Excerpt:
Hitler and the Nazi Party treated the German people as if they were one entity, because individuals are rational, think for themselves, and are concerned about their own well-being; whereas groups are unintelligent and easily persuaded.
Sigmund Freud stated that groups tend to have the characteristics of “weakness of intellectual ability,…lack of emotional restraint,...incapacity for moderation and delay, [and] the inclination to exceed every limit in the expression of emotion.”
Freud went on to say that groups “show an unmistakable picture of a regression of mental activity to an earlier stage such as…children” (qtd. in Bosamajian 69). Hitler used this understanding of groups to strategically manipulate the German people.
Hitler and the Nazis recognized that if the German people had a group mentality they would be much more receptive to Nazi ideology and propaganda. To reinforce this mindset in the German people, or Volk, the Nazis held events that required mass participation and did not invite individuality, such as “parades, mass meetings, semi-religious rituals, [and] festivals” (Boasmajian 70).
Anyone who did not openly participate or share the emotion of the rest of the crowd was easily identified and dealt with by either the crowd itself or by security personnel. One did not even have to be resistant or cause a disturbance to be viewed as subversive; indifference alone was enough to infuriate the crowd (Bosamajian 69-70).
Freud said that a crowd demands “strength or even violence” of its leaders: “It wants to be ruled and oppressed and to fear its master” (70). Hitler and the Nazis fulfilled this psychological need by infusing the Volk with the idea that the Nazi Party was strong and powerful, and thus, to the feeble mind of the crowd, trustworthy. This was accomplished through a myriad of ways, some obvious and others subtle.
One of the most overt ways that Hitler conveyed a sense of strength and power was through his speeches, during which he would yell and wave his arms violently. The Nazis displayed strength through demonstrations of military might. During the frequent military parades, the army would march with its distinctive goose-step walk.
The Heil salute made famous by the Nazis added to their powerful image, as did Hitler’s title, Der Führer, which meant “the leader.” Some of the more subtle ways that strength was portrayed include the excessive use of common Nazi symbols such as the eagle, the swastika, and trigger words such as “sword”, “fire”, and “blood” (Bosamajian 70).
continued
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Adolf-Hitlers-Tremendous-Persuasive-Ability
Hitler and the Nazi Party treated the German people as if they were one entity, because individuals are rational, think for themselves, and are concerned about their own well-being; whereas groups are unintelligent and easily persuaded.
Sigmund Freud stated that groups tend to have the characteristics of “weakness of intellectual ability,…lack of emotional restraint,...incapacity for moderation and delay, [and] the inclination to exceed every limit in the expression of emotion.”
Freud went on to say that groups “show an unmistakable picture of a regression of mental activity to an earlier stage such as…children” (qtd. in Bosamajian 69). Hitler used this understanding of groups to strategically manipulate the German people.
Hitler and the Nazis recognized that if the German people had a group mentality they would be much more receptive to Nazi ideology and propaganda. To reinforce this mindset in the German people, or Volk, the Nazis held events that required mass participation and did not invite individuality, such as “parades, mass meetings, semi-religious rituals, [and] festivals” (Boasmajian 70).
Anyone who did not openly participate or share the emotion of the rest of the crowd was easily identified and dealt with by either the crowd itself or by security personnel. One did not even have to be resistant or cause a disturbance to be viewed as subversive; indifference alone was enough to infuriate the crowd (Bosamajian 69-70).
Freud said that a crowd demands “strength or even violence” of its leaders: “It wants to be ruled and oppressed and to fear its master” (70). Hitler and the Nazis fulfilled this psychological need by infusing the Volk with the idea that the Nazi Party was strong and powerful, and thus, to the feeble mind of the crowd, trustworthy. This was accomplished through a myriad of ways, some obvious and others subtle.
One of the most overt ways that Hitler conveyed a sense of strength and power was through his speeches, during which he would yell and wave his arms violently. The Nazis displayed strength through demonstrations of military might. During the frequent military parades, the army would march with its distinctive goose-step walk.
The Heil salute made famous by the Nazis added to their powerful image, as did Hitler’s title, Der Führer, which meant “the leader.” Some of the more subtle ways that strength was portrayed include the excessive use of common Nazi symbols such as the eagle, the swastika, and trigger words such as “sword”, “fire”, and “blood” (Bosamajian 70).
continued
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Adolf-Hitlers-Tremendous-Persuasive-Ability
