“Fake news” isn’t a new concept. It is the modern-day equivalent of the term lügenpresse meaning ‘lying press’ used by the Nazis to attack media outlets that were deemed unsupportive of the Nazi party and its aims. It was Germany’s ‘Non-word of the Year’ in 2015, after the term experienced resurgence amongst anti-immigrant protesters.
The term Lügenpresse has its origins in Germany during the First World War. Initially intended to counter allied propaganda campaigns (a good deal of which we now know to have actually been accurate) the Nazis used it to attack hostile media. And considering the central role of anti-Semitism in Hitler’s worldview, it was a particularly effective weapon. The idea of a Jewish-dominated press stretched back decades. By the 1920s it was all but an unspoken assumption within German anti-Semitic circles. So now, if the press was critical of the Nazis, the explanation was clear: the Jews. And since, according to Hitler, Jews were fundamental enemies of Germany, the press, too, was the enemy of the people.
As with so much of Nazi propaganda, the description of an opposition press based on lies was a classic case of projection. Hitler based his whole approach to politics on lies—something he made no secret of, having described his strategy of the “Big Lie” in his memoir, “Mein Kampf.” Hitler lied to officials about his party’s use of violence, he lied about his own past, he lied to foreign leaders about his intentions, and, of course, his whole understanding of the world was based on the life of a global Jewish conspiracy. Truth would never get in the way of Hitler’s goals.
Picture Credit : Google