Europe in the Year 2000:: And Other Essays, including “The Art of Propaganda”

by Joseph Goebbels

  That is yet another reason why a comparison to 1914 is completely wrong. The German people held on for four years only because its inner strength was so strong that it survived all the weaknesses and failures of its government. Today, it is different. The German people is able to fully use its national reserves of strength. What is winning today is a system prepared in 14 years of struggle and in seven years of practical work. It was given its creative spirit by a brilliant political and military genius, and can now live from its own strength.

  It is very easy for foreigners to attribute our political and military successes to an improbable sequence of good luck. It is the kind of luck that, as Moltke once said, only the virtuous have over the long term. We therefore face no really serious political or military developments in this war. Our enemies may be forced to imitate our methods, which they hate so much. One often says in the enemy camp that National Socialism can be fought only by using National Socialist methods, or something similar. However, we know only too well how much sweat, how much work, how much experience, and above all how much time, is necessary to achieve even the first successes. Today the enemy camp is shouting: “Arms, arms! More planes, more tanks!” Blind fools! We have exerted our full energy, with an unequaled national rhythm, sacrificing our people’s ease and comfort, to reach our goals. In the seven years we sacrificed to build our military, foreigners mocked our slogan: “First guns, then butter!” Today it is clear that one cannot conquer cannons with butter, but that cannons can conquer butter. From today’s standpoint, they did us a favor in 1918 by taking our old weapons from us. We had to build our German military from the ground up so that it is not only the largest, but also the most modern, army in the world. We spared no expense, no sacrifice, no effort, to ensure that if war came, we would have to, have to, have to win it, or else lose our life as a nation.

  Mr. Churchill and Mr. Reynaud will not be able to persuade the world that France and England can recover from the first terrible blows they have received.[18] The parallels that their newspapers draw to 1914 — parallels that show their anxiety and bad conscience — are entirely wrong. In 1914, we had real weaknesses in our national defenses that our enemies could exploit. Today that is no longer the case. Our enemies are recalling retired old generals in their mid-70s and 80s, hoping they can provide a second “miracle on the Marne.” We can tell them that history does not repeat itself. It is too much to hope for that after agitating, threatening, and terrorizing the world for years, they can overcome their enemy by an unearned miracle.

  Miracles, too, have to be earned. Plutocracy has no way to escape today. It is trapped. It began this war confident that it could wage this war without bloodshed, using only economic blockade. Now it faces the hard necessity of having to fight. Thank God, they have left us in no doubt about what they would do to us if we lose: They prophesy the dissolution, dismemberment and destruction of our Reich and nation. Every German knows that. We had time enough to reflect on it during the long, hard winter months — all of us, German soldiers, farmers, and workers.

  The lords of the western plutocracies now have to fight these soldiers. Our farmers grow the daily bread for these soldiers, and the workers behind the front forge their weapons. They all know that in these days, weeks, and months, Germany’s fate for a thousand years to come will be decided. They are deeply aware of living in a unique age. They want to prove worthy of it, thus proving that they are a unique people as well.

  German Women

  First speech as Minister of Propaganda, 1933

  German women, German men!

  It is a happy accident that my first speech since taking charge of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda is to German women. Although I agree with Treitschke that men make history, I do not forget that women raise boys to manhood. You know that the National Socialist movement is the only party that keeps women out of daily politics. This arouses bitter criticism and hostility, all of it very unjustified. We have kept women out of the parliamentary-democratic intrigues of the past fourteen years in Germany not because we do not respect them, but because we respect them too much. We do not see the woman as inferior, but rather as having a different mission, a different value, than that of the man. Therefore we believed that the German woman, who more than any other in the world is a woman in the best sense of the word, should use her strength and abilities in other areas than the man.

  The woman has always been not only the man’s sexual companion, but also his fellow worker. Long ago, she did heavy labor with the man in the field. She moved with him into the cities, entering the offices and factories, doing her share of the work for which she was best suited. She did this with all her abilities, her loyalty, her selfless devotion, her readiness to sacrifice.

  The woman in public life today is no different than the women of the past. No one who understands the modern age would have the crazy idea of driving women from public life, from work, profession, and bread winning. But it must also be said that those things that belong to the man must remain his. That includes politics and the military. That is not to disparage women, only a recognition of how she can best use her talents and abilities.

  Looking back over the past years of Germany’s decline, we come to the frightening, nearly terrifying, conclusion that the less German men were willing to act as men in public life, the more women succumbed to the temptation to fill the role of the man. The feminization of men always leads to the masculinization of women. An age in which all great idea of virtue, of steadfastness, of hardness, and determination have been forgotten should not be surprised that the man gradually loses his leading role in life and politics and government to the woman.

  It may be unpopular to say this to an audience of women, but it must be said, because it is true and because it will help make clear our attitude toward women.

  The modern age, with all its vast revolutionary transformations in government, politics, economics, and social relations has not left women and their role in public life untouched. Things we thought impossible several years or decades ago are now everyday reality. Some good, noble, and commendable things have happened. But also things that are contemptible and humiliating. These revolutionary transformations have largely taken from women their proper tasks. Their eyes were set in directions that were not appropriate for them. The result was a distorted public view of German womanhood that had nothing to do with former ideals.

  A fundamental change is necessary. At the risk of sounding reactionary and outdated, let me say this clearly: The first, best, and most suitable place for the women is in the family, and her most glorious duty is to give children to her people and nation, children who can continue the line of generations and who guarantee the immortality of the nation. The woman is the teacher of the youth, and therefore the builder of the foundation of the future. If the family is the nation’s source of strength, the woman is its core and center. The best place for the woman to serve her people is in her marriage, in the family, in motherhood. This is her highest mission. That does not mean that those women who are employed or who have no children have no role in the motherhood of the German people. They use their strength, their abilities, their sense of responsibility for the nation, in other ways. We are convinced, however, that the first task of a socially reformed nation must be to again give the woman the possibility to fulfill her real task, her mission in the family and as a mother.

  The national revolutionary government is everything but reactionary. It does not want to stop the pace of our rapidly moving age. It has no intention of lagging behind the times. It wants to be the flag bearer and pathfinder of the future. We know the demands of the modern age. But that does not stop us from seeing that every age has its roots in motherhood, that there is nothing of greater importance than the living mother of a family who gives the state children.

  German women have been transformed in recent years. They are beginning to see that they are not happier as a result of being given more rights but fewer duti
es. They now realize that the right to be elected to public office at the expense of the right to life, motherhood, and her daily bread is not a good trade.

  A characteristic of the modern era is a rapidly declining birthrate in our big cities. In 1900, two million babies were born in Germany. Now the number has fallen to one million. This drastic decline is most evident in the nation’s capital. In the last fourteen years, Berlin’s birthrate has become the lowest of any European city. By 1955, without emigration, it will have only about three million inhabitants. The government is determined to halt this decline of the family and the resulting impoverishment of our blood. There must be a fundamental change. The liberal attitude toward the family and the child is responsible for Germany’s rapid decline. We today must begin worrying about an aging population. In 1900 there were seven children for each elderly person, today it is only four. If current trends continue, by 1988 the ratio will be 1 : 1. These statistics say it all. They are the best proof that if Germany continues along its current path, it will end in an abyss with breathtaking speed. We can almost determine the decade when Germany collapses because of depopulation.

  We are not willing to stand aside and watch the collapse of our national life and the destruction of the blood we have inherited. The national revolutionary government has the duty to rebuilt the nation on its original foundations, to transform the life and work of the woman so that it once again best serves the national good. It intends to eliminate the social inequalities so that once again the life of our people and the future of our people and the immortality of our blood is assured.

  I welcome this exhibition, whose goal is to explain and teach, and to reduce or eliminate harm to the individual and the whole people. This serves the nation and popular enlightenment, and to support it is one of the happiest duties of the new government.

  Perhaps this exhibition titled “The Woman” will represent a turning point. If the goal of the exhibition is to give an impression of women in contemporary society, it does so at a time when German society is undergoing the greatest changes in generations. I am aware of how difficult this is. I know the obstacles that had to be overcome to give this exhibition a clear theme and a firm structure. It should show the significance of the woman for the family, the people, and the whole nation. Displays will give an impression of the actual life of women today, and will provide the knowledge necessary to resolve today’s conflicting opinions, which were not primarily the result of the contemporary women’s movement.

  But that is not all. The main purpose of the exhibition “The Woman” is not only to show the way things are, but to make proposals for improvement. It aims to show new ways and new opportunities. Clear and often drastic examples will give thousands of German women reason to think and consider. It is particularly pleasing to us men in the new government that families with many children are given particular attention, since we want to rescue the nation from decline. The importance of the family cannot be overestimated, especially in families without fathers that depend entirely upon the mother. In these families the woman has sole responsibility for the children, and she must realize the responsibility she has to her people and nation.

  We do not believe that the German nation is destined by fate to decline. We have blind confidence that Germany still has a great mission in the world. We have faith that we are not at the end of our history, but rather that a new, great and honorable period of our history is now beginning. This faith gives us the strength to work and not despair. It enabled us to make great sacrifices over the past fourteen years. It gave millions of German women the strength to hope in Germany and its future, and to let their sons join in the reawakening of the nation. This faith was with the brave women who lost their husbands and breadwinners in the war, with those who gave their sons in the battle to renew their people. This faith kept us standing during the need and desperation of the past fourteen years. And this faith today fills us with new hope that Germany will again find its place in the sun.

  Nothing makes one harder and more determined than struggle. Nothing gives more courage than to face resistance. During the years when Germany seemed destined to decline, a new kind of womanhood developed under the confused veneer of modern civilization. It is hard, determined, courageous, willing to sacrifice. During the four years of the great war and the fourteen years of German collapse that followed, German women and mothers proved themselves worthy companions of their men. They have borne all the bitterness, all the privation and danger, and did not fail when hit by misfortune, worry and trouble. As long as a nation has such a proud and noble womanhood, it cannot perish. These women are the foundation of our race, of its blood and of its future.

  This is the beginning of a new German womanhood. If the nation once again has mothers who proudly and freely choose motherhood, it cannot perish. If the woman is healthy, the people will be healthy. Woe to the nation that neglects its women and mothers. It condemns itself.

  We hope that the concept of the German woman will again earn the honor and respect of the entire world. The German woman will then take her pride in her land and her people, in thinking German and feeling German. The honor of her nation and her race will be most important to her. Only a nation that does not forget its honor will be able to guarantee its daily bread.

  The German woman should never forget that.

  I declare this exhibition open. May it reveal all the former errors and show the way to the future.

  Then the world will once again respect us, and we will be able to affirm the words of Walther von der Vogelweide,[19] who had this to say about the German woman in his famous poem:

  He who seeks

  Virtue and proper love,

  Should come to our land.

  There is much joy.

  Long may I live there.

  The Radio as the Eighth Great Power

  Speech at the opening of a radio exhibition, August 18, 1933.

  My fellow national comrades!

  Napoleon spoke of the “press as the seventh great power.” Its significance became politically visible with the beginning of the French Revolution, and maintained its position for the entirety of the 19th century. The century’s politics were largely determined by the press. One can hardly imagine or explain the major historical events between 1800 and 1900 without considering the powerful influence of journalism.

  The radio will be for the twentieth century what the press was for the nineteenth century. With the appropriate change, one can apply Napoleon’s phrase to our age, speaking of the radio as the eighth great power. Its discovery and application are of truly revolutionary significance for contemporary community life. Future generations may conclude that the radio had as great an intellectual and spiritual impact on the masses as the printing press had before the beginning of the Reformation.

  The November Regime[20] was not able to understand the full significance of the radio. Even those who claimed to have awakened the people and gotten them involved in practical politics were without exception almost blind to the possibilities of this modern method of influencing the masses.

  At best, they saw it as an easy way to distract the masses from the difficulties of our national and social life through games and entertainment. Only reluctantly did they think of using radio for political purposes. As in all other things, they viewed radio through the mildew of an ostensible objectivity. They left the radio and its development to its technical and administrative experts, limiting their own use of it for partisan purposes to times of particular domestic crises.

  It goes without saying that the National Socialist revolution, which is modern and intent on action, as well as the popular upheaval we have led, must change abstract and lifeless methods in the radio. The old regime was content simply to fill empty offices or change the faces, without however changing the spirit and content of public life. We on the other hand intend a principled transformation in the worldview of our entire society, a revolution of the greatest possible extent that will leave
nothing out, changing the life of our nation in every regard.

  This process, which has been visible to the layman in the last six months, was naturally not random. It was systematically prepared and organized. We have used our power in the last six months to carry out this transformation. We spent the period before 30 January in winning power, having then the same goals that we have carried out in the six months since we took power.

  It would not have been possible for us to take power or to use it in the ways we have without the radio and the airplane. It is no exaggeration to say that the German revolution, at least in the form it took, would have been impossible without the airplane and the radio.

  It is in fact a modern revolution, and it has used the most modern methods to win and use power. It therefore does not need saying that the government resulting from this revolution cannot ignore the radio and its possibilities. To the contrary, it is resolved to use them to the fullest extent in the work of national construction that is before us, and in ensuring that this revolution can stand the test of history.

  That means a series of important reforms in the organization and content of the radio. On the one hand, these reforms will assure the organic continuation of the radio and its further development both in the near and long term. They will also mean a transformation of its whole nature, bringing it in tune with the modern community of our people.