# Why did Nazi Germany allow foreign reporters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2020, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161 "2020-04-20T02:21:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/1 "2020-04-20T02:21:50Z")
I’m watching World on Fire and Helen Hunts character is an American journalist in Berlin. I get that the US was neutral at this time, but she has appears to have a surprising amount of freedom. She does have a minder from the Ministry of Propaganda & Enlightenment who censors her reports, but it’s still illegal for Germans to even listen to her broadcasts (despite her broadcasting from Berlin). Why did the Nazis allow stuff like this? Was it just propganda to make the world think they had nothing to hide? Or was it so other countries would accept the presence of Nazi journalists? Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/2 "2020-04-20T05:16:18Z")
Why wouldn’t they want reporters? They wanted to spread their message. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/3 "2020-04-20T09:24:10Z")
So that she wouldn’t go toe England and report what the English propaganda was saying. Reporters report. Germany hadn’t closed it’s borders to Americans, and had no real reason to do so. The German government were very good at press relations, and knew what effect starving them of stories has. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/4 "2020-04-20T11:02:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Why wouldn’t they want reporters? They wanted to spread their message. Can’t have a fun Olympics without outside reporters telling the world of glorious victories of the master race, applauded by a happy adoring populace. Outside reporters were carefully censored, and many if not all self-censored to get some news through. \*"(William Shirer’s) broadcasts had to pass by three Nazi censors, and he fought to give listeners in the West even modestly accurate news. He sometimes had to “indicate a truth or an official lie by the tone and inflection of the voice,” Shirer wrote, or “by a pause held longer than is natural.” To stay in Berlin, Shirer’s reporting needed to avoid offending his Nazi minders. Mr. Wick implies that Shirer, under these restrictions, might have left sooner, or been kicked out, as were some other Western reporters."\* > **[A Foreign Correspondent in Nazi Germany Who Interpreted It for the World...](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/books/steve-wicks-long-night-about-william-l-shirer-review.html)** > > Steve Wick’s “Long Night” is a biography of William L. Shirer, war correspondent and author on Nazi Germany. The real question is: Why did Nazi Germany allow Helen Hunt in? 😕:smack: ---
**Author:** ![steepone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/5 "2020-04-20T13:47:04Z")
Don’t forget, before the war there were a lot of nazi supporters in America plus a lot of German expats who, while not nazis, still felt a loyalty to Germany, the nazi leadership probably felt that banning American reporters would adversely affect the level of support they got ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/6 "2020-04-20T14:05:03Z")
My parents visited Germany in the spring of 1939, and their trip reports/diaries show that they were extremely well treated (as Canadians), and got along well with the locals (even chit-chatting amicably and having beers with Nazi-uniformed gentlemen) . The Germans needed money, so they wanted all the tourists they could get. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/7 "2020-04-20T15:13:43Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > The real question is: Why did Nazi Germany allow Helen Hunt in? 😕:smack: Hitler was a big fan of _Mad About You_. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/8 "2020-04-20T15:30:40Z")
This good book is about the US ambassador to Germany from 1933-1937. Hitler tried to date the ambassador’s daughter but she was not interested. > **[In the Garden of Beasts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Garden_of_Beasts)** > > In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin is a 2011 non-fiction book by Erik Larson. > Larson recounts the career of the American Ambassador to Germany, William Dodd, particularly the years 1933 to 1937 when he and his family, including his daughter Martha, lived in Berlin. The Ambassador, who earned his Ph.D. in Leipzig 40 years earlier, and who, at the time of his appointment, was head of the History Department at the University of Chicago, initially hoped ... ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2020, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/9 "2020-05-28T03:03:11Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > …The Germans needed money, so they wanted all the tourists they could get. Among them, JFK and a buddy in the summer of 1937 (towards the bottom here): [https://jfk.blogs.archives.gov/2017/10/18/jack-and-lems-excellent-european-adventure-summer-1937/](https://jfk.blogs.archives.gov/2017/10/18/jack-and-lems-excellent-european-adventure-summer-1937/) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-nazi-germany-allow-foreign-reporters/852161/10 "2020-06-03T00:27:34Z")
The Germans wanted journalists to propagate their message. Before they invaded Poland, this public message was “peace in our time”. The more outrageous acts were hidden. And if journalists were sympathetic, they might appeal to powerful local interests and dissuade political involvement. Many Americans have German ancestry, for example, and in theory could make a powerful fifth column. Some prominent people in many countries were sympathizers. Of course, there were probably also undertones of “we’re not so bad”, “as you can see, nothing going on here” and “we all want peace”. Over time, journalists might have been treated differently or with other objectives.