2, 1931.29 Reichstag transcript, 17th session, Feb 5, 682ff; cf diary, Feb 7, 1931.30 Ibid., Feb 13, 18931.31 Wagener.32 Diary, Feb 15–16, 1931.33 Ibid., Feb 18–22, 1931.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 23334 Ibid., Feb 26, Mar 10, 1931.35 Ibid., Feb 26–27, 1931.36 Ibid., Mar 10, 15, 1931.37 Ibid., Mar 11, 13, 1931.38 Ibid., Feb 22, 1931.39 Ibid., Jan 29, Feb 19, 1931.40 Ibid., Feb 20, 1931.41 Ibid., Feb 22, 1931.42 Ibid., Mar 1, 8, 1931.43 Ibid., Mar 15–16, 1931.44 Ibid., Mar 16; on Mar 28 JG described Göring as a man ‘sick with megalomania.’—AngriffÊ articles on Feb 19 and 26, 1931 had praised Stennes as a brave soldier and Freikorpsveteran.45 Angriff, No.47, Mar 7, 1931; police file (author’s film DJ-81).46 Vossische Zeitung, Mar 14, 17.—Grzesinski noted on Mar 27: ‘The suspicion can notaltogether be ruled out that the attack on Dr Goebbels was staged by the NSDAP itself forpublicity purposes’ ( Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 509). Eduard Weiss came cleanwith a sworn affidavit published in Stennes’ new newspaper Arbeiter, Bauern, Soldaten, May 4;which JG assured his diary, May 6, 1931, were just ’Stennes’ lies.’47 Ibid., Mar 14, 1931.48 Ibid., Mar 3, 13, 1931.49 Ibid., Mar 14, 1931.50 Ibid., Mar 15; Angriff, No.54, Mar 16, 1931.51 Diary, May 17–19, 1931.52 Hans Grimm to Goltz (BA file Kl.Erw. 653/2, p.192ff); JG diary, Mar 21, 1936, andAngriff No.59 of the same date.53 NYT, Mar 22, 1931.54 Diary, Mar 22, 1931.55 Ibid., Mar 25, 1931.56 Ibid., Feb 26, Mar 6, 1931.57 Ibid., Mar 26, 1931.58 Ibid., Mar 13, 27, 1931. He learned that Grzesinski had three police oficials whose dailytask was to check each new Angriff for sufficient cause to ban it.59 VB, Apr 1, 1931.60 Diary, Oct 9, 1930.61 Jahn.62 See the duplicated circular to S.A. comrades, Feb 25, 1931 in the files of No.8 Standarte(BA file NS.26/322). ‘… Do Hitler and Röhm think we’re stupid enough not to noticewhat’s going on?’63 Jahn.—A further duplicated circular of Jul 25, 1931 scurrilously mentioned Röhm’sprosecution for homosexual offences in 1925 and the cost of the Brown House where thestaircase alone had cost 30,000 marks and the sixty ornate chairs for the Senate Chamber180,000 marks. ‘But Hitler is frightened of Dr Goebbels and daren’t do anything againsthim, in case he starts a revolt because he knows what’s going on.’ (BA file NS.26/322).234 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH64 Diary, Oct 10, 1928.65 Ibid., Nov 12, 27, 1930.66 There were frequent references to Röhm’s perversion in the underground S.A. circulars(BA file NS.26/322), e.g. a spoof advert from Röhm on Jun 30, 1931: ‘Wanted, first classriding breeches with zip flies in perfect working order for uniforms of my palace guard! Size175—!’ On Röhrbein and Ernst, see Fischer to Hitler, Nov 1, 1932 (BDC, Helldorff’s file).67 See Stennes to Röhm, Feb 28, 1931, cited by Jahn; copy in Stennes papers, NSDAParchives (BA file NS.26/325).68 Diary, Nov 28, 30, 1930.69 Ibid., Jan 15, 1931.70 Ibid., Feb 27, 1931.71 The police file, Feb 18, 1931, refers to the strained relations between JG and Stennesafter the first putsch.72 Stennes to Röhm, Feb 28, 1931 (loc. cit.)73 Diary, Mar 4, 1931.74 Jahn.— And see the well-informed report No.9, on the second Stennes putsch, circulatedby the Berlin Landeskriminalpolizei, May 1, 1931 (BA file NS.26/1368; Schumachercollection, file 278).75 Ibid.76 Ibid.77 BA file NS.26/322.78 Albert Krebs, Erinnerungen an die Frühzeit der Partei (Stuttgart, 1959), 162ff79 Diary, Mar 29, 1931. In the Stennes papers is a petition beginning, ‘We the undersignedS.A. commanders of Pomerania hereby declare …’ etc. (BA file NS.26/325).80 Landeskriminalpolizei report.81 Ulrich von Hassell diary, Jul 11, 1942.82 Jahn.83 Daluege to Röhm, Apr 1, 1931 (BA file NS.26/325).84 Jahn, and Stennes MS (IfZ: ZS.1147).85 Published in Vossische Zeitung, Apr 3, 1941.86 Diary, Apr 2, 1941.87 Extrablatt an Nationalsozialisten (IfZ: Alfred Conn papers)88 VB, Apr 4, 1931.89 Police order, Apr 2, 1931 (BA file NS.26/325).90 Hitler to JG, Apr 3, 1941; Borresholm, 76.91 Diary, Apr 4, 1931.92 Ibid., Apr 6, 9, 1931.93 Circular dated Apr 8, 1931 (BA file NS.26/322).94 Diary, Apr 9, 1941. Stennes claimed 1,500 supporters in Berlin, but the police notedthat only 600 attended his meeting in late Apr 1931.95 Report No.9 by the Berlin Landeskriminalpolizei, May 1, 1931 (BA file NS.26/1368;Schumacher collection, file 278).96 Diary, Apr 10, 1931.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 235
Goebbels16: The Stranger and the ShadowTHE thermometer’s mercury thread has climbed to 40°C. Goebbels is ill, butMagda phones only once, saying she’s at the Quandt estate in Mecklenburg.1He struggles out of bed on the Friday, April 10, 1931, to speak to two thousand partyofficials. On Saturday he learns that she is back in Berlin; she does not contact him.Ilse and Olga fuss around the invalid. He is too weak to resist. On Sunday he phonesher home. She is not there; later however she phones him, and admits that she hasbeen seeing off a young lover—but he has brought things to a head and fired a revolverat her. She tells Goebbels she is injured (in fact the Jewish law student’s bullethas struck the door frame next to her. ‘If you had really aimed at me and hit me,’ shescoffs, ‘I might have been impressed. I find your behaviour ridiculous.’)2Too late Goebbels realizes how much he loves her. Must he always be lonely? Theseand other thoughts lay siege to him. He spends Sunday pining for her and writing agripping description of his jealous delirium. Perhaps thirty times he telephones herhome, but nobody answers. He glares at the phone, willing it to ring. Staying homeon Monday the thirteenth he at last reaches her by phone. They drive out to a remoteforest house at Pichelsdorf. She pours out her heart about the grief her crazed exloverhas caused her. She answers his reproaches with floods of tears, the last resortof feminine culpability; but she wishes to spend Saturday with the other man, to sayfarewell. She refuses Goebbels’ ultimatum to spend that Saturday with him. ‘Thus it236 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHis over,’ writes Goebbels. Unconsciously scriptwriting again, he adds: ‘She exits weeping.’3ON
