Project Nazi
This series explores how Germans were seduced into supporting Nazism through the persuasive power of outstanding design, brilliant engineering, and insidious propaganda. How incredible that a small and extremist political party under the leadership of...
Designed for Power
Adolf Hitler’s mastery of propaganda, and his instinctive skill for effective design, helps win huge popular support for the Nazi party, a vital step in its march towards total power. From the swastika flag to the striking uniforms of the Storm Troopers, Hitler’s ability to create compelling imagery puts the Nazis far ahead of all its political rivals. The Nazis create exciting events and use the latest technology to create the modern political campaign, all designed to win over the hearts and minds of the German people. But ‘Project Nazi’ also reveals the secret network of Nazi prisons and torture chambers, the origins of the concentration camp system, set up as soon as Hitler comes to power. A powerful combination of brutal force and brilliant design turns the Nazis from a tiny fringe group into the masters of Germany.
Hitler's Highways
Adolf Hitler promises to make Germany great again with his ambitious plans to create 22,000 kms of motorway and build one and half million “People’s Cars” every year. He claims he just wants to give the unemployed back their dignity. But in reality, millions of young Germans are conscripted to work as cheap labour in harsh conditions to build Hitler’s new state. Later, even more millions of forced labourers from Nazi occupied territories are viciously exploited, while thousands of concentration camp prisoners are worked to death. The “People’s Car” turns out to be a huge scam. More than 300,000 German workers pay 1,000 Marks each for them. Yet, in 1939, the Nazi party steals their money without providing a single car in return. Most of the promised motorways are never built. The motor revolution that Hitler promises is an illusion.
The Industry of War
Adolf Hitler is determined to rebuild Germany’s military strength after its humiliating defeat in the First World War. But the only way he can overcome his country’s dire shortage of almost all raw materials, from iron ore to crude oil, is to steal them from other countries. Hitler wants to recruit an army of millions, build a Navy large enough to challenge Britain’s control of the seas and create a modern air force from scratch. At first, his lightning victories boost his resource pile. But his invasion of the Soviet Union triggers a vicious circle. The Nazis have to conquer more and more territory to take the resources needed to feed their war machine. It is a recipe for eternal war, a war Germany cannot possibly win. Everything hangs on Hitler’s final gamble - a desperate bid to capture the Soviet oil fields in the Caucuses.
A Culture of Control
Adolf Hitler is determined to change the way German people think and feel by creating a new, Nazi form of art and culture. He takes over all forms of media, including the film industry, radio stations and the press, giving him complete control over every image and message his people receive. His Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, has an intuitive grasp of how to make effective propaganda by blending it with compelling entertainment. So the movies made under Nazi rule offer the world a highly edited vision of life in Nazi Germany. A minor artist himself, Hitler bans modern art and promotes simplistic, heroic images of strong, warrior men and fertile women, subtly preparing his people for the roles he has assigned them in his future world war. Artists who fail to conform are forced to cease making art or flee the country.
Himmler's Empire of Terror
Adolf Hitler’s power depends on his most loyal, and most violent supporters, the SS. They use surveillance, intimidation, detention, terror and even murder to defeat all the Nazis political enemies. They also put Hitler’s deadly policy of racial purity into practice. Under its leader, Heinrich Himmler, the SS becomes a state within the state, controlling a vast network of concentration camps, death camps, prisons, and industrial complexes. Hitler also gives Himmler complete control of all of Germany’s police forces, including the notorious Gestapo. Himmler even creates his own army, the Waffen SS. From a single regiment, it grows to 800,000 members at its peak, committing many atrocities. But despite its formidable power, the war that Hitler so enthusiastically launches eventually leads to the total destruction of the SS.
Retreat from Reality
Germany is facing certain defeat in the Second World War but Adolf Hitler is determined to fight to the very end, even if it costs millions of Germans their lives. He refuses to retreat a single step, putting his faith in German engineers and scientists to create advanced weapons, from the formidable Tiger Tank to the first ever ballistic missile, the V-2. He desperately hopes these can still secure victory for the Nazis. But when even the “Wunderwaffe”, the “wonder weapons”, fail, the Nazis fall back on their oldest tools, propaganda and terror, to keep the armed forces and the civilian population committed to the struggle. As the Allies close in on Berlin, he throws in his final force, the “People’s Storm”, a fancy name for a militia of old men and boys with little training and few weapons. Project Nazi is close to collapse.
