Harry Potter is arguably one of the most prominent pieces of literature ever written. When turned into a movie, Harry Potter was the defining movie of the several generations to come. As the book series, consisting of 7 parts, kept being published, many millennials saw Harry and his friend group grow up together with them as the books kept getting darker and more mature.
Despite being set in a Magical world during the early nineties, the issues drawn into the books are very similar to the issues we face in the modern world. The world of Harry Potter is divided into two parts: Magical and non-magical(muggle’s world). The muggles are of courses completely unaware of the existence of the magic, even though wizards live alongside the muggles, their universe, and they live as ordinarily as we do. The main villain Voldemort, wants to conquer both worlds, and to either kill all muggles or to enslave them. Voldemort also despises the idea of half-bloods, a wizard child born to either muggle parents or to muggle-wizard parents.
To achieve his goal, Voldemort employs many famous techniques — propaganda, totalitarianism and anarchism. The book also discusses racism, minorities and conservative values, in a very discreet fashion.
Propaganda
There are a lot of vast differences between the lives of muggles and wizards, but journalism isn’t one of them. Just like the ordinary word, Rowling’s universe enjoys a great deal of gossip and misinformation in their mass media. The Daily Prophet(DP), the most read newspaper in the wizarding world, started off as a credible source of news before the Second Wizarding War.
However, as the war started, Government’s influence on the Daily Prophet increased greatly. False news and allegations against the government’s opponents were seen on the front page with every issue. The main victims of these false allegations were Harry Potter and Dumbledore, who defied government by claiming that Voldemort is back.
As Voldemort’s army got a hold of the government, the amount of propaganda in the DP grew exponentially. Besides their daily dose of fake news, the newspaper now also encouraged the prosecution of aforementioned half-bloods, or as they now called them mudbloods. The Ministry of Magic, that controlled the newspaper, also issued several magazines and flyers aimed at the mudbloods. In the image we can see a beautiful red rose being strangled by a green weed, a metaphor for the muggles and the dangers they pose.
Just like in any other tyrannical government, the freedom of speech in Voldemort’s Government was strictly restricted. To fight it off, wizards rebelling against Voldemort’s regime created a private radio programme Potterwatch. The programme used code names and code words to conceal their identities and to convey secret messages. Potterwatch encouraged the rebels to continue their work and reported on news that couldn’t be found in the government controlled Daily Prophet.
Not surprisingly, media control is one of the most common indications of an authoritarian regime. In fact, one of the first things Adolf Hitler did when coming to power was establishing the Ministry Of Propaganda, to use media to enforce the Nazi Ideology. One of the Ministry’s most prominent works is the film Triumph of the Will, about Hitler’s 1934 Nuremberg Rally. In the film, Hitler is portrayed as the heroic saviour of the Aryan Race.
Der Stürmer was another popular tool for spreading the Nazi Propaganda. This newspaper was aimed at demoralizing and demonizing Jews, using caricatures and accusing Jews of evil deeds. Blood Libel is one of the most infamous anti-semitic accusations, where the Jewish population was accused of stealing Christian children for their rituals.
We can also see a very similar concept to Potterwatch rise in London, called Radio Londres. The broadcast included a counter to German propaganda, and the words of encouragement and discussion of future plans to French Resistance. Just like the Potterwatch, all messages were coded for security.
Prime Ministers
For his rise to power, Voldemort owes a lot to the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who chose to ignore all the signs of his return, until he saw Voldemort with his own eyes. When Harry and Dumbledore informed the minister of Voldemort’s return, Cornelius chose to ignore all the signs, because it would undermine all the work the ministry has done to keep the peace for the past decade. Furthermore, Cornelius claimed that Dumbledore is spreading lies in order to take Cornelius’ place, hence he started the aforementioned media campaign against Harry and Dumbledore.
Nevertheless, after seeing Voldemort with his own eyes, he had no choice but to publicly declare the return of the Dark Lord. Due to the public outrage, Cornelius resigned.
Many believe that Cornelius Fudge is based on Neville Chamberlain, the prime minister of Britain during the start of the second world war. Just like Cornelius, Neville decided to ignore all the signs of Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy. Chamberlain’s infamous Munich Agreement,also known as the Munich Betrayal, accepted that the Czech region of Sudetenland should be given to Germany, hoping to appease Hitler. However, in the following months Hitler annexed more of the Czech lands and made Slovakia a Germany puppet state. Chamberlain chose to ignore this.
It took the invasion of Poland, for Chamberlain to finally declare a war on Germany and start the Second World War. Due to the public outrage, Chamberlain was forced to resign and pass the cabinet to Churchill.
Education
Surprisingly, despite all his evil deeds, Voldemort is not the most hated character in the HP universe. This notorious title belongs to Dolores Umbridge, a professor in Hogwarts and later the Headmistress of Hogwarts. Since she was forcefully installed into the school by the Ministry of Magic, she had enormous power and influence on teachers, students and the curriculum. As J.K. Rowling put it herself:
She is one of those people, and they do exist in real life, who will always side with the established order. As far as she is concerned authority cannot be wrong so she doesn’t question it, and I would go as far as to say that whatever happened and whoever took over at the Ministry, Umbridge would be there, she likes power. So she is going to side with the people who give her the authority
Needless to say, she was a great obstacle to Potter and his trio in their quest to overthrow Voldemort. She would even impose physical torture on students for the smallest offenses.
But how did Umbridge snatch the title of Hogwart’s Headmaster from the greatest wizard of all times — Dumbledore? The answer to that lies in the Educational Decrees, forced upon Hogwart’s by the aforementioned Cornelius in order to undermine Dumbledore. These decrees were vital in suppresing anti-government clubs and alliances.
Similar, but much more extreme, educational reforms were also issued in Nazi Germany. From 1937 to 1945, there were literal Adolf Hitler Boarding Schools aimed at indoctrinating the youth and moulding the Nazi ideology into their brains. It should be mentioned that in order to get enrolled into an Adolf Hitler school, the student had to be racially pure, Aryan. Additionally, “race science” became a major part of the biology classes, geography became the study of the Vaterland.
Conclusion
By comparing and contrasting some of the most important aspects of a tyrannical regime, we can see an obvious similarity between the Harry Potter Universe and the Nazi Germany. All books are inspired by some other art, person or a historical event, and we can confidently conclude that J.K Rowling was inspired by the Germany during 1930s and 40s. However, it’s also worth mentioning that Rowling did a masterful job of not simply retelling the story of the Nazi Germany, with different characters. Harry Potter series teaches young adults a lot of lessons about friendship, love, courage and the consequences of too much power.
