Making a Leader

"How many look up to him [Hitler] with touching faith as their helper, their savior, their deliverer from unbearable distress."

Louis Solmitz, Hamburg schoolteacher, 1932

Intense public desire for charismatic leaders offers fertile ground for the use of propaganda. Through a carefully orchestrated public image of Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, during the politically unstable Weimar period the Nazis exploited this yearning to consolidate power and foster national unity. Nazi propaganda facilitated the rapid rise of the Nazi Party to political prominence. Election campaign materials from the 1920s and early 1930s, compelling visual materials, and controlled public appearances coalesced to create a "cult of the Führer" (leader) around Hitler. His fame grew via speeches at rallies, parades, and on the radio. Nazi propagandists cast Hitler as a military leader, a father figure, and a messianic leader brought to redeem Germany.

Hitler and World War I

Modern propaganda techniques—including strong images and simple messages—helped propel Austrian-born Hitler from a little known extremist to a leading candidate in Germany’s 1932 presidential elections. World War I propaganda influenced the young Hitler, who was a frontline soldier from 1914 to 1918. Like many, Hitler believed Germany lost the war because of enemy propaganda, not defeat on the battlefield. He surmised that the victors of World War I (Britain, France, the United States, and Italy) had pounded home clear, simple messages encouraging their forces while sapping the German will to fight. Hitler understood the power of symbols, oratory, and image, and formulated simple, concrete, and emotionally appealing party slogans to reach the masses.

Propaganda in the hands of the Party

Nazi propagandists cast Hitler as a military leader, as a father figure, and ultimately as a messianic leader brought to redeem Germany. Propaganda idolized Hitler as a gifted statesman who brought stability, created jobs, and restored German greatness. Under the Nazi regime, Germans were expected to pay public allegiance to the "Führer" (leader) in quasi-religious forms, such as giving the Nazi salute and greeting others on the street with "Heil Hitler!," the so-called "German Greeting." Faith in Hitler strengthened the bonds of national unity, while non-compliance signaled dissension in a society where open criticism of the regime and its leaders was grounds for imprisonment.

Cult of the Führer

From 1933 to 1945, public adulation for Adolf Hitler was an ever present feature in the public square of German life. Nazi propagandists portrayed "Der Führer" (leader) as the living embodiment of the German nation, radiating strength and a single-minded devotion to Germany. The cult of Adolf Hitler was a deliberately cultivated mass phenomenon. Both Nazi propagandists and artists produced paintings, posters, and busts of the Führer, which were then reproduced in large quantities for public venues as well as private homes. The Nazi Party publishing house printed millions of copies of Hitler’s political autobiography Mein Kampf (My Struggle) in special editions, including editions for newlyweds and translations into Braille for blind persons.

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