In comparison:
Methods of censorship in
Nazi-Germany and in the
U.S.S.R.
Hanna Fischer
I. Methods of Censorship in
Nazi-Germany
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
1. Celebrities and institutions
2. „Gleichschaltung“
3. Control of media through three
levels
4. 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 subpositions
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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
Otto Dietrich
the dictator of the German
publishing
Hitler‘s good friend
• owned publishing house
• Chairman of the Union
of German Newspaper
Publishers
• Secretary of the Press
Chamber and different
other positions
• 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
1. credibility: „In excited and strained times the
hunger for news must somehow be satisfied.“
2. for moral‘s sake: undesirable reactions on news
must be prevented
3. no risks: information about the outcome of a
development insufficient?
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Propaganda
1. Celebrities and institutions
2. „Gleichschaltung“
3. Control of media through three
levels
4. 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“)
- Hitler‘s speeches and „Das Wunschkonzert“
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Propaganda
1. Celebrities and institutions
2. „Gleichschaltung“
3. Control of media through three
levels
4. Résumé
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3. Control of media through 3 levels
The „Gleichschaltung“ was gained
through 3 levels of control:
1) legislative-institutional level
2) level of contents
3) economical level
example: press
(film and radio comparable, even more controled)
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3. Control of media through 3 levels
1) 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
February 1933
(„Reichstag fire“)
Emergency acts „For the protection of
the German people and state“:
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
2) 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
3) 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
1. Celebrities and institutions
2. „Gleichschaltung“
3. Control of media through three
levels
4. Résumé
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4. Résumé
The Nazis interfered in every aspect of public
and private life to an extent unknown in
Germany‘s history.
family
press
work
housing
All bore the
Nazi stamp.
education
radio
holidays
films
health
thoughts?
believe?
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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.
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
Nazi-Germany
Ministry of Popular
Enlightenment and
Propaganda
(and others)
U.S.S.R
GLAVLIT =
The Chief
Administration for the
Protection of State
Secrets in Press and
the Other Media
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Legislative level
Nazi-Germany
Censorship ratified by
constitution
•Emergency acts „For the
U.S.S.R
No authorization of
censorship through the
Constitution of the USSR
protection of the German
people and state“
• „Schriftleiter“-law
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Level of contents
Nazi-Germany
1. DNB
2. Berlin press
conferences
 no specific genre
U.S.S.R
1. GLAVIT
2. „social realism“
the only acceptive genre
of cultural service
(content, form, motifs,
language)
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Clandistine press
Nazi-Germany
• „Weiße Rose“-leaflets
• publishing abroad
U.S.S.R
• tamizdat
• samizdat
• „caption writers“ (camps)
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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.
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