Der Stürmer
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Der Stürmer (literally, "The Stormer;" or more accurately, "The Attacker") was a weekly tabloid-format Nazi newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 to the end of World War II in 1945, with brief suspensions in publication due to legal difficulties. It was a significant part of the Nazi propaganda machinery and was vehemently anti-Semitic. Unlike the Völkischer Beobachter (translatable as The People's Observer), the official party paper which gave itself an outwardly serious appearance, the tabloid-style Der Stürmer often ran obscene and tasteless materials such as anti-Semitic caricatures and propaganda-like accusations of blood libel, sexually explicit, anti-Catholic, anti-capitalist and anti-"reactionary" propaganda too.
The paper originated at Nuremberg during Hitler's attempt to establish power and control. During the struggle to achieve power, Streicher was accused by the opposition of the Nazi party as being "a liar, a coward, of having unsavory friends, mistreating his wife and of flirting with women". Despite the accusations, the first copy of Der Stürmer was published April 20, 1923. Der Stürmer’s circulation grew over time, distributing to a large percentage of the German population as well as Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the United States.
Between August 1941 and September 1944, Streicher authorized articles demanding the annihilation and extermination of the Jewish race. After the war, he was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed.
Racist caricatures
Der Stürmer was best known for its effective antisemitic caricatures, which depicted Jews as ugly characters with exaggerated facial features and misshapen bodies. In his propaganda work, Streicher furthered old myths from the Middle Ages, e.g., that Jews killed children, sacrificed them and drank their blood. Many of these drawing were the work of Philipp Rupprecht, known as Fips, who was one of the best-known anti-Semitic cartoonists, his virulent attacks wedding "Jewish capitalists" with "Jewish Communism" etc.
At the bottom of the title page there was always the motto "Die Juden sind unser Unglück!" ("The Jews are our misfortune!"), coined by Heinrich von Treitschke in the 1880s.<ref name=HHBS>Ben-Sasson, H.H., ed. (1976): A History of the Jewish People. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge). ISBN 0-674-39730-4, p.875</ref> In the nameplate was the motto "Deutsches Wochenblatt zum Kampfe um die Wahrheit" ("German Weekly Newspaper in the Fight for Truth").
See also
- Hate Media
- Other newspaper of Nazi Germany:
