Transcript Education_Anti-IntellInNaziGermany

Anti-Intellectualism in
Nazi Germany
Based on a PowerPoint by David S, Horace Greeley High School
INTRODUCTION
What is Anti-Intellectualism?
 Anti-intellectualism is expressed as
hostility towards, or mistrust of,
intellectuals and intellectual pursuits.
 It attacks merits of science, education,
literature.
 Anti-intellectuals often see themselves as
champions of ‘the ordinary man’.
 They are against academic elitism, often
arguing that highly educated people from
an isolated social group are dominating
political discourse and higher education
(academia).
Consequences of
Anti-Intellectualism
 It fosters a society where individual
thought is discouraged and the worth
of the truth is minimal.
 Authorities have more power
• They can’t be challenged, because
there is no intellectual spirit of dissent
Consequences of
Anti-Intellectualism
 Emergence of Pseudoscience
• (i.e. Eugenics)
 Rewriting of History
 Destruction of Literature
Nazi Anti-Intellectualism
 Knowledge that benefited state was
allowed (i.e. rocket science)
 Individual learning was frowned upon
• Independent thinking goes against
public opinion
• Propaganda a new form of “education”
 Repression of the truth in favour of
that which stirs up radical emotion
CENTRAL QUESTION
Why was anti-intellectualism
such a critical element in
sustaining Nazi culture from
1933-1945?
NAZI BOOK BURNINGS
Why burn books?
 A way of venting anger
• Symbolic transition of cultural values:
Intellectualism to radical emotionalism
 Unifies community in a ritual
 Intimidates intellectual community
• Frightening to see an angry mob that
has lost touch with your values
The Burning of the Books
 May 10, 1933
• Nazi Party declares that any book
“which acts subversively on our future or
strikes at the root of German thought,
the German home and the driving forces
of our people...” is to be burned.
• Jewish intellectuals were primary target,
but also many non-Jews as well
The Burning of the Books
 Students marched through the streets
rampaging libraries, synagogues, and even
private homes to loot books
 Books were thrown onto bonfire
“The Burning of the Books”
 Nazis encouraged burnings, but
discouraged publicising the burnings
 Aftermath
• Frightened many intellectuals, Jewish
and non-Jewish, many fled Germany
 “Jewish intellectualism is dead”—
Joseph Goebbels after the 1933 book
Burning
Some Authors of Books Burned
on 5/10/33
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Albert Einstein
Havelock Ellis
Lion Feuchtwanger
Sigmund Freud
André Gide
Franz Kafka
Erich Kästner
Helen Keller
Alfred Kerr
Jack London
Heinrich Mann
Thomas Mann
Karl Marx
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Hugo Preuss
Marcel Proust
Walter Rathenau
Erich Maria
Remarque
Margaret Sanger
Arthur Schnitzler
Upton Sinclair
Jakob Wasserman
H. G. Wells
Stefan Zweig
Emile Zola
EDUCATION IN
THE THIRD REICH
Two Jewish
students are
humiliated in
front of their
whole class.
The writing on
the board
proclaims “the
Jew is our
greatest
enemy!
Beware of the
Jew!"
The Nazi Classroom
 The Curriculum:
• Racial biology and
eugenics
• Celebratory German
history
• Discipline, duty,
obedience, courage
• Physical training —
Body over mind
• No concern for the
“spirit of academics”
“The Jewish Nose is Wide
at the End and Looks like
the Number Six”
The Nazi Classroom
 Task of the Educator
• Strengthen the soul and spirit of youth
• Instill nationalism in younger generation
• Prepare students for service, and even
self-sacrifice to the Reich
NO INTENTION OF EDUCATING THE
INDIVIDUAL FOR THE SAKE OF THE
INDIVIDUAL
The Nazi Classroom
Strong desire to destroy the
values of…
• Liberal individualism
• Rationalism
• Intellectualism
The Nazi Classroom
Girls and boys were taught that they
had clear roles in German society:
• Boys would go on to be soldiers and
fight for their country.
• It was the girls’ duty to become mothers
and produce the next generation of
soldiers.
The Nazi Classroom
Physical fitness was highly prized :
• If you were fit you could produce lots of
children.
• If you were fit you could become a
soldier and fight for your country.
The Nazi Classroom
Antisemitism:
• German children were taught that the
Jews were responsible for many of the
problems Germany was facing.
• They were taught that the Jews were an
inferior race. Slavs, gay, Roma (Gypsy),
mentally and physically disabled people,
Jehova’s witnesses, black people and
children of mixed marriages were also
seen as ‘unter-menschen’ = “sub
humans”
Reasons for this
Education System
 Trained children to be good soldiers
• Easier to accept a total authority if you
don’t know how to think for yourself
 Ultimate Goal
• In Democracy: Student learns so he
may benefit himself
• In Totalitarian Germany: Student learns
so he may benefit the state
Adolf Hitler on Education
 "Universal education is the most
corroding and disintegrating poison
that liberalism has ever invented”—
Adolf Hitler
 "Through clever and constant
application of propaganda, people
can be made to see paradise as hell,
and also the other way round”—
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler on Education
 "The folkish state must not adjust
its…educational work…to the inoculation of
mere knowledge, but to the breeding of
absolutely healthy bodies…And here again, first
place must be taken by the development of
character, especially the promotion of willpower and determination, combined with the
training of joy in responsibility, and only in
last place comes scientific schooling." –Mein
Kampf
The Hitler Youth (HJ)
Clip From Triumph of the Will
 Click image to see video on YouTube
 Notice direction of film
• Shows how admired Hitler is
• Promotes radical emotionalism
• Notice serious faces, militarism of
young boys
Why was the HJ Necessary for
Nazi Germany?
 Hitler believed the future of Nazi
Germany was in its children
 Composed of a generation that knew
almost only Nazism
• No need to suppress individual thinking
if people are imprinted with antiintellectual ideology at a young age
Why was the HJ Necessary for
Nazi Germany?
 Trained children
for their roles as
Nazi citizens
 Men: “Wehrsport”
(Military training)
 Women:
Preparation for
Aryan motherhood
Hitler’s View of the HJ
 “The weak must be
chiseled away. I want
young men and
women who can
suffer pain...”
 "I will have no
intellectual training.
Knowledge is ruin to
my young men”
Relevance of the HJ to
Anti-Intellectualism
The values of a culture result from the
values instilled in its youth
• In Europe: pressure to do well in school,
get a job, make money
• In Nazi Germany: Children were worth
only what they contributed to the state
Social Atmosphere in an
Anti-Intellectual Germany
Nazi Populism
 “Whoever can conquer the street will
one day conquer the state...”–Joseph
Goebbels
 Struggle against “privileged elite”
• Especially Jews
 Intellectuals are elitists and tricksters
• Hoodwink opponents with rhetoric
The Ministry for Popular
Enlightenment and Propaganda
 Spread and enforced Nazi ideology
 The antithesis of intellectual-based
culture
 Rampant anti-Semitism
 Infected all mediums of art and
literature
Why have a
Ministry of Propaganda?
 In a totalitarian regime, public opinion
must be molded to fit the state
 In contrast, Intellectualism would
demand:
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Tolerance of dissent
Ability to question authority
Independent thought
Formulation of rational ideas
Kristallnacht
“Night of the Broken Glass”
 Political assassination by Jew ignites spark
 Nazi youth destroys Jewish buildings
 Considered beginning of Holocaust
Joseph Goebbels:
Head of the Anti-intellectual Serpent
Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels
 Head of Ministry for
Popular Enlightenment
and Propaganda
 A textbook example of
the anti-intellectualism
he promoted
 Extreme, unconditional
loyalty to Hitler: he was
practically in love with
him
Goebbels on
Truth and Intellectualism
 “Intellectual activity is a danger
to the building of character”
 “It is the absolute right of the
State to supervise the formation
of public opinion.”
 “Not every item of news should
be published. Rather must
those who control news policies
endeavour to make every item
of news serve a certain
purpose.”
The “Big Lie” Theory
 “If you tell a lie big enough and keep
repeating it, people will eventually come to
believe it. The lie can be maintained only
for such time as the State can shield the
people from the political, economic and/or
military consequences of the lie. It thus
becomes vitally important for the State to
use all of its powers to repress dissent, for
the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and
thus by extension, the truth is the greatest
enemy of the State.”—Joseph Goebbels
CONCLUSIONS
What Anti-intellectualism Does
 A force that seeks to unify…
• The mind of a nation
• The will of a nation
 Censorship of truth
• Idea that truth is irrelevant is dangerous
 Use of propaganda to direct public
opinion
Karl Rove (Bush adviser) on
Intellectualism
 “As people do better, they start voting
like Republicans—unless they have
too much education and vote
Democratic, which proves there can
be too much of a good thing”—Karl
Rove
The End
(or is it?)