In addition, journalists (now considered employees of the state) were required to prove Aryan descent back to the year 1800, and if married, the same requirement applied to the spouse.
Paul Joseph Goebbels (;) (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the Nazi Gauleiter (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945.
The following day, Goebbels and his wife committed suicide, after poisoning their six children with cyanide. ==Early life== Paul Joseph Goebbels was born on 29 October 1897 in Rheydt, an industrial town south of Mönchengladbach near Düsseldorf, Germany.
He was rejected for military service in World War I because of this deformity. Goebbels was educated at a Gymnasium, where he completed his Abitur (university entrance examination) in 1917.
By 1920, the relationship with Anka was over.
The original National Socialist Program of 1920 was retained unchanged, and Hitler's position as party leader was greatly strengthened. ==Propagandist in Berlin== At Hitler's invitation, Goebbels spoke at party meetings in Munich and at the annual Party Congress, held in Weimar in 1926.
He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust. Goebbels, who aspired to be an author, obtained a Doctor of Philology degree from the University of Heidelberg in 1921.
In 1921, he wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, Michael, a three-part work of which only Parts I and III have survived.
After submitting the thesis and passing his oral examination, Goebbels earned his PhD in 1921.
Magda too had affairs, including a relationship with Kurt Ludecke in 1933 and Karl Hanke in 1938. The Goebbels family included Harald Quandt (Magda's son from her first marriage; born 1921), plus Helga (1932), Hilde (1934), Helmuth (1935), Holde (1937), Hedda (1938), and Heide (1940).
In the summer of 1922, he met and began a love affair with Else Janke, a schoolteacher.
His diaries, which he began in 1923 and continued for the rest of his life, provided an outlet for his desire to write.
The lack of income from his literary works (he wrote two plays in 1923, neither of which sold) forced him to take employment as a caller on the stock exchange and as a bank clerk in Cologne, a job he detested.
He was dismissed from the bank in August 1923 and returned to Rheydt.
According to German historian Peter Longerich, Goebbels's diary entries from late 1923 to early 1924 reflected the writings of a man who was isolated, preoccupied with "religious-philosophical" issues, and lacked a sense of direction.
Diary entries of mid-December 1923 forward show Goebbels was moving towards the Völkisch nationalist movement. ==Nazi activist== Goebbels first took an interest in Adolf Hitler and Nazism in 1924.
In February 1924, Hitler's trial for treason began in the wake of his failed attempt to seize power in the Beer Hall Putsch of 8–9 November 1923.
He joined the Nazi Party in 1924, and worked with Gregor Strasser in its northern branch.
According to German historian Peter Longerich, Goebbels's diary entries from late 1923 to early 1924 reflected the writings of a man who was isolated, preoccupied with "religious-philosophical" issues, and lacked a sense of direction.
Diary entries of mid-December 1923 forward show Goebbels was moving towards the Völkisch nationalist movement. ==Nazi activist== Goebbels first took an interest in Adolf Hitler and Nazism in 1924.
In February 1924, Hitler's trial for treason began in the wake of his failed attempt to seize power in the Beer Hall Putsch of 8–9 November 1923.
Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison, but was released on 20 December 1924, after serving just over a year.
In late 1924, Goebbels offered his services to Karl Kaufmann, who was Gauleiter (Nazi Party district leader) for the Rhine-Ruhr District.
He was appointed Gauleiter of Berlin in 1926, where he began to take an interest in the use of propaganda to promote the party and its programme.
Strasser disagreed with Hitler on many parts of the party platform, and in November 1926 began working on a revision. Hitler viewed Strasser's actions as a threat to his authority, and summoned 60 Gauleiters and party leaders, including Goebbels, to a special conference in Bamberg, in Streicher's Gau of Franconia, where he gave a two-hour speech repudiating Strasser's new political programme.
In February 1926, Goebbels gave a speech titled "Lenin or Hitler?" in which he asserted that communism or Marxism could not save the German people, but he believed it would cause a "socialist nationalist state" to arise in Russia.
In 1926, Goebbels published a pamphlet titled Nazi-Sozi which attempted to explain how National Socialism differed from Marxism. In hopes of winning over the opposition, Hitler arranged meetings in Munich with the three Greater Ruhr Gau leaders, including Goebbels.
The original National Socialist Program of 1920 was retained unchanged, and Hitler's position as party leader was greatly strengthened. ==Propagandist in Berlin== At Hitler's invitation, Goebbels spoke at party meetings in Munich and at the annual Party Congress, held in Weimar in 1926.
Receiving praise for doing well at these events led Goebbels to shape his political ideas to match Hitler's, and to admire and idolise him even more. ===Gauleiter=== Goebbels was first offered the position of party Gauleiter for the Berlin section in August 1926.
After she revealed to him that she was half-Jewish, Goebbels stated the "enchantment [was] ruined." Nevertheless, he continued to see her on and off until 1927. He continued for several years to try to become a published author.
He used loudspeakers, decorative flames, uniforms, and marches to attract attention to speeches. Goebbels' tactic of using provocation to bring attention to the Nazi Party, along with violence at the public party meetings and demonstrations, led the Berlin police to ban the Nazi Party from the city on 5 May 1927.
He worried too about how a committed personal relationship might interfere with his career. ===1928 election=== The ban on the Nazi Party was lifted before the Reichstag elections on 20 May 1928.
Upon receiving the news, Goebbels was relieved the "crisis" with the Strassers was finally over and glad that Otto Strasser had lost all power. The rapid deterioration of the economy led to the resignation on 27 March 1930 of the coalition government that had been elected in 1928.
Antisemitic content and material about a charismatic leader may have been added by Goebbels shortly before the book was published in 1929 by Eher-Verlag, the publishing house of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers' Party; NSDAP).
Goebbels considered himself well suited to the position, and began to formulate ideas about how propaganda could be used in schools and the media. By 1930 Berlin was the party's second-strongest base of support after Munich.
He officially declared Wessel's march Die Fahne hoch (Raise the flag), renamed as the Horst-Wessel-Lied, to be the Nazi Party anthem. ===Great Depression=== The Great Depression greatly impacted Germany and by 1930 there was a dramatic increase in unemployment.
In late April 1930, Hitler publicly and firmly announced his opposition to Gregor Strasser and appointed Goebbels to replace him as Reich leader of Nazi Party propaganda.
Upon receiving the news, Goebbels was relieved the "crisis" with the Strassers was finally over and glad that Otto Strasser had lost all power. The rapid deterioration of the economy led to the resignation on 27 March 1930 of the coalition government that had been elected in 1928.
Goebbels took charge of the Nazi Party's national campaign for Reichstag elections called for 14 September 1930.
The resulting success took even Hitler and Goebbels by surprise: the party received 6.5 million votes nationwide and took 107 seats in the Reichstag, making it the second largest party in the country. In late 1930 Goebbels met Magda Quandt, a divorcée who had joined the party a few months earlier.
Furthermore, Hitler rarely gave speeches or rallies of the sort that had dominated propaganda in the 1930s.
The Reichstag changed the immunity regulations in February 1931, and Goebbels was forced to pay fines for libellous material he had placed in Der Angriff over the course of the previous year.
Goebbels and Quandt married on 19 December 1931.
In 1932, Goebbels published a pamphlet of his family tree to refute the rumours that his maternal grandmother was of Jewish ancestry. During childhood, Goebbels suffered from ill health, which included a long bout of inflammation of the lungs.
Hitler was his best man. For two further elections held in 1932, Goebbels organised massive campaigns that included rallies, parades, speeches, and Hitler travelling around the country by aeroplane with the slogan "the Führer over Germany".
Paul Joseph Goebbels (;) (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the Nazi Gauleiter (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted control over the news media, arts, and information in Germany.
In an effort to stabilise the country and improve economic conditions, Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Reich chancellor on 30 January 1933. To celebrate Hitler's appointment as chancellor, Goebbels organised a torchlight parade in Berlin on the night of 30 January of an estimated 60,000 men, many in the uniforms of the SA and SS.
The Nazi Party took advantage of the Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933, with Hindenburg passing the Reichstag Fire Decree the following day at Hitler's urging.
Goebbels hoped to increase popular support of the party from the 37 per cent achieved at the last free election held in Germany on 25 March 1933 to 100 per cent support.
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April 1933, forced all non-Aryans to retire from the legal profession and civil service.
By June 1933, virtually the only organisations not in the control of the Nazi Party were the army and the churches.
On 2 June 1933, Hitler appointed Goebbels a Reichsleiter, the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party. In a move to manipulate Germany's middle class and shape popular opinion, the regime passed on 4 October 1933 the Schriftleitergesetz (Editor's Law), which became the cornerstone of the Nazi Party's control of the popular press.
Goebbels was successful at his job, however; Life wrote in 1938 that "[p]ersonally he likes nobody, is liked by nobody, and runs the most efficient Nazi department." John Gunther wrote in 1940 that Goebbels "is the cleverest of all the Nazis", but could not succeed Hitler because "everybody hates him". The Reich Film Chamber, which all members of the film industry were required to join, was created in June 1933.
Meanwhile, Goebbels was disappointed by the lack of quality in the National Socialist artwork, films, and literature. ===Church struggle=== In 1933, Hitler signed the Reichskonkordat (Reich Concordat), a treaty with the Vatican that required the regime to honour the independence of Catholic institutions and prohibited clergy from involvement in politics.
Partly out of foreign policy concerns, Hitler ordered a scaling back of the church struggle by the end of July 1937. ==World War II== As early as February 1933, Hitler announced that rearmament must be undertaken, albeit clandestinely at first, as to do so was in violation of the Versailles Treaty.
Magda too had affairs, including a relationship with Kurt Ludecke in 1933 and Karl Hanke in 1938. The Goebbels family included Harald Quandt (Magda's son from her first marriage; born 1921), plus Helga (1932), Hilde (1934), Helmuth (1935), Holde (1937), Hedda (1938), and Heide (1940).
The law required journalists to "regulate their work in accordance with National Socialism as a philosophy of life and as a conception of government." At the end of June 1934, top officials of the SA and opponents of the regime, including Gregor Strasser, were arrested and killed in a purge later called the Night of Long Knives.
On 2 August 1934, President von Hindenburg died.
Sometimes under protest from individual states (particularly Prussia, headed by Göring), Goebbels gained control of radio stations nationwide, and placed them under the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (German National Broadcasting Corporation) in July 1934.
Adulation of Hitler was the focus of the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, where his moves were carefully choreographed.
It won the Gold Medal at the 1935 Venice Film Festival.
At the 1935 Nazi party congress rally at Nuremberg, Goebbels declared that "Bolshevism is the declaration of war by Jewish-led international subhumans against culture itself." Goebbels was involved in planning the staging of the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin.
Throughout 1935 and 1936, hundreds of clergy and nuns were arrested, often on trumped up charges of currency smuggling or sexual offences.
At the 1935 Nazi party congress rally at Nuremberg, Goebbels declared that "Bolshevism is the declaration of war by Jewish-led international subhumans against culture itself." Goebbels was involved in planning the staging of the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin.
Throughout 1935 and 1936, hundreds of clergy and nuns were arrested, often on trumped up charges of currency smuggling or sexual offences.
At the time of the Reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936, Goebbels summed up his general attitude in his diary: "[N]ow is the time for action.
She also became an unofficial representative of the regime, receiving letters from all over Germany from women with questions about domestic matters or child custody issues. In 1936, Goebbels met the Czech actress Lída Baarová and by the winter of 1937 began an intense affair with her.
A major project in 1937 was the Degenerate Art Exhibition, organised by Goebbels, which ran in Munich from July to November.
Hitler often vacillated on whether or not the Kirchenkampf (church struggle) should be a priority, but his frequent inflammatory comments on the issue were enough to convince Goebbels to intensify his work on the issue; in February 1937 he stated he wanted to eliminate the Protestant church. In response to the persecution, Pope Pius XI had the "Mit brennender Sorge" ("With Burning Concern") Encyclical smuggled into Germany for Passion Sunday 1937 and read from every pulpit.
Partly out of foreign policy concerns, Hitler ordered a scaling back of the church struggle by the end of July 1937. ==World War II== As early as February 1933, Hitler announced that rearmament must be undertaken, albeit clandestinely at first, as to do so was in violation of the Versailles Treaty.
She also became an unofficial representative of the regime, receiving letters from all over Germany from women with questions about domestic matters or child custody issues. In 1936, Goebbels met the Czech actress Lída Baarová and by the winter of 1937 began an intense affair with her.
Goebbels was successful at his job, however; Life wrote in 1938 that "[p]ersonally he likes nobody, is liked by nobody, and runs the most efficient Nazi department." John Gunther wrote in 1940 that Goebbels "is the cleverest of all the Nazis", but could not succeed Hitler because "everybody hates him". The Reich Film Chamber, which all members of the film industry were required to join, was created in June 1933.
Manufacturers were urged by Goebbels to produce inexpensive home receivers, called Volksempfänger (people's receiver), and by 1938 nearly ten million sets had been sold.
It was around this time that he met and started having an affair with the actress Lída Baarová, whom he continued to see until 1938.
Fortune favors the brave! He who dares nothing wins nothing." In the lead-up to the Sudetenland crisis in 1938, Goebbels took the initiative time and again to use propaganda to whip up sympathy for the Sudeten Germans while campaigning against the Czech government.
After the western powers acceded to Hitler's demands concerning Czechoslovakia in 1938, Goebbels soon redirected his propaganda machine against Poland.
Discriminatory measures he instituted in Berlin in the early years of the regime included bans against their using public transport and requiring that Jewish shops be marked as such. In November 1938, the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath was killed in Paris by the young Jewish man Herschel Grynszpan.
Magda had a long conversation with Hitler about it on 15 August 1938.
Magda too had affairs, including a relationship with Kurt Ludecke in 1933 and Karl Hanke in 1938. The Goebbels family included Harald Quandt (Magda's son from her first marriage; born 1921), plus Helga (1932), Hilde (1934), Helmuth (1935), Holde (1937), Hedda (1938), and Heide (1940).
On 2 September 1939 (the day after the start of the war), Goebbels and the Council of Ministers proclaimed it illegal to listen to foreign radio stations.
As a result of the propaganda campaign, enrolment in denominational schools dropped sharply, and by 1939 all such schools were disbanded or converted to public facilities.
He privately held doubts about the wisdom of risking a protracted war against Britain and France by attacking Poland. After the Invasion of Poland in September 1939, Goebbels used his propaganda ministry and the Reich chambers to control access to information domestically.
By 1940, he had written 14 books. Goebbels returned home and worked as a private tutor.
Goebbels was successful at his job, however; Life wrote in 1938 that "[p]ersonally he likes nobody, is liked by nobody, and runs the most efficient Nazi department." John Gunther wrote in 1940 that Goebbels "is the cleverest of all the Nazis", but could not succeed Hitler because "everybody hates him". The Reich Film Chamber, which all members of the film industry were required to join, was created in June 1933.
From May 1940 he wrote frequent editorials that were published in Das Reich which were later read aloud over the radio.
The discovery around this time of a mass grave of Polish officers that had been killed by the Red Army in the 1940 Katyn massacre was made use of by Goebbels in his propaganda in an attempt to drive a wedge between the Soviets and the other western allies. ==Plenipotentiary for total war== On 1 April 1943, Goebbels was named Stadtpräsident of Berlin, thus uniting under his control the city's highest party and governmental offices.
Deportations of German Jews began in October 1941, with the first transport from Berlin leaving on 18 October.
In preparation for the deportations, Goebbels ordered that all German Jews wear an identifying yellow badge as of 5 September 1941.
A year later he told his military leaders that 1942 was the target date for going to war in the east.
At the same time, Goebbels implemented changes to have more "entertaining material" in radio and film produced for the public, decreeing in late 1942 that 20 per cent of the films should be propaganda and 80 per cent light entertainment.
The series of military setbacks the Germans suffered in this period – the thousand-bomber raid on Cologne (May 1942), the Allied victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein (November 1942), and especially the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad (February 1943) – were difficult matters to present to the German public, who were increasingly weary of the war and sceptical that it could be won.
On 16 November 1942 Goebbels, like all Gauleiters, was appointed the Reich Defense Commissioner for his Gau.
Historian Michael Balfour states that from 1942 onward, Goebbels, "lost control over Nazi policy toward the press and over the handling of news in general." Rival agencies expanded.
On 6 March 1942, Goebbels received a copy of the minutes of the Wannsee Conference, which indicated indirectly that the Jewish population of Europe was to be sent to extermination camps in occupied areas of Poland and killed.
A judgment is being carried out on the Jews which is barbaric but thoroughly deserved," he wrote on 27 March 1942. Goebbels had frequent discussions with Hitler about the fate of the Jews, a subject they discussed almost every time they met.
Topics for party propaganda included antisemitism, attacks on the Christian churches, and (after the start of the Second World War) attempting to shape morale. In 1943, Goebbels began to pressure Hitler to introduce measures that would produce "total war", including closing businesses not essential to the war effort, conscripting women into the labour force, and enlisting men in previously exempt occupations into the Wehrmacht.
The series of military setbacks the Germans suffered in this period – the thousand-bomber raid on Cologne (May 1942), the Allied victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein (November 1942), and especially the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad (February 1943) – were difficult matters to present to the German public, who were increasingly weary of the war and sceptical that it could be won.
On 15 January 1943, Hitler appointed Goebbels as head of the newly created Air Raid Damage committee, which meant Goebbels was nominally in charge of nationwide civil air defences and shelters as well as the assessment and repair of damaged buildings.
In actuality, the defence of areas other than Berlin remained in the hands of the local Gauleiters, and his main tasks were limited to providing immediate aid to the affected civilians and using propaganda to improve their morale. By early 1943, the war produced a labour crisis for the regime.
The committee, soon known as the Dreierausschuß (Committee of Three), met eleven times between January and August 1943.
The result was that nothing changed, and the Committee of Three declined into irrelevance by September 1943. Partly in response to being excluded from the Committee of Three, Goebbels pressured Hitler to introduce measures that would produce "total war", including closing businesses not essential to the war effort, conscripting women into the labour force, and enlisting men in previously exempt occupations into the Wehrmacht.
After receiving an enthusiastic response to his speech of 30 January 1943 on the topic, Goebbels believed he had the support of the German people in his call for total war.
His next speech, the Sportpalast speech of 18 February 1943, was a passionate demand for his audience to commit to total war, which he presented as the only way to stop the Bolshevik onslaught and save the German people from destruction.
The discovery around this time of a mass grave of Polish officers that had been killed by the Red Army in the 1940 Katyn massacre was made use of by Goebbels in his propaganda in an attempt to drive a wedge between the Soviets and the other western allies. ==Plenipotentiary for total war== On 1 April 1943, Goebbels was named Stadtpräsident of Berlin, thus uniting under his control the city's highest party and governmental offices.
After the Allied invasion of Sicily (July 1943) and the strategic Soviet victory in the Battle of Kursk (July–August 1943), Goebbels began to recognise that the war could no longer be won.
Hitler rejected both of these proposals. As Germany's military and economic situation grew steadily worse, on 25 August 1943 Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler took over the post of interior minister, replacing Wilhelm Frick.
Hitler finally appointed him as Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War on 23 July 1944, whereby Goebbels undertook largely unsuccessful measures to increase the number of people available for armaments manufacture and the Wehrmacht. As the war drew to a close and Nazi Germany faced defeat, Magda Goebbels and the Goebbels children joined him in Berlin.
Göring's Luftwaffe attempted to retaliate with air raids on London in early 1944, but they no longer had sufficient aircraft to make much of an impact.
While Goebbels' propaganda in this period indicated that a huge retaliation was in the offing, the V-1 flying bombs, launched on British targets beginning in mid-June 1944, had little effect, with only around 20 per cent reaching their intended targets.
Meanwhile, in the Normandy landings of 6 June 1944, the Allies successfully gained a foothold in France. Throughout July 1944, Goebbels and Speer continued to press Hitler to bring the economy to a total war footing.
Untrained workers from elsewhere were not readily absorbed into the armaments industry, and likewise, the new Wehrmacht recruits waited in barracks for their turn to be trained. At Hitler's behest, the Volkssturm (People's Storm) – a nationwide militia of men previously considered unsuitable for military service – was formed on 18 October 1944.
Paul Joseph Goebbels (;) (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the Nazi Gauleiter (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945.
They moved into the underground Vorbunker, part of Hitler's underground bunker complex, on 22 April 1945.
After Hitler returned to Berlin in 1945, Goebbels' ministry was destroyed by an Allied air raid on 13 March, and Goebbels had great difficulty disseminating propaganda.
In April 1945, he finally bested the rival agencies and took full charge of propaganda, but by then the Soviet Red Army had already entered Berlin.
By the beginning of 1945, with the Soviets on the Oder River and the Western Allies preparing to cross the Rhine River, he could no longer disguise the fact that defeat was inevitable.
The last burial was at the SMERSH facility in Magdeburg on 21 February 1946.
Goebbels' SS adjutant Günther Schwägermann testified in 1948 that they walked ahead of him up the stairs and out into the Chancellery garden.
In 1970, KGB director Yuri Andropov authorised an operation to destroy the remains.
On 4 April 1970, a Soviet KGB team used detailed burial charts to exhume five wooden boxes at the Magdeburg SMERSH facility.
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