e have to do with exceptions which - as everywhere - only confirm the rule" (407-408).Hitler's Mein Kampf is not so much an autobiography but in large parts rather "the typical life experience and the current ideological clichs of the collective social experience". These language clichs reach from stereotypes to crude expressions in the form of slogans and curses. Hitler's book was quoted plenty of times by teachers in schools which quickly became Nazified. Hitler's slogans from this book appeared on posters, in headlines, and on the radio, and they even wound up as sententious remarks in the "Bchmann" book of German quotations. There is no way to deny the effectiveness of this book. It found its readers one way or the other, just as Hitler lured people in droves to listen to his speeches. The printed book helped Hitler to gain ultimate power,(5) and his manipulative and shrewd misuse of folk speech with its proverbs and proverbial expressions played an important role in this process.The Most Powerful WeaponThe power of propaganda is often over looked, and those who manipulate and utilize its strength can make even the most absurd and repelling thought seem appealing. Adolf Hitler was one such man as he stated that, "The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan" On the contrary, Mein Kampf was initially available in two rather large volumes. Until January 30, 1933, the total sales of the book in Germany amounted to just 287,000 copies, which to a certain degree justifies that there was a "Nichtbeachtung" (ignoring) or "Nichtvertrautheit" (unfamiliarity) with the book before Hitler's actual rise to power.(3) After that, the sale numbers ro...
