As Propaganda Minister, Goebbels understood that pressure could be brought to bear to push these initiatives along by way of a major propaganda campaign. On 18 February 1943, he made a nationally broadcast speech from the Berlin Sportpalast before a hand-picked audience of 14,000 Nazi die-hards,[7] in which he extolled the necessity of a Spartan way of life in order to achieve total war.[lower-alpha 1] Throughout the speech the crews filming the event panned in and out on prominent people for added dramatic effect.[10][lower-alpha 2] Goebbels roused his audience with rhetorical questions; he was interrupted more than 200 times by shouts, slogans and wildly enthusiastic applause: