Goebbels’ Interest in Film
In 1933, Joseph Goebbels, at the age of 35, became Nazi Propaganda
Minister. After graduating from university, Goebbels had drifted aimlessly
until joining the Nazi Party in 1924. Before becoming Propaganda Minister,
Goebbels’ interest in film was more of a hobby. His diaries reveal a man
obsessed with film, who watched everything, and that his favourite films
were the Hollywood films, Gone With the Wind and Disney’s Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Goebbels’ Ideas on the Best Types of Propaganda
Goebbels most valued not political films, but those that were entertainment.
According to Fritz Hippler, a director during the Nazi era, Goebbels believed
that film worked on the subconscious, and he placed it above all other
mediums of communication. Goebbels disliked films that were overtly political.
He hated the political films such as Hitler Junge Quex (Hitler Youth
Quest) 1933, Hans Westmar 1934. In Hitler Junge Quex a young
boy dies for the Fuhrer. Goebbels preferred entertainment films, such as
Patrioten
(The Patriots) 1936 and Es Leuchten die Sterne (The Stars are Shining)
1937, which contained spectacular dancing scenes. He was like the audience.
According to Arthur Maria Rabenalt, a German director at the time of the
Nazis, Goebbels preferred propaganda movies as entertainment because as
entertainment they had a political purpose to keep people off the streets
and their minds away from their household cares and worries.
Babelsberg, West of Berlin, was where German films were made during the Nazi era. About 90 percent of German propaganda films had no overt political content. Goebbels was like a studio producer who decided which actors the directors would work with. He had complete control over the studios at Babelsberg.
Creating Hitler’s Image
In newsreels, Goebbels created the Fuhrer myth of a superman devoted
to his country by carefully selecting scenes, and being careful not to
over expose his ‘star’ too much. The newsreels were a marriage of sound,
music, and vision. Hans Felt, a film critic of the 1930s, has analysed
the newsreels, and sees them as effective propaganda. Analysing one newsreel,
he describes it this way: 'it is choreographed like an orchestra, like
a symphony, it is a score, the marrying of sound music and vision. The
rhythm of the marching, the massed ranks. Then you have got the solitary
figure of the leader. Whenever you see the outstretched arms, the Roman
greeting, then you see the masses, and that is accompanied by passionate
music, that is like a drug, feeling, emotion. Because you can only be driven
to a hero's death by emotion. The close-ups are a poetic form of concentrated
power. Nazis in half profile - it is composed strength. Then you have got
the Swastika marching at you grabbing at you, that you become part of it.
Then you see your comrades. You are not alone. There is always your father
figure, leader. This is carefully prepared to be built up to a climax.'
However, Hitler had other ideas. He commissioned Leni Riefenstahl to make a full feature length film of him and the Nazi Party, Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will) 1935, which showed the 1934 Nazi Nuremburg rally. The sombre tone of the film went against Goebbels’ idea that propaganda had to be entertaining. After this feature film, Goebbels convinced Hitler to appear in nothing similar to it. The experiment of this full feature length documentary portayal of Hitler was not repeated. Goebbels was careful not to over expose his 'star', so Hitler only appeared in short newsreels.
Goebbels used films about past German leaders, such as Frederick the Great, Schiller, and Bismark to suggest that the situation under Hitler was similar, but Hitler never appeared in these films, although the audience could make the connection. Fritz Hippler, a Nazi film director, has commented on Der Grosse Konig (The Great King) made in 1942 about the German historical statesman Frederick the Great. 'This film portrayed the historical example of Frederick the Great who was suppose to symbolise Hitler. The idea of the historical film was to make a parallel with the present. The German who watched it was supposed to think that here is a similar situation to the present one'. The film showed in one part, Frederick the Great watching over Germany cut with scenes of the sturdiness of German farmers working to make the German nation under the guidance of their leader. Stirring images and arousing music were used effectively to build up an image of a nation of Germans toiling away united in purpose under their leader. These historical films had a subtle propaganda purpose.
Propaganda as Entertainment
Goebbels took propaganda as entertainment to fantastic heights with
musical numbers on the German attack on England. Norbet Schultze (composer
of the famous war song ‘Lili Marlene’) wrote a song that was a big hit
on this theme, ‘The Battle Against England’ with the chorus, ‘Bombing England’,
sung in a propaganda film by German airforce pilots flying over England.
Another film about attacking Britain was Soldaten von Morgen Soldiers
of Tomorrow (1941), which reinforced the German stereotypes of the
English upper class as decadent. Goebbels knew that it was difficult to
change the movie viewers’ beliefs, but easy to reinforce their prejudices.
Campaign against the Jews
The contrast between Hitler’s and Goebbels’ different styles can be
seen in propaganda against the Jews. In 1940 Hitler wanted propaganda
against the Jews in preparation for the Final Solution. Der Ewige Jude
(The Eternal Jew) 1940 was made by Fritz Hippler for this purpose. Hitler
insisted on using rats as a crude metaphor in the film. It took 13 months
in the cutting room before it was released. Goebbels did not like such
overt messages in films, as is revealed in his diary for 5 July 1941. The
movie was a box office flop. Goebbels was determined to make his own film
against the Jews, called Jud Suss (Jew Suss) 1940. It showed a Jew
in 18th century Wurttemberg holding prisoner and torturing the husband
of a blonde wholesome German/Aryan woman, played by Kristina Soderbaum,
whom he rapes. It was a huge success, and Nazi research showed that the
audience made the connection between 18th century Wurttemberg and 20th
century Germany. The movie helped the audience feel that the removal of
Jews from their homes was justified.
Defeat and Propaganda
As the war worsened for Germany, Goebbels’ notion of using film as
escapism was exemplified by Munchhausen 1943 depicting the adventures
of Baron von Munchhausen. It had escapism, eroticism, and exoticism, and
was designed to make the people forget about their worries over the war.
With defeat inevitable, Goebbels made Kolberg 1945 about how a German
town held out for a long time against the armies of Napoleon, but eventually
was overwhelmed. When Goebbels showed it at the Ministry of Propaganda
on 17 April 1945, days before the end of the war, he had tears in his eyes.
Kolberg appears to have been a metaphor for the situation that the Germans
were then in, and also a film made for prosperity.
a.David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film History: An Introduction
(1994) pp.304-313 and pp.318-319. (available in the CAH 101 course notes).
b.David Cook, A History of Narrative Film (1993) pp.351-353.
c.David Parkinson, History of Film (1995) pp.136-138.
Specific References
1.Richard Barsam, Film Guide to Triumph of the Will (1975).
2. H.J.P. Bergmeier, Hitler's Airwaves: The Inside Story of Nazi Radio Broadcasting and Propaganda Swing, includes a CD of propaganda music and radio recordings, (1997).
3..Jay Baird, To Die For Germany: Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon (1990).
4.Thomas Elsaesser, ‘Leni Riefenstahl: The Body Beautiful, Art Cinema and Fascist Aesthetics’ in Pam Cook and Philip Dodd, (eds), Women and film: A Sight and Sound Reader (1993) (available in BAH 101 course notes).
5.Joseph Goebbels, The Goebbels Diaries (several editions - Lochner [1939-1941] and Taylor [1942-43]) (available at NUS library and course notes NIE Library). N.B. Try and use quotations in your assignment from this valuable primary source or original document. Goebbels’ diaries reveal that he was obsessed with film.
6.Hilmar Hoffman, The Triumph of Propaganda: Film and National Socialism (1996).
7. Stig Hornshoj-Moeller and David Culbert, "'Der Ewige Jude' (1940): Joseph Goebbels Unequaled Monument to anti-Semitism", Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol.12, No.1, 1992, pp.41-67, in the course Notes in the NIE library under 'Study Guide Eternal Jew'.
8. Erwin Leiser, Nazi Cinema (1968) (Course notes in NIE library)
9.Simon Mills, Chapter 4 on the Nazi Version of the Titanic in The Titanic in Pictures (1995).
10.David Paret, ‘Kolberg (Germany, 1945): As Historical Film and Historical Document’, pp.31-47, and David Culbert, ‘Kolberg (Germany 1945): The Goebbels Diaries and Poland’s Kolobrzeg Today’, pp.67-77, in John Whiteclay Chambers II and David Culbert, (eds), World War II, Film, and History (1996).
11.Susan Sontag, ‘Fascinating Fascism’ in Bill Nichols, (ed.), Movies and Methods (1985) (available in the course notes for CAH 101).
12.Viktor Reimann, The Man Who Created Hitler: Joseph Goebbels (1977) (available at NUS library).
13. Eric Rentschler, Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and its After Life (1996).
14.David Weinberg, ‘Approaches to the Study of Film in the Third Reich: A Critical Appraisal’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol.19, 1984 (in the BAH 101 course notes).
15.David Welch, (ed), Nazi Propaganda: The Power and the Limitations (1983) (available at NUS library but some chapters are in the CAH 101 course notes).
16.David Welch, The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda (1995).
17.David Welch, ‘Nazi Film Policy: Control, Ideology and Propaganda’ in G.R. Cuomo, (ed), National Socialist Cultural Policy (1995).
18.David Welch, ‘Manufacturing a Consensus: Nazi Propaganda and the Building of a National Community (Volksgemeinschaft)’, Contemporary European History, vol.2, no.1, (1993), pp.1-15. (in course notes for CAH 101).
19.David Welch, Propaganda and the German Cinema (2001).
MOVIE STILLS AND COMMENTARY ON GERMAN SOUND FILMS IN THE 1930s and 1940s