Germany and Propaganda in World War I

Pacifism, Mobilization and Total War

David Welch

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781780768274
• eBook ISBN: 9780857724717
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: German History
• Index: History

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations, Map and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Preface to the New Edition
• Introduction
• 1. Days of Decision: Germany on the Eve of War
• 2. The Mobilization of the Masses
• 3. War Aims
• 4. The Crucible of War
• 5. Dissenting Voices: Pacifism, Feminist Ferment and the Women’s Movement
• 6. War Aims Again
• 7. Civilians ‘Fall-In’
• 8. Defeat and Revolution
• Conclusion: ‘The Sins of Omission’
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index