- Adolf Hitler, was appointed Chancellor of Germany,
on January 30th, 1933.
The Nazi party then began to eliminate
all political opposition and consolidate their power
with a campaign of violence and intimidation.
They immediately began a mass media campaign
to rule the German people.
By 1934, the Nazi propaganda machine
now controlled all communications, from radio to posters.
Joseph Goebbels was the head of the Nazi
Ministry of Propaganda.
He used films, books and graphic design
to communicate the Nazis twisted set of values.
Goebbels was one of Hitler's most devoted followers.
He was extremely anti-Semitic and strongly supported
the extermination of all European Jews.
He commissioned work that spoke to ideas
of Aryan racial purity and inherent
German superiority over the world and anti-Semitism.
In its early years, the Nazi party adopted
many of the modernist ideas, such as
simple messages, iconography and strong forms.
However, as time passed, this changed to a more
traditional and illustrative approach that Hitler preferred.
By the mid-1930s, the typography was regulated
to only using the official Germanic black letter typefaces.
Most of the modernist designers had either
fled to other countries or were imprisoned
in concentration camps.
Other designers use sentimental
and emotional scenes to manipulate the audience.
On this poster, a young Aryan youth looks to the future
with the all-seeing Führer leading the way.
Hitler was glorified in a godlike religious way.
Abstract and geometric shapes were replaced
by the realistic yet idealized illustrations.
German citizens were forced to hang these posters
in their homes to prove loyalty to the party.
Others were plastered around the city.
Nazi soldiers, Hitler youth and German athletes
were relentlessly portrayed as pure and Aryan.
They are good-looking, white, Teutonic and strong.
This poster has a halo background
to communicate the purity of a young woman.
Or, we see a soldier from below,
making him seem grand and heroic.
A poster by Ludwig Hohlwein, for an athletic event,
gives us an image of the perfect German woman.
Athletic, strong, vigorous, tanned and Aryan.
She represents victory, energy and vitality,
ideas valued by the Nazis.
The message is problematic, ethically,
but compositionally, it is a success.
Hohlwein takes the color and shape
of her shorts to echo the swastika.
The form of her body, echoes the shape of the flag.
The primary idea in all propaganda
is to characterize your side as heroic
and the enemy as sub-human.
If we see an enemy as an individual,
with feelings and a life, we may feel empathy.
The Nazi posters use extreme and grotesque characterizations
of racial minorities, Jews, Americans and the British.
Imperial Japanese propaganda illustrates
President Roosevelt as a green Frankenstein monster.
Spreads in this Japanese book show images
of the peaceful harmony in Manchuria
during its brutal occupation.
At the end of World War II, the Nazi regime faced defeat.
Even then, Goebbels persisted in the faith
that propaganda would lead to victory.
This poster for the Volkssturm or People's Militia,
communicated the message that every German male
between 13 and 60, should fight until dead.
In April 1945, the Allied Powers won the war.
Hitler and Goebbels committed suicide
and left a shattered nation to rebuild.
The result of the Nazi purges of intellectuals
and artists eliminated an entire genreation
of Germany's best minds and designers.
The tools of propaganda have been consistent for centuries.
Nazis elevated propaganda to a new level by using
mass communication to spread their terrible message.