Hans Hinkel

Hans Hinkel was a German journalist and ministerial official in Nazi Germany.

Hans Hinkel (born 22 June 1901 in Worms; died 8 February 1960 in Göttingen) was a German journalist and ministerial official in Nazi Germany.

Hinkel, who joined the NSDAP in 1921, was from 1930 to 1932 the editor of the Völkischer Beobachter in Berlin. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, he became Reich Organization Leader of the Fighting Society for German Culture (Kampfbund für Deutsche Kultur or KfdK) and manager of the Reich Culture Chamber (Reichskulturkammer).

From 1935, Hinkel was responsible as a special commissioner for "cultural particulars" at the Reich Ministry for the People's Enlightenment and Propaganda. In this function, Hinkel, an SS officer and member of the Blood Order, was responsible for Anti-Semitic issues and particularly for the removal of Jews ("Entjudung") from cultural undertakings. Hans Hinkel was, for instance, the driving force behind the pressure brought to bear on the popular actor Joachim Gottschalk to get him to separate from his Jewish wife. In late 1942, Hans Hinkel took over the leadership of the film department at the Reich Ministry for the People's Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Hinkel also organized test screenings of films before propaganda experts, institutions, and authorities. Testing propaganda films for their effectiveness was an ongoing business. Since Anti-Semitic film propaganda did not touch on any of National Socialism's core issues, these test screenings served at the same time as a way to commit the whole propaganda apparatus to a common, radical line.

As Reich Culture Governor, Hinkel's work consisted of, among other things, approving events staged by the Cultural Federation of German Jews (Kulturbund Deutscher Juden) on a case-by-case basis. Hinkel thereby saw to it that this Federation was sealed off from non-Jewish artists' contributions. The Federation was dissolved in 1942.