Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

acrescendo of operations.’ And he did: in July the Red Flag had challenged him to apublic debate, knowing full well that for him to accept would be to invite arrest. HisGOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 213immunity restored, he now challenged both the Social Democrats and the communistto debate before a working class audience at Friedrichshain. A thousand communiststurned up on January 22, 1931. Their ace propagandist Walter Ulbricht spokefor nearly an hour; the communists then pitched into their rivals with chair legs andbroken bottles; while Goebbels and his Nazis held their ground, in Goebbels’ narrative,Ulbricht fled ‘whimpering’ to the S.A. stewards for protection before leavingthe hall with his jacket over his head. ‘They banked on brawn instead of brain,’ mockedGoebbels in Angriff, ‘then found that where they had arms, our S.A. men didn’t exactlyhave liverwursts dangling at their sides.’ There were over one hundred injuredincluding his chauffeur Kunisch and Olga Bronner, who was taken to hospital withconcussion. The Red Flag declared the evening a VICTORY OF THE CLASS-WAR PROLETARIATOVER NATIONAL SOCIALISM. Goebbels replied with a leader article titled, with feeling,‘Lying rabble.’40A QUAVERING voice phones him in the small hours, after the riot: Olga, calling fromthe hospital. Goebbels remains callous and aloof.41 Ilse Hess writes, chiding him forhis attitude to woman and holding up Carin Göring as a shining example of femininesupportiveness. Goebbels replies evasively, promising to look the Hess’s up moreoften in 1931. He plans to spend three days every fortnight down in Munich then.‘Unfortunately my sister won’t be able to come either to Munich or Berlin,’ hisletter continues. ‘She has to keep my mother company—she’s feeling very lonelysince my father died.’42 For the first time since he was at university he has not gonehome for Christmas, guiltily suggesting in his diary that he must spare his mother therisk.43He moves into middle-class Steglitz on the first day of 1931. He has even bought apiano for his increasingly well-appointed two-room apartment.Meanwhile one woman has by her beauty and sheer force of personality crowdedout her juniors—Magda Quandt, the platinum blonde working in his private archives,which consist of press clippings from all over the world. There is a perfumedclassiness about her. She finds herself drawn toward this Savonarola who has set all214 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHBerlin by the ears. Late in January his diary records her bringing her work on thearchives round to his new Steglitz apartment. ‘Knowledge is power,’ he explains toMagda, gesturing towards the clippings files.44She reminds him inevitably of a younger, classier Anka. The other girls’ namesgradually fade from the diary’s pages. Charlotte stalks around with a face like thunder.When Magda visits him again, Goebbels finds himself wishing that she were in lovewith him.45Two weeks later, the wish becomes father of the deed.1 Diary, Oct 18, 1930; and see Lohse, ‘The Strasser Case’ (IfZ, and Karl Höffkes papers,Oberhausen.)2 Diary, Oct 16, 17, 22, 1930.3 Grzesinski to Braun, Oct 13, 1930 (BA file Kl. Erw. 144)4 Diary, Oct 23, 1930.5 Grzesinski MS6 Diary, Oct 29, 20, 1930.7 Ibid., Oct 21, 23, 1930. Bronner was an Austrian scriptwriter currently producing the‘Berlin Radio Hour’ programme. Told that Bronner was half-Jewish, JG refused to believe it(Ibid., Oct 4, 1930).8 Ibid. Sep 25, Oct 1, 5, 6, 1930.9 Ibid., Sep 14, 20, 1930.10 Ibid., Oct 30, 1930.11 Ibid., Sep 23, 26, Oct 9, Nov 2; Angriff, Nov 3, 1930; Eher Verlag to NSDAP archives,Feb 27, 1936 (NA film T581, roll 47; BA file NS.26/968).12 Angriff, Nov 8, 1930. JG was prosecuted for this editorial under the Law for the Protectionof the Republic (Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 13).13 Grzesinski to Angriff, Nov 11; JG diary, Nov 12, 1930; Eher Verlag to NSDAP archivesJan 7, 1937 (NA film T581, roll 47; BA file NS.26/968).14 Diary, Nov 9, 1930.15 Ibid., Nov 22, 1930.16 Ibid., Oct 15, 1930.17 Ibid., Aug 24, Jan 1, 6, 1931.18 Ibid., Jan 3, 1931.19 Ibid., Jan 11, 13, 22 (‘Göring is snobbing around too much’), 28, 1931.20 Ibid., Jan 4, 1931.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 21521 Ibid., Nov 7, 14, 1930.22 Ibid., Nov 7, 1930. A Nov 15, 1931 memo identifies her as a possible police informer(BA file NS.26/325).—JG’s unpubl. diary, Jun 25, 1934, describes a late night with IlseStahl—a ‘patentes Mädel’ (tip-top girl)—and her fiancé Gauleiter Josef Terboven. They marrieda week later. JG went off Ilse soon after. ‘She’s all powder and paint,’ he wrote on Dec13, 1935. ‘I’m glad to get away.’ ‘Mrs Terboven,’ he noted on Jan 15, 1936, ‘brings the latestscuttlebut. She’s changed very much for the worse.’ Josef and Ilse Terboven blew themselvesup in May 1945.23 Diary, Nov 9, 1930; he scores with Hella later (Ibid., Jan 16, 1931).24 Ibid., Nov 21, 1930.25 Ibid., Dec 1, 3, 1930.26 Ibid., Nov 19, 27, 1930.27 Ibid., Dec 12, 1920.28 Schwamm drüber. Ibid., Dec 17, 1920.29 Ibid., Dec 19, 20, 24, 1930.30 Ibid., Dec 27–30, 1930; Jan 20, 1931.31 Ibid., Jan 19, 1931.32 Ibid., Dec 5, 1930. ‘In the evening we “take a look” at [the film].’ This was typical of JG’scaution in writing up his diary.33 Ibid., Dec 7, 1930. Police chief Grzesinski (memoirs) was frantic; to him, the film was‘politically one of the most valuable in recent years.’ He blamed Brüning for the policedefeat. ‘A huge Nazi demonstration near Nollendorf Platz, at which Goebbels ranted andraged, gave the government an external pretext for caving in.’ He himself had planned toban all demonstrations next day. (BA file Kl. Erw. 144).34 Ibid., Dec 9–12, 1930.35 E.g.Vossische Zeitung, Dec 12, 1930.36 See Severing’s file on the ban (Friedrich Ebert foundation, Severing papers, folder 176).37 For the transcript of the film censorship board’s deliberations on Dec 11, 1930 see BAfile Kl.Erw.457. Universum Film GmbH (Ufa) was represented by the lawyer Dr Frankfurter.On behalf of the ministry of defence Lt Cdr von Baumbach described as ‘extremelyrepellent’ the scenes of panicking, screaming and weeping volunteers under artillery bombardment,their animal-like behaviour, and their wrangling over their dying comrade’s newboots.38 Diary, Dec 4, 1930.39 Ibid., Jan 18, 1931.40 Ibid., Jan 23, 24; Angriff, Jan