Der Stürmer Archives
Julius Streicher and Der Stürmer
Perhaps one of the most infamous of Nazi publications was the newspaper Der Stürmer. Characterized by a large and usually anti-Semitic cartoon on the front page, this newspaper was renowned for its crude attacks and inflammatory stories and reporting. In many ways, this paper was a forerunner of today’s tabloids with their lurid stories and pictures and reliance on gossip.
The founder, editor, and the driving force and inspiration for Der Stürmer was a Nazi named Julius Streicher. Born on February 12, 1885 in a Bavarian village near the ancient city of Augsburg. Following in his father’s footsteps, as a young man Julius Streicher trained to become a village teacher and spent time as a substitute teacher working in various towns throughout Bavaria. Ultimately, he received a teaching position in the Franconian city of Nuremberg, which was where he was to spend the bulk of his life. It was here as a teacher that he first became interested in politics. When war broke out in 1914, Streicher enlisted in the 6th Bavarian Infantry Regiment where he served throughout the war with distinction. He was evidently very brave and won numerous awards for his behavior under fire. After the war, he again became active in local politics in the city of Nuremberg and quickly became known for his anti-Semitic speeches. He blamed the Jews not only for Germany’s loss in the First World War, but for all of Germany’s difficulties. It should be noted that this was not an attitude held by him alone, but was widely shared by many Germans at the time. Not a sophisticated speaker, Streicher nevertheless had a knack for using common terms and expressions in ways that allowed him to connect with his audience. In other words, he was a “man of the people” who could relate to his crowds on their level. In 1922, Streicher traveled to Munich were he heard the leader of a radical nationalist party speak. That leader was Adolf Hitler and his effect upon Streicher was electric. Streicher himself described his reaction to hearing Hitler speak:
- Now he spoke. First slowly, hardly audible, then faster and more powerfully, and finally with overpowering strength….He revealed an enormous treasure trove of thought in a speech of more than three hours, clothed with the beauty of inspired language. Each person felt it: this man spoke from a godly calling, he spoke as a messenger from heaven at a time when hell threatened to swallow up everything….And never before had the singing of “Deutschland Uber Alles” moved me as deeply as it did in that mass meeting where I first saw Adolf Hitler and heard him speak. I felt it: In this moment destiny calls to me a second time! I hurried through the jubilant masses to the podium, stood before him, and said: “I am Julius Streicher. At this moment I know I can be only a follower. But you are a leader! I give to you the popular movement which I have built in Franconia. i
From that moment on, Streicher was Hitler’s creature, heart and soul. Hitler never forgot the loyalty and support exhibited by Streicher in Hitler’s early years as he and the Nazi party struggled for power. It was Hitler who over the years protected Streicher and assisted him in advancing his career. In 1923, Streicher founded the newspaper, which he called Der Stürmer. Der Stürmer was more than simply a scandal sheet. It defined itself as a fighting newspaper a fact reflected in its name which can be literally translated as The Stormer, The Stormtrooper, or The Attacker. With a few interruptions the newspaper stayed in production until February 1945. It started out small with a circulation in its first year of around 2,500, but quickly grew in readership. By 1935, it was around 65,000, and in 1937, it had grown to around 500,000. In addition, copies of the newspaper were often posted on kiosks, at bus stations, and on newspaper placards so that pedestrians, passers-by, folks waiting for buses, and others could read the stories and look at the pictures and cartoons. It was a formula guaranteed to attract a wide readership. It’s important to point out that Streicher’s newspaper was never the official organ of the Nazi party. The official party newspaper was the Völkisher Beobachter or the People’s Observer, which was a much more sober and ostensibly serious newspaper. In contrast, Der Stürmer was considered much more vulgar, pornographic, crude, and anti-Semitic than the official paper. In modern terms, it was a tabloid. In fact, many leading Nazis despised the paper and some even prohibited it’s distribution. This was especially true in the years that the party was struggling for legitimacy and acceptance. Many leading Nazis felt that a controversial and lowbrow publication like Der Stürmer did not help the party gain acceptance among middle and upper class Germans who were offended by the tone and style of the radical paper. Importantly, however, Hitler liked Der Stürmer and that made all the difference. It was among the working classes that the newspaper had its most widespread appeal. Streicher’s experience as a teacher had taught him that most Germans were only barely functionally literate. He geared the newspaper to appeal to the lowest common denominator. It was intended for an unsophisticated readership and its print material relied on a lot of common terms, slang, and populist sentiment. His targets were the masses and in terms of reaching his intended audience he succeeded brilliantly. In short, simple sentences, Der Stürmer repeated the same messages over and over, reinforcing the prejudices and stereotypes held by many Germans or as one editor wrote: “The Stürmer is the paper of the people. Its language is simple, its sentences clear. Its words have one meaning. Its tone is rough. It has to be! The Stürmer is not a Sunday paper. The Stürmer fights for truth. A fight is not fought with kid gloves. And the truth is not smooth and slippery. It is rough and hard.” ii
Streicher was a virulent anti-Semite and his newspaper reflected his attitudes. At the bottom of the page in every issue were the words, “Die Juden sind unser Unglück!” or “The Jews are our misfortune!” In the early years, many of the stories featured in the newspaper focused on local political issues and concerns. Over time, however, the tabloid focused more and more on propagating and encouraging hatred of the Jews. Manfred Rühl suggests five main types of attacks found in Der Stürmer: Hate propaganda, Fear propaganda, Envy propaganda, Sympathy for one’s own kind, and German/Aryan victimization.
One important feature of the Der Stürmer were the cartoons included on practically every front page. One might ask why feature a cartoon on the cover? It’s often easy to dismiss these visual images as being essentially harmless and insignificant, but this misses the very real power and impact that these cartoons could have. In many ways, cartoons provide a potent vehicle for quickly and effectively getting across a message. There are a number of specific reasons for this.
First, cartoons can often be humorous. Hate is generally more palatable when presented as humor. People are often more willing to accept negative attitudes, stereotypes, and prejudices when presented as a joke or in a humorous cartoon. Humor tends to appeal to emotion rather than reason and is thus a perfect way to convey the kinds of anti-Semitic attitudes and beliefs that were such a destructive component of the Nazi Ideology. Second, cartoons are quick and easy to read and are easily understood. It doesn’t take any time at all to glance at a cartoon and get its message. This was especially true for Der Stürmer, which relied on big front page cartoons that could be taken in at a glance and whose images were very obvious and clear.
Der Stürmer finally ended its run in February of 1945, only a few short months before the end of the war. In its later years the newspaper had lost much of its appeal since the anti-Semitic appeal of the early years was no longer relevant to many Germans. The Jews of Germany had long since been removed from the public sphere and were no longer perceived as much of a threat, especially after knowledge of the Holocaust began to filter into Germany. Shortages caused by the war also resulted in a much reduced newspaper of only a few pages.
Streicher survived the war, only to be put on trial at Nuremberg with a number of leading Nazis. He was found guilty and hung as a war criminal in 1946. iii His trial and execution were a testament to the power of his newspaper. He was never in a position of national power and had not held an important national office within the government. However, his newspaper had reached a wide audience within Germany and provided an incitement for racial hatred against the Jews and helped pave the way for the Holocaust and this is why Streicher was indicted and ultimately found guilty.
Unfortunately, while defunct, Der Stürmer still periodically rears its ugly head. Anti-Semites still sometimes make use of the ideas, stories, and messages found in Der Stürmer. In 1976, for example, an American right wing group translated and published a copy of a special edition of Der Stürmer from 1934. iv
Notes
i Julius Streicher. 1978. “Das politische testament Julius Streichers.” Editor Jay W. Baird. Vierteljahrshefte fur Zeitgeschichte, 26, 660-693. Pp. 682-683.
ii Quoted in Randall L. Bytwerk. 1983. Julius Streicher (New York: Cooper Square Press), pp. 55-56.
iii Telford Taylor. 1992. The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company).
iv Randall L. Bytwerk. 1983. Julius Streicher (New York: Cooper Square Press).