Das Reich (newspaper)

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Das Reich (German: The Reich[1]) was a weekly newspaper founded by Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Nazi Germany, in May 1940.[2] It was published by Deutscher Verlag.

German soldier reading "Das Reich", Russian Front, 1941

History

Das Reich was mainly the creation of Rudolf Sparing, Rolf Rienhardt and Max Amann.[3]

Its circulation grew from 500,000 in October 1940 to over 1,400,000 by 1944.[4]

Aside from a weekly editorial, Goebbels was not involved in the publication.

Der Völkische Beobachter but then he wished to target a more sophisticated and intellectual readership. From May 1940 he wrote 218 editorials.[7]

When Allied forces landed in Italy, and Mussolini was briefly deposed, Goebbels decided not to write an editorial.[8]

Contents

The paper contained news reports, essays on various subjects, book reviews, and an editorial written by Goebbels.[9] Some of the content was written by foreign authors.[10] With the exception of Goebbels’ editorial, Das Reich did not share the tone of other Nazi publications.[11]

Among other topics, it covered the uncertain casualty lists from

American culture,[16] portrays American morale as poor (though not suggesting they would give up because of it),[17] and finally declared that Berlin would fight to the end.[18]

Goebbels's editorials covered a wide range of topics. His first bragged of the accomplishments of Nazi Germany, which was then conquering

Sevastopol as product of a stubborn but bestial Russian soul,[38] decried the United States as having no culture,[39] urged that Germans not allow their sense of justice be exploited by their enemies,[40][41] and claimed that the Allies were as weary as the Axis.[42]

His final article in April 1945 called for last-ditch resistance.[43]

See also

References

Notes

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)

External links