Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

anonymous no longer, her allures somehowdiminish.48 Besides, each time his train passes through Weimar he peers out,hoping for a glimpse of Anka.49In September the chase is suddenly on again. This time, his quarry is young HannahSchneider, a true Germanic beauty from Mecklenburg. She is a member of the Party’syoung women’s order. After a hard day’s work at his desk, Goebbels begin tolook forward to negotiations with the order which he previously hated. He adoresHannah’s natural childishness (she is in her late ’teens.) She is pretty and clever, andanother virgin. It is surely interesting that he writes of her as this ‘glisteningly cleanmaiden.’50 He takes her to her first movie show: the star, the gorgeous, swashbucklingEmil Jannings, sends shivers down his spine. Hannah too is like a little girl, ‘fullof virginal excitement.’51 Let no careless biographer maintain that he has advancedfar with the fairer sex even now: strolling in the Tiergarten after this movie, he stealsa chaste kiss from Hannah. ‘She blushed like a child when I kissed her neck,’ hewrites, rejoicing in his adventure.52 He delights in her innocent chatter and writesmore than once approvingly of her Jungfräulichkeit, her chastity.53 But he is aware ofher limitations. He needs a more mature woman, while Hannah is ‘a totally innocentchild.’A little bombshell comes from Weimar. Anka writes that she is divorcing Mummeand coming to work in Berlin.54 Goebbels reflects how much women have hurt him,and how much they have hurt for him too. ‘Is this to be a new tragedy,’ he wonders,‘in which I am to be cast in the leading role?’ He tells little Hannah none of this. Hewrites cautiously back to Anka: perhaps they might meet on Tuesday October 2 inWeimar? The next day, speaking at Hasenheide, he sights Hannah sitting reverently asthough in a church pew, smiling with childlike attentiveness. A telegram comes from136 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHAnka: yes, Tuesday. In Weimar, they sit up late together. She tells him that she is nowin two minds again. Meanwhile, should she come to Berlin for a month or two? ‘Thatmight well be ticklish,’ senses Goebbels in his diary.Hannah falls silent. ‘Does she, or does she not, love me,’ argues Goebbels. ‘I’mdamned if I can tell.’55 Shortly a letter comes, spelling out the answer: she does not.Goebbels limps around baffled, groping for an explanation. ‘Okay. So I shall have tostay lonely. To be famous or to be loved? That is the question.’56 On October 12Hannah reappears at gau HQ. ‘Suddenly the hour is filled with lustrous happiness,’writes Goebbels, extracting much pathos from a scene which must have cruelly puncturedhis male vanity. ‘I kiss her squarely on her full red lips. And then she confessesto me that she loves another. She only came to me because I was so lonely. A terriblediscovery. From a thousand heavens I plummet to the depths of a thousand hells.’57Innocently twisting her teenaged knife, Hannah writes asking if she can be a goodsister to him instead. ‘Always the same,’ fulminates Goebbels. ‘First these womenjust want to be your sister. Then whoopee, it’s mistress instead.’‘Unhappy love,’ he summarizes tersely on October 17, 1928: ‘There can be nosuch thing for a Man with a Mission.’58Arriving at Hanover the next day he finds ‘that cute little Mrs Heinz,’ the editor’swife, waiting for him on the platform.591 Angriff, Oct 29, 1928.2 Police file (NA film T581, roll 52, BA file NS.26/1224).3 Diary, Jun 20, 1928; case files in Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, items 58, 302, and Berlinpolice (Ia) report, Jun 20, 1928 (BDC file, JG); JG accused the police witnesses Bober andWeicker of perjury, and was prosecuted for libel on Dec 15, 1929 (Landesarchiv Berlin,Rep.58, item 3).4 Diary, Jun 9, 1928.5 Ibid., Jun 6, 1928.6 Ibid., Jun 13, 1928.7 Ibid., Jun 13, 1928.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 1378 Berliner Arbeiterzeitung, May 27; inNS-Briefe, Jun 15, 1928, Otto Strasser said the proletariathad voted overwhelmingly for the communists, and he blamed those who were ‘tooclever by half’).9 Diary, Jun 15, 1928.10 On the new HQ: Ibid., Jun 1, 5, 19, 28; Jul 28 1928.11 See the references to his health in his diary, Apr 19, May 23, Jul 5, Sep 15, Nov 5, 13, 25,1928.12 ’Ein §175er.’ Ibid., Oct 26, 192813 Ibid., Sep 29, Oct 11, 12, 1928.14 Ibid., Nov 25, 1928.15 Ibid., Dec 19, 20, 1928; Jan 5, 1929.16 Ibid., Jan 26, 29, 1929; on Feb 5 he noted that he was measured for a new steel orthopædiccaliper.17 Wessel MS, 1929, and JG diary, Jul 13, 14, 1928. Horst Wessel, commander of SA Trupp34, had spent Jan–Jul 1928 in Vienna studying the Nazi youth movement there which wasbetter organized than in Germany; he reported back to JG in detail on their methods. Seetoo Richard Fiedler’s reminiscences on Wessel in Angriff, Oct 30, 1936 (BA file NS.26/968).18 Diary, Jul 15, 1928. From JG’s unpublished diary, Mar 30, 1928 it is plain he wasattracted to her: ‘Arrive Munich 5 A.M. ... Then I meet Geli Raubal. She wants to come toBerlin. A darling thing! We’ve laid plans.’ And see diary, Oct 19, 1928.19 Ibid., Jan 10, 1928 (microfiche in Moscow archives, JG papers, box 5).20 JG postcard to Ilse Hess, Jul 9, 1928 (Hess papers, Hindelang); diary, Jul 10, 1928.21 Ibid., Apr 16, 1928.22 Ibid., Jan 19; and Jan 14, 17, 1928.23 Ibid., Jan 23, Feb 23, 1928.24 Ibid., Jan 22, 27, 1928.25 Ibid., Feb 9, 10, 1928.26 Ibid., Feb 23, 1928.27 Ibid., Mar 7, 1928; author’s interview of Annette Castendyk.28 Ibid., Mar 9, 13, 1928.29 Ibid., Mar 21, 1928; Christian Mumme, born Sep 1927, was killed when an Americanplane strafed his flak position on the Elbe front on Apr 16, 1945.30 Diary, Mar 23, 24, 1928.31 Ibid., Mar 30, 1928.32 Ibid., Apr 10, 1928.33 Ibid., Apr 12, 1928.34 Ibid., Apr 22, 1928, published.35 Ibid., Apr 17, 1928.36 Ibid., Apr 25, 1928.37 Ibid., Apr 27, 1928.38 Ibid., May 9, 12, 14, Jul 23, 1928.39 Ibid., May 28, 30, 1928.40 Ibid., May 30, 1928.41 Ibid., Jul 27, 1928.138 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD