Goebbels25: A Man of PropertySPEAKING on March 10, 1936 Goebbels clearly implied that Germany now had anagenda. ‘We are a first rate political power,’ he bragged. ‘There is no seriousopposition in the whole nation… Only three years have passed. Thirty years, threehundred years will pass. Germany will become a world power. We shall no longer beplagued as pariahs. We shall fight for that world position which we deserve. Germany,’he concluded, intoxicated by the audience’s noisy delight, ‘is once more capableof striking out.’1Striking out? Where, and when? Hitler discussed several options with him. Germanymight offer to refrain from fortifying her frontier with France, in return forsome of her former African colonies. Goebbels agreed that was not a bad idea. ‘You’vegot to take what you can get,’ he said. ‘We can always build the fortifications later.’2HITLER had called an election to endorse his action in the Rhineland. The climax wasvintage Goebbels. He ordained that fifteen minutes before Hitler broadcast fromKrupps’ munitions works in Essen, a fitting stage, on March 27, every radio stationwould transmit the command to Hoist Flags on every building and homestead inGermany, to flutter until the election was over. As Hitler himself stepped to themicrophone at four P.M., the Krupps’ sirens were to hail ‘the beginning of the Führer’sgreat appeal for peace,’ joined by the klaxons of every factory, locomotive, barge,386 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHand ship. While these sirens sang all traffic was to halt, demonstrating that the entirenation stood behind the Führer and his ‘policy of peace.’ The election’s eve, SaturdayMarch 28, was to see immense demonstrations throughout the country. Ten minutesbefore eight P.M. the great bells of Cologne’s Gothic cathedral would toll, splendidlyamplified throughout the radios of the country, their clangour fading only as Hitlerhimself began to speak. After that, decreed Goebbels, the entire nation in unison,sixty-seven million voices, would sing the ancient Netherlands Prayer of Thanksgiving(to which he was particularly attached). Then would come the crucial Goebbelsmaster-stroke—the deft touch which set him apart from all his imitators: everyradio station would fall silent for fifteen minutes, marking a reverent end to this, his1936 campaign.3Thus it came to pass. Two weeks earlier he had written, ‘This election just can’t gowrong.’ (It would have been a miracle if it had, as the ballot papers bore only thenames of Hitler and, in suitably smaller print, of Göring, Hess, Goebbels, and Frick;there was no provision whatever for voters to express dissent.4) On Sunday March29 98·6 percent of the voting population streamed into the polling booths, and 98.7percent of those voted for Hitler—44,399,000 adult Germans, opposed now byonly 542,000 doubters.A concrete gesture of Hitler’s gratitude followed.For some months Goebbels, now a best-selling author, had been wondering if hecould afford to buy their summer cottage at Cladow.5 On one visit to ObersalzbergGoebbels had told Max Winkler, his business adviser, that he wanted to provide forhis family and was thinking of buying a farm. Winkler advised against it—the ministerwould only lose money on the land. Besides, what funds had he in mind? After hementioned this idea to Hitler, who promised to have a word with Goebbels’ publisherAmann6, the minister raised his sights and inspected a more luxurious redbrickproperty on Schwanenwerder, a millionaire’s peninsula jutting into the Wannseelake.7 The villa and its gate lodge in Insel Strasse stood on a gentle wooded inclineverging on the bullrush fringed lakeshore.The property had, it seems, formerly be-GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 387longed to one of the Barmat brothers, the Jewish embezzlers who had fled to Hollandeven before Hitler came to power.8 It was now in the name of the Jewish bankdirector Oskar Schlitter.9 Almost ten years earlier, Dr Goebbels and Angriff had repeatedlyinveighed against ‘Schweinenwerder’ (Isle of Pigs) as a ‘Jew-boys’ paradise.’10Now he was going to ‘out-Jew’ them all.At the climax of the Rhineland election campaign Karl Hanke brought the necessarypapers over to Goebbels at Godesberg.11 Hitler whole-heartedly approved ofthe purchase. He believed in assisting his best lieutenants to become men of property.12 The final purchase price was 270,000 marks. He personally phoned Goebbelsfrom Munich guaranteeing that the money would be forthcoming—‘Amann hasturned up trumps again,’ Goebbels wrote. He moved his family, including his youngsister Maria, into the Schwanenwerder property just before Easter 1936.13How did he eventually finance the deal? Goebbels asked Winkler to discuss thecapital value of his private diaries with Max Amann, the party’s publisher. Amannaccompanied him back to Berlin one day in October and they agreed terms: Goebbelshad in mind an outright payment of three million marks for the diaries, but Amanncame up with a different proposal: Goebbels should sell all rights to Amann, forpublication twenty years after his death. ‘250,000 marks immediately and 100,000marks per annum. That,’ Goebbels recorded in a massive understatement, ‘is mostgenerous.’14 This was undoubtedly the cash he handed over in November to completethe Schwanenwerder deal.15MEANWHILE Magda has furnished the guest lodge for her idol, Adolf Hitler. In lateryears he will often show up unannounced, bringing perhaps Jakob Werlin, generalmanager of Daimler-Benz, to sample her crême caramel. His adjutant tips theGoebbels’ servants and, later, will surrender to her the food-ration coupons for Hitler’sshare of the meal.16For most of 1936 Magda Goebbels alternates between a sulky obstinacy and uxorialbliss. She grouses that she never has enough housekeeping money but the ministry’srecords show that two days before they move in to Schwanenwerder Goebbels has388 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHordered his ministerial and parliamentary salaries paid directly into her bank account.17She resigns herself to his (perhaps imagined) infidelities.18 Vacationing with her inSwitzerland, Mussolini’s daughter Edda Ciano philosophizes that an unfaithful spouseis but one trivial annoyance in ones mortal span. Magda begins to go out
