Ep66: How propaganda helped create modern Germany

Tales under the cat tree

Ep66: How propaganda helped create modern Germany - Part 2

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Ep66: How propaganda helped create modern Germany - Part 2

Part 2 of our dive into so-called "black propaganda" during World War II. Dr. Erwin Warkentin and I dive into how the propaganda used during and after the war that has helped define modern Germany.

Duleepa Wijayawardhana and Erwin Warkentin

Aug 10, 2026

I like to say that stories are how we as humans try to program our minds. I know that in every age of humanity, we have defined the brain and its workings according to the technologies of that age. From steam tubes during the Industrial Revolution to clocks and gears. Today we imagine our brain as an organic computer.

Let’s say you have a computer today, imagine that that computer runs a program. We know the computer isn’t self-aware, it knows only what the program tells it. You would think that we humans are much better at this. We are after all self-aware. We can certainly, or so we would like to think, distinguish between truth and lies.

And yet, every day, whether at work or in our personal lives, little stories of truths and lies change the way we perceive reality. These little stories, whether it’s a comment made by a co-worker, or a short snippet on the television, can slowly change the world around you. After a few generations as we pass down these stories, a tyrant can transform into an angel, and an innocent can become the murderer. Our own beliefs of our culture and what we believe to be true in the deepest corners of ourselves can be manipulated.

This episode continues are dive into World War II propaganda, and believe me it won’t be the last. Dr. Erwin Warkentin has written three detailed books on the subject and joins me to discuss how propaganda during the second world war aimed at bringing down the regime became part of the fabric of post-war Germany.

Please do take a listen to the first part in this two-part series, episode number 65. We delved into the use of various propaganda tactics of the Political Warfare Executive and the work of Sefton Delmer.