Hitler and Propaganda

There is no question that Hitler's infamous diatribe, Mein Kampf (1925), is in and of itself one of the world's most influential pieces of propaganda - easily the single most influential work amongst all the variant types of fascism.  But Mein Kampf, or "my struggle," is also a work that specifically addresses the subject of propaganda as well. While both volumes of Hitler's autobiography/ideological rant are peppered with references to the subject, two chapters focus exclusively on the subject of propaganda.

Volume I, Chapter 6: War Propaganda

Surprisingly, perhaps, to the first-time reader, Hitler asserts repeatedly and at great length that the Allies were far more effective in their use of propaganda during the First World War and he insists that far more can be learned more from their efforts than from those of the Central Powers.  He also insists that propaganda is definitively defined as a means, rather than an ends - aimed at guaranteeing national honor and thus national survival.  Ideational manipulation is not a product of libido dominandi but emerges out of inherent scientific necessity, according to Hitler.

Hitler will go on at length with regards to the subject of propaganda's proper audience and who it should be oriented in order to capture that audience.  Propaganda, he insists, is intended to capture the loyalty of the masses, not the intelligentsia.  I quote here:

"To whom has propaganda to appeal? To the scientific intelligentsia or to the less educated masses?

It has to appeal forever and only to the masses!  

Propaganda is not for the intelligentsia or for those who unfortunately call themselves by that name today, but

scientific teaching. But propaganda is in its contents as far from being science as perhaps a poster is art in its presentation as such. A poster's art lies in the designer's ability to catch the masses' attention by outline and color. The poster for an art exhibition has to point only to the art of the exhibition; the more it succeeds in this, the greater therefore is the art of the poster itself. Further, the poster is to give to the masses an idea of the importance of the exhibition, but it is in no way to be a substitute for the art represented by the exhibition. Therefore, he who wants to occupy himself with art itself has really to study more than the poster; yes, for him it is by far not sufficient merely to 'walk through' the exhibition. It may be expected of him that he bury himself in the individual works by thoroughly looking them over so that then he may gradually form a just opinion for himself. 

The situation is a similar one with what today we call propaganda.

The task of propaganda lies not in a scientific training of the individual, but rather in directing the masses towards certain facts, events, necessities, etc., the purpose being to move their importance into the masses' field of vision. 

The art now is exclusively to attack this so skillfully that a general conviction of the reality of a fact, of the necessity of an event, that something; that is necessary is also right, etc., is created. But as it is not and cannot be science in itself, as its task consists of catching the masses' attention, just like that of the poster, and not in teaching one who is already scientifically experienced or is striving towards education and knowledge, its effect has always to be directed more and more towards the feeling, and only to a certain extent to so-called reason. (230-232)

Later, Hitler asserts that it is dangerous to ridicule the enemy in propaganda, since when soldiers meet the enemy and realize the enemy is dangerous, an internal contradiction emerges - Hitler even goes so far as to laud the bigoted British and American propaganda of the First World War which portrayed Germans as barbarians and "Huns." Indeed, Hitler argues that subtlety has no role in propaganda - the enemy must be portrayed utterly evil, while your own forces, intentions, and methods must be portrayed as absolutely good.  Hitler asserts:

Propaganda's task is, for instance, not to evaluate the various rights, but far more to stress exclusively the one that is to be represented by it. It has not to search into truth as far as this is favorable to others, in order to present it then to the masses with doctrinary honesty, but it has rather to serve its own truth uninterruptedly. (236)

The practitioner of propaganda, in Hitler's eyes, has no room for moral ambiguity or comparative ethics: moderation and the humanization of the enemy admit the possibility of self-doubt and the tendency to moderate one's actions and demands and this, argues Hitler, is unacceptable for practical purposes.  Indeed, Hitler acknowledges the primitiveness of this approach, and delights in it.

Hitler clarifies his position, asserting that simplicity is not enough - rather, the message of the propagandist must be simple, repeated, and intellectually contiguous over time.

Volume II, Chapter 11: Propaganda and Organization

Hitler opens this chapter by asserting that propaganda is more important in establishing a movement or organization than anything else - spreading the ideas and fundamental precepts of a movement will naturally lead to recruitment, the expansion of dedicated human capital.  From this capital the elites of the new movement may then be selected and, upon so doing, a formal institutionalization imposed.  He also distinguishes between what makes a great theorist a great theorist a great organizer a great organizer - critical to this distinction is the fact that the great organizer is an expert in human psychology - to paraphrase Hitler, the great organizer neither overestimates human individuals nor underestimates the power inherent in human masses.

Later, Hitler distinguishes between two fundamental types of audiences - followers and members.  Followers, argues Hitler, are those who merely share values with a movement; it is essentially passive and primarily motivated by propaganda.  Members are those persons recruited by the institutional core of a movement into active participation.  The followers will, inevitably, be ruled by members in this scenario - the goal of propaganda is, indeed, to accomplish uniform agreement across society as to the ends and means thereof (totalitarian ethics, perhaps), but there is no need to attempt to bring everyone into active support of those values - the submission of eighty or ninety percent of society to the principle-embodiment of the ruling "membership" class is more than adequate.  Indeed, the measure of a program of propaganda's success is observable in the proportion of followers to members - the more effective the propaganda, the fewer members are necessary to control a given number of followers.  This rule holds for both explicitly religious and political movements.

Hitler also argues that for propaganda to work properly the propagandistic organ should be largely independent of the organizational apparatus of a movement, loyal and subservient only to the chairman of the movement.  I find this particularly interesting since I observed, in practical terms at least, virtually the same conditions in the People's Republic of China in my master's thesis work - the propaganda organs of the PRC are controlled directly by the elite leadership of the state and, therefore, reflect only the vision of the very elite - the opinions and machinations of the political "managerial" class are merely unimportant.

Most of the rest of the chapter is a rambling discourse on the early years of Hitler's work as a propagandist, seemingly intended to justify his labors and glorify his struggle against poverty.

Conclusion

Regardless of Hitler's extended ravings and his obscene bigotry, he clearly demonstrates a functional theory of propaganda, one which resembles a sledge hammer more than an ice pick, perhaps, but one which was clearly successful in achieving his ends.  Indeed, his model in Mein Kampf could potentially have use for scholars of propaganda as a lodestone for developing a set of "language rules" for totalitarian (and even non-totalitarian) systems of propagandizing.

Note: Quotes in this article are taken from the 1941 Reynal & Hitchcock (in arrangement with Houghton Mifflin Company and apparently based on HMC's 1939 edition) English language edition of Mein Kampf.