Source A

The Propaganda Minister describes the role of the new Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.

The most important tasks of this Ministry must be the following; first all propaganda schemes and all institutions of public information belonging to the Reich must be centralised in one hand. It must be our task to instil into these propaganda facilities a modern feeling and bring them up to date. We must not allow technology to run ahead of the Reich, but rather the Reich must keep pace with technology. Only the latest thing is good enough. We are living in an age when policies must have mass support. It is the duty of leaders to tell the masses what they want, and to put it across to the masses in such a way that they understand it too.

Josef Goebbels, speaking at a press conference, March 1933

Source B

An American journalist in Germany reports on the reaction of ordinary Germans to a speech by Hitler.

I remember being in a big Berlin café when it was announced that Hitler was to speak on the radio. The loudspeaker was turned on. Next to me was a group of German businessmen. They went on talking in low voices. At another table was a woman writing a letter. She went on writing. The only man who stood up was a small man with his tie creeping over his collar at the back of his neck. No one else in the crowded café listened to Adolf Hitler.

Philip Gibbs, writing in 1934

Source C

A German newspaper advert publicises a radio broadcast by Hitler.

Attention! The Führer is speaking on the radio. On Wednesday 21 March the Führer is speaking on all German radio stations from 11.00 to 11.50 am. The district Party headquarters has ordered that all factory owners, department stores, offices, shops, inns and blocks of flats put up loudspeakers an hour before the broadcast so that the whole workforce and all national comrades can participate fully in the broadcast.

Newspaper advertisement, 1934

Source D

Hitler outlines his ideal for German youth.

The ideal of manhood has not always been the same even for our own people. There were times when the ideal of the young man was the chap who could hold his beer and was good for a drink. What we look for from our German youth is different from what people wanted in the past. In our eyes the German youth of the future must be slim and slender, swift as the greyhound, tough as leather and as hard as Krupp steel. We must educate a new type of man.

Adolf Hitler, speaking at the Nuremberg Party rally, September 1935

Source E

A modern historian reflects on the impact of Nazi influence on everyday life and culture.

National Socialist doctrine lived in almost every painting, film, stamp and public building, in toys for children, in people’s houses, in tales and costumes, in the layout of villages, in the songs and poems taught in schools, even in household goods. There was no casual spectator; everyone played a part. Discipline, obedience, self-sacrifice, loyalty, duty. These were the highest virtues. Individuals had to submerge themselves into the mass of the people’s community. The penetration of Nazi culture into every sphere of social life never ceased.

P. Adam, The Arts of the Third Reich, 1992