Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

in Wessel Strasse. The April1918 issue of the Unitas journal reported that the two friends had decided to studynext in Berlin.AT CHRISTMAS Goebbels discovers his pal’s sister Agnes Kölsch and his yearning forLene turns to aversion. Agnes visits him one day and they exchange one passionlesskiss on his sofa. She foolishly introduces him to her sister Liesel, and an informaltriangle develops lasting well into the new year. Agnes visits him in Bonn, and theyspend the night together—‘Ulex’ kisses her breasts; as he recalls it, she is all overhim. After this he spends weekends at the Kölsch family home at Werl except oncewhen Liesel her sister comes to Bonn: Agnes is all but forgotten.24 Goebbels recallshaving been considerate to her, but he congratulates himself, with a certain smugness,‘She is all over me.’ Agnes’ mother encourages Goebbels’ relationship withGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 29Agnes although his immaturity is painfully evident.25 ‘She is still a child,’ he adds inhis own writings. ‘We are both children.’Writing six years later, he recalls these amorous forays in far greater detail than hismore academic pursuits. ‘Barely went to university,’ he confesses. ‘Pille’ Kölsch meanwhilehas opted for Freiburg in south-western Germany; Ulex sets off in his comrade’sfootsteps for the summer term beginning in May 1918.At Freiburg Pille embraces him, his eyes gleaming. ‘Ulex!’, he announces, ‘I’vealready found this great girl. Anka Stalherm. She’s a student—you’ve got to meether.” (“And how deeply and completely I have done just that!’, writes Goebbels sixyears later, still besotted with Anka.)Female students are in 1918 still rarities at German universities, and Anka is ararity among these. She is reading economics. Her eyes glitter blue-green, she wearsher blonde hair hair long with a few strands caught up in a knot on top26; her anklesare slim, and her legs are rumoured to be equally divine. She is twenty-three, twoyears older than Goebbels. With her Ursuline convent education in Germany andEngland behind her, she has inherited class, beauty, and wealth as well—her latefather owned a distillery and cornmill in the Rhineland.27Kölsch and Goebbels become friendly rivals for Anka’s affections. Among her effectswill later be found a faded picture postcard showing Goebbels at some studentrevelry wearing a lampshade on his head.28 Pille has penned a fond message on theback. And yet—let this be made clear in advance—sexually, Goebbels will get nowherewith her; nor she with him.29But the pursuit, the pursuit!Since Anka is a regular at Professor Hermann Thiersch’s seminars on classicalarcheology, Goebbels signs on for them too. Glowing reports reach the charity inCologne about his interest in these three-hour lectures. And the miracle happens:Anka Stalherm, this goddess of the mysterious grey-green eyes, she who is covetedby half the males at Freiburg university, saves her smiles for when he walks in, or soit seems to him. She is fascinated by this swift intellect. They go out as a threesomefor strolls up Freiburg’s Castle Hill or into the Black Forest. Kölsch suffers torments30 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHof jealousy, which enhances Goebbels’ sense of triumph. He serenades Anka on arented piano, and one precious night he sleeps under the same Black Forest roof asher. The three students tour the sleepy towns along the shores of Lake Constance,with Goebbels dreamy-eyed in blissful anticipation. At Ravensburg he plays the hugecathedral organ for them.Oppressing him despite these carefree moments are his poverty and his own jealousywhen she spends days away with Kölsch. His uncle Heinrich Cohnen, a wealthyinsurance-director friend of his father’s, twice wires him loans. The Catholics are lessforthcoming. While the Unitas journal reports the unexpected revival of their Freiburgchapter thanks to Ulex and his pal, after August 1918 Goebbels’ name vanishes fromits pages altogether.The delicious pursuit of Anka continues. Every detail of her coquettishness remainsimplanted in his memory—the cigarettes she deftly filches from him, his letterof reproach, her silent rapture when Goebbels reads out his latest epic, his privateglee at Pille’s jealous suffering, and their reading of Gerhard Hauptmann’s ‘TheSunken Bell’ together in her room, where Goebbels serenades her on the piano butascertains that she is, alas, ‘chastity itself.’His first letter to her is dated June 15, 1918, a wordy, Latin-garnished, solemnepistle addressing her formally as sehr geehrtes Fräulein Stalherm, embellished withfour lines of carefully crafted verse and signing off ‘with quite a lot of greetings,yours faithfully, J. Goebbels à Ulex.’30 Persistence and intellect are rewarded. Up onCastle Hill one afternoon—it is June 28, 1918—he kisses her for the first time:31not on the lips, but on one cheek.32 There is a problem: she is of far higher pedigree.There is an unholy row when she does not invite him to meet her visiting brotherWilly. And he agonizes over her dalliances with Kölsch: which does she prefer? Oneevening she pleads with him on bended knee to declare his love for her, and he realizesthat women too can suffer.As she leaves Freiburg at the end of July 1918 after one last night of stifled passion,he visits their old haunts. He sits in the forest hut high above the university city,listening to the rain beating on its roof, and imagines himself all alone on earth. HeGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 31writes her romantic messages. ‘Love has gone away,’ he writes. ‘The flower has died.’He begins to compose a five-act play, ‘Judas Iscariot.’33 He misses Anka badly.34 Whymust the most beautiful roses have the sharpest thorns? He reminds her of their firsthour together, reading the poetry of Theodor Storm. He will miss her, with herdreamy eyes and lustrous golden hair. Their hour of parting comes—”O, avert notthine eyes…They are glistening and moist. O, do not weep, we are not parting forever. Come give me thy dear hand, dost thou feel how the same pulse beats in bothour veins? Tomorrow we sally forth into the world.’ ‘And now, fare well. Come, giveme one more parting kiss, and do not weep.’ After she has left the little Castle Hillboarding house, clutching an armful of roses he has bought her, he returns to thatmeadow and lies all evening thinking about her until far into the