to top)(links last checked 3/23/10) Book Reviews
Books and Articles
Relevant Websites |
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Any student tempted to use this paper for an assignment in another course or school should be aware of the serious consequences for plagiarism. Here is what I write in my syllabi:
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