Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

that he has a differenttune in mind she fends him off vigorously. Goebbels snaps: ‘You must know whomyou’re dealing with. I’m one of the dozen most important men in Europe!’ He drivesher back to Berlin in a cold fury, and instructs Rach to halt before the end of theautobahn. ‘The lady is alighting here,’ he instructs.3 This victim immediately placesherself at Magda’s disposal.4By early December 1938 the three-month probationary period is already forgotten.Magda tells her father, now a wealthy industrialist in Duisburg, she has decidedto leave Goebbels for good—perhaps even to emigrate. Her father welcomes herdecision. Referring to the ‘prevailing tense circumstances,’ he assures her: ‘Given510 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHrecent events I agree more than ever with the decisions you tell me of. Be of goodheart, my child. Your father has now grown even larger and more independent andyou will always find with him, whether at home or abroad, a secure and financiallyadequate refuge for yourself and your children.’5Goebbels is almost inured to these agonies. After speaking with Magda (‘the sameold melody’) he falls seriously ill.6 Stomach X-rays reveal no organic disorder. Thedoctors diagnose nervous complications. He takes to his bed, and for the first time infifteen years he writes no diary for two weeks.7 Professor Sauerbruch orders himinto the La Charité hospital. Suspecting him of malingering, Magda makes a beelinefor the Führer with fresh complaints about his behaviour. When she visits the hospitalit is just to bespatter him with more matrimonial bile. It is a fair assumption thatthere is a link between these reproaches and the anonymous large bouquet that arrivesfor him. On his discharge he spends a lonesome Christmas at his ‘citadel’; hisfamily are next door—they leave him lying there alone the whole evening. WhenStaatssekretär Hanke visits on official business, it is a frosty affair. A sympatheticletter from Funk cheers him up. Funk is one of the few people he can depend on.Funk, and the Führer. Hitler invites him down to the Obersalzberg. Before leaving,Dr Goebbels tries one more approach to Magda, but she launches into more ‘speculations,’and he rushes off yelping. ‘I don’t know her any more,’ he laments.8Once again he is relegated to the guest house. ‘I live here in splendid isolation,’ hewrote, making a virtue out of his humiliation. Hitler invites him up to the Berghoffor some blunt talking. ‘I shall pass over the details here,’ writes Goebbels bleakly.The plain speaking continues for four hours the next day. When Hitler leaves forBerlin Goebbels stays on at the Obersalzberg to convalesce. He is at breaking point.‘From Berlin,’—he writes Berlin but means Magda—‘I hear not a word. Not that Iwant to anyway.’9 ‘It’s just that I can’t sleep at night. Then comes the anger, and therage, and the hate.’10Max Amann breaks to him the bad news that Hitler has forbidden publication ofGoebbels’ biography of him. Used only to censoring others, Goebbels finds it a bitterblow.11 Later he will concede that Hitler was right, the manuscript was just aGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 511hasty pot-boiler.12 Returning to Berlin on Thursday, January 17, 1939 he realizes: ‘Iam on the verge of a nervous breakdown.’13 Seeing Hitler at midday he talks abouteverything other than what’s really on his mind. The next afternoon he ventures outto Schwanenwerder, ostensibly to see the children; he stays at the citadel. By thenext day he and Magda have reached an unusual agreement, brokered by Hitler.14Goebbels will sign a document binding him to one year’s good behaviour. Magdaagrees to remain outwardly his wife meanwhile, after which she can divorce him ifshe wishes. He may appear at Schwanenwerder only by prior invitation.15 (It is preciselythe kind of matrimonial truce that Goebbels himself had proposed during thedivorce-law discussions in cabinet two years before.16) Hitler offers to act as guarantor.For two hours the two men stroll around Speer’s new Chancellery building, talkingthis irksome affair over. To allow it to consume so much of his time Hitler musthave a monumental patience, or a real and enduring fondness for Magda. Her draftof the agreement seems very business-like. Hitler runs his eye over it and suggests afew minor changes. They all sign it at Schwanenwerder on January 22—the onlypeace treaty to which Hitler will ever set his name.17 ‘The best thing will be for youto live like a monk,’ he tells the minister. ‘And you, madam, should live like a nun.’‘Mein Führer, I have been living like a nun for a year already,’ she retorts. Goebbelspersuades Hitler to write a certain letter to her—it has not survived—and hopesthe affair is closed.18 It has obscured his entire horizon for months.Their strained marriage is the whisper of all Germany. Scandalized travellers sayhe has twenty-three illegitimate children.19 Foreign newspapers report that he hasbeen dismissed, and that he is to answer charges before a Nazi tribunal about hisprivate life. They remark on his absence from a dinner for foreign journalists.20 ‘Aggravationupon aggravation,’ records Goebbels. ‘And I’ve got to swallow hard.’ ‘There’sno end to the rumours and scuttlebutt,’ he adds the next day. ‘I’m suffering agonies.’21 An official informs Hanke that even the charwomen are talking about theminister in the ‘most contemptuous’ terms.22 Himmler tells Rosenberg at this timethat Magda has complained of ‘dozens’ of infidelities by her husband. ‘The women512 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHare now lining up to dictate affidavits—both for Mrs G. and for the Gestapo—onhow he coerced them,’ says Himmler. ‘I’ve handed some of these statements to theFührer.’ Unusually well-informed, Himmler adds that in October Magda has givenher husband three months to come to heel; in January the time is up— ‘But,’ interjectsRosenberg with heavy irony, ‘Goebbels is writing his book about the Führer!Product of his daily eavesdropping at Hitler’s table.’23It has taxed even Hitler’s powers of persuasion, reports one major fleeing Germany,to British officers, to induce Magda to return to the conjugal home.24 Grimly,she fulfils her new contractual obligations. The photographers capture pictures ofher at the press ball, sitting blank-faced and embittered at her unloved husband’sside.25‘GOEBBELS,’ commented Rosenberg most satisfied on February 6, ‘has no friend. Evenhis hirelings