Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

then Staatssekretär until 1941.53 Gaupropagandaleiter. See his lengthy MS dated May 1, 1938 in NSDAP archives (NA filmT581, rolls 47 and /546; BA files NS.26/546 and /133).54 Hinein in die Betriebe. His opponents scoffed in one samisdat circular to disgruntled S.A.men, dated Sep 15, 1931, ‘If the little clubfoot Joseph, known as Goebbels the Riding-Whip,waffles about socialism over the next few months he’s thinking of the reply he gave to thequestion “How do you stand on socialism?”—“Socialism is just a means to an end!”’ (NSDAParchives, files of No.8 Standarte. BA file NS.26/322).55 JG, Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei. Eine historische Darstellung in Tagebuchblättern (vom 1.Januar 1932 bis zum 1. Mai 1933). (Berlin, 1934), Jan 6, 1932.56 Compared with 523 in Saxony, 297 in Silesia, 187 in Brandenburg, 180 in Mecklenburg-Lübeck, and 128 in Württemberg. NSDAP archives (BA file NS.26/1290).57 Figures announced by Rudolf Diehls, consultant to the police department of the Prussianministry of the interior, on Nov 13, 1931 in Prussian state council; the police hadconfiscated 618 firearms, 1,380 knives and coshes, and 12,000 rounds of ammunition.Grzesinski MS (BA: Kl.Erw.144)58 Münchner Post, Jun 23; diary, May 17, Jun 24, 30. Major Giuseppe Renzetti, Mussolini’sagent in Berlin, told JG that Italy took a very dim view of Röhm. JG’s opponents in the gauexpressed disgust that Hitler not only tolerated these homosexuals in high places, but spentso much time hobnobbing with big business. ‘Ours must be the first “worker’s party” to setout its ideas in confidential discussions with the captains of industry,’ they mocked in a circularof Nov 19, 1931, after Hitler met 400 top businessmen in October. (BA file NS.26/322).59 Diary, Aug 6, 1931.60 BDC file, Helldorff. That is, incidentally, how he signed his name, not ‘Helldorf.’GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 25161 SA Standartenführer Gottlieb Rösner to Lutze, Jan 24, 1935 (BDC file, Helldorff).62 Police report of Feb 9, 1932 (author’s film DJ-81).— A letter from Grzesinski to thecourt dated Oct 5, 1931 states that at a conference with several SA Standartenführer threedays before they had been drilled as to what evidence to give. Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58,item 20, vol.i.63 Thus the indictment in the trial of those arrested. Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 20,vol.i.64 Fischer to Hitler, Nov 1, 1932 (BDC file, Helldorff). He accused Helldorff himself (whowas arrested and imprisoned after the riot) of tipping off the police. ‘When the orders weregiven out only Dr Goebbels, [Karl] Ernst and Helldorff were present, but the police stillfound out.’ (BDC, Helldorff’s file.) JG’s police file, Feb 9, 1932, confirms that a ‘policeagent’ at gau HQ overheard him and Helldorff plotting the riot.65 Police report in ibid.66 A memo in Nazi party archives dated Nov 15, 1931 reports: ‘Miss Stahl, Dr Goebbels’secretary, has the closest relations with officers of the police whom she always introduces asher relatives. In fact Miss Stahl is said to report everything that goes on in Hedemann Strasseto these officers.’ (BA file NS.26/325).67 Phipps to FO, Feb 22, 1933: Documents on British Foreign Policy, 2nd series, vol.iv, 425.68 Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 20, vol.vii.69 Ibid.70 Leaflet in Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 20, vol.iii.71 See NA film T581, roll 4 for indignant reports of Hanns-Günther von Obernitz on this.72 Circular, Oct 12, 1931 (BA file NS.26/322); similar in Rote Fahne.73 Published as Vom Proletariat zum Volk. Rede gehalten am 1. Oktober 1931 in einerArbeitermassenkundgebung im Sportpalast Berlin (Franz Eher Nachf. Verlag, 1932).74 Grzesinski MS (BA file Kl. Erw., 144).75 Obernitz, report Dec 21, 1931 (NA film T581, roll 4; BA file NS.26/87).76 Dr Otto Wagener (now the Munich-based head of the NSDAP’s economics branch), MS(IfZ: ED.60); and see his recollections in IfZ: ZS.1732 (partially published by Henry A Turneras Hitler aus nächster Nähe. Aufzeichungen eines Vertrauten 1929–1932.)—JG’s relationship withMagda was the subject of much malicious gossip at the time; it was said that finally Röhmtook revenge on JG by drawing Hitler’s attention to the gossip, marriage being the onlysatisfactory solution. (NA film T581, roll 4; BA file NS.26/87).77 So he told Henriette von Schirach (author’s interview).78 Behrend, op. cit., No.14, Apr 5, 1952.79 Wagener MS.80 The date is uncertain. According to Günther Quandt, op.cit., Magda invited him to thefoyer of the Kaiserhof in Jul 1931 and told him JG had asked her to marry him.81 Ebermayer (who interviewed Ello Quandt) and Meissner, Revue, Mar 22, 1952.82 Hitler’s Table Talk.83 Quandt memoirs.84 Copy of the marriage certificate, dated Aug 31, 1995, in Heiber papers (IfZ: F82).85 The eighteen guests included Hitler, his adjutants Wilhelm Brückner and Julius Schaub,Ritter von Epp, JG’s mother and sister, Karl Hanke, Walter Grantzow; Viktoria von Dirksen;252 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHMagda’s schoolfriend Lola Umbreit. A malicious report reached the Berlin police HQ threedays later (evidently from the later SA Obergruppenführer Hanns-Günther von Obernitz)that JG only married for appearances, ‘to mask his homosexual inclinations—they say hedidn’t marry the woman but her son,’ i.e. Harald. (NA film T581, roll 4).86 Borresholm, 82.GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 253

Goebbels17: The Man of TomorrowLEAVING Magda alone, Dr Goebbels spent Christmas Eve 1931 with the S.A.Nationwide, the party now had over eight hundred thousand members.Two years later he published a popular edition of his diaries for the coming monthsentitled ‘From the Kaiserhof to the Reich Chancellery.’ The book would sell half amillion copies by 1939.1Textual comparison with the handwritten original, which has survived on Nazimicrofiches in Moscow2, shows that Goebbels edited them less severely than his criticsbelieved. There are the usual exaggerations. The diary’s twenty-thousand peoplelistening to him speak in Leipzig become ‘30,000’ in ‘Kaiserhof’.3 His meetings arealways ‘overflowing,’ and with the right class of people, ‘almost all artisans’;4 ‘virtuallyonly workers’ in Essen, and a Sport Palace ‘brimming with workers’ in Berlin.5‘He who has the working man,’ he defines, ‘has the people.’ He portrays his best S.A.regimental commander, Richard Fiedler, as ‘a simple worker who has fought his wayto the top.’6 Visiting the cruisers Köln and Schlesien he finds all ranks solidly backingthe party. He learns more, so he writes, from a sleeping car conductor than from farmore august gentlemen.7 The