Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

adjutant to London for informal talks withLord Halifax—he had to play for time.7 ‘Of course,’ he continued, ‘our Berlin gener-466 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHals are all shitting their pants again… The Führer wants to avoid actual war. That’swhy he’s preparing for it with everything we’ve got.’Five days later, both Goebbels and Hitler spoke at the athletic festival in Breslau.8Reassuring the twenty thousand madly cheering Sudeten Germans present, Goebbelsbragged that their enemies now had to take Germany ‘bloody seriously.’ ‘Too cowardlyto open fire on us with machine-guns and artillery,’ he shrilled, ‘they set uponthe Reich with printer’s ink.’ Yet privately he foresaw problems even in victory. Whatwas Germany to do with the six million Czechs, he pondered, once they had overrunCzechoslovakia?9War psychosis gradually permeated Europe’s capitals including Berlin. Addressingthegauleiters, Göring argued against panicking. Goebbels, listening in his capacity asgauleiter of Berlin, wondered uneasily whether the German people would stand fora long war. They would have to rely on rapid surprise tactics. He could see Hitler’smind constantly turned to Britain—how dearly he would like to be on good termswith her—and to the south-east. ‘We don’t want these peoples,‘ Hitler commentedlater in August, discussing Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. ‘Just their land.’10HIS family life momentarily a shambles, Goebbels throws himself into his other tasks.For the four weeks until the Sudeten crisis peaks in mid September he wallows inself-pity. He has barely eaten since that dreadful rainy Sunday, August 14. He liesawake, hollow-eyed, takes sedatives to sleep. ‘If only the sun would not shine. If onlythe day were not so bright and radiant! I draw the curtains and try to work.’11 Asecond man-to-man talk with Hitler leaves him badly shaken. ‘I cannot think of anyway out, almost,’ he writes, the casual almost being a clue that this dramatic baring offeelings is largely sham. Indeed, each such heartrending passage is followed by humdrumdetails of ministerial routine. Using Hilde Körber as a conduit he explains thathis decision (not to see Lida any more) is ‘unalterable.’12 That evening he has a long,unforgettable, totally humiliating talk with Magda. ‘She is so hardhearted and cruel,’is all he writes. ‘I have nobody to help me. Nor do I want anybody. One must drinkthe full dreaught from this bitter chalice. And shrink back cravenly before nothing. IGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 467am presently suffering the worst time of my life. With [Minister of Posts] Ohnesorge,’he continues, without even dipping his pen, ‘I have discussed details of our share ofthe reduced radio licence fee…’13What a feast a psychiatrist can dish up from such passages, written in Goebbels’refuge at Lanke as the wind sighs and the rainstorms spatter his lake. ‘I go to bedearly… Loneliness!’ He flees to his mother and bewails: ‘Ello has behaved despicably.But what else was one to expect of her!’14 His mother falls ill with worry. Back atthe ministry on Thursday, Hilde Körber ‘comes with more sobstuff’—the Germanweint mir etwas vor is just as deprecating in tone. He again visits the hard-hearted andcruel Magda,15 and curses in his diary: ‘I’ve never seen her like this before.’ He swearsthat he has now stopped seeing Lida. They agree on a truce until the end of September.‘Much can happen until then,’ he reflects miserably. ‘Both for better and forworse… Let time pass, the universal healer.’16There are some awkward moments. During the important five-day state visit byAdmiral Nicholas von Horthy, the Hungarian regent—another of Czechoslovakia’spredatory neighbours—Hitler orders Joseph Goebbels and Magda to appear togetherat the state reception on the twenty-fourth and at the gala performance of ‘Lohengrin’the next night. The photos show her sitting stiffly at her wayward husband’s side. ‘Ifonly I could drop into an everlasting sleep,’ writes Goebbels, still drinking deeplyfrom that chalice, ‘and never wake again!’ After the farewell banquet in Charlottenburgcastle, Magda snarls at him. Das alte Lied, he records with a wounded sigh: the sameold melody. He stays up late talking with his trusty Karl Hanke, then decides on alittle midnight motor excursion after all.17He prepares a trial separation from his family. After seeing them briefly atSchwanenwerder on August 27, he spends a crestfallen night out at Lanke, then dropsinto the Scala strip club with a few friends. He decides to spend two weeks awayfrom Berlin. Magda’s nerves are in tatters too. Before leaving Berlin he phones herbut finds his wife more impossible now than ever.18 He wonders who is putting herup to this and resolves not to phone her again until many more weeks have passed.19468 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHTHE WAR clouds now conjured up by Hitler over Europe were thus almost a welcomediversion. Several times the diary showed him debating privately with his senior staffwhether there would be war—‘the one big topic now.’20 Through a British mediatorPrague had offered conciliatory terms to the Sudeten Germans, but this only embarrassedHitler. ‘The problem now,’ observed Goebbels,’is how the Führer can create asuitable situation to strike.’Much depended on whether Britain would then declare war. Goebbels’ man inLondon, the fainthearted Fitz Randolph, lamely telegraphed that nobody could tell.21Goebbels’ gut feeling was that Britain was merely bluffing. He ordered that Britain’sthreats not be reflected in his ministry’s monitoring reports, the so-called ‘Blue Telegrams’,lest they frighten Ribbentrop’s diplomats. He studied Britain’s nerve-wartactics with all the analytical detachment of a master propagandist. ‘The whole Londonscenario is well thought-out,’ he wrote approvingly. ‘Cabinet meetings, Hendersonrecalled to London, “prepared for grave steps,” and so forth. The old one-two. But itdoesn’t wash with us any more.’22On the last day of August he flew down to the Berghof with Karl Hanke, evidentlyon his own initiative.23 While waiting to see his Führer he was briefed by Göring’saide Karl Bodenschatz on the progress being made with the fortifications; the bestmonth to attack Czechoslovaka, said the colonel, would be October. Otto Dietrichpulled a face and asked, ‘What will Britain do!’ Hitler, joining them, was reassuring.He delivered a little lecture about Bismarck’s courage when it came to taking action.Goebbels trudged afterwards downhill to the guesthouse—it did not escape himthat Hitler no longer housed him in the Berghof