Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

Aug 1930 (Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 8).22 Diary, Aug 21, 23, 26, 1930.23 See Dr Conti’s letter to (‘Osaf’) Pfeffer, Sep 8, 1930, in Stennes’ papers, NSDAP archives(BA file NS.26/325); on the background of Pfeffer’s resignation as Osaf and the firstStennes putsch see Himmler’s aide memoire of May 24, 1941 (NA film T175, roll 123,8772ff).24 Himmler (loc.cit.) recalled that Pfeffer resigned a few days before the Berlin mutiny, anddismissed Pfeffer’s alternative version. ‘Pfeffer could no longer exorcise the spirits he hadsummoned up and had to admit his incompetence to the Führer.’ Dokumente (p.341) agrees,reporting that Pfeffer resigned on Aug 29 ‘for political reasons’, and that Hitler took over onSep 2. JG’s diary states that Hitler dismissed Pfeffer on the afternoon on Sep 1, i.e. afterwards.25 Wiedemann, in conversation with Fritz Tobias, Jun 1973 (Tobias archives.)26 The Berlin police HQ dossier states: ‘On the night of Aug 30–31, 1930 [Stennes] issuedthe written order to SA-men to occupy the Greater Berlin Gau HQ…’ NSDAP archives(BA file NS.26/1368).27 Hitler had promised to expel anybody carrying firearms; the Prussian ministry of theinterior reported in Feb 1932 that between Feb and Sep 1930, despite fifteen trials of NSDAPmembers for firearms offences, not one had been expelled; there were seventy-one moresuch cases by Jul 1931, again without expulsions (BA file R.18/3864).28 Himmler (loc. cit.): ‘Upon receiving this alarming news [by phone from Bouhler toHess] the Führer ordered an immediate departure for Berlin although we had slept hardly atall the last few nights.’ They had only just arrived in Bayreuth at 1:30 A.M. Aug 31.29 Diary, Sep 1, 1930. Wiedemann has Hitler and Hess staying at her apartment.30 Ibid., Sep 3; VB, No.210, Sep 4, 1930.31 Thus in JG’s broadcast on Jul 26, 1944: ‘In Aug 1930 a hireling of the Prussian ministryof the interior staged a revolt.’32 Borresholm, 71f.33 NYT, Sep 2, 1930.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 20534 Göring seems to have disapproved. According to Stennes’ chief of staff Jahn (loc. cit.)Göring told Wetzel on Dec 31, 1930 that he now saw the grave injustice done to Stennes,and that he ‘would see an end put to the ugly double-game being played by a certain gauleiterand would not hesitate to have Himmler deposed as Reichsführer SS.’35 Röhm was still in Bolivian army service; Dr h c Otto Wagener continued as chief of staffuntil Jan 5, 1931.36 Jahn.37 Report by Berlin Landeskriminalpolizeiamt, Sep 16, 1930 (Bremen city archives, 4.65,vol.5); cit. Reuth, 173.38 Wiedemann.39 Diary, Sep 1, 1930. Stennes was in no doubt about Goebbels’ two-faced role (IfZ:ZS.1147).40 Darré diary, Sep 3, 1930 (BA file Darré papers, vol.65a.)41 Dokumente, 333, 335; diary, Sep 7, 9, 1930. In Berliner Illustrierte his photo was captioned‘Paul J. Goebbels,’ leading to mocking suggestions by Otto Strasser’s Berliner Arbeiter-Zeitungon Nov 2, 1930 that the ‘Joseph’ concealed Jewish origins. His opponents called him‘Goebbeles’—the ‘–les’ suffix being typically Jewish.42 Author’s interview of Gutterer.43 Diary, Sep 11, 1930.44 Ibid., Sep 12; on Sep 21 he recorded a cordial encounter with Stennes, and believed hecould get on with him in future.45 On Jan 4, 1932 disgruntled S.A. men would point out in a duplicated circular that theNazis’ 107 Reichstag deputies included thirty-three estate owners, manufacturers and businessmen;thirty-one senior civil servants; nineteen lawyers, doctors, and other professionals;nine former officers, eight salaried staff, and seven (‘yes, seven!’) workers. NSDAParchives, files of 8 SA Standarte (BA file NS.26/322).46 Diary, Sep 16, 1930.47 Ibid., Sep 17, 19, 22, 27, 28, Oct 2, 1930.48 Ibid., Sep 18, 24, 1930.49 Ibid., Sep 24, Oct 1, 9, 1930.50 Ibid., Sep 20, 1930; Angriff published on Jun 1, 1931 an appeal for eye-witnesses, resultingin a letter from Lili and Erna Ernst (Hoover Libr., Goebbels papers, box 2); for DrWeiss’s prosecution of JG for libelling police officials this day, Sep 19, 1930 see LandesarchivBerlin, Rep.58, item 5.51 Diary, Oct 13–14; Vossische Zeitung, Oct 14, 1930.—The Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung publishedon Oct 28, 1937 a photograph of his dash.206 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH14: A Blonde in the ArchivesAFTER all the other deputies had taken their seats the Nazis marched in. LikeDr Goebbels, all were wearing the forbidden brown shirt. A cacophony ofinsults greeted them. Five days later Chancellor Brüning set out his economic programme.To packed benches the bullheaded, broad shouldered Gregor Strasser deliveredone of the best speeches of his life. Even Goebbels was impressed. ‘The Housepays the closest attention,’ he wrote with more than a soupçon of envy. ‘Thus he’sback again, firmly in the saddle.’1 The Nazis called repeatedly for votes of no confidencein Brüning. The Reichstag was then adjourned until early December.Goebbels was bored with it already. The fight had been the fun. ‘The toxic haze ofparliaments is not the right air for me,’ he decided. ‘I can’t breathe there.’ Back at hislodgings he revived himself with whiffs of the Lieder of Brahms and Wolff, to whichhe provided his own piano accompaniment.2With the political wind in Germany now beginning to blow Brown, the highestpolice officials faced an ugly option: to smash the Nazis or to join them. The firstalternative entailed facing the risk that the Nazis gained power. Increasingly the middle-ranking officers decided that Germany’s future lay with Goebbels and Hitler.According to Berlin’s Acht-Uhr Abendblatt at least one senior police officer had beenseen cheering the Nazis on during the riots of October 13, and singing a Nazi song.Albert Grzesinski wrote to Prussia’s prime minister Braun that evening, protestingat this ‘deliberate’ breakdown of police authority.3 ‘In grave times like these,’ heGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 207wrote, ‘what counts is being tough—tough as nails.’ If Schutzpolizei commanderHeimannsberg himself proved guilty then he too must go. ‘If,’ wrote Grzesinski,getting to his real point, ‘Comrade Zörgiebel [Berlin’s police president] stands up forboth these officers, we must not spare him either.’ Braun agreed; he dismissed Waentigas minister of the interior as well as Zörgiebel, appointing Grzesinski in the latter’splace. ‘It’s going to be some winter,’ commented a wry Goebbels in his diary. ‘But ifthese bastards think they can get us down with terror and persecution they’ve gotanother think coming.’4The