Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

of self-centred whining tinged with amasochistic delight in every moment of this self-flagellation. Once Magda allows thethree older children over to him. They all cry loudly and Helga whispers sweet nothingsin his ear. Goebbels is still hungry for their childish chatter when it is time forthem to leave. He broods alone that night, crushed by his own solitude, and toyingwith words. ‘Those who love me are not allowed to see me: those who can see medon’t love me any more.‘ He puts his affairs in order and closes his diary.25That Saturday afternoon, October 15, he tells Rach to chauffeur him out to Lanke.He is tired of the world—he writes—and tired of life itself. He has decided to resortto that most feminine of wiles, the feigned suicide attempt.26 He swallows twoPhanodorm sleeping tablets, washed down with alcohol, and goes to bed. He sleepsaround the clock while, he assumes, Rach and the panicking manservant Kaiser tryto arouse him. All he is aware of is a stabbing pain near his heart. He thinks he isdying, but—he writes—Heaven is again merciful. Apart from Rach and Kaiser howevernobody pays him the slightest attention.27His head throbbing from the barbiturates, Goebbels stays out at Lanke until Tuesday,victim of a monster hangover. ‘In the afternoon I drive back in despair to Berlin.’Among the films he previews that evening is ‘Prussian Love Story,’ an episode fromGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 481the life of Prince Wilhelm of Prussia. Lida Baarova plays the prince’s first true love, aPolish-Lithuanian aristocrat, the Princess Elisa Radziwill. Two bitter-sweet hourslater the tears are streaming down Dr Goebbels’ cheeks. ‘I didn’t think it would beso hard for me to see it,’ he confesses in the diary.28Worse is to come, far worse: on Wednesday he learns from police chief Helldorffthe cruel, humiliating truth about Hanke’s disloyalty.29 Hanke—his old comrade inthe fight for Berlin: his protégé: his own Staatssekretär! Meanwhile Magda has takento Emmy Göring her plaintive tales about her husband, calling him ‘the devil inhuman form.’30 Helldorff at least is a true friend, he reflects. He sends for WalterFunk on Thursday morning, and Funk offers to see Göring. ‘Take Helldorff too,’pleads Goebbels. ‘He knows best of all.’31Hitler is away, triumphantly touring Bohemia, and does not return to the Berghofuntil late on the twentieth.32 Meanwhile Goebbels ostracizes Hanke. ‘He is my cruellestdisappointment.’ He drives out to Carinhall at noon on October 21, and putshis case to the field-marshal; he argues that Magda has turned frigid, and that he istherefore entitled to graze in fresher pastures.33 Göring listens kindly, even jovially,proposes radical solutions, and undertakes to see the Führer. In private he chortlesover Goebbels’ discomfiture; but he lectures Emmy that she’s got to see that Goebbelsdoes have a point.34 ‘Good ole Göring!’ dictates Goebbels. ‘I’ve really gotten to likehim. We part as true pals.’Relieved, he takes Helldorff off to Hamburg where he is to speak. Here there isunpleasant news indeed. Magda has got to Hitler first—she is at this moment takingtea with Hitler up at the Kehlstein tea house, and she has sent for the oldest childrento complete the picture. ‘So things are hotting up,’ remarks Goebbels.35 His speech atHamburg’s Hanseatic Hall is as truculent and cynical as ever.36No detail of the odd events that Saturday October 22 eludes the foreign diplomatsin Hamburg. Goebbels duly attends the reception at the Opera House but is missingfrom the foundation stone ceremony of the Hamburger Abendblatt, the local partynewspaper. Even the British consul-general learns that Dr Goebbels has received‘sudden orders to attend Herr Hitler at Berchtesgaden.’37 Goebbels calls in Helldorff482 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHand Funk, but the latter is nowhere to be found. ‘I make up my mind to fight,’ Goebbelswrites. ‘I shall defend my name.’At the Berghof Hitler receives him at once, speaks of solidarity, raison d’état, andthe greater common cause. Helldorff, duly called upon by Goebbels to testify, backshim up but on the main issue—evidently Goebbels proposal to that he resign, divorceMagda, and marry Lida—Hitler will not budge. Magda herself is now calledin—the first time that Goebbels has seen his estranged wife in two months. She is atfirst rather aggressive, he notes; but ultimately they both have to submit to Hitler’simpatient dictate. He orders a moratorium, a cease-fire. For three months they areto live together, at the end of which he will permit a divorce if both still desire.38Hitler disapproves of Goebbels’ behaviour, but he cannot dispense with him—notright now. ‘The Führer,’ Goebbels records afterwards, ‘detains me for a long timealone. He confides to me his most profound and innermost secrets… He sees areally serious conflict brewing in the none-too-distant future. Probably with Britain,which is steadily preparing for it. We shall have to fight back, and thus will be decidedthe hegemony over Europe. Everything must be geared to that moment. Andthus must take precedence over all personal hopes and desires. What we are individualscompared with the fate of great states and nations?’39With Speer and Eva Braun they all take the brass-walled elevator up to the loftyKehlstein tea house to celebrate the Goebbels’ shotgun reconciliation. Helga andHilde smother their father with joyful kisses. Hitler instructs a photographer to capturethe reconciliation on camera. Berlin radio broadcasts appeals for Heiner ‘Shortleg’Kurzbein—is there to be no end of the minister’s humiliation!—to report to thepropaganda ministry immediately. As head of the photo section, his services are neededurgently because Hitler has decreed that the Goebbels ‘family photo’ will appear inevery newspaper in Germany.40 ‘It will help to expunge a great deal of the unpleasantness,’agrees Goebbels. But much will remain. Hitler has also bowed to Magda’sdemand that Lida Baarova withdraw from society and the film world entirely.41 EvaBraun writes to Lida coldly severing their friendship.42GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 483Leaving Magda behind at the Berghof, Goebbels returns by overnight train to Berlinwith Helldorff; he is frantic with fear that he may never regain his esteem inHitler’s eyes. In the morning—it is now October 24—he sends Helldorff over tobreak the cruel news to Lida. Calling in his senior staff he strikes the same heroicpose