Der Stürmer (; ) was a weekly German tabloid newspaper published from 1923 to the end of World War II by Julius Streicher, the Gauleiter of Franconia, with brief suspensions in publication due to legal difficulties. It was a significant part of Nazi propaganda, and was virulently antisemitic. The newspaper originated at Nuremberg during Adolf Hitler's attempt to establish power and control. The first copy of Der Stürmer was published on 20 April 1923. Der Stürmers circulation grew over time, eventually distributing to a large percentage of the German population, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the United States. The newspaper reached a peak circulation of 486,000 in 1937. as well as sexually explicit, anti-communist, and anti-monarchist propaganda. As early as 1933, Streicher was calling for the extermination of the Jews in Der Stürmer. During the war, Streicher regularly authorized articles demanding the annihilation and extermination of the "Jewish race".

Circulation

thumb|upright=1.0|German citizens publicly reading pages of Der Stürmer in [[Worms, Germany|Worms, 1935. The billboard heading reads: "With the Stürmer against Judah". The subheading reads: "The Jews are our misfortune".]]

Most of the paper's readers were young people, and people from the lowest strata of German society. Copies of Der Stürmer were displayed as a wall newspaper in prominent red ("Stürmer boxes") throughout the Reich. As well as advertising the publication, the cases also allowed its articles to reach those readers who either did not have time to buy and read a newspaper in depth, or could not afford the expense. In 1927, Der Stürmer sold about 27,000 copies every week. By 1935, its circulation had increased to around 480,000. Göring harboured a particularly intense hatred of the paper, especially after it published a libelous article alleging that his daughter Edda had been conceived through artificial insemination. It was only through Hitler's intervention that Streicher was spared from severe punishment.

However, other senior Nazi officials, including Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, chairman of the German Labour Front Robert Ley, and proprietor of the Zentral Verlag (Central Press) Max Amann, whose organization comprised 80% of the German press, endorsed the publication, and their statements were often published in the paper. Albert Forster, the Gauleiter of Danzig (now Gdańsk), wrote in 1937:

<blockquote>With pleasure, I say that the Stürmer, more than any other daily or weekly newspaper, has made clear to the people in simple ways the danger of Jewry. Without Julius Streicher and his Stürmer, the importance of a solution to the Jewish question would not be seen to be as critical as it actually is by many citizens. It is therefore to be hoped that those who want to learn the unvarnished truth about the Jewish question will read the Stürmer.</blockquote>

Hitler considered Streicher's primitive methods to be effective in influencing "the man in the street".

Hermann Rauschning, who claimed to be Hitler's "confidant", said in the mid-1930s:

<blockquote>Antisemitism was beyond question the most important weapon in Hitler's propagandist arsenal, and almost everywhere, it was of deadly efficiency. That was why he had allowed Streicher, for example, a free hand. The man's stuff, too, was amusing, and very cleverly done. Wherever, he wondered, did Streicher get his constant supply of new material? He, Hitler, was simply on thorns to see each new issue of the Stürmer. It was the one periodical that he always read with pleasure, from the first page to the last.</blockquote>

During World War II, the paper's circulation suffered because of paper shortages, as well as Streicher's exile from Nuremberg for corruption. More ominously, because of the Holocaust, the people it targeted had begun to disappear from everyday life, which diminished the paper's relevance. Hitler, however, insisted that Streicher receive sufficient support to continue publishing Der Stürmer. The final edition of the newspaper was published in February 1945. Julius Streicher was tried at Nuremberg after the end of the war, and after being found guilty of being an accessory to crimes against humanity, he was hanged in 1946.

Antisemitic content

thumb|left|upright=1.2|1934 Stürmer issue: "Storm above Judah" – attacking institutional churches as "Judaized" organizations. [[Jesus Christ is seen looking at modern clergy. Caption: Two thousand years ago I called the Jews a cursed people, but you have made out of them the Elect Nation.]]

According to the American writer Dennis Showalter, "a major challenge of political antisemitism involves overcoming the images of the 'Jew next door' – the living, breathing acquaintance or associate whose simple existence appears to deny the validity of that negative stereotype". The newspaper's lurid content appealed to a large spectrum of readers who were lower class and less sophisticated.

After the war, Streicher was tried at the Nuremberg trials. His publishing and speaking activities were a major part of the evidence presented against him. In essence, the prosecutors took the line that Streicher's role in inciting Germans to murder Jews made him an accessory to murder, and thus as culpable as those who actually carried out the killing. Prosecutors also introduced decisive and irrefutable evidence that Streicher continued his incendiary articles and speeches when he was well aware that Jews were being killed. Streicher was found guilty of being an accessory for crimes against humanity, and was executed by hanging shortly afterwards. 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. In the nameplate was the motto "Deutsches Wochenblatt zum Kampfe um die Wahrheit" ("German Weekly Newspaper in the Fight for Truth").

Alleged sexual crimes

Stories of Rassenschande, which denoted alleged scandals of Jewish men and German women having sex, were staples of Der Stürmer. Streicher described Jews as sex offenders who were

Accusations of financial crimes

Showalter said: "For Julius Streicher, the Jews' hatred for Christianity was concealed only for one reason: Business." Jewish businessmen were often portrayed as doing almost anything to obtain financial wealth, which included, in his words, "become a usurper, a traitor, a murderer".

See also

  • Other newspapers of Nazi Germany:
  • Der Angriff ("The Attack"), Joseph Goebbels' Berlin-based newspaper
  • Berliner Arbeiterzeitung ("Berlin Workers Newspaper"), Gregor and Otto Strasser's newspaper, representing the Strasserite wing of the Nazi Party
  • Illustrierter Beobachter ("Illustrated Observer"), illustrated companion to the Völkischer Beobachter
  • Panzerbär ("The Panzer Bear"), a tabloid Nazi newspaper intended for the troops defending Berlin from the Red Army
  • Das Reich, a weekly newspaper founded by Goebbels
  • Das Schwarze Korps ("The Black Corps"), the official newspaper of Heinrich Himmler's Schutzstaffel (SS)
  • Völkischer Beobachter ("People's Observer"), official Nazi newspaper published in Munich
  • Westdeutscher Beobachter [<nowiki/>de] ("West German observer"), official Nazi newspaper published in Cologne
  • Arijský boj ("The Aryan Struggle", 1940–1945), a Czech fascist newspaper inspired by Der Stürmer
  • The Daily Stormer, an American white supremacist and neo-Nazi website named and modeled after Der Stürmer

References

Notes

Bibliography

  • Bytwerk, R.L. Julius Streicher (New York: Cooper Square, 2001), p.&nbsp;59.
  • Imbleau, Martin. "Der Stürmer." Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Ed. Dinah Shelton. Vol. 1. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 247–249. 3 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Thomson Gale.
  • Keysers, Ralph. Der Stürmer: Instrument de l'idéologie nazie: Une analyse des caricatures d'intoxication. L'Harmattan, Paris 2012. .
  • Koonz, Claudia (2003) The Nazi Conscience. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press.
  • Wistrich, Robert. Who's Who in Nazi Germany (Routledge, New York, 1995), q. v. Streicher, Julius.
  • Caricatures from Der Stürmer: 1924–1944