Nazi and East German Propaganda

Guide Page

Propaganda was central to Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic. The German Propaganda Archive includes both propaganda itself and material produced for the guidance of propagandists. The goal is to help people understand the two great totalitarian systems of the twentieth century by giving them access to the primary material. For further information, see the FAQ. New items are described in the GPA Blog.

My book titled Bending Spines: The Propagandas of Nazi Germany and the German Democratic Republic (Michigan State University Press, 2004) provides an analysis of some of the material on the German Propaganda Archive. It can be ordered in the United States through Amazon. It is available in French and a bootlegged translation in Iran.

A Chinese translation appeared in July 2012 but was almost immediately banned by the Chinese government. It was apparently “unbanned” for a while, but I have been told that it is again banned. The book has had some influence on “The Great Translation Movement,” a project by overseas Chinese to put material from internal Chinese media on the Internet. According to participants in that project, my book is “terrifyingly familiar.”