Nazi ideology and the feature films of the Third Reich / by Timothy W. Stephens.

This thesis attempts to answer several questions regarding the use of feature films in the Third Reich to convey Nazi ideology. Primarily, the feature film of Nazi Germany is analyzed as a reflection of the National Socialist Weltanschauung. It is this author's conclusion that at least some, probably most, and possibly all Nazi feature films demonstrate aspects of the Nazi Weltanschauung in varying degrees of intensity. Goebbels did not wish to replace feature films with crude propaganda films, but sought to use the feature film as a major method of ideological indoctrination: to this end he created powerful and extensive ideological apparatuses and established close ties with the major political and financial interests within film industry. Far from representing a major break with the film industry's past, the operation of the industry during the Third Reich represented an intensification of existing monopolistic trends for the purpose of establishing the German film industry as an equally profitable and ideologically powerful enterprise. It is the author's belief that a chronological survey of events, followed by an analysis of statistics and government statements and a review of selected feature films is the best approach to fulfilling the thesis' objectives. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)