The Techniques and Applications of Hitler's Propaganda

Authors

Kelly Stone, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Adolf Hitler, Propaganda, Mein Kampf

Abstract

In March of 1924, Adolf Hitler and forty of his associates were convicted of treason for attempting to overthrow the Weimar government in the failed "Beer Hall Putsch." Hitler was sentenced to five years in the Landsberg fortress, but was released in less than a year. During his eight month incarceration, Hitler wrote a remarkable book, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), in which he recounted his life, proclaimed his ideology, and described in detail his plans (upon attaining power) for Germany's future. Mein Kampf is not a literary masterpiece. Winston Churchill describes it as "turgid, verbose, [and] shapeless." Mein Kampf's importance lies in the fact that upon release from prison, Hitler followed, to a surprising degree, the blueprints laid out in it. In his famous history of the Second World War, Churchill states that "there was no book which deserved more careful study from the rulers, political and military, of the Allied Powers," than Hitler's Mein Kampf.

Recommended Citation

Stone, Kelly (1991) "The Techniques and Applications of Hitler's Propaganda," The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing: Vol. 20: Iss. 1, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/thetean/vol20/iss1/5