Getting Hands-On With History

On Sunday we did a Berlin walking tour. We had never been to Germany before this trip therefore, it was fascinating to be able to see some of the most important historical landmarks of Berlin. The city of Berlin has some very rich history within it so it was intriguing to be able to see where history took place-- things we normally only read about in textbooks-- and be able to see the transformation of this city over the years.

From a communications aspect, there were a lot of things on this tour that we learned and that the tour guide spoke about which hit on our fall project of Nazi Propaganda.

Although the whole tour was not focused on Nazi Propaganda there was some portions here and there that did. For starters, the tour guide discussed Joseph Goebbels and his promotion of Hitler and the Nazi Party to the public. In addition, the tour guide showed us some structures that were used and multiple posters used during WWII and explained the many usages of propaganda during WWII.

Included among the propaganda shown to us by the tour guides was the book entitled, "Der Giftpilz." In English, this translates to "The Poisonous Mushroom." 

       

The book itself was a complication of short stories written by Nazi writer Ernst Hiemer and directed towards a German youth audience. Essentially what this book did was brainwash German children to have a strong dislike for Jewish people. In the fall, we learned that this book's title came from the first story in the book. In the story, a German mother talks to her son about how Jewish people are like poisonous mushrooms. She tells him, "Just as a single poisonous mushroom can kill a whole family, so a solitary Jew can destroy a whole village, a whole city, even an entire folk." This utilization of propaganda in the form of childish stories and pictures is important because children are highly impressionable. The implementation of Nazi ideals are easily transferred within this propaganda type.

Another propaganda piece described to us by our tour guide was a poster entitled, "Entartete Musik." In English this means, "Degenerate Music."

This poster is representative of the influence music had as a form of propaganda. German music, a source of pride to the country, was threatened during the interwar period. The increase in popularity of swing and jazz, as well as African-American and Jewish musicians meant a collapse of German values to the Nazis. In the eyes of the Nazis, the degeneration of music meant the degeneration of the nation and its people. This is represented in the poster by the inclusion of a man that appears to be an ape wearing the Star of David. This poster was meant to show the fact that the current state of German musicians is regressing just as humans can regress to their primative ape ancestors.

Our tour guide's description of these pieces on our walk was very relevant to our topic of Nazi Propaganda. We walked away with a more detailed knowledge of what we learned in the fall about the different avenues of propaganda within the Nazi Party.

-Jordyn Jaffe and Chelsea Weber