Germany and Propaganda in World War I
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Adolf Hitler, writing in Mein Kampf, was scathing in his condemnation of German propaganda in World War I, declaring that Germany failed to recognise that the mobilization of public opinion was a weapon of the first order. This, despite the fact that propaganda had been regarded by the German leadership, arguably for the first time, as an intrinsic part of the war effort. In this book, David Welch fully examines German society - politics, propaganda, public opinion and total war - in the Great War. Drawing on a wide range of sources - posters, newspapers, journals, film, Parliamentary debates, police and military reports and private papers - he argues that the moral collapse of Germany was due less to the failure to disseminate propaganda than to the inability of the military authorities and the Kaiser to reinforce this propaganda, and to acknowledge the importance of public opinion in forging an effective link between leadership and the people.
David Welch is Professor of Modern History and Director of the Centre for the Study of War, Propaganda and Society at University of Kent, UK. His publications include Propaganda, Power and Persuasion: From the First World War to WikiLeaks ; War and the Media: The Changing Context of Reportage and Propaganda, 1900-2003 ; Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945 (all I.B.Tauris).