Fighting an Armed Doctrine: The Struggle to Modernize German Propaganda During World War I (1914–1918)

Abstract

During the First World War (1914–1918), all belligerent governments realized that propaganda proficiency was critical to selling their causes and stirring up support for the war. Yet German propagandists in particular struggled to master mass media, manage their messages, and build audience trust during the Great War in their goal to control domestic and foreign public opinion. Although previous scholarship has agreed that the German propaganda machine failed, little has been said about how Germany recognized these failures early on and sought to remedy them through increasingly modern propaganda strategies—even if those strategies were ultimately no match for the public’s growing distrust of official information. This monograph examines how it was that more institutions, more manpower, new publicity initiatives, copying tactics from enemies, crowdsourcing ideas, and eventually focusing on visuals and film did little to boost morale at home or improve Germany’s reputation abroad. The findings rest on a historical analysis of military dispatches, federal policy documents, letters, news stories, propaganda materials, and memoirs located in German and U.S. archives. Although many of the methods and tactics these early propagandists used would fail, others would become part of the universal toolbox governments still rely on to influence people’s views and spread information.

“Real News Arrives From Abroad”: Transnational Eyewitnessing in Leonora Raines’ War Correspondence for the New York Evening Sun (1914–1918)

“…” James W. Gerard, the American Ambassador to Germany before diplomatic relations were severed, sent a formal letter that announced Raines’ arrival to Baron Alfons von Mumm, head of German foreign propaganda. Before the U.S. entered the war on April 2, 1917, American reporters in Berlin, including Raines, were important targets of German censors, who sought to influence the American public and keep the U.S. out of the conflict (Fondren, 2021a). Archival records show that German military censors organized official “guided tours,” which brought American and other foreign correspondents on “sanitized” (censored) excursions to the frontlines (“Die fremden Berichterstatter, Amerikanische Korrespondenten,” Auswärtiges Amt, Politisches Archiv, Berlin, R 121616).…”

“…These scripted frontline trips were an important part of how propagandists in all belligerent countries tried to shape public opinion. From 1915 until the spring of 1917, as archival records reveal, German authorities spent much energy on managing U.S. journalists, hosting dinners, sitting for interviews, and privately corresponding with reporters (Fondren, 2021a). Some U.S. correspondents, such as pacifist-journalist Madeleine Doty ( New York Tribune and Chicago Tribune ) witnessed the 1916 German food crisis and openly empathized with people’s hardship (Dubbs, 2020).…”

“…It is interesting to note that Berlin censors, too, remarked in secret meetings in 1917 that the German public “devoured” foreign newspapers because their news content was so drastically different from that of the severely censored German press (“Political Enlightenment at Home,” April 21, 1917, Meeting Protocol, Auswärtiges Amt, Politisches Archiv, Berlin, R 121338). Governments, consequently, could partially control the press coverage but they could not fully manipulate their citizens, partly because foreign newspapers were still widely available (Fondren, 2021a). The cross-border reporting and commentary on censorship by journalists like Raines, consequently, pierced propagandists’ script and helped readers in the United States and in Europe understand the need for journalists’ independently sourced stories.…”

“…Her reportage chronicled the devastated battlefields, the French home front, civilians' lives, conditions in enemy countries, and the mood in Paris. Media historians have argued that the Great War was at once a modernizing force for states' information warfare ) Hamilton, 2020;Tworek, 2019( but also changed how journalists chronicled the fighting, sacrifices, and civilian hardship ) Crozier, 1959;Fondren, 2021a;Sweeney, 2009(. During World War I women correspondents, especially women war reporters, were a rarity ) Edy, 2017Edy, , 2019aEdy, , 2019b(.…”

An Unknown Text by Aka Gunduz as an Example of Ottoman-German Joint War Propaganda During the First World War

“…15 The term propaganda is explained as "the management of collective attitudes by the manipulation of significant symbols", 16 "the war of ideas on ideas", 17 "a kind of advertising -or vice versa" 18 . War propaganda is defined as "demoralisation of the enemy" 19 . The First World War brought forth propaganda wars as well as the front wars of between Germany and England with its allies.…”