Joseph Goebbels - World War II - HISTORY.com Google Joseph Goebbels: Early Years Paul Joseph Goebbels was born on October 29, 1897, in Rheydt, Germany, an industrial city located in the Rhineland. Because of a club foot that he acquired during a childhood bout with osteomyelitis, a swelling of the bone marrow, the young Goebbels was exempted from service in the German army during World War I (1914-18). Instead, he attended a series of German universities, where he studied literature and philosophy, among other subjects, and went on to earn a Ph.D. in German philology from Heidelberg University. Did You Know? Despite the anti-Semitism Joseph Goebbels promoted as Germany's minister for public enlightenment and propaganda, some of his favorite schoolteachers were Jewish, and Goebbels was even once engaged to a young woman who was part-Jewish. In the first half of the 1920s, after unsuccessfully attempting to establish a career as a journalist, novelist and playwright, Goebbels became a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party, which promoted German pride and anti-Semitism.

Goebbels eventually became acquainted with the organization’s leader, Adolf Hitler . At this time, inflation had wrecked the German economy, and the morale of the German citizenry, who had been defeated in World War I, was low. Hitler and Goebbels were both of the opinion that words and images were potent devices that could be used to exploit this discontent. Hitler was impressed with Goebbels’ ability to communicate his thoughts in writing, while Goebbels was enamored of Hitler’s talent for speaking in front of large crowds and employing words and gestures to play on German nationalistic pride. Goebbels: Rising in the Nazi Party Ranks Goebbels quickly ascended the ranks of the Nazi Party . First he broke away from Gregor Strasser (1892-1934), the leader of the more anti-capitalistic party bloc, who he initially supported, and joined ranks with the more conservative Hitler. Then, in 1926, he became a party district leader in Berlin. The following year, he established and wrote commentary in Der Angriff (The Attack), a weekly newspaper that espoused the Nazi Party line.

In 1928, Goebbels was elected to the Reichstag, the German Parliament. More significantly, Hitler named him the Nazi Party propaganda director. It was in this capacity that Goebbels began formulating the strategy that fashioned the myth of Hitler as a brilliant and decisive leader. He arranged massive political gatherings at which Hitler was presented as the savior of a new Germany. In a masterstroke, Goebbels oversaw the placing of movie cameras and microphones at pivotal locations to accentuate Hitler’s image and voice. Such events and maneuverings played a pivotal role in convincing the German people that their country would regain its honor only by giving unwavering support to Hitler. Joseph Goebbels: Hitler’s Propaganda Minister In January 1933, Hitler became the German chancellor, and in March of that year he appointed Goebbels the country’s minister for public enlightenment and propaganda. In this capacity, Goebbels had complete jurisdiction over the content of German newspapers, magazines, books, music, films, stage plays, radio programs and fine arts. His mission was to censor all opposition to Hitler and present the chancellor and the Nazi Party in the most positive light while stirring up hatred for Jewish people.

In April 1933, at Hitler’s directive, Goebbels orchestrated a boycott on Jewish businesses. The following month, he was a guiding force in the burning of “un-German” books in a public ceremony at Berlin’s Opera House. The works of dozens of writers were destroyed, including German-born authors Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970), Arnold Zweig (1887-1968), Thomas Mann (1875-1955), Albert Einstein (1879-1955) and Heinrich Mann (1871-1950), and such non-Germans as Émile Zola (1840-1902), Helen Keller (1880-1968), Marcel Proust (1871-1922), Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), H. G.

Wells (1866-1946), Jack London (1876-1916) and André Gide (1869-1951). In September 1933, Goebbels became director of the newly formed Reich Chamber of Culture, whose mission was to control all aspects of the creative arts. An offshoot of the formation of the chamber was the forced unemployment of all Jewish creative artists, including writers, musicians and theater and film actors and directors. Because the Nazis viewed modern art as immoral, Goebbels instructed that all such “decadent” art be confiscated and replaced by works that were more representational and sentimental in content. Then in October came the passage of the Reich Press Law, which ordered the removal of all Jewish and non-Nazi editors from German newspapers and magazines. Joseph Goebbels: The Power of the Moving Image At the start of World War II in 1939, Goebbels was entrusted with the task of uplifting the spirit of the German people and employing the media, and specifically the cinema, to convince the population to support the war effort.

A typical project he instigated was “Der ewige Jude,” also known as “The Eternal Jew” (1940), a propaganda film that ostensibly charted the history of the Jews. In the film, however, Jews are depicted as parasites who disrupt an otherwise tidy world.Goebbels also orchestrated the production of “Jud Süss” (1940), a feature film depicting the life of Josef Süss Oppenheimer (1698-1738), a Jewish financial consultant who collected taxes for Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg (1684-1737), ruler of the Duchy of Württemberg, in the early 18th century. After the duke’s sudden death, Oppenheimer was put on trial and executed. Under Goebbels’s stewardship of the project, the story of Jud Süss was transformed from a human tragedy to an allegory about Jewish self-importance and greed. Joseph Goebbels: The Beginning of the End In 1942, Goebbels organized “The Soviet Paradise,” a large Nazi propaganda show that was exhibited in Berlin.

Its purpose was to bolster the resolve of the German people by exposing the chicanery of Jewish Bolsheviks. On May 18, Herbert Baum (1912-42), a Berlin-based German-Jewish Resistance leader, and his accomplices partly demolished the exhibition by setting it on fire. Goebbels refused to allow this act to be reported in the German media. Nonetheless, Baum and his small but determined group succeeded in striking a sizeable psychological blow to Goebbels and his propaganda machine. Joseph Goebbels: Final Years As the war plodded on and German casualties mounted, Goebbels became a proponent of an all-out battle to the death against the Allied forces. In this regard, he employed his own abilities as a public speaker to further incite the German populace. On one occasion, in August 1944, speaking from the Sports Palace in Berlin, he commanded the German people to support a total war effort. If Germany was destined to lose the war, he reasoned, it was fitting that the German nation and people be obliterated. As 1944 segued into 1945, the German defeat seemed inevitable to the Nazi regime.

While other Nazi higher-ups made contact with the Allies in the hope of negotiating lenient treatment after the German surrender, Goebbels remained steadfastly devoted to Hitler. During the last days of April 1945, as Soviet troops were on the threshold of Berlin, Hitler was holed up in his bunker. Goebbels was the lone senior Nazi official at his side. On April 30, Hitler committed suicide at age 56 and Goebbels replaced him as Germany’s chancellor. However, Goebbels’ reign was short-lived. The following day, he and his wife, Magda (1901-45), fatally poisoned their six children. The couple then took their own lives, although accounts of exactly how they died vary. Tags VII. Totalitarianism and WWII - AP Euro Final Project AP Euro Final Project 7 G. Images A. Overview The changing political tides after the defeat of Germany in World War I clearly altered ideas of government in the early 20th century. With the great economic depression in Germany that came after the Treaty of Versailles, in which the country had to make massive reparation payments, Germans became disillusioned with their government.

This allowed the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, which officially took control in 1933. This new totalitarian government, similar to the one established by Benito Mussolini in Italy less than a decade earlier, took complete control and tolerated no opposition. German and Italian totalitarianism led to the great World War II, after Britain and France finally snapped when Hitler invaded Poland. The Second World War, which lasted until 1945, was yet another example of total war with even more devastatingly new technology and the extended use of aircraft. Millions of casualties ensued on all sides, and after almost 6 years of fighting, the United States and the Soviet Union closed in on Berlin and a defeated Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. The effects of totalitarianism were immense, causing a world-changing war that culminated in the horrible mass genocide of the Holocaust, in which over 11 million people (esp. Jews) were killed because Hitler believed they were inferior. After the war ended, Europe retained a shaky peace that exemplified the existence of the modern era. B.

Top 10 People 1) Joseph Stalin 1878-1953 Premier of the Soviet Union, helped bring about Bolshevik Revolution, ruled Russia during World War II. Responsible for the Great Purges, Gulags, and Great Famines in the Soviet Union, caused over 20 million deaths. Helped defeat Hitler in World War II, but killed over 20 million of his own people in attempt to gain absolute power in his "communist" state 2) Benito Mussolini 1883-1945 Italian politician, leader of the National Fascist Party and creator of Italian fascism, became Italian Prime Minister in 1922. Led Italy through World War II on the side of the Axis, defended Hitler, ended up being overthrown by his own people and killed Creator of fascism, overtaken by the Allies during World War II and killed by his own people in a rage 3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt 1882-1945 32nd President of the United States, presided over America during the Great Depression and World War II. Died just before the end of the war.

Key player in the Allied Powers and helped plan the invasion of Normandy that eventually led to the Allied victory in Europe 4) David Lloyd George 1863-1945 Liberal British politician, became Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1916 and headed the government during World War I and its aftermath. Introduced the modern welfare state in Britain, helped guide it through Great Depression Guided Britain through World War I and the Great Depression, icon of 20th century liberalism 5) Adolf Hitler 1889-1945 Created the Nazi party in Germany, elected himself the first German Fuhrer, goal was to create "living space" for the "pure" Aryan (German) race, ruthlessly killed millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped, and others in the Holocaust Responsible for the rise of fascism in Europe, the Holocaust, and World War II itself. Perhaps the world's most hated man, then and now 6) Joseph Goebbels 1897-1945 German politician and minister of propaganda for the Nazi party during World War II.

One of Hitler's closest associates and known for his crazy anti-Semitism, one of his first acts was burning books that the Nazis rejected Responsible for the huge Nazi propaganda during World War II and the horrible crimes committed against the Jews, along with Hitler, and committed suicide just hours after Hitler did 7) Heinrich Himmler 1900-1945 Commander of the SS, leading member of the Nazi Party in close cooperation with Hitler, oversaw the actions of the Gestapo (secret police). One of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, one of the people considered most responsible for the Holocaust 8) Winston Churchill 1874-1965 Conservative British politician and statesman, served as Prime Minister of Britain during World War II. Also an officer in the British army, writer, historian, and artist One of the most influential people in British history, helped successfully crush the Axis powers and the threat of Nazi Germany.

9) Charles DeGaulle 1890-1970 French general and statesman, led the Free French Forces during World War II after he escaped to Britain, helped the French people gain the strength to fight against the Nazis Helped France eventually win World War II, along with the help of Britain and the U.S., and is considered one of the most important people in modern French history 10) Francisco Franco 1892-1975 Leader of the Nationalist Military Rebellion in Spain, instilled a Spanish totalitarian government was Spain's head of state for almost 40 years Attempted to become a leading fascist dictator, as Mussolini and Hitler were, but never quite achieved that status and was frequently left out of their affairs. After his death, Spain moved further towards a democracy. C. Top 10 Events 1) Totalitarianism 20th Century Political system in which no other party or person can attempt to compromise the standing government, and that government recognizes no other source of political authority.

Has no limits to its authority, able to use mass propaganda, widespread terror, and political repression to obtain its power Responsible for the rise of Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin during the 20th century, major cause of World War II 2) Weimar Republic 1919-1933 German government installed after World War I and lasted until Hitler's takeover in 1933. Faced with huge problems, including massive inflation, political extremes both on the left and right that allowed little chance for decision making, and ruled during the debilitating constrictions of the Treaty of Versailles Largely a failure, created the perfect opportunity for Hitler and the Nazi Party to move in and take control 3) National Socialist Workers Party (Nazis) 1920-1945 German political party founded out of the far-right fascist movements, came to power in 1933 under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, who became the German fuhrer. Violently anti-communist, anti-middle class, and later extremely anti-Semitic. Responsible for World War II and the Holocaust, caused millions of deaths of Jews, Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, handicapped, and more.

Ideologies banned after 1945, but still exists under Neo-Nazism 4) Gestapo 1933-1945 Secret police force issued by Heinrich Himmler (close associate of Hitler) and the SS, made sure the orders of the Fuhrer were being carried out, often present at concentration camps during the Holocaust Responsible for carrying out Hitler's orders and instilling fear and obedience on the German people during the Nazi regime 5) Nuremberg Laws 1935 Anti-Semitic laws created by the Nazis in 1935, legislation directly attacking Jews, showed Hitler's plan of using antisemitism as a form of scientific racism. Defined who was considered Jewish, deprived Jews of citizenship, and forbid marriages between Jews and Germans The beginnings of the horrible crimes that would be committed against Jews in the next 10 years, forced many Jews to leave Germany, led to the Holocaust 6) Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact 1939 Pact signed by German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and Molotov of the Soviet Union, stated that the two countries would not attack each other in the event of war.

Stalin and Hitler were not friends, but believed this was a good diplomatic move. Completely violated by Hitler during Operation Barbarossa in 1941 when the Nazis attacked the Soviet Union. Soviets turn against the Axis, ally with Britain and the United States 7) Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 War between the Republicans and Nationalists of Spain, Nationalists win and dissolve the Second Spanish Republic. Republicans supported by France and some volunteer Americans, Nationalists supported by Italy and Germany Essentially a "dress rehearsal" for World War II, both sides got to test their weapons and strategies 8) Potsdam Conference 1945 Attended by Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill, and Harry Truman of the Allied powers. Meeting that discussed how they were going to administer punishment to defeated Nazi Germany Germany divided up between France, Russia, the U.S., and Britain. Discussed the possibility of atomic warfare against Japan, as the U.S. had just tested an atomic bomb 9) Final Solution About 1941-1945 The Nazi's plan (chief architect was Heinrich Himmler) to exterminate European Jews during World War II, which was the height of the Holocaust.

It was a euphemism for the plan and execution of one of the worst systematic genocides in world history Killed 6-7 million Jews, a horrible decision by the Nazis to kill every single Jew in Europe. The world still mourns this genocide today and will for a long time in the future 10) National Fascist Party (Italy) 1921-1943 Political party created by Benito Mussolini, founder of Italian fascism. Described itself as totalitarian, though looking back, it probably wasn't by definition. Only party whose reformation is banned by Italy's constitution today, allied with Hitler in the Axis Powers during World War II, brutally ended with Mussolini's execution D. Essay Question: How and why did Adolf Hitler gain power in 1933, and to what extent did his power bring about World War II? In the aftermath of World War I, it would be an understatement to say that Germany was in a disastrous economic state. Due to the harsh conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which put the entire blame of the war on Germany alone, the Germans were suffering from impossible reparation requirements and a destroyed sense of nationalism.

In the Weimar Republic, which lasted from 1919 to 1933, Germany began to print paper money that caused unprecedented inflation - so much that people ended up burning the currency to make fire and warm their homes instead of buying things with it because it was virtually worthless. Germans struggled with a lack of patriotism and a disgruntled society and government that had no real ability to mend the situation. By the late 1920s, however, a new group called the National Socialist Workers Party (also known as the Nazis) began to emerge, with its leader being the notorious Adolf Hitler, and gained power through massive propaganda, economic promises, and a belief in the divine Aryan race, and all of these things culminated to effectively bring about World War II. To begin, Nazi propaganda served as a phenomenal tool to help the Nazi Party gain power and take over the existing government in Germany, and continued to advocate for total warfare and the implementation of their policies after. Propaganda actually received its somewhat negative connotation today from its use by the Nazi Party before and during World War II. In order to create this massive attempt to control public opinion through the media, Hitler appointed Dr.

Joseph Goebbels head of Germany's Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, a euphemism in itself. Hitler's first use of propaganda came out in 1925 in his book entitled Mein Kampf, which outlined his principles of fascism and served as an "inspirational" basis for World War II and the Holocaust. Goebbels continued in this manner by creating posters and radio advertisements that depicted the enemy, including the Soviets, British, French, Americans, and especially the Jews in barbaric ways and showed that they were attempting to overthrow German society. By instilling fear into the German people, this Nazi propaganda was extremely effective in helping Hitler gain power and rousing strong national support for World War II. Next, Hitler and the Nazi Party successfully came to power through promises of a repaired economy that would be the best in the world, and public support from these economic accomplishments allowed Hitler to successfully begin World War II. As early as 1920, the newly-formed Nazi Party created its list of "Twenty-Five Points" that they asserted would help the failing German economy.

These included total confiscation of all war profits, nationalization of all trusts, and the promise that "every citizen shall have the possibility of living decently and earning a livelihood." They emphasized the common good before the individual good, which appealed to the working and middle classes, who were the majority of the German population, and put fuel in the fire of Hitler's rise to power. He also promised that if he gained power, he would end unemployment for good, which ended up happening due to his excessive military campaigns and his initiation of World War II. People that weren't fighting at the front were able to get industrial jobs that helped the German war machine, and though they were not always sure about the cause, at least they had a job and could eat. After the failure of the economy after World War I, Hitler squeezed in at the perfect time to create public support in him through promises of a recovered economy and prosperity for all. Finally, Hitler came to power due to his ability to create a strong nationalism in the German people, which he called the Aryan race, and made them feel like their cause was the most important in the entire world.

This began to kick up a notch in 1935, when the Nazi Party issued the Nuremberg Laws, which essentially branded the Jewish people as scapegoats for the horrible economic times. The laws gave detailed specifications for who was Jewish and who wasn't (if one of your grandparents was Jewish, you were also a Jew), and denied Jews any right to citizenship. It only went downhill from there. In Hitler's "Final Solution," initiated around 1941, he promised the Aryans that he would solve the "Jewish question" once and for all by wiping them out to extinction. His elaborate, horrifically immaculate networks of concentration camps across Germany and Poland exterminated over 7 million Jews before they were liberated by the Americans and the Soviets in 1945. By ridding the Aryan population of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Poles, the handicapped, and other people he deemed inferior, Hitler was able to stir huge German nationalism and make his people feel superior, giving him widespread domestic support that pushed his policies further during World War II.

In conclusion, through massive propaganda, promises of economic relief, and assertions of a "divine" Aryan race, Hitler's Nazi Party was successfully able to obtain power in 1933 and continue its successful trend into World War II, which they brought about on their own accord. The Nazis were ruthless, infamously genius, and completely destructive in terms of both war and the genocide they created during the Holocaust, but in the end, thankfully, they were defeated by the Allied powers of Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Hitler killed over 11 million people in total during the Holocaust and was responsible for millions of other deaths the moment he invaded Poland in 1939 and began World War II. It was an absolutely horrific time in world history, and will be remembered for centuries to come. FRQ Scoring Rubric This essay would score a 9 on the AP Exam because...

1) It has a thesis that fully answers the question and is well-developed in the introductory paragraph ( By the late 1920s, however, a new group called the National Socialist Workers Party (also known as the Nazis) began to emerge, with its leader being the notorious Adolf Hitler, and gained power through massive propaganda, economic promises, and a belief in the divine Aryan race, and all of these things culminated to effectively bring about World War II). 2) The conclusion is well organized, starting with the re-worded thesis and three sentences that tie it up effectively 3) It analyzes both aspects of the question, including the how and why he gained power, AND to what extent he brought about World War II 4) The thesis is supported with specific evidence throughout, see terms highlighted in yellow 5) Written in academic tone, possibly minor errors Stronger Essays: 9-8-7-6 Essay attempts to address the question but fails to do so Essay has no specific evidence Contains significant errors of fact or interpretation E. Top Dog Analysis Top Dog: Adolf Hitler *Note: By no means was Hitler a "top dog" in a good way, but he was a huge influence on this time period.

Adolf Hitler was born in 1889 in Austria to a farming family, and began life as a confident, outgoing boy and a great student. However, after the death of his brother Edmund in 1900, he became morose, detached, and pessimistic about life, and he constantly fought with authority including his teachers and parents. As a way of rebelling against his father, with whom he had always had bad relations, Hitler became obsessed with German nationalism, and in 1914 served as a runner for the German army until he was injured quite early on. He earned an Iron Cross for bravery, and by the end of the war, he was very angered at the way Germany had surrendered and felt that the peace terms were not acceptable at all. In 1919, Hitler joined the German Workers' Party and stayed with it as it transformed to the National Socialist Workers Party, better known as the Nazis. He greatly admired and further pushed the Nazi ideal of anti-Marxism, anti-Semitism, and anti-big business theories, and participated in a failed coup to overthrow the Weimar Republic in 1923.

While in jail, he wrote one of the most influential books of the 20th century, entitled Mein Kampf, which outlined his basic principles of Nazism and his hopes for government and society in the future. Through economic promises, massive propaganda, and German nationalism, especially during the rough times after World War I, Hitler successfully rose through the ranks of the Weimar Republic and declared himself Fuhrer of Germany in 1933. He and the Nazis began their terroristic regime that culminated in World War II and the Holocaust, two extremely profound influences on the modern era. Studies of Hitler today show that he probably had a severe mental illness, for he was responsible for killing over 11 million people during the Holocaust and creating the "Final Solution" to exterminate every single Jew. Not only that, but the moment he invaded Poland in 1939 to begin World War II, he initiated the horrendous killings of millions of soldiers and civilians. Hitler and the Nazis lost World War II, and just as the Soviets were approaching where Hitler was hiding, he committed suicide in his bunker. Hitler was a terrible, horrible man who used his nasty gift as a speaker to kill millions of people.

He is remembered for his horrendous crimes against humanity, and his influence over the 20th century was perhaps the most powerful of anyone else's. Without him, there may not have been World War II, and there definitely would not have been the Holocaust. F.Timeline Joseph Goebbels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running! Joseph Goebbels Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels ( October 29 , 1897 – May 1 , 1945 ) was Adolf Hitler 's Propaganda Minister (see Propagandaministerium ) in Nazi Germany . Goebbels was known for his zealous and energetic oratory and virulent anti-Semitism . Following Hitler's death, he served as Chancellor for one day. He then committed suicide . Contents [ edit ] Early life Goebbels was born to factory clerk Friedrich Goebbels [1] (1867–1929) and his wife Katharina Odenhausen in Rheydt (now a part of Mönchengladbach ), a Protestant area in the Rhineland , although his family was Roman Catholic .

He had four siblings: Konrad (1895–1949), Hans (1893–1947), Elisabeth (1901–1915) and the youngest child Maria Katharina (b. 1910). His legal surname according to his birth certificate was Göbbels, but he seems always to have used the spelling Goebbels, as is not uncommon in Germany. At the age of seven he contracted osteomyelitis - an infection of the bone marrow - and an operation, in the days before antibiotics, was only partially successful. He was left with a left leg which was shorter and weaker than the right, which caused him to be rejected when he volunteered for military service at the beginning of World War I (he wore a metal brace on his leg for most of his life). Although he has been frequently described as having a club foot, this was not the case. As a student he often represented himself as a wounded veteran, but in fact the nearest that he came to wartime service was from June 1917 to October 1917; he was an "Office Soldier" with the "Patriotic Help Unit" in Rheydt .

[2] After earning a Ph.D. in Literature and Philosophy from the University of Heidelberg in 1921 he worked as a journalist and tried for several years to become a published author. His work included an autobiographical novel called Michael which no publisher would take at the time, and two plays written in verse - The Wanderer, about Jesus Christ, and The Lonesome Guest - which no producer would stage. Joining the Nazi Party in 1924 (although he later claimed to have joined in 1922), Goebbels was initially closely aligned with the left faction around the Strasser brothers . From 1926, when he became gauleiter of Berlin, he moved away from his early associations, and his diary shows many instances of great admiration for Hitler. In December 1931, after a stormy courtship, he married divorcee Magda Quandt , whose son, Harald (from her previous marriage to wealthy industrialist Günther Quandt) accompanied them beneath the raised arms of an SS honour guard (Harald, who served as a officer in the Luftwaffe , was the only one of Magda's seven children to survive World War II ).

The diaries of Joseph Goebbels, which have survived almost in their entirety, contain large numbers of entries detailing his philanderings, which he clearly regarded as great love affairs, and of which it would appear he had several at a time. In the 1925 and 1926 books the names Else, Alma and Anke are the most common to appear. "Anke" was Anke Helhorn. She left Goebbels, got married and divorced, and in 1934 he got her a job on one of the magazines he controlled. (Wheeler-Bennett, Nemesis p.58). A love affair with the actress Lída Baarová nearly took his life when he attempted suicide on October 15 , 1938 . Goebbels survived, and the affair was terminated at the behest of Adolf Hitler. Together with Adolf Hitler at the Berghof For more details on this topic, see Nazi propaganda . Goebbels played a large role in helping the Nazis achieve and retain power by creating propaganda to present the Nazi ideology to the German people.

Some suggest he was a committed anti-Semite, involved with Kristallnacht in 1938 and later connected with the Nazi Endlösung ( Final Solution ) as well as the Judenfrage ("Jewish Question"), especially the deportation of Jews from Berlin . Others historians, such as Ian Kershaw , present the idea that Goebbels was not anti-semetic, but simply sold the message of the Nazis to the German people. Originally from the socialist side of the NSDAP, Goebbels saw potential with Hitler's side and rooted his commitments there with the nationalist members. Goebbels began to regulate all forms of artistic expression , banishing Jewish writers , journalists and artists from Germany's cultural life. He took control of the news media, making sure that it presented Germany's domestic and foreign policy aims in terms of Nazi ideology. He played probably the most important role in creating an atmosphere in Germany that made it possible for the Nazis to "clean" the Reich of Jews, homosexuals and other minorities. The Goebbels technique, also known as argumentum ad nauseam , is the name given to a policy of repeating a falsehood until it is taken to be the truth (see Big Lie ).

Goebbels also pioneered the use of broadcasting in mass propaganda, promoting the distribution of inexpensive single frequency radio receivers (the so-called Volksempfänger (People's radio)) to the German public which ensured that millions of people heard the output of the Reich's propaganda ministry while being unable to receive news and other broadcasts from outside Germany. Meanwhile his ministry busily broadcast Nazi propaganda around the world by shortwave radio . Newsreels, movies and books were impossible to publish without prior approval and censorship by Goebbels' ministry. He is credited by historians with developing the techniques of modern communications and propaganda. He had a strong influence on German propaganda motion pictures throughout the Nazi era. He was the unaccredited Executive Producer and an uncredited writer of the film Kolberg (1945). [3] Although Goebbels was disappointed when Germany went to war with Britain in 1939, he remained steadfastly loyal to Hitler throughout the war and derived immense power and prestige from his position. Goebbels' ministry of propaganda controlled essentially every aspect of culture in Germany. In October 1941 he organized the "Weimarer Dichtertreffen" (Weimar Convention of Poets) inviting collaborating writers from all of Europe.

Under Goebbels auspices the participating members (e.g. Pierre Drieu La Rochelle and Robert Brasillach ) founded the "Europäische Schriftstellervereinigung" (European Writer's League). Goebbels is often remembered for his Sportpalast speech , given on February 18 , 1943 (sometimes called the Total War speech) in which he tried to motivate the German people to continue their struggle after the tides of World War II had turned against Germany. By this time many Germans privately believed Germany was irrevocably on its way to defeat. There was strong animosity between Goebbels and the popular Hermann Göring , whose political influence waned following his disastrous management of the Luftwaffe early during the war and Goebbels became the third most powerful leader in Germany (after Martin Bormann , Hitler's private secretary, of whom most Germans were not aware). As Germany's military situation collapsed, the increasing shrillness of the government's propaganda brought discreet ridicule from the German people who nicknamed Goebbels The Malicious Dwarf and The Wotan Mickey Mouse.

[ edit ] Ruin and suicide Joseph Goebbels and his family, pictured around October 1942, with Magda's son Harald Quandt in the back row During the final stages of the war in the spring of 1945 Hitler split the offices of Reichskanzler (Chancellor of the Reich) and Reichspräsident (President of the Reich), both of which he had held as Führer since the death of Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934. He appointed Goebbels Chancellor of Germany in his will, with Grand-Admiral Karl Dönitz , the commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, as President without the Führer title (the post-Hitler Flensburg government had hopes of being recognized by the Allied powers but was ultimately arrested towards the end of May 1945 when the Allies decided to formally replace it with their own military administration).

Shortly after Hitler committed suicide at about 3:30 in the afternoon (Berlin time) on April 30 , 1945 , an emotional and agitated Goebbels sought out Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge and dictated these lines as an addition to Hitler's political testament: "The Führer has given orders for me, in case of a breakdown of defense of the Capital of the Reich, to leave Berlin and to participate as a leading member in a government appointed by him. For the first time in my life, I must categorically refuse to obey a command of the Führer. My wife and my children agree with this refusal. In any other case, I would feel myself (...) a dishonorable renegade and vile scoundrel for my entire further life, who would lose the esteem of himself along with the esteem of his people, both of which would have to form the requirement for further duty of my person in designing the future of the German Nation and the German Reich." After several hours of anxiously waiting for news that German troops might be able to rescue the bunker's occupants, Goebbels and his wife resolved to carry out a previously arranged plan to kill their children and then themselves.

Magda had all six of their children put to sleep with morphine , then poisoned them with cyanide . Joseph Goebbels did not take a direct part in this but acquiesced throughout, even refusing the offers of others to take the children out of Berlin before it was too late. Contrary to what he hastily added to Hitler's last political will, by all accounts the children were in good spirits and entirely unaware of their parents' plans to kill them, except perhaps in the case of Helga, whose body showed signs of physical abuse (i.e. bruising). They were: Helga Susanne (born, September 1 , 1932 , aged 12) was the eldest of the six and her father's favorite. She had her father's chestnut brown hair and eyes. Hildegard (Hilde) Traudel (born April 13 , 1934 aged 11) was also a brunette and the most diligent of the six. Helmut Christian (born October 2 , 1935 , aged 9) was the only boy and a dreamer who fell behind in school. He aspired to join the Hitler Youth when he became of age.

Today there are surviving descendants in Ravenna, Michigan . The Goebbels suicide as depicted in the film Der Untergang While early reports suggested Joseph and Magda Goebbels were shot by SS bodyguards in the ruins of the Chancellory garden at their own request on May 1 , 1945 , they likely took cyanide first. Another account claims Goebbels shot Magda then himself afterwards (as shown in the 2004 film, Der Untergang (Downfall), where Goebbels was portrayed by actor Ulrich Matthes ). Their bodies were partially burned, left unburied and quickly found by Soviet troops. The children's pyjama-clad bodies were found still in the three sets of two-tiered bunk beds in which they were killed. A photograph of Goebbels' incinerated face was widely published. [4] The bodies of the Goebbels family, along with those of Hitler and Eva Braun , were secretly buried. Later they were reburied together by the Soviets, ultimately in the courtyard of KGB headquarters in Magdeburg , Germany. In April 1970, all the remains were reburned and scattered in the Elbe river.

[ edit ] Diaries Goebbels kept a diary for much of his life. From 1923 to 1941, he wrote the entries himself. From 1941 to 1945, he dictated lengthy passages to aides. He sometimes telephoned them in the middle of the night when he wanted to add some text. The dictations usually opened with a description of the military situation, followed by his personal comments. The dictated diary is not as personal as the earlier one he wrote himself. Much of the diaries were thought to have been lost during World War II . However in 1992, Dr. Elke Fröhlich found a large portion of them in Russian archives. (Many believe they were first found by David Irving. He cites so in his biography of Goebbels). A 29 volume edition edited by Elke Fröhlich and others is said to be 98% complete. The last two volumes were expected to be published in 2006. [5] [ edit ] Goebbels in popular culture Das Goebbels-Experiment , a narrated biographic film based on Goebbels' diaries.

[6] Goebbels is represented by the character Giuseppe Givola in the parody play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht . The play is a parody of the rise of Hitler, written while Brecht was in exile at that time (1941), with various scenes added afterwards. The play has been translated into English by Ralph Manheim and published by Methuen Modern Plays. Joseph Goebbels | Jewish Virtual Library Tweet Master propagandist of the Nazi regime and dictator of its cultural life for twelve years, Joseph Goebbels was born into a strict Catholic, working-class family from Rheydt, in the Rhineland, on 29 October 1897. He was educated at a Roman Catholic school and went on to study history and literature at the University of Heidelberg under Professor Friedrich Gundolf, a Jewish literary historian renowned as a Goethe scholar and a close disciple of the poet Stefan George.

Goebbels had been rejected for military service during World War I because of a crippled foot - the result of contracting polio as a child - and a sense of physical inadequacy tormented him for the rest of his life, reinforced by resentment of the reactions aroused by his diminutive frame, black hair and intellectual background. Bitterly conscious of his deformity and fearful of being regarded as a "bourgeois intellectual," Goebbels overcompensated for his lack of the physical virtues of the strong, healthy, blond, Nordic type by his ideological rectitude and radicalism once he joined the NSDAP in 1922. The hostility to the intellect of the "little doctor," his contempt for the human race in general and the Jews in particular, and his complete cynicism were an expression of his own intellectual self-hatred and inferiority complexes, his overwhelming need to destroy everything sacred and ignite the same feelings of rage, despair and hatred in his listeners.

At first Goebbels's hyperactive imagination found an outlet in poetry, drama and a bohemian life-style, but apart from his expressionist novel, Michael: ein Deutsches Schicksal in Tagebuchblattern (1926), nothing came of these first literary efforts. It was in the Nazi Party that Goebbels's sharp, clear-sighted intelligence, his oratorical gifts and flair for theatrical effects, his uninhibited opportunism and ideological radicalism blossomed in the service of an insatiable will-to-power. In 1925 he was made business manager of the NSDAP in the Ruhr district and at the end of the year was already the principal collaborator of Gregor Strasser, leader of the social-revolutionary North German wing of the Party. Goebbels founded and edited the Nationalsozialistischen Briefe (NS Letters) and other publications of the Strasser brothers, sharing their proletarian anti-capitalist outlook and call for a radical revaluation of all values.

His National Bolshevik tendencies found expression in his evaluation of Soviet Russia (which he regarded as both nationalist and socialist) as "Germany's natural ally against the devilish temptations and corruption of the West." It was at this time that Goebbels, who had co-authored the draft programme submitted by the Nazi Left at the Hanover Conference of 1926, called for the expulsion of "petty-bourgeois Adolf Hitler from the National Socialist Party." Goebbels's shrewd political instinct and his opportunism were demonstrated by his switch to Hitler's side in 1926, which was rewarded by his appointment in November of the same year as Nazi district leader for Berlin-Brandenburg. Placed at the head of a small, conflict-ridden organization, Goebbels rapidly succeeded in taking control and undermining the supremacy of the Strasser brothers in northern Germany and their monopoly of the Party press, founding in 1927 and editing his own weekly newspaper, Der Angriff (The Attack). He designed posters, published his own propaganda, staged impressive parades, organized his bodyguards to participate in street battles, beer-hall brawls and shooting affrays as a means to further his political agitation.

By 1927 the "Marat of Red Berlin, a nightmare and goblin of history" had already become the most feared demagogue of the capital city, exploiting to the full his deep, powerful voice, rhetorical fervour and unscrupulous appeal to primitive instincts. A tireless, tenacious agitator with the gift of paralysing opponents by a guileful combination of venom, slander and insinuation, Goebbels knew how to mobilize the fears of the unemployed masses as the Great Depression hit Germany, playing on the national psyche with "ice-cold calculation." With the skill of a master propagandist he transformed the Berlin student and pimp, Horst Wessel, into a Nazi martyr, and provided the slogans, the myths and images, the telling aphorisms which rapidly spread the message of National Socialism. Hitler was deeply impressed by Goebbels's success in turning the small Berlin section of the Party into a powerful organization in North Germany and in 1929 appointed him Reich Propaganda Leader of the NSDAP. Looking back many years later (24 June 1942), Hitler observed: "Dr.

Goebbels was gifted with the two things without which the situation in Berlin could not have been mastered: verbal facility and intellect.. . . For Dr. Goebbels, who had not found much in the way of a political organization when he started, had won Berlin in the truest sense of the word." Hitler had indeed cause to be grateful to his Propaganda Leader, who was the true creator and organizer of the Fuhrer myth, of the image of the Messiah-redeemer, feeding the theatrical element in the Nazi leader while at the same time inducing the self-surrender of the German masses through skilful stage management and manipulation. A cynic, devoid of genuine inner convictions, Goebbels found his mission in selling Hitler to the German public, in projecting himself as his most faithful shield-bearer and orchestrating a pseudo-religious cult of the Fuhrer as the saviour of Germany from Jews, profiteers and Marxists. As a Reichstag deputy from 1928, he no less cynically gave open voice to his contempt for the Republic, declaring: "We are entering the Reichstag, in order that we may arm ourselves with the weapons of democracy from its arsenal.

We shall become Reichstag deputies in order that the Weimar ideology should itself help us to destroy it." Goebbels's deeply rooted contempt for humanity, his urge to sow confusion, hatred and intoxication, his lust for power and his mastery of the techniques of mass persuasion were given full vent in the election campaigns of 1932, when he played a crucial role in bringing Hitler to the centre of the political stage. He was rewarded on 13 March 1933 with the position of Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, which gave him total control of the communications media - i.e. radio, press, publishing, cinema and the other arts. He achieved the Nazi 'co-ordination' of cultural life very quickly, astutely combining propaganda, bribery and terrorism, "cleansing" the arts in the name of the volkisch ideal, subjecting editors and journalists to State control, eliminating all Jews and political opponents from positions of influence. On May 10, 1933 he staged the great ritual " burning of the books " in Berlin , where the works of Jewish, Marxist and other "subversive" authors were publicly burned in huge bonfires.

He became a relentless Jew-baiter, demonizing the stereotyped figure of the "International Jewish Financier" in London and Washington allied with the "Jew-Bolsheviks" in Moscow, as the chief enemy of the Third Reich. At the Party Day of Victory in 1933, Goebbels attacked the "Jewish penetration of the professions" (law, medicine, property, theatre, etc.), claiming that the foreign Jewish boycott of Germany had provoked Nazi "counter-measures." Goebbels's hatred of the Jews , like his hatred of the privileged and clever, stemmed from a deep-rooted sense of inferiority and internalization of mob values; at the same time it was also opportunist and tactical, based on the need to create a common enemy, to feed popular resentment and to mobilize the masses. For five years Goebbels chafed at the leash as the Nazi regime sought to consolidate itself and win international recognition.

His opportunity came with the [ Kristallnacht ] Crystal Night pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, which he orchestrated after kindling the flame with a rabble-rousing speech to Party leaders assembled in the Munich Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall) for the annual celebration of the Beer-Hall putsch . Later, Goebbels was one of the chief secret abettors of the " Final Solution ," personally supervising the deportation of Jews from Berlin in 1942 and proposing that Jews along with gypsies should be regarded as "unconditionally exterminable." He combined verbal warnings that, as a result of the war, "the Jews will pay with extermination of their race in Europe and perhaps beyond" with careful avoidance in his propaganda material of discussing the actual treatment of the Jews, i.e., any mention of the extermination camps. Goebbels's anti-Semitism was one factor whichbrought him closer to Hitler, who respected his political judgement as well as his administrative and propagandist skills. His wife Magda and their six children were welcome guests at the Fuhrer's Alpine retreat of Berchtesgaden.

In 1938, when Magda tried to divorce him because of his endless love affairs with beautiful actresses, it was Hitler who intervened to straighten out the situation. During World War II relations between Hitler and Goebbels became more intimate, especially as the war situation deteriorated and the Minister of Propaganda encouraged the German people to ever greater efforts. After the Allies insisted on unconditional surrender, Goebbels turned this to advantage, convincing his audience that there was no choice except victory or destruction. In a famous speech on February 18, 1943 in the Berlin Sportpalast, Goebbels created an atmosphere of wild emotion, winning the agreement of his listeners to mobilization for total war. Playing adroitly on German fears of the "Asiatic hordes," using his all-pervasive control of press, film and radio to maintain morale, inventing mythical "secret weapons" and impregnable fortresses in the mountains where the last stand would be made, Goebbels never lost his nerve or his fighting spirit.

It was his quick thinking and decisive action on the afternoon of July 20, 1944 , when he isolated the conspirators in the War Ministry with the help of detachments of loyal troops, which saved the Nazi regime. Shortly afterwards he achieved his ambition to be warlord on the domestic front, following his appointment in July 1944 as General Plenipotentiary for Total War. Given the widest powers to move and direct the civilian population and even to redistribute manpower within the armed forces, Goebbels imposed an austerity programme and pressed for ever greater civilian sacrifice. But with Germany already close to collapse, it was too late to accomplish anything beyond further dislocations and confusion. As the war neared its end, Goebbels, the supreme opportunist, emerged as the Fuhrer's most loyal follower, spending his last days together with his family, in the Fuhrerbunker under the Chancellery.

Convinced that the Nazis had finally burnt all their bridges and increasingly fascinated by the prospect of a final apocalypse, Goebbels's last words on dismissing his associates were: "When we depart, let the earth tremble!" Following the Fuhrer's suicide, Goebbels disregarded Hitler's political testament , which had appointed him as Reich Chancellor, and decided to follow suit. He had his six children poisoned with a lethal injection by an SS doctor and then himself and his wife Magda shot by an SS orderly on May 1, 1945. With characteristic pathos and egomania he declared not long before his death: "We shall go down in history as the greatest statesmen of all time, or as the greatest criminals." Farewell, Mein Führer: The German mass suicide wave of 1945. – Posted on April 28, 2015 by Sean Munger in History , Spotlight // 10 Comments This week marks the 70th anniversary of a string of events that occurred at the end of World War II in Europe, most of them associated with the Battle of Berlin and the end of the Nazi regime.

Most people know that Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker ( which is itself the focus of some interesting history ) on April 30, 1945 as Soviet troops were closing in on the last pitiful remnants of the dying Nazi state. Many people have also heard of the other suicides of top Nazis that occurred in the Führerbunker at about the same time, including Eva Braun Hitler, Adolf’s long-time mistress whom he finally married just that day, plus the odious Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda, who horribly murdered their six children to boot. But these high-profile suicides were only the tip of the iceberg. In reality they were only a small part of several successive waves of politically-motivated suicides that rippled through Germany in the closing days of World War II, a suicide plague which claimed at least 7,000 lives and probably many more. It’s a grim subject, but one worth thinking about. Suicide is definitely a touchy topic. Most of us reflexively think of suicide as a deeply individual act, usually motivated by intensely personal factors that often even a victim’s closest loved ones and friends can’t understand or may not even be aware of.

This is certainly true of my own experience; the suicide of my best friend, which occurred in 2000 , came as a complete surprise and left many unanswered questions. America’s and the world’s reaction last year to the suicide of comedian Robin Williams, or the long-simmering culture trauma following Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994 , certainly fit the traditional pattern of thinking about suicide. It’s very odd to us, then, to think of suicide as not necessarily personal, but collective, behaving very much as a communicable disease. It’s also difficult to imagine suicide being motivated by political factors rather than personal ones like depression, relationship problems or financial issues. Thus, the suicide wave in Germany in 1945 upends our usual assumptions about why people kill themselves. The former Nazi mayor of Leipzig, Germany committed suicide with his wife in April 1945. Allied troops found their bodies in this office. The first wave of suicides began in January 1945, shortly after the beginning of what was to be the Soviet Red Army’s final offensive on the Eastern Front.

The German military machine had mostly burned itself out in the surprise attack against American and British forces in the West in December (the Battle of the Bulge), and ordinary Germans as well as those in the Nazi government began to realize the war was pretty much lost. “Battlefield suicides” of Wehrmacht (German Army) military leaders, like Joachim Rumohr, happened with increasing frequency as Germany suffered more and more defeats–usually among officers who killed themselves to avoid capture–but the suicide wave was marked by the deaths of ordinary people too. After flagging a bit in the winter, the second wave of suicides ramped up as the Soviets approached Berlin. On March 28, 1945, Albrecht von Blumenthal, a noted scholar of classical literature and fierce patriot, entered a suicide pact with his wife; they both shot themselves. A few days later Karl Astel, head of the University of Jena and a researcher in the Nazi eugenics program, blew himself away in a hospital ward. Austrian poet Joseph Weinheber, despondent over the advances of the Red Army, deliberately OD’d on morphine on April 8.

Three days later a Luftwaffe general and the Nazi official in charge of plundering the Eastern provinces did themselves in too. By now hundreds of Germans were offing themselves. The second wave of suicides included the high-profile political leaders, like Hitler, Eva Braun and Goebbels, and continued on through the final defeat of the Nazi regime in late April and throughout May. Besides the Führerbunker crowd, others who killed themselves included general Georg Scholze (shot himself), Hitler’s secretary Martin Bormann (poison), provincial politician Jakob Springer (who took his wife with him), administrator Fritz Bracht (poison, also with his wife), former Nazi ruler of Norway Josef Terboven (blew himself up), and many, many more. Several thousand people killed themselves in Berlin alone; a number I’ve seen is 7,000, but in the chaos of the fall of the city to the Russians this number is probably too low. A third and much slower wave of suicides followed the Allied victory, and consisted of many former Nazi officials who were now in Allied captivity.

The most famous of these was Hermann Goering, who chomped a suicide capsule on October 15, 1946, the night before he was supposed to be executed at Nuremberg for war crimes. Why did they do it? The reasons, I think, are complex and multivaried. Obviously high-ranking Nazis and military commanders feared being captured by the Allies and prosecuted for their crimes. Hitler himself is believed to have taken his own life to avoid the humiliation of capture by the Soviets. But what about all the ordinary people who presumably were of little issue to the monstrous Nazi plans? Presumably some of it can be chalked up to Nazi propaganda that tried to scare the German people into ferocious, fight-to-the-death resistance by exaggerating what the Allies would do to them if Germany lost. But that can’t be all of it. Unlike in Japan–where many people also killed themselves at the end of the war–suicide is not embedded in German culture as a potential response to shame or dishonor. Yet thousands of people felt that life was no longer worth living if it wasn’t under a Nazi order.

Perhaps the expected hardships and privations of defeat, coupled with family and personal losses during the war, drove many people over the edge. But it’s hard to escape the conclusion that many suicides were primarily political, or at least more political than personal. This German soldier elected to die rather than try to live in a non-Nazi Germany. Note the face of the Hitler portrait has been gouged out. Personally, I wonder if there’s something inherent in extreme right-wing ideology that has something to do with it. Right-wing ideologies tend to be both messianic (“we alone are the saviors of the nation”) and exclusionary (“and those people are our enemies”). Both of these messages are heavily underscored, for example, in Hitler’s Mein Kampf . A messianic and exclusionary belief system generally makes compromise impossible, and the impossibility of compromise makes unacceptable the idea of living under any other system. People in the Nazi era were encouraged to meld their own personal self-esteem with the well-being of the German nation, which was one of the keys to Hitler’s hold on power. The flip side, of course, is that if the nation suffers, a true believer’s self-esteem is also crushed.

I’m no psychologist, but my guess is that may help explain what happened. To those of us who live in political systems where compromise is part of the game (i.e., democracies), the idea of suicide for political reasons seems difficult to understand. For instance, in the United States, even as heartbreaking as it was to conservatives when Barack Obama was reelected in 2012, I’m not aware of a single instance in which even the most devoted conservative committed suicide over it. But then again, our system is based on the inherent idea that you don’t get to call the shots all the time . Hitler and the Nazis were fond of describing themselves as the permanent and monolithic will of Germany–the “thousand-year Reich.” To a fanatical Nazi, the idea of Nazis not being in charge was unthinkable. Even death was preferable to it. Thus, there is something about the German suicide wave of 1945 that seems more like murder than suicide. In the case of those who ended their lives, the real cause of death may have been the hateful, destructive ideology that somehow took hold in their minds, and destroyed their lives.

The header image was created by me from public domain images, but I worked so hard on it that I think, with all modesty, I deserve some credit. Thus I release it under Creative Commons 2.0 (Attribution) license. The other images in this article are in the public domain.

Question: Who was the head of Nazi propaganda during World War II who committed suicide with his family in 1945?
Answer: Paul Joseph Goebbels