Posters were arguably the most commonly used form of Nazi propaganda. They were very unique, and unlike any other type, because they were striking, hard to ignore, and provoked a feeling of nationalism through their imagery. The Nazis used representative colors ands common symbols. Pictures of blonde-haired, blue-eyed boys and girls were often included in these posters because that was thought to be the "Ideal German". Jews were often dressed in black and posed in begging gestures, to create a negative connotation, while German soldiers were posed heroically, and looked almost monumental.
Hans Schweitzer, under the pen name "Mjölnir" produced many Nazi posters.
Hans Schweitzer, under the pen name "Mjölnir" produced many Nazi posters.
Examples of Nazi Propaganda Posters |
The Völkischer Beobachter ("People's Observer") was the official daily newspaper of the NSDAP since 1920. The newspaper contained articles with anti-semitic ideology. They depicted images of the evils of Jewry and Bolshevism, the impracticalities of parliament, the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles, and other similar topics. Later on it was combined with another Newspaper, Der Angriff ("The Attack"), created by Joseph Goebbels. It had a similar agenda, but focused mainly on the attacks against the Jews, and often included the propaganda posters, and political cartoons of Hans Schweitzer.
“We oppose the Jews because we are defenders of the freedom of the German people. The Jew is the cause and beneficiary of our slavery. He has misused the social misery of the broad masses to deepen the cursed divisions between right and left in our people, to split Germany in half. This was the real reason that we lost the Great War on the one hand, and for the corruption of the revolution on the other.”
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“Ideas find people to spread them. The more an idea spreads and reaches all areas of life, the more it becomes a worldview. If an organization becomes the bearer of a worldview, its ultimate goal is the government, which is the bearer of the whole nation. Propaganda reaches its goal if its worldview takes practical form by gaining control of the state."
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Anti Nazi Propaganda in the American Press
In the U.S. political cartoons were one of the most common forms of propaganda. They were printed in newspapers across the country during this period. One of the most commonly overlooked facts of these cartoons is that Theodor Seuss Geisel, more commonly known as Dr. Suess, was the illustrator to over four-hundred. He worked as chief editorial cartoonist of the New York newspaper from 1941 until 1943.