Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

1932 and became Otto Dietrich’s adjutant in Feb 1933; from Apr 1, 1936 he wasdeputy press chief, and headed the government’s press office; he served as an infantry NCOJul–Aug 1939, as ADC to Rommel in North Africa from Feb 1, 1941, then returned to takeover JG’s press division on Sep 5, 1941. In Jan 1945 he was given a Panzer IV company inHungary, where he died in action (BDC file, Berndt; and see Berndt to Himmler, Jul 11,1944: NA film T175, roll 33).302 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH20 Manchester Guardian, Apr 27; cf NYT, Apr 238, 1933. The NYT obituary of JG on May 3,1945 stated, ‘It was he who conceived the spectacle of the Reichstag fire.’21 Diary, Apr 9, 1941.—In general see Fritz Tobias, Der Reichstagsbrand (Rastatt/Baden,1962); and the critique by Martin Broszat on the controversy in VfZ, No.3, 1960, 275ff.22 Cabinet, Mar 7, 1933 (BA file R43I/1460).23 JG had preferred ‘Reichsminister of Culture and Public Enlightenment.’—Lammersmemo, May 9, 1934 (BA file R.43II/1149).24 He issued repeated directives insisting that ‘propaganda’ be used only in a positive sense;and that it be called ‘agitation’ when conducted by the enemy. E.g. directive of Jul 28, 1937in Brammer collection, BA file ZSg.101/10; RMVP directive, Nov 8, 1940 (BA file R.55/1410); confidential briefing, Feb 9, 1942 in Oberheitmann collection, BA file ZSg.109/28;RMVP circular in files of Propaganda-Staffel North-west, Jul 24, 1944 (Hoover Libr., Lernerpapers).25 Interrogation at CCPWE No.32, report DI–32, Jul 16, 1945 (NA file RG.407: entry427, box 1954q).26 Schäffer diary, Mar 8, 1933 (BA file Kl.Erw. 614/17c; IfZ: ED.93, vol.24a).27 Fromm diary, Mar 15, 1933 (typescript in Boston Univ., Mugar Libr., Fromm papers,box 1.) Bella Steuermann-Fromm was a childhood friend of Ludwig III of Bavaria. She fledto the USA in 1938 with, she claimed, only $3.96 (but brought out her entire furnitureincluding a grand piano!) Hanfstaengl described her as an unappetizing and malodorouscreature. ‘This frump,’ he wrote on Jun 23, 1944 to his son, ‘was one of those semi-ladieswhose mere entrance sufficed to tell me that the company concerned had begun to becomewhat one might call “mixed”’ (NA file RG.219, X-7141141, Hanfstaengl).28 Fromm diary, Mar 29; and see ‘bf’s’ column in the Berliner Zeitung, Mar 30, 1933.29 Gutterer affidavit Jul 6, 1948 (IfZ, ZS).30 Cabinet Mar 11, 1933 5 P.M. (BA file R43I/1460 and /1149).31 Reichsgesetzblatt (Reich Law Gazette, cit. hereafter as RGBl.), 1933, I, 104. An addendumof Jun 30, 1933 (ibid., 440) stipulated that the ministry would perform ‘all tasks of spiritualinfluence on the nation, of publicizing the state, culture, and economy at home and abroad,and administering all bodies serving those functions.’—In general, see Z A B Zeman, NaziPropaganda (London, 1964), ‘Ernest Kohn Bramsted,’ Goebbels and National Socialist Propaganda1925–1945 (Michigan State Univ. Press, 1965), and Wolfram Werner, Zur Geschichtedes Reichsministeriums für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda und zur Überlieferung (Koblenz, 1979).32 Kaiserhof, Mar 15; NYT, Mar 20, 1933.33 William E Dodd to FDR, Mar 27, 1933 (FDR Libr., PSF file 45, Germany, Dodd).34 Borresholm, 94f; Kaiserhof, Mar 11, 1933. There are detailed floor plans in a 70pp. paper(PW paper 80) on the propaganda ministry by Dr Richard Arnhold; and see his PW paper108, ‘Party Control of Propaganda,’ a 19pp. analysis of the Reichspropagandaleitung and itsassociated agencies (PRO file WIO.208/4174). On the ministry’s later organisation andpersonalities see interrogation SAIC/CIR/4 of Hinkel, Immanuel Schäffer, Martin Schönicke,Rolf Hoffmann, Eugen Maier, Karl Cerff, Paul (‘Presse’) Schmidt, Jul 10, 1945 (NA fileRG.332, ETO MIS-Y, Sect box 116), and PWB/SAIC/22 of Hoffmann, Jul 12, 1945 (ibid.);also Special Interrogation Report on Otto Dietrich, CSDIC/WEA, SIR.2, Oct 16, 1945(NA file RG.332, Mis-Y, box 16).GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 30335 Cabinet, Mar 20, 1933 (BA file R43I/1460).36 Sunday Express, London, Mar 26; its main Mar 24, 1933 headline had read JUDEA DECLARESWAR ON GERMANY; NYT, passim.37 Sunday Express, Mar 26, 1933.38 Cabinet, Mar 29, 1933 4:15 P.M. (BA file R43I/1460); and see Kaiserhof Mar 27, and hispress conference reported in NYT, Mar 28, 1933.39 Reported thus in NYT, Apr 1, 1933.40 NYT, Apr 2; Kaiserhof, Apr 1, 1933. For a sample leaflet protesting against Jewish ‘atrocitypropaganda’ see file G-127 in the archives of the Yivo Institute for Jewish Research inNew York, Record Group 215 (cited hereafter as Yivo).41 Sir Eric Layton diary, Apr 3, 1933 (PRO file FO.371/16722). JG used to state that 75%of Berlin’s lawyers were Jews. Writing to him on Nov 30, 1936 Heydrich gave detailedfigures. ‘Before March 1933 altogether 3,890 lawyers were active in Berlin. Of these 1,998(51·36%) were Jews. Since the new admission regulations the overall number of Berlinlawyers has sunk to 3,095. Of these 1,203 (38·87%) are Jews.’ (ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01,propaganda ministry: Diewerge papers, vol.994).42 Kaiserhof, Mar 27, 1933.43 Diary, May 16, 1933.44 JG to Furtwängler, quoted in NYT, Apr 16, 1933.45 Papen, memoirs, 289ff.46 Diary, May 12, 25, Jul 22; uniforms: Jun 15, 20, Jul 27, 1933.47 Ibid., Jun 20, 21, 24, 1933.48 Ibid., Aug 6–7, 1933.49 Ibid., Aug 23 (‘Hope Fatso departs soon’) and Sep 2, 1933. JG’s rivaly with Göringoccasioned much scandalized comment among diplomats in Berlin. Cf Basil C Newton toOrme Sargent (F.O.), Sep 29, and Eric Phipps to Sir John Simon, Oct 25, 1933 (PRO fileFO.371/16728).50 Borresholm, 92f.304 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH

Goebbels

21: Bonfire of the BooksIN April 1933 the Reich Cabinet tackled May Day: should this traditional workers’festival now be proscribed?‘Leave May Day to me,’ said Goebbels, and declared it a Nazi nationalholiday instead—bigger and brasher than anything that had gone before. He rallied amillion and a half Berliners on the Tempelhof fields and basked beside the Führer inhis open limousine as it majestically rolled through the cheering masses.‘Mein Führer,’ he boasted at the microphone, ‘I stand before you as the spokesmanof the greatest multi-million movement that German soil has ever borne!’1At the Kaiserhof on May 9 he lectured the assembled theatre actors and managerson his concept of a militant Nazi culture. ‘I want to protest,’ he said, ‘at the notionthat the artist alone has the privilege of being unpolitical… The artist may not merelytrail behind, he must seize