As the German Press Chief of the NSDAP, Otto Dietrich was one of Adolf Hitler`s closest associates for almost fourteen years. Between 1938 and 1945, he held the additional function of Press Chief of the German government in Goebbels` German Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. This makes it all the more surprising that he has been the subject of so little scientific research up until now.
For the purposes of his biographical study, Stefan Krings was given access to the personal estate of Otto Dietrich for the first time. He shows how the press officer, rather a colourless figure, succeeded in gaining a strong position in the press sector through his ambitious striving for power and clever personal politics. Indeed, for a considerable length of time he was even more powerful here than Goebbels, the cynical, diabolical master of rhetoric.
In this way, the exclusive concentration on the figure of Goebbels during the last few decades of historical communications research is called into question.
Otto Dietrich (1897-1952)
Was the German Press Chief of the NSDAP, SS Senior Group Leader and State Secretary in the German Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (RMVP).
The Author
Stefan Krings, born in 1971, studied Journalism and Psychology. In 2008 he did a doctorate at the Institute of Journalism in Dortmund and published several research papers on communication studies
