DER STÜRMER-NAZI PROPAGANDA TOOL

Der Stürmer was an anti-Semitic “tabloid style” newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 almost continuously through to the end of World War II. Der Stürmer was viewed by Hitler as playing a  significant role in the Nazi propaganda machinery and a useful tool in influencing the “common man on the street”.

It was a significant part of Nazi propaganda and was vehemently anti-Semitic. the paper’s tag line was “The Jews are our misfortube”.Unlike the Völkischer Beobachter the official party paper which gave itself an outwardly serious appearance.

Der Stürmer often ran obscene material such as antisemitic caricatures of Jews and accusations of blood libel, as well as sexually explicit, anti-Catholic, anti-Communist, and anti-monarchist propaganda.

The newspaper originated at Nuremberg during Adolf Hitler’s attempt to establish power and control. During that struggle, Streicher was accused by the opposition of the Nazi party as being “a liar, a coward, of having unsavory friends, mistreating his wife and of flirting with women.

Despite the accusations, the first copy of Der Stürmer was published on 20 April 1923.Der Stürmer’s circulation grew over time, distributing to a large percentage of the German population as well as Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the United States.Streicher wanted Der Stuermer to appeal to the common man, to the worker with little time to read.

Thus, Der Stuermer’s articles used short sentences and a simple vocabulary. Ideas were repeated. Headlines grabbed a reader’s attention. And the cartoons were easily understood.

Rather then going into the ins and outs of the ‘Newspaper’ below some of the paper’s front pages and cartoons, which will explain why it was such a powerful tool.

Julius Streicher, warned of a Jewish program for world domination in this 1934 issue. The article, titled “Who is the Enemy?” blamed Jews for destroying social order and claimed that Jews wanted war, while the rest of the world wanted peace.

A Nazi is pumping poison gas into a tunnel beneath an oak tree representing Germany. Dead Jewish rats are strewn about.  The head lines says “The poisoned King”with the context : “When the vermin are dead, the German oak will flourish.” Since this is from 1927 it clearly indicates the plans by the Nazi’s in relation to gassing the jews,long before Kristallnacht and the Wannsee convention.

1934 Stürmer issue: “Storm above Judah” – criticizing institutional churches as “Judaized” organizations.

Front page of the most popular issue ever of the Nazi publication,Der Stürmer, with a reprint of a medieval depiction of a purported ritual murder committed by Jews.

Der Stürmer, was removed from news kiosks during the Games as a concession to the International Olympic Committee. But the paper was still published, using racist slurs and caricatures to malign Jews in its special Olympics issue. July 1936.

This image depicts the “Jew” as a warmonger who looks on approvingly as the non-Jewish world is crucified on a cross marked “war” (Krieg).

Julius Streicher was not a member of the military and did not take part in planning the Holocaust, or the invasion of other nations. Yet his pivotal role in inciting the extermination of Jews was significant enough, in the prosecutors’ judgment, to include him in the indictment of Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal – which sat in Nuremberg, where Streicher had once been an unchallenged authority. Most of the evidence against Streicher came from his numerous speeches and articles over the years. In essence, prosecutors contended that Streicher’s articles and speeches were so incendiary that he was an accessory to murder, and therefore as culpable as those who actually ordered the mass extermination of Jews (such as Hans Frank and Ernst Kaltenbrunner). They further argued that he kept them up when he was well aware Jews were being slaughtered.

He was acquitted of crimes against peace, but found guilty of crimes against humanity, and sentenced to death on 1 October 1946. The judgment against him read, in part:

For his 25 years of speaking, writing and preaching hatred of the Jews, Streicher was widely known as ‘Jew-Baiter Number One.’ In his speeches and articles, week after week, month after month, he infected the German mind with the virus of anti-Semitism, and incited the German people to active persecution. … Streicher’s incitement to murder and extermination at the time when Jews in the East were being killed under the most horrible conditions clearly constitutes persecution on political and racial grounds in connection with war crimes, as defined by the Charter, and constitutes a crime against humanity.