
Background: This is a summary of Goebbel’s speech on propaganda
to the 1927 Nuremberg rally, taken from a Nazi book on the rally. Compare
it with a more developed version of his thinking in 1928 speech to party members in Berlin.
The source: Alfred Rosenberg and Wilhelm Weiß, Reichsparteitag
der NSDAP Nürnberg 19./21. August 1927 (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher,
1927), pp. 30-32.
Goebbels’ Speech at the
1927 Nuremberg Rally
Dr. Goebbels spoke on the party’s propaganda. He began by
referring to his speech at the previous party rally in Weimar
in which he discussed various propaganda opportunities. Today
he wanted to lay out principles and show how propaganda cam be
transformed into a political organization. The idea becomes a
worldview on its way to governmental power.
Ideas find people to spread them. The more an idea spreads and reaches
all areas of life, the more it becomes a worldview. If an organization
becomes the bearer of a worldview, its ultimate goal is the government,
which is the bearer of the whole nation. Propaganda reaches its goal if
its worldview takes practical form by gaining control of the state. In
the beginning is the idea, which is taken up by propaganda and transformed
into an organization that seeks to win the state. The task of propaganda
is to spread knowledge. The speaker mentioned the notorious word “drummer,”
which “they” in their goodness and mercy apply to us. The essential
characteristic of propaganda is effectiveness. The best propaganda is
that which is most effective. It is good if I persuade three million people
to believe in a political theory, but it is even better if those three
million are ready to give their lives for the idea. But revolutions have
never been made by millions, but rather only by small minorities. Propaganda
does not need to be intellectual; it must be effective. It should express
our worldview in a way that can be understood by the masses. The völkisch
idea has existed for 50 years. I will grant that it was stronger 50 years
ago than it is today. But one must remember that on 9 November 1918 it
was not this idea, but another, that triumphed. If the völkisch
movement then had understood power and how to bring thousands out on the
streets, it would have gained political power on 9 November 1918. The
völkisch movement today is accused of simplifying its idea,
even of being indecent. A corrupted nation of 60 million suffering slavery
will not be freed by “high class” and “decency.” The
complaints about the National Socialist movement come from bourgeois anxiety.
People in the bourgeois camp ask if we are not really Bolshevists. The
speaker suggested such brilliant writers express their national doctrines
to a thousand communists in a working class meeting. He thought that they
quickly would not know whether or not they themselves were communists
(laughter). A political meeting is no polite gathering. The speaker must
make his knowledge understandable to the people before him. If the good
citizen is used to being spoken to in a “high class” way, then
one must tickle his fancies by being “high class” (laughter).
Most parties today do not know how to speak to the workers. With the German
people today in a desperate situation, one cannot use “white-gloved”
methods to reach them.
There are two kinds of propaganda, one aimed at the understanding,
the other the feelings. Both depend on imponderables. Worldview
movements aim for the feelings. The force behind worldview movements
has never been understanding, but rather faith. For example: Christ
never wrote a party program, but did preach the Sermon on the
Mount. In it he laid the foundations of a new world, summarized
in the simple phrase “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Rousseau’s words were the foundation of the French Revolution,
but if an agitator had not stood at his side his theory would
have slumbered on the bookshelves. Marx’s “Capital”
is the foundation of the Marxist movement. It would have remained
book learning had not thousands of agitators made it a political
force. Bebel and Lenin gave this philosophy political power,
not Marx. Mussolini is both the philosopher and agitator of Fascist
thinking. He is also the statesman who found in the March on
Rome the right action while he was chewing on his pen behind
his desk. When someone asked him about his theory of the state,
he answered that he had developed it while being asked! When
one wants to condemn a speaker who has found a way to connect
with the masses, one calls him a demagogue.
Marxism had two important intellectual fathers: Marx and Engels. The
Marxist movement is founded on their work. Bebel and Lenin brought Marxism
to the masses. Marxism never attempted to alleviate the misery of its
followers, but rather to use their misery to build the political power
that eventually gave it political success. National Socialism must do
the same. The leader stands at the head of the broad masses, but without
them he is nothing. Each needs the other. The individual is effective
when supported by the political will of the masses, the masses are effective
when they are captivated by the energy of the leader. Propaganda is good
if it is successful, if it reaches the group of people for which it is
intended.
The goal of our propaganda is control of the government. We
want to replace the organization with a state founded on the
idea.
[Page copyright © 2000 by Randall Bytwerk.
No unauthorized reproduction. My e-mail address is available on the FAQ page.]
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