Das Reich (newspaper)

German soldier reading Das Reich on the Eastern Front, 1941

Das Reich (German: The Reich[1]) was a weekly newspaper published in Nazi Germany from May 1940 until 1945. Founded by Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, and published by Deutscher Verlag, it was intended to appeal to educated readers while serving as a vehicle for Nazi propaganda.

Das Reich combined news reports, political commentary, essays, book reviews and Goebbels's weekly editorial in a comparatively restrained style. Its circulation grew from around 500,000 copies in 1940 to more than 1.4 million by 1944, making it one of Nazi Germany's most widely read weekly publications.

History

Das Reich was mainly the creation of Rudolf Sparing, Rolf Rienhardt and Max Amann.[2]

Its circulation grew from around 500,000 copies in October 1940 to over 1.4 million by 1944.[3]

Aside from writing a weekly editorial, Goebbels was not involved in the newspaper's day-to-day production.[2] Most, though not all, of his articles after 1940 appeared in Das Reich.[4] During the 1930s, his articles had primarily appeared in Der Völkische Beobachter, but with Das Reich he sought to reach a more educated and intellectually engaged readership. Between May 1940 and 1945 he wrote 218 editorials.[3]

Following the Allied invasion of Italy and the subsequent overthrow of Benito Mussolini in 1943, Goebbels chose not to publish an editorial for that week's issue.[5]

Contents

The newspaper contained news reports, political commentary, essays on various subjects, book reviews and a weekly editorial written by Goebbels.[6] Some material was written by foreign authors.[7] With the exception of Goebbels's editorial, Das Reich generally adopted a more restrained and literary style than most other Nazi publications.[2]

Its reporting addressed a wide range of wartime subjects, including the uncertain casualty figures following the Battle of Stalingrad, Allied military operations, the Allied bombing campaign, the V-1 flying bomb campaign, criticism of American culture and morale, and calls for continued resistance during the final stages of the war.[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]

Goebbels's editorials promoted Nazi military victories, justified German war aims, attacked the Allied powers and the Soviet Union, encouraged total war, and urged Germans to ignore foreign broadcasts and remain committed to the war effort.[15][16][17][18] As Germany's military position deteriorated, the editorials increasingly focused on Allied bombing, shortages on the home front, antisemitic conspiracy theories and calls for continued resistance.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25]

His final editorial, published in April 1945, called for continued resistance despite the collapse of Nazi Germany.[26]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Michael & Doerr, (2002) Nazi-Deutsch / Nazi-German: An English Lexicon of the Language of the Third Reich.
  2. 1 2 3 Hale, The Captive Press, p. 278.
  3. 1 2 Herf, Jeffrey, The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust, Harvard University Press, 2009, ISBN 9780674038592, p. 21.
  4. ↑ "The Veil Falls Archived 2013-10-10 at the Wayback Machine"
  5. ↑ "A Classic Example"
  6. ↑ Shapiro, Why Didn't the Press Shout?, p. 312.
  7. ↑ Shapiro, Why Didn't the Press Shout?, p. 313.
  8. ↑ "On the Missing at Stalingrad"
  9. ↑ "The Invasion"
  10. ↑ "Unexpected Consequences"
  11. ↑ "First Results of the V-1"
  12. ↑ "The Kitschified Mass Soul"
  13. ↑ "Reality is Different: Disillusioned USA Soldiers"
  14. ↑ "Berlin: A Huge Hedgehog"
  15. ↑ "A Unique Age"
  16. ↑ "Missed Opportunities"
  17. ↑ "The Matter of the Plague"
  18. ↑ "When or How?"
  19. ↑ "The Air War and the War of Nerves"
  20. ↑ "An Open Discussion"
  21. ↑ "Mimicry"
  22. ↑ "The Jews are Guilty!"
  23. ↑ "The War and the Jews"
  24. ↑ "The Creators of the World's Misfortunes"
  25. ↑ "The Paper War"
  26. ↑ "Resistance at Any Price"

Bibliography

  • Randall Bytwerk. "Cartoons from Das Reich: 1944-1945". Das Reich 1940–1945. Retrieved August 16, 2006.
  • Hale, Oron J., The Captive Press in the Third Reich (Princeton, 1964)
  • Robert Michael and Karin Doerr. Nazi-Deutsch / Nazi-German: An English Lexicon of the Language of the Third Reich. Greenwood. 2002.
  • Welch, David, The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda (London, 1993)
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