The Sound and the Fuehrer: Propaganda, Violence, and Resistance in Germany, 1918 - 1945
Taught by Nick Reynolds
Nick is a PhD candidate studying political theory at CUNY, with a BA and an MA in European history and Holocaust & Genocide Studies (he’s lots of fun at parties). An incorrigible nerd and bookworm, he’s interested in just about everything.
The Nazi Party created some of the most dynamic and sinister propaganda of the 20th century in its bid to destroy German democracy and create a dictatorship designed for war. The Sound and the Fuehrer explores this propaganda, from its birth in the chaotic days after Germany’s defeat in World War I, through the violence and decadence of the Weimar Republic, to the forging of the Nazi regime and its genocidal climax.
We’ll examine the infectious violence of Nazi propaganda and its malevolent influence on the political life of the Weimar Republic, and explore the the unjustly forgotten opposition to Hitler and his cult of brutality. We’ll also assess the uniquely vicious antisemitism at the heart of Nazi belief and the role propaganda played in laying the foundation for the Holocaust.
