---
title: 'Totaler Krieg – kürzester Krieg (Total War – Shortest War): the Sportpalast rally of 18 February 1943'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sportpalast-total-war-speech-1943/
description: The Berlin Sportpalast during Goebbels's 'total war' speech, under a banner reading 'Total war – shortest war'.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Totaler Krieg – kürzester Krieg (Total War – Shortest War): the Sportpalast rally of 18 February 1943](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sportpalast-total-war-speech-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sportpalast-total-war-speech-1943.jpg)

# Totaler Krieg – kürzester Krieg (Total War – Shortest War): the Sportpalast rally of 18 February 1943

The Berlin Sportpalast during Goebbels's 'total war' speech, under a banner reading 'Total war – shortest war'. The hall was filled with a selected audience whose answers to his ten questions ('Do you want total war?') were broadcast as the voice of the nation, while the speech itself argued that defeat would mean Bolshevism overrunning Europe.

- **Date:** February 18, 1943
- **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii)
- **Made by:** Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Joseph Goebbels), with the NSDAP Gau Berlin
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Nazi Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=nazi-germany)
- **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **Regime:** [Nazi Germany](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=nazi-germany)
- **Leader:** [Adolf Hitler](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=adolf-hitler)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information)
- **Event:** [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-ii)
- **Techniques:** [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/) [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-J05235,_Berlin,_Gro%C3%9Fkundgebung_im_Sportpalast.jpg), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** CC BY-SA 3.0 DE (German Federal Archives) Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-J05235 / Schwahn / CC-BY-SA 3.0

## Text on the object

Original (German) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
[illegible] OTALER KRIEG – KÜRZESTER KRIEG
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
[illegible] otal War – Shortest War
```

The photograph's left edge crops the banner's opening letter; the visible text reads 'OTALER KRIEG – KÜRZESTER KRIEG'. The full slogan is widely documented elsewhere as 'Totaler Krieg – kürzester Krieg' ('Total war – shortest war'), but the cropped letter itself is not legible in this image and is marked illegible rather than assumed.

[← Why We Fight: The Battle of Britain (film frame)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/why-we-fight-battle-of-britain-1943/) ['Dangan kitte' (Bullet Stamps) war-savings lottery advertisement, back cover of Shashin Shūhō →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dangan-kitte-shashin-shuho-1943/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [Das ganze Deutschland soll es sein. Haut sie auf den Chassepot! (German broadsheet song and caricature, Franco-Prussian War)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/das-ganze-deutschland-soll-es-sein-chassepot-1870/) (1870 · Bandwagon, Name-calling)
- [Boletín nuevo: Noticias importantes (New Bulletin: Important News), Revolución del Parque](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/boletin-nuevo-revolucion-del-parque-1890/) (Jul 29, 1890 · Bandwagon, Name-calling)
- [¡¡Glorias de México!! Porfirio Díaz y Ramón Corral, electos por el voto unánime del pueblo (Glories of Mexico!! Porfirio Díaz and Ramón Corral, Elected by the Unanimous Vote of the People)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/glorias-de-mexico-diaz-corral-1904/) (1904 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon)
- [La vuelta del desterrado (The Return of the Exile)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vuelta-del-desterrado-vanegas-arroyo-1911/) (1911 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon)
- [Saludo y felicitación al Señor D. Francisco I. Madero al tomar posesión de la presidencia (Salute and Congratulations to Francisco I. Madero on Taking the Presidency)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/saludo-madero-1911/) (Nov 6, 1911 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon)
- [The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-menace-front-page-1913/) (Apr 12, 1913 · Bandwagon, Scapegoating). Content note: Anti-Catholic newspaper front page with a skull-and-crossbones emblem labelled 'Temporal Power' and claims of a Roman Catholic conspiracy.
- [Vote Against Woman Suffrage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/georgia-vote-against-woman-suffrage-1915/) (1915 · Fear appeal, Bandwagon)