In comparison: Methods of censorship in NaziGermany and in the U'S'S'R'

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In comparisonMethods of censorship in
Nazi-Germany and in the U.S.S.R.

• Hanna Fischer

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I. Methods of Censorship in Nazi-Germany
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The Nazi-Regime 1933-1945

• 1930-1933 Kampfzeit of NSDAP (Nazi-party)
• 1933-1934 Machtergreifung (seizure of power),
  Adolf Hitler as Führer
• 1933-1939 Establishing of a totalitarian,
  fascist, racist and cruel state the Deutsche
  Reich
• 1939-1945 World War II.

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Aspects of the Nazi-Regime

• Control
• Party (NSDAP)
• Ideology
• Propaganda
• Holocaust
• Industry
• War
• Enemies

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Propaganda

• Celebrities and institutions
• Gleichschaltung
• Control of media through three levels
• Résumé

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1. Celebrities and institutions

• News policy is a weapon of war and
• not to give out information.
• Joseph Goebbels

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1. Celebrities and institutions

• Joseph Goebbels
• unique position of power
• Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda
• different other sub-positions

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1. Celebrities and institutions

• Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda

Responsibility for all tasks of spiritual
direction of the nation

• active propaganda
• supervision of radio, film, press, theatre
• protection of works of art and memorials
• regulation of state celebrations and holidays
• control of the whole range of propaganda abroad,
  foreign press and tourist traffic

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1. Celebrities and institutions

• Overlapping of competences and confusion of
  direction

state organization (ministry)
trade organization (trade unions)
party organization (NSDAP)
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1. Celebrities and institutions

• Max Amann
• the dictator of the German publishing
• owned publishing house
• Chairman of the Union of German Newspaper
  Publishers
• Secretary of the Press Chamber and different
  other positions

• Otto Dietrich
• Hitlers good friend
• Head of NSDAP Press
• other press positions

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1. Celebrities and institutions

• Over-organization, rivalry, animosities and
  overlapping of competences
• made press control system complex and
  complicated
• could provide little holes

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1. Celebrities and institutions

• Goebbels principles of propaganda
• Principle 9 about the use of censorship

• credibility In excited and strained times the
  hunger for news must somehow be satisfied.
• for morals sake undesirable reactions on news
  must be prevented
• no risks information about the outcome of a
  development insufficient?

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Propaganda

• Celebrities and institutions
• Gleichschaltung
• Control of media through three levels
• Résumé

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2. Gleichschaltung

• Gleichschaltung ( Achievement of uniformity)
• the federal states, organizations, intitutions,
  parties, unions, , every single citizen were
  adjusted to the nazi-policy and ideology
• centralisation of all propaganda-activities and
  media

implied the elimination of every alternative
source of information
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2. Gleichschaltung

• Re-organization of media and press systems

• 1) Gleichschaltung of the press
• a slow, costly and labories process
• press was seen as
• exponent of the liberal spirit, the product and
  instrument of the French Revolution

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2. Gleichschaltung

• 2) Gleichschaltung of the film industry and
  broadcasting
• easier and impressive results
• film
• special patronage by Goebbels (producer)
• UFA company
• gap-less control (prescriptive and restrictive)

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2. Gleichschaltung

• radio
• most coveted medium
• seen as essentially authoritarian
• and therefore suitable as
• a spiritual weapon of the totalitarian state
• Volksempfänger (Goebbels snout)
• Hitlers speeches and Das Wunschkonzert

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Propaganda

• Celebrities and institutions
• Gleichschaltung
• Control of media through three levels
• Résumé

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3. Control of media through 3 levels

• The Gleichschaltung was gained through 3 levels
  of control

• legislative-institutional level
• level of contents
• economical level

example press (film and radio comparable, even
more controled)
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3. Control of media through 3 levels

• legislative-institutional level

30. Jan 1933

• Machtergreifung (seizure of power) of NSDAP
• Hitler as Chancellor

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3. Control of media through 3 levels

• Emergency acts For the protection of the German
  people and state

February 1933 (Reichstag fire)

• abolition of basic human rights
• freedom of opinion and expression
• freedom of press, association and assembly
• freedom of communication (mail telephone)

• suppression of all Communist, SPD and liberal
  newspapers

1933 4,703 newspapers in Germany (6 NSDAP)
1944 977 newspapers (82 NSDAP, 100 controled)
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3. Control of media through 3 levels

• October 1933

Schriftleiter-law (Schriftleiter Germanized
word for journalist)

• all journalist became civil servants
• list of licenced journalists
• admission arische descent and political
  reliability
• duty to keep everything away from the newspapers
  that is against the honour and dignity of a
  German

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3. Control of media through 3 levels

• Schriftleiter-law

• no editorial independence at all
• law gave Goebbels an instrument for the
  achievement of a complete uniformity of press
• no need for cencorship

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3. Control of media through 3 levels
Image of the ideal editor

• journalist
• propagandist
• speaker
• SA trooper
• newspaperman
• absolvent of the Reichspresseschule

in one person eagerly supporting the Führer
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3. Control of media through 3 levels

• level of contents

Deutsches Nachrichtenbüro (DNB Darf Nichts
Bringen)

• official news agency
• How to write what, when, where and in
  which colour?

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3. Control of media through 3 levels

• Berlin Press Conferences

• dispension of information
• selected journalists
• issue of Goebbels orders
• secret press directives

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3. Control of media through 3 levels

• economical level

• Nazi-Party had monopolies in all media branches
• restriction on last private publishing houses ?
  economical ruin taking-over

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3. Control of media through 3 levels

• (the 4th level violence and naked fear)

• Gestapo
• SS-troops
• SA-troops
• KZ (Concentration camps)

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Where books are burnt, there, finally, people
will be burnt, too! Heinrich Heine
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• 10. May 1933 Burning of books
• students Action against the un-German spirit
• index lists in public places
• first 131 authors (Sigmund Freud, Albert
  Einstein, Berthold Brecht, Erich Maria Remarque,
  Karl Marx, etc.)
• regular updates

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Propaganda

• Celebrities and institutions
• Gleichschaltung
• Control of media through three levels
• Résumé

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4. Résumé

• The Nazis interfered in every aspect of public
  and private life to an extent unknown in
  Germanys history.

press
family
work
housing
All bore the Nazi stamp.
education
holidays
radio
films
thoughts? believe?
health
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4. Résumé

• After the first two years there was nothing left
  that could be censored
• Every expression was controlled by Nazis.
• Every expression uttered and heard was produced
  by Nazis.
• Every piece of news was created by Nazis.

? the prescriptive censorship made a restrictive
one (nearly) unnecessary
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II. Comparison to the U.S.S.R.
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U.S.S.R.

• ideology
• historical development of the U.S.S.R.
• ideological
• economical
• interlectual
• centralized state bureaucracy

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Institutional level
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Legislative level
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Level of contents
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Clandistine press
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Conclusion
(prescriptive, restrictive and self-) Censorship
was/is a necessary consequence of state monopoly
in the means of communication.
Who controls expression, controls the people!
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Conclusion
The methods of Nazi-Germany and the USSR were
very alike elaborated propahanda/ cencorship
systems Two systems with two different
ideologies, but the same aim complete power over
the people.