While analysing the causes of defeat Adolf realised that their propaganda was very poor compared to the that of the enemy. It was one psychological reason of the failure of Germans. He thought that their publicity was stupid and grossly inadequate. The blame could be laid at the door of the German information system. The enemy took advantage of this weakness of the German side.
Adolf admired the all out propaganda tactics of the enemy and its clever plays.
Germany was fighting for its survival. The minds of the soldiers was required to be kept pepped and charged up through effective propaganda. Their patriotism needed to be kept aroused to inspire them to fight for the victory.
In war there was no place for love, beauty or mercy, Adolf opined. He thought that press had also misled the German soldiers through blatant lies. They said that the power and the preparedness of the enemy soldiers was laughable. But when the Germans faced the enemy in the battle they found the enemy well prepared, equipped and very powerful. It demoralised the German soldiers, Adolf claimed.
Germans had little information on the armament of the enemy. The belief was that they were very poorly equipped. But the enemy turned out to be well equipped with superior arms. German found everything contrary to what they were told.
In comparison the enemy propaganda machine was very efficient and creative. Sometimes it resorted to vicious propaganda to demoralise the Germans.
In 1915 French and British really unleashed their propaganda to demoralise German soldiers and to highlight internal differences and contradictions of the German empire to confuse the German people. Their method was also very noble. They dropped thousands and thousands of leaflets from the planes in German areas telling the people that it was going to be a long drawn hard war.
The enemy publicists tried to propagate that Prussian Germans were responsible for starting the war to inject bad feeling in the hearts of the Bavarian Germans, especially in the areas where the Bavarian soldiers were stationed. It affected the morale of the German soldiers.
To pep up their soldiers and arouse their anger the enemy propagated that Germans were uncivilised barbarians who ought to be taught a lesson for starting the bloody war.
Adolf Hitler realised the extent of the effectiveness of the enemy propaganda when he was sent back to Germany for treatment after getting injured in the war in 1916. He found that the common German was not enthusiastic about the war. The Jews were manning the offices as clerks and officers. At large number of the soldiers in the army were of Jewish origin.
The Germans had forgotten to honour their soldiers. The leaflets dropped by the enemy were so effective that German women were not willing to send their husbands, brothers or sons to fight the war.
There was no sentiment of soldierly fervour amongst the people of the country that was fighting a war of survival. There was an air of resignation. Prussian Germans and Bavarian Germans were quarrelling with one another. The Jews were robbing them of their bread. Entire production and trade was controlled by the Jews.
In the beginning of 1918 it appeared that the soldiers on the battle fronts were utterly demoralised. Still after the fall of Russia the army again got rejuvenated and full of hope for the German victory.
In 1917 after the fall of Italy the German soldiers were very enthused. They thought the Russia and all other sectors of war would also crumble in face of their assault. That was the reason why the soldiers on the battle fronts eagerly awaited the arrival of the spring of 1918.
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