Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

smallest businesses to profit from advertising, using standard-size matrices.74 Newspapers were also ordered to publish honest circulation figures. Theseand other commonsense regulations would long outlive him in modern Germany.He also postured briefly on the stage of international diplomacy. The League ofNations disarmament conference was to resume in Geneva, Switzerland, on September22. Constantin von Neurath, Hitler’s foreign minister, suggested that Goebbelsaccompany the German delegation to explain and justify his anti-Jewish measures.75On the eve of departure Goebbels told reporters: ‘Germany does not want war.Indeed, we are in no condition for one.’76 Leaving by air from Rüdesheim the nextday he pointed out, ‘It is the “pacifist” nations which always prepare for the next war.’On the phone, Hitler counselled caution in his speech, and he did as he was told. Hedressed impeccably in a suit and striped tie just like the others; interpreter PaulSchmidt marvelled at the speed with which the Nazi agitator adopted the local argot—soon he was speaking with all the oleagenous ease of a practised Geneva diplomat.77At the suggestion of Baron Ernst von Weizsäcker, the German envoy to Switzerlandand one of the oiliest of them all, Goebbels was invited to meet lawyers andacademic dignitaries. A professor of economics questioned the Führer Principle. ‘Youare probably a reservist,’ Goebbels explained. ‘If an enemy barrage is beginning, theFührerprinzip is your only salvation. We Germans are under that barrage.’78 The moodtoward him was initially frosty. For various reasons Goebbels decided to addressonly a press conference and not the general assembly. Although the French urged aboycott, three hundred journalists turned up to hear him in the mirrored salon ofthe Carlton Palace hotel. Nobody applauded when he rose, and very few when hefinished speaking. This was not Nazi Germany. In his two hour speech, pronouncedin a serious, baritone voice, he reviewed the Nazi ‘revolution’ and claimed that eightypercent would vote for Hitler in an election now. Justifying the concentration campswhich the Nazis had set up, he invited any foreigner to inspect them.Turning to the Jewish problem, he trotted out the familiar figures about how theJews dominated the medical and legal professions in Berlin, with similar figures forGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 317the press, literature, theatre, cinema, Stock Exchange, and Reichstag. ‘By settling theJewish Problem legally,’ he argued, ‘the German government has opted for the mosthumane method.’ Nobody, he pointed out, had offered to absorb Germany’s Jewishrefugees.79A Polish woman journalist challenged him on Nazi Germany’s lack of freedom ofexpression. ‘You can’t write what you want either,’ retorted Goebbels, baring histeeth into a smile. ‘But only what your publisher allows.’80He met the French foreign minister Joseph Paul-Boncour privately for two hnours.The latter reported to Paris on how vividly Goebbels’ gleaming eyes and elegantgestures contrasted with his misshapen physique.81 Baron Kurt von Stutterheim, theBerliner Tageblatt’s former London correspondent, told Anthony Eden that Goebbelsreminded him of the Irish rebel leaders during the Troubles. ‘There is a strong fanaticalstrain in him.’82 All in all Baron von Weizsäcker felt that Goebbels had done a goodjob. The foreigners who had heard him now felt they would have to pay closer heedto this new movement after all.831 Borresholm, 96f; Kaiserhof, Apr 28, 30; diary, May 2, 1933.2 Testimony of Otto Wagener, Feb 5, 1960 (IfZ: ZS.1732).3 His diary, May 11, seems to make clear it was the Nazi students themselves.4 Gerhard Sauder, ‘Der Germanist Goebbels als Redner bei der BerlinerBücherverbrennung,’ in Das war ein Vorspiel nur…, Schriftenreihe der Akademie der Künste(Berlin, 1985), 56ff; Reuth, 286.5 Bella Fromm, diary, May 11, 1933.6 In conversation with Perre Bertaux and Brigitte Bermann-Fischer, in Haarmann, Huder,Siebenhaar (eds.) ’Das war ein Vorspiel nur’. Bücherverbrennung Deutschland 1933 (Berlin, Viena,1983), 230; Reuth, 286.7 Golo Mann.8 NYT, May 11; VB, May 12, 1933: ‘Execution of the People’s Will.’9 NYT, May 12, 1933.10 Ibid., Apr 2, May 7, 11, 1933.11 Fromm diary May 31, 1933 (Boston Univ. Libr.: Fromm papers, box 16).12 His unpublished diary of Apr 22, 1934 shows he later assessed Hassell as ‘quite clever’;on May 25, 1935 he found, ‘Hassell … sees things very clearly.’318 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH13 Diary, Jun 7, 1928. On Aug 29, 1928, agitated by the South Tyrol question, JG noted:‘Italians are all swine. Except for Mussolini.’ After reading the Duce’s memoirs JG commented(Jan 19, 1930), ‘Magnificent, this Mussolini! My great contemporary model.’14 Ibid., Jun 4, 1933.15 NYT, Jul 9, 1933.16 Fromm MS (published in New York as Blood & Banquets in 1942), Fromm papers, box 2.17 Diary, Apr 14, 1933.18 See his speech at the opening of the exhibition on women, quoted by Knickerbocker(Syracuse Univ., Thompson papers, box 2).19 Magda Goebbels broadcast May 14, 1933: Die deutsche Mutter (Heilbronn, 1933) 20pp.;JG diary, May 15, 1933.20 Diary, May 10, 1933.21 Ibid., May 5, 7, Jun 14, 1933; Magda’s mother wrote, ‘The very thought somebodymight think he could be influenced through his relatives used to get his goat.’ (Op.cit., No.17,Apr 26, 1952).22 Diary, Jun 6, 1933.23 Fromm MS (Fromm papers, box 61); JG diary, Jun 11, 18, 1933.24 Diary, Jul 24, 1933.25 Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (hereafter: RMVP) budget forfiscal 1933 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep 50.01, vol.1059); JG diary, Jun 10, 1933.26 Blind to his own shortcomings, JG referred (diary, Aug 12, 1933) to German broadcastingas a ‘hotbed of corruption’ that needed cleansing.27 Diary, Jul 9, 1933. See Hadamowsky’s article on early broadcasting in Angriff, Oct 30,1936.28 Diary, Aug 19, 1933.29 Ibid., Jun 11, 1933. For RMVP personnel, jurisdiction, and filing systems see Yivo fileG–106; telephone directories 1939–1943, G–107, and a list of senior ministry officials, G–108.—These show that the RMVP had 956 employees on Apr 1, 1939, 1356 on Apr 1,1940, and 1902 on Apr 1, 1941.30 George Wilhelm Müller, Das Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Berlin1940), 10.31 On Jul 10, 1934 he discussed with Funk ‘how to cast our ministry in an even moreNational Socialist mould. And particularly the Reich Chamber of Culture. Ever more tightlyto the party.’ (Unpubl. diary, Jul 11).32 Diary, Jun 27, 1933; interrogation of Fritzsche, Sep 17, 1946 (StA Nuremberg, F86).Hanke had been JG’s Gauorganisationsleiter, then Persönlicher Referent (special