Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations     viii
Acknowledgements     x
Introduction: 'Totalitarianism', Propaganda, War and the Third Reich     1
Propaganda, propagandist and the audience     1
Effective propaganda and the limits of NS 'totalitarianism'     6
Main premises     12
Structure and foci of the book     13
Propaganda, 'Co-ordination' and 'Centralisation': The Goebbels Network in Search of a Total Empire     16
Cinema     19
Press     26
Broadcasting     31
'Polyocracy' versus 'Centralisation': The Multiple 'Networks' of NS Propaganda     40
Polyocracy and 'charismatic' power in the NS regime     40
The role of Goebbels in NS propaganda: power-base and limits     43
The 'Dietrich network'     47
The 'Ribbentrop' network     49
The case of Alfred Rosenberg     51
The rise of Martin Bormann     53
The 'OKW network'     56
Himmler and Speer     58
The 'Goebbels network' strikes back: 1943-45     59
The Discourses of NS Propaganda: Long-Term Emplotment and Short-Term Justification     63
NS propaganda and long-term positive integration     65
Negative integration: the (powerful) common denominator     70
The early common denominator: 'plutocrats' and 'the Jew'     71
Anti-Bolshevism     76
The construction of a negative megan-narrative: the 'Jewish-Bolshevik-plutocratic alliance'     83
From 'Short Campaign' to 'Gigantic Confrontation': NS Propaganda and the Justification of War, 1939-41     93
Justifying 'war', 1939     93
From plan to invasion: the campaign against Poland and the first 'triumph'     98
The campaign against the west: the second 'triumph'     100
NS policy (and propaganda) at crossroads: Britain or Russia?     104
Towards the attack on the Soviet Union ('Barbarossa')     106
From Triumph to Disaster: NS Propaganda from the Launch of 'Barbarossa' until Stalingrad     111
The first stage of 'Barbarossa' (1941)     111
The first adversities: Pearl Harbour, 'General Winter' and the extension of the war     117
The 'year of decision': 1942     121
The turning point: Stalingrad (September 1942-January 1943)     125
NS Propaganda and the Loss of the Monopoly of Truth (1943-44)     130
The Stalingrad aftermath: NS propaganda and 'public opinion'     130
Bouncing back after Stalingrad: 'Total war' and 'fear'     133
The subversion of the regime's monopoly of truth     137
The 'Hitler-cult': staying power and disintegration     145
The withdrawal of Hitler - a new role for Goebbels?     148
The Winding Road to Defeat: The Propaganda of Diversion and Negative Integration     153
NS propaganda from consensus to negative integration     153
In search for 'victory'     154
Allied 'terror attacks' and 'retaliation' (Vergeltung)     160
The eastern front: defeat, 'shortening' and 'planned evacuation'     168
Diverting attention from the east and the west     173
Preparing for the final showdown     178
Cinema and Totalitarian Propaganda: 'Information' and 'Leisure' in NS Germany, 1939-45     185
The Wochenschau (newsreel)     188
Documentary as reality     194
The historical film as contemporary narrative     198
Commercial and politically valuable? The 'entertainment film' and NS propaganda     207
Managing German cinema, 1939-45     213
Conclusions: Legitimising the Impossible?     218
Notes     224
Bibliography     266
Index     284