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Silencing satire: Goebbels' 1939 political comedy purge in Nazi Germany

Ellsworth Toohey
Sep 18, 2025
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Werner Finck, By Willy Pragher, CC BY 3.0, Link

The New York Times reported in 1939 that Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels terminated the careers of five prominent German comedians. Their crime? Making political jokes about the Nazi regime. Werner Finck, Peter Sachse, and "The Three Rulands" were expelled from the Reich's Chamber of Culture for di…

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