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

by Joseph Goebbels

  As in all other areas, the changes are primarily spiritual in nature. The radio must be brought out of the stubborn emptiness of its technical limitations into the lively spiritual developments of our age. It is not possible for the radio to ignore the times. More than any other form of public expression, it has the duty to meet the needs and demands of the day. A radio that does not seek to deal with the problems of the day does not deserve to influence the broad masses. It will soon become an empty playground for technicians and intellectual experimenters. We live in the age of the masses; the masses rightly demand that they participate in the great events of the day. The radio is the most influential and important intermediary between a spiritual movement and the nation, between the idea and the people.

  That requires a clearly expressed direction. I have spoken of this often with regards to various areas of our spiritual life. There can be no lack of direction, either with people or with things. The moral value or lack thereof depends not on words, but on content. The direction and the goal always determine whether something is good, useless or even harmful for our people.

  A government that has determined to bring a nation together so that it is once more a center of power in the scales of great world events has not only the right, but the duty, to subordinate all aspects of the nation to its goals, or at least ensure that they are supportive. That is also true for the radio. The more significant something is in influencing the will of the broad masses, the greater its responsibility to the future of the nation.

  That does not mean we want to turn the radio into a spineless servant of our partisan political interests. The new German politics rejects any partisan limitations. It seeks the totality of the people and nation, and the reconstructive work it plans or has already begun includes all who are of good will. Within the framework of these great tasks, the radio, if it is to remain living, must hold to and advance its own artistic and spiritual laws. Just as its technical methods are modern and distinct, so too are its artistic capacities. It is only distantly related to the stage and film. It is rarely possible to bring a powerful stage or film presentation to the radio with no changes. There is a style of speaking on the radio, a style of drama, of opera, of radio show. The radio is in no way a branch of the stage or film, but rather an independent entity with its own rules.

  It faces particular demands to be contemporary. It works with the tasks and needs of the day. Its duty is to give immediate events lasting meaning. Its actuality is both its greatest danger and its greatest strength. It gave impressive evidence on 21 March[21] and 1 May[22] of its ability to reach the people with great historical events. The first event acquainted the entire nation with a major political event, the second with an event of social-political significance. Both reached the entire nation, regardless of class, standing, or religion. That was primarily the result of the tight centralization, the strong reporting, and the up-to-date nature of the German radio.

  Being up-to-date brings one close to the people. We call our revolution a popular one for good reason. It came from the depths of the people. It was carried out by the people, and done for them. It dethroned absolute individualism and put the people once again at the center. It broke with the weary skepticism of our intellectual leadership, which in the end turned out to be only a thin layer of morbid big-city intellectualism that left the masses alone in their hopeless misery.

  The problems that we in the government face today are the same problems that face the man in the street. The problems we treat over the ether in plays, speeches, addresses and dramas are the problems that directly concern people. The better the radio recognizes them and treats them in fresh and varied ways, the better it will fulfill its tasks and the more the people will resolve to deal with these problems.

  Before we reach this ideal situation in our radio policies, there are a series of preparations and problems to deal with. These are primarily organizational. Probably as a result of the period behind us, which ignored spiritual and political responsibilities, the art of organization developed to an intolerable degree. This disease of the age infected radio stations as well. Here too one organized not what had to be organized, but whatever could be organized. A hundred cooks spoil the broth, a hundred bureaucrats spoiled any spiritual accomplishments. The more committees, review committees, bureaucrats and higher offices there were in the German radio system, the less its political accomplishments. Here more than anywhere else, there were no personalities who took pleasure in responsibility. The spiritual energy, the flexibility necessary to reach the people in changing times, may not be the responsibility of boards, commissions or committees. They only get in the way. Here, too, faster than is generally believed, we will clearly and resolutely introduce the leadership principle.

  Excessive organization can only get in the way of productivity. The more bureaucrats there are, the more obscure the internal structures, the easier it is for someone to hide his inability or incompetence behind some committee or board. And not only that. Excessive organization is always the beginning of corruption. It confuses responsibility and thus enables those of weak character to enrich themselves at public expense.

  That is what formerly happened in the German radio system. There were huge salaries that lacked any justification given what was accomplished, outrageous expense accounts, generous insurance policies, usually inversely related to any positive achievements. There are some today who claim to have been the “fathers of radio.” One can only say to them that they were not the ones who developed radio, but rather that they made no productive use of it in hard times. They only knew how to exploit it for their own benefit. It would surely be good for those who really built the German radio if they did not have to stand beside these fortune hunters with their fat wallets and empty consciences. As the saying has it: “Tell me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are.”

  I need not say that the government of the National Socialist revolution will not be moved in its resolve to bring order here. We will eliminate excessive organization as quickly as possible, replacing it with Spartan simplicity and economy. We will also systematically increase productivity in all areas. We will bring to the microphone the best spiritual elements of the nation, making the radio into the most multifaceted, flexible means of expressing the wishes, needs, longings, and hopes of our age.

  We do not intend to use the radio only for our partisan purposes. We want room for entertainment, popular arts, games, jokes, and music. But everything should have a relationship to our day. Everything should include the theme of our great reconstructive work, or at least not stand in its way. Above all it is necessary to clearly centralize all radio activities, to place spiritual tasks ahead of technical ones, to introduce the leadership principle, to provide a clear worldview, and to present this worldview in flexible ways.

  We want a radio that reaches the people, a radio that works for the people, a radio that is an intermediary between the government and the nation, a radio that also reaches across our borders to give the world a picture of our character, our life, and our work. The money produced by radio should in general go back to it. If there are surpluses, they should be used to serve the spiritual and cultural needs of the whole nation. If the stage and publishing suffer from the rapid growth of radio, we will use the revenues not necessary for the radio to maintain and strengthen our intellectual and artistic life. The purpose of radio is to teach, entertain, and support people, not to gradually harm the intellectual and cultural life of the nation. One of my main tasks in the near and more distant future will be to keep a reasonable balance in this regard. I am convinced that the radio as well as the stage, publishing, and film will benefit.

  With the opening of this exhibition, a systematic campaign to advertise for new radio receivers begins. We will use the knowledge of propaganda we gained in the past years. Our goal is to double German radio listenership. That will result in a financial foundation that will not only enable radio to carry on its mission, but also will support the
entire intellectual and cultural life of the nation. We will strengthen the stage, film, music, and publishing, providing a firm financial foundation.

  This year’s radio exhibition opens in this spirit. Its keynote is the People’s Receiver. Its low price will enable the broad masses to become radio listeners. Science and industry have done what they could, earning the thanks of the government and of the whole nation. May the radio leadership now do its part. Then we will together accomplish our goal. If science, industry and intellectual leaders work hand in hand, and if their common efforts are supported by a steadfast sense of the highest political responsibility, then we will leave behind the many mistakes and errors of the past and open a new era of German radio. It will open new paths not only for Germany’s political life, but for the work of radio throughout the world.

  This exhibition stands in the shadow of this great task. It is a start, a beginning, an expression of German courage and German confidence.

  It is our dearest wish that science, industry and the intellectual leadership of German radio from now on will follow a new path, at the end of which stands our common, great goal:

  One People, one Reich, one will, and a glorious German future!

  In this sense I declare the 10th German Radio Exhibition open.

  The Coming Europe

  Speech to Czechoslovakian artists and journalists, Berlin, September 11, 1940

  I welcome the opportunity to speak to you on a number of questions that in my view must be openly discussed if relations between the Reich and the Protectorate are to be improved. I believe it necessary to do so now, despite the war. I fear that once the war is over, we will not be able to discuss these matters as calmly as we now can.

  As intelligent people, you know that the greatest events in the history of Europe are now taking place. I am firmly convinced — how could it be otherwise! — that things will turn out to our advantage.

  When England falls, we will have the chance to reorganize Europe in a way that befits the social, economic, and technical possibilities of the twentieth century.

  Our German Reich went through a similar process about a hundred years ago. It was splintered into larger and smaller entities, just as Europe is divided today. This collection of small states was possible as long as the transportation system was such that it took considerable time to travel from one small principality to the next. The invention of the steam engine, however, rendered this situation untenable. Before the development of the railroad, one needed 24 hours to go from one place to another, but only three or four hours were necessary thereafter. Before the steam engine one could travel 24 hours before reaching a customs boundary, but even the most fanatic proponents of federalism found it intolerable once it took five hours, then three, then two, and finally only half an hour.

  There were also forces in the Reich back then who attempted to remedy the situation through negotiation. History proved that their way was false, and in a rather common way. History follows harder laws than those that usually prevail at the negotiating table. You will recall perhaps Bismarck’s words from those years. He said that German unity would come not through speeches and decisions, but through blood and iron. This was controversial at the time, but history proved its correctness. The unity of the Reich was established through battles. A large number of the peculiarities of the individual areas, along with their prejudices, narrow-mindedness and limited horizons were overcome. They had to be overcome, since the Reich otherwise would not have been able to compete with the other powers in Europe. Our unification was the foundation of our ability to overcome these problems.

  Naturally there were Bavarians or Saxons or Wurtembergers or people from Baden or Schaumberg-Lippe who were unhappy about developments, but in the end their prejudices vanished and their attention turned to the greater goal, the new Reich.

  Of course, the Bavarian remained a Bavarian, the Saxon a Saxon, the Prussian a Prussian. But they saw beyond their provincial origins to a larger community, and in the course of the decades learned that a whole series of economic, financial, foreign, and military problems could be resolved through the community.

  The greatness of the Reich was the result of this process — a process that seems obvious to us today, but which many back then some could not or would not understand. They were the prisoners of their prejudices, and lacked the strength to overcome them and imagine a better world. Only a few could look beyond their own age.

  The railroad is no longer the most modern method of transportation, having been replaced by the airplane. A modern airplane covers a distance in an hour or an hour and a half for which a train needs twelve hours. Technology has brought not only tribes, but also peoples closer together than could even be imagined in the past. In the past one needed 24 hours to speak from Berlin to Prague through a newspaper. Today I only need a second. Standing before this microphone, one can simultaneously be heard in Prague, Slovakia, Warsaw, Brussels, and Den Haag. I once needed twelve hours to travel from Berlin to Prague by train. Now I can fly in an hour. Technology has once again brought people closer together. It is certainly no accident that this technology has developed only recently. The population of Europe has grown, presenting Europe with entirely new problems in agriculture, the economy, finance, and the military. And the continents, too, have grown closer as a result of new technology. Europeans are more and more realizing that our differences are only family squabbles when measured against the vast problems that the continents must solve.

  I am convinced that, just as we look back with some amusement on the narrow-minded conflicts between German provinces in the 1840s and 1850s, our posterity in fifty years will look back with similar amusement on what is going on today in Europe. They will see the “dramatic battles between nations” of small European states as family squabbles. I am convinced that in fifty years we will no longer think in terms of nations, but of continents, and that entirely different, and perhaps much larger, problems will concern Europe.

  Do not think that, as we bring about a certain order in Europe, we do it to harm individual nations. The freedom of individual countries must be brought in harmony with the conditions of the present and with simple questions of practicality. Just as a member of a family does not have the right to disturb everyone else’s peace, an individual nation does not have the right to resist the larger order.

  We have never intended to promote this ordering or reordering process by force. Although we are Germans, we do not wish to injure the economic, cultural or social characteristics of the Bavarians or Saxons. It is no more in our interest to injure those, say, of the Czech people. However, the two peoples must understand each other. We must be either friends or enemies. As I believe you know well from history, the Germans can be terrible enemies, or good friends. We can extend our hand to a friend and work with him. We can also destroy an enemy.

  The peoples who have joined this ordering process, or who will join it, have to decide if they will participate whole-heartedly and loyally, or if they will resist it. That will not change the facts. You may be sure that once the Axis powers have defeated England, they will not allow major political, economic or social changes in the re-organized Europe. If England cannot stop it, neither can the Czech people. If you have understood recent history, you will know that today’s political power situation cannot and will not be altered.

  Therefore, gentlemen, I speak realistically, with no appeal to sentiment. It makes no difference whether you like this or not. Whether you applaud it or not, the facts remain the same. I believe that when one cannot change a situation and must accept certain disadvantages because of it, one would be foolish not to accept its advantages as well. Since you have become a part of the Reich, I do not see why the Czech people would prefer to oppose the Reich rather than to accept its advantages.

  You have had to accept a series of political changes. I know that they were not pleasant. No one knows that better than I. I know that you have had to give up things that you enjoyed in the past
, and I know that one does not adjust to such a situation overnight. There are certain matters that are much more unpleasant than they seem from the perspective of the Reich.

  Nonetheless: If you have to accept the disadvantages, I believe you should also accept the advantages. Let me give an example.

  In 1933, we faced the Jewish Question. Everyone in the world knew that we opposed the Jews. We discovered the disadvantages of anti-Semitism, but we also got the benefits. We had to accept the fact that we were slandered and attacked throughout the world. We also got the advantages — namely excluding the Jews from theater, film, public life, and the government. When we were later attacked as enemies of the Jews, we at least could say: It was worth it. We got something for it.

  You, gentlemen, have had a chance to visit the Reich. I made sure that you had done so before speaking to you. You have seen the Reich in the middle of a war, and will be able to imagine how it will look in peace. Our well-populated Reich and Italy will lead Europe. That will happen. There is no changing it. For you, this means that you are part of a large Reich that will give a new order to Europe. It will put an end to a situation that clearly cannot satisfy people. We are about a work of reform that I am sure will be a major chapter in European history. Can you imagine the importance of the Reich after the war?

  You know that we have made energetic efforts not only in politics, but also in the cultural and economic spheres. You know that we want the people to join in these measures and their results. Let me give an example: Formerly, German films had an audience of 86 million. In the future, the audience will be much larger. It is up to you whether you want to participate, or stand aside. You can be sure that in the latter case, we have the ways and means to eliminate Czech films. We do not want to do that. We would rather you join with us. Nor do we want to suppress your cultural life. On the contrary, we want a lively cultural exchange. But that can happen only on the basis of loyalty. You must accept the present situation without leaving a back door open and thinking that if things go wrong, you will have a way out.