Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

He had no choice but toequivocate. The Berlin S.A. was approaching flashpoint. All their hatreds were mirroredin the sarcastic samisdat newsletters which now began to circulate in Berlin.One dated March 20 referred mockingly to ‘our own Aryan son Dr Goebbels, whomrace-experts have branded an Israelite,’ and described cruelly how he had left onemeeting early via a back door ‘on account of his aching paw.’77The tension between Goebbels, other gauleiters, and the S.A. was palpable. Invitedto look over Angriff’s offices at this time Albert Krebs received this tip fromHamburg’s gauleiter Karl Kaufmann: ‘Whenever Goebbels opens his mouth, he lies.I know him from Elberfeld.’ At the Hedemann Strasse HQ Krebs found an atmospherehe could cut with a knife. The S.A. guards on Goebbels’ offices had been replacedby burly young party men who traded insults with the Brownshirts guardingtheir own headquarters next door. In Goebbels’ spacious office, the Berlin gauleitertold Krebs of the problems with the increasingly rowdy S.A.—he had had to evictsome of them only two days before and he was concerned that the landlords mightrevoke their lease. He had just had a serious talk with their commander Captain228 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHStennes. His own authority appeared shaky: as the pale, nervous Goebbels showedhim around, the gau HQ staff barely heeded them and carried on their conversationsregardless. Once Krebs heard a muttered and disrespectful, ‘Oh, it’s the Doctor!’ Itseemed to him as though an exhausted magician-figure had escaped from an EÊ T AHoffmann novel and was nervously flitting around his puppets, terrified that theywould recognize that his powers were waning.Downstairs in the backyard it was an altogether different picture: around fiftyyoung Angriff salesmen cheered him as he limped over to his splendid new Mercedes.In an instant the colour flushed back into his face. He spoke a few words to themfrom the car’s running board. On the way to lunch Goebbels asked what Krebs thoughtof his car—a gift, he hastily added. Krebs knew what the impoverished streetfighterswere saying about Goebbels’ luxurious apartment, and asked what strings were attachedto the gift. ‘Well,’ retorted Goebbels, annoyed, ‘Jakob Goldschmidt is hardlygoing to donate a limousine to me.’ As they parted, he said to Krebs: ‘Take care withKaufmann. Whenever he opens his mouth, he lies.’78This S.A. crisis came to a head in the last week of March 1931. Karl Hanke, theyoung and virile commander of Goebbels’ West End district, told him of rumoursthat Röhm was about to dismiss Stennes. Fearing this would bring things to a head,Goebbels said he would fight tooth and claw to prevent it. Stennes had gone toPomerania that Tuesday, March 31, ostensibly to cool down S.A. hotheads.79 In hisabsence, a telegram arrived in Berlin ordering all his senior officers to Weimar for ameeting with Hitler. It was clear that he was about to dismiss Stennes. According topolice Intelligence, he also intended to relieve Goebbels as gauleiter.80 Goebbels hadalready left to speak in Dresden; from there he drove straight on to Weimar, to seeHitler. This may be the occasion of which Elsa Bruckmann later related, when Hitlerhad planned to sack Goebbels for disloyalty—whereupon the gauleiter threw himselfwhining at his feet in a most unworthy manner.81 On balance Hitler decided tokeep Goebbels, but nothing could save Stennes.Wetzel, the Berlin S.A. commander had already received a phone call at around8:30 P.M. reporting that Röhm had ordered Stennes’ dismissal.82 Wetzel’s men de-GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 229cided to defy Hitler’s summons to Weimar. At four A.M. Kurt Daluege, the regionalS.S. chief (‘S.S. Oberführer Ost’) typed an urgent warning to Röhm, reporting thatsince midnight these local S.A. commanders had been meeting in secret cabal inBerlin, and that mutiny was once again in the air. Daluege in fact suspected thatStennes was acting in cahoots with the government, because the mutineers hadlearned—perhaps through government wiretaps—of Hitler’s intentions. ‘Jahn hastold them,’ reported Daluege to Röhm, referring to Stennes’ chief of staff, ‘thatStennes is to be dismissed by our Führer at a meeting in Weimar at midday todayApril 1.’ The mutineers, he added, had decided to defy Hitler and send a delegationto Goebbels in Weimar to win him over for ‘an independent freedom movement.’83Things were thus in an unholy mess. At about four-thirty A.M. Stennes arrived backin Berlin from Pomerania. A few hours later he was wakened with news that thepapers were reporting he had been dismissed. He discounted the story and wentback to sleep. Meanwhile his commanders in Berlin went on the rampage, mutinied,and seized Goebbels’ gau HQ and the Angriff editorial offices in the Hedemann Strassebuilding.Thus the second ‘Stennes putsch’ began. Perhaps this is a misnomer. It was nowApril 1, 1931. Stennes himself was still largely in the dark. At two-thirty P.M. hereceived, first a registered letter from Röhm dismissing him, then orders from Hitlerto go to Weimar.84 But the fat was already in the fire. This time the S.A.’s politicalactions met with active support from both Goebbels’ staff and the Angriff’s employees.Dr Weissauer published a statement in the newspaper backing Stennes. WhateverGoebbels’ private feelings, however, he knew which side his bread was buttered.He wrote unhesitatingly in his diary, ‘I stand loyal to Hitler… The S.A. mustcome into line.’ He applied for a court order to evict the S.A. trespassers from thebuilding. Stennes was still floundering. He sent this telegram to Hitler in Weimar: ISRÖHM’S DISMISSAL ORDER VALID, I.E. BACKED BY YOU? SIGNED STENNES. Hitler respondedambiguously: YOU ARE NOT TO ASK QUESTIONS BUT HAVING RECEIVED A PROPER ORDER ARE TOREPORT TO WEIMAR AT ONCE WITH THE COMMANDERS AS LISTED. SIGNED ADOLF HITLER.230 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHBy now Daluege was also in Weimar. Hitler gave Goebbels sweeping powers tosmash the putsch in Berlin, ‘regardless of consequences’ and to dismiss the disruptiveelements regardless of rank or office in the party. ‘You have my backing,’ wroteHitler in this document, ‘whatever you do.’85 At that evening’s public meeting inWeimar both Goebbels and Daluege swore undying loyalty to Hitler.86 In Berlinmeanwhile Stennes had printed thousands of handbills announcing that Goebbelswas sacked as gauleiter for ‘breach of faith’ and replaced by