Citation: Welch, David. Propaganda and the German Cinema, 1933-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. 112-121

In the fourth chapter of the novel, Welch focuses on the impact of the Olympic Games in Berlin in the section entitled, “Olympiade (1938): The Master Race and Strength through Joy.”  Within this section, Welch explains how the Olympic games and films made surrounding this event served as the perfect medium for Goebbel’s execution of Nazi Propaganda.  As the host of the games, Germany used this opportunity as an exercise in national respectability.  The Olympic games were an opportunity to portray Germany as a peace-minded country in both the eyes of foreign guests as well as German citizens.  Similarly, Welch suggests that, with the creation of one of the most popular films of the Third Reich, Wunschkonzert, this Nazi philosophy was conveyed to an even greater extent.  Wunschkonzert once again displays Germany as peace-loving nation and, through the story of two lovers who meet and fall in love in the Olympic Stadium, helps to convert the feeling of pride, strength, and joy that was felt during the Olympic games to the first phase of the war.    

The significance of Wunschkonzert as a Nazi Propaganda Film is strongly supported within this novel.  Welch explanation of Goebbel’s plan to use the Olympic games as means of uniting Germany and changing the perception of the country in the eyes of foreign and domestic people alike is important in understanding the value of Wunschkonzert.  This film enabled Nazi Germany to instill a sense of joy, strength, and love within the German community that could be converted to similar positive feelings about fighting and being triumphant in the Second World War. 

Events that took palce around Dahlhaus's writing of Nineteenth Century Music in the late 1970s

Handy chart for interpreting German Fraktur