The Triumph of Propaganda

Hilmar Hoffmann is the founder of the Oberhausen International Film Festival and of the German Film Museum in Frankfurt. He is Honorary Professor of Film Studies at Marburg University, an Honorary Member of Tel Aviv University, and a member of the panels of judges for the Moscow, Karlsbad, Locarno, and Cannes film festivals. For twenty years he served on the City Council of Frankfurt, where he as responsible for cultural affairs. He has been President of the Goethe Institutes since 1993.

"This book has no scholarly equivalent in English." · Choice

The Nazis saw film as a major vehicle for both indoctrination and escapist pacification of the "masses"; in fact, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels tried to create a German counter-Hollywood. This highly acclaimed study, by one of Germany's leading commentators and authors on cultural policy, analyses the pictorial and spoken language of the various film genres in the Third Reich, including news reels, documentaries, feature and "cultural" films. It shows how a powerful and sinister propaganda machine emerged which, by deploying a wide range of psychological techniques, exerted a strong fascination on the masses. These methods were so successful that they continue to serve as models for totalitarian régimes to this day.


Hilmar Hoffmann is the founder of the Oberhausen International Film Festival and of theGerman Film Museum in Frankfurt. He is Honorary Professor of Film Studies at MarburgUniversity, an Honorary Member of Tel Aviv University, and a member of the panels of judgesfor the Moscow, Karlsbad, Locarno, and Cannes film festivals. For twenty years he served on theCity Council of Frankfurt, where he as responsible for cultural affairs. He has been President ofthe Goethe Institutes since 1993.

Preface