Radio and Rise of the Nazis in Prewar Germany

This paper analyses the role of media in different political regimes. Under the pro-government
political news of the Weimar government, the popularity of Nazis was critically low. However,
after the appointment of Hitler as the vice chancellor, the government shifted from democracy to
dictatorship and radio was now under the control of the Nazis. Nazis used radio as a propaganda
tool for their gain. The aim of this study is to examine whether gaining control over mass media
helped Adolf Hitler to come to power and maintain his dictatorial rules. This paper unlike the
rest provides a systematic empirical analysis. The effect of media is identified through change in
content of broadcast over time and geographic and overtime variation in the radio exposure.
Before 1929, the broadcast focused on educational and cultural program and no airtime to
politics. Later when the Germans offered referendum against the treaty of Versailles, the Weimar
government took a pro government slant, giving no airtime to Nazis and all to itself. However,
the radio became pro Nazis following the appointment of halter as the chancellor. Due to no air
time in the Weimar regime the Nazis party vote share was generally low. The vote share in the
areas where radio was available was lower than where radio was not available. The radio
exposure particularly depends on the variation in the local subscription rates and radio
availability. Between 1930 and 1932, the political broadcast was pro-government and Nazis has
no access to the radio. This meant a significant decline on the vote share due to no exposure.
1933 had an opposite effect on the growth of Nazis popularity as a result of radio exposure. The
paper also mentions the counterfactual. The difference between the vote share of the Nazis and
the democrat would have been less if the the radio was absent during the election from 1930 and
1932. Similarly when the radio became pro-Nazi, the Nazis would have never be able to get
significant share of votes if the radio was switched off .Hence, the two period 1928-1932 and
1933-1934 depicts control over the radio content under two different regimes. The second
question that this paper addresses is whether the radio propaganda helped the Nazis to maintain
political support after the full consolidation of power. For this, the paper focuses on the non-
electoral manifestation such as number of Jews deported by the Germans and the number of open
anti-Semitic letters to a Nazi newspaper. The paper finds during the Nazis regime, exposure of
the radio led to an increase in the number of Jews deportation and the letters. How powerful was
the the anti- Semitic propaganda depends on the listeners predisposition to the broadcast
message. The effect was more successful in areas where large proportion of the population was
anti-Semitic and areas with higher wealth inequality. However, the effects of the propaganda
were negative where a local Germans were not anti-Semitic, despite the presence of a sizable
Jewish. This was the major pitfall of the propaganda. The listeners were unlikely to be moved by
the content of the message. There was a chance some might revolt or some might protect the
Jews by hiding them, in response to the exposure. Therefore, the propaganda served as not only
the persuasion device but also the coordination.
Overall, the mass media either can support the democracy or might work against it, depending on
who exercise control over the content. The mass media does help a dictator gain political support
and persuade people about their policies, only if vast majority does not disagree with the
propaganda message