Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

Magda is away in Dresden, Goebbels decides to choose once and for allbetween her and Lida. It is not an easy choice. He spends a week that July out atLanke, evidently alone. He decides not to allow anybody to visit.37 Once after strollingthrough the rain-soaked woods he writes the exclamation ‘Melancholy!’ in hisdiary.38 Visiting Schwanenwerder and the children, he takes girls out for boat trips acouple of times, but unforecast stormclouds are threatening his love life.39 He issleeping badly, his head in a whirl. On July 8, 1938, his diary suddenly erupts withoutwarning: ‘I’ve got such worries. They’re fit to burst my heart.’40Goebbels invites Karl Hanke to talk sense into her. Hanke, over two years herjunior, pampers Magda and teaches her how to ride; Magda blossoms in Hanke’scompany. But by no means is he blindly loyal to his minister. For Hanke, it is ‘Tristanand Isolde’. He sees Magda as a dreadfully wronged woman. A man of unquestionablecourage, he becomes her knight in shining armour. Sexually there is probably452 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHnothing between them—she is far above this engine-driver’s son in social station.41But she instinctively sees that with his unrestricted access to her husband’s privatemail Hanke may become a useful ally. Hanke promises to keep his eyes open. Goebbels’problems are only just beginning.HE often spoke with Hitler about the future. Seeking ways to thwarting any restorationof the monarchy, Hitler had hinted in Cabinet early in 1937 at the creation of aconstitutional senate to elect his successor when the time came.42 Germany mustremain a Führer state, he told Goebbels after their visit to Italy.43 ‘The Senate,’ predictedGoebbels in June 1938, ‘will soon be nominated and convened. It will beincumbent on it to elect each Führer.’ Three hours after that the S.A., S.S., andarmed forces would swear allegiance to him.44 (No such elective senate was everappointed however, as the turbulent events of that summer eventually led directly towar.)Many of Goebbels’ measures were already predicated on a coming war.45 Meetinghis new military liaison officer, Bruno Wentscher, on the last day of July he drewheavily on quotations from Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ to back his views. ‘We soon seeeye to eye,’ he wrote.46 Beginning with Breslau, Goebbels erected thousands of loudspeakersin city streets so that he could address the multitudes at the flick of a switch.There was to be no escape from his relentless propaganda. He ordered Germanradio to extend its broadcasting hours until three A.M. to discourage Hitler’s subjectsfrom listening to foreign stations—a prospect that would soon became almost anobsession in Goebbels. Meanwhile he laboured to increase movie receipts. Althoughhe had not been able to prevent some resounding flops like Karl Ritter’s ‘Capriccio’—Hitler called it ‘premium-grade crap,’ and Goebbels found it ‘trivial, boring, frivolous,and devoid of style’47—there were some box-office hits like ‘The Holm MurderCase’, filmed with police assistance, and Riefenstahl’s now complete two-part filmof the Olympics, a stunning work of cinematic art which premiered on Hitler’s birthdayin Berlin.48 He proudly appeared at that premiere with Lida Baarova, not Magda,at his side.49GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 453Benevolent and brutal alike, Goebbels was adopting the allures of a Renaissanceman. He paid Riefenstahl a one-hundred thousand mark bonus from his secret funds.50He pruned the excessive salaries paid to some film stars and doubled or even trebledothers.51 The world of music too trembled at his whim. Should the singing of Schubert’sor Schumann’s lieder be allowed at Viennese music festivals (the words were by Jews).Goebbels decided that they should.52 After hearing Richard Strauss conduct inDüsseldorf, he nodded to the great composer, as a hint that he was persona grataagain (‘He has now done penance enough.’)53 In August 1938 an author annoyed him:Goebbels had him incarcerated in a concentration camp, and brought back in a monthlater. ‘A final warning! … One more transgression and he’s for the high jump. Nowwe both know that.’54OTHER capitals followed Berlin’s example in evicting the Jews from cultural life. Romefired Jews from teaching posts. Warsaw enacted anti-Jewish nationality laws. In Bucharestthe short-lived prime minister Octavian Goga forbade Jews to hire youngfemale domestic staff.55 ‘The Jews,’ applauded Goebbels, ‘are fleeing in every direction.But nobody wants to let them in. Where to dump this scum?’ He felt that he hadthe people behind him in hounding the Jews. ‘You’ve got to knock out a few frontteeth,’ he reasoned, ‘then talk.’56 He had squelched earlier plans by Streicher to plasterJewish businesses with garish placards naming people caught shopping there.57But he ordered Jews excluded from bidding for public works contracts in March1938.58 And talking with Hitler he argued that the Jews and the ethnic Czechs shouldbe squeezed out of Vienna—‘That way we shall be solving the housing shortagetoo.’59 That a wave of suicides swept across the despairing Viennese Jews left himunmoved. ‘It used to be the Germans killing themselves,’ he recorded. ‘Now theboot’s on the other foot.’60Inspired by Vienna’s example, he planned with Count von Helldorff, Berlin’s policechief, a concerted effort to evict the Jews from the city. They outlined to Hitlerin April various ways of harrassing them, including restricting them to designatedswimming pools, cinemas, and eating places, and identifying Jewish shops and busi-454 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHnesses as such.61 ‘We’ll put an end to Berlin’s image as a happy hunting ground forJews,’ Goebbels privately swore. ‘Madagascar would be the best place for them.’Hitler, who was less keen, asked them to wait until after his state visit to Italy in May.Helldorff arrested the first three hundred Jews on a pretext early in June; but thenhe went on leave and to Goebbels’ dismay his legal staff released them all apart froma handful with known criminal records.62 (His anti-semitism was only skin-deep; afew weeks later Heydrich learned to his disgust that Helldorff had a Jewish dentist.63) Recalling Helldorff from leave, Goebbels explained that the object was tohound the Jews out of Berlin.64 He also spoke directly to audiences of police officers,explaining this policy. Hitler meanwhile had left Berlin to summer in Bavaria.To coordinate the persecution with Goebbels’ gau HQ, on June 13 Helldorff setup a special