Joseph Goebbels - Propaganda Principles JOSEPH GOEBBELS 1897 -1945 German Nazi Party member Joseph Goebbels became Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister in 1933, which gave him power over all German radio, press, cinema, and theater. In 1925 Goebbels met the party leader Adolf Hitler. In 1926 he was made Gauleiter, or party leader, for the region of Berlin, and in 1927 he founded and became editor of the official National Socialist periodical Der Angriff (The Attack). He was elected to the Reichstag, the German parliament, in 1928. By exploiting mob emotions and by employing all modern methods of propaganda Goebbels helped Hitler into power. His work as a propagandist materially aided Hitler's rise to power in 1933. When Hitler seized power in 1933, Goebbels was appointed Reichsminister for propaganda and national enlightenment.

From then until his death, Goebbels used all media of education and communications to further Nazi propagandistic aims, instilling in the Germans the concept of their leader as a veritable god and of their destiny as the rulers of the world. In 1938 he became a member of the Hitler cabinet council. Late in World War II, in 1944, Hitler placed him in charge of total mobilization. As Reichsminister for Propaganda and National Enlightenment, Goebbels was given complete control over radio, press, cinema, and theater; later he also regimented all German culture. Goebbels placed his undeniable intelligence and his brilliant insight into mass psychology entirely at the service of his party. His most virulent propaganda was against the Jews. As a hypnotic orator he was second only to Hitler, and in his staging of mass meetings and parades he was unsurpassed. Utterly cynical, he seems to have believed only in the self-justification of power. He remained loyal to Hitler until the end. On May 1, 1945, as Soviet troops were storming Berlin, Goebbels committed suicide.

Listed below are the principles purported to summarize what made Goebbels tick or fail to tick. They may be thought of as his intellectual legacy. Whether the legacy has been reliably deduced is a methodological question. Whether it is valid is a psychological matter. Whether or when parts of it should be utilized in a democratic society are profound and disturbing problems of a political and ethical nature. GOEBBELS' PRINCIPLES OF PROPAGANDA Based upon Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda by Leonard W. Doob, published in Public Opinion and Propaganda; A Book of Readings edited for The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. 1. Propagandist must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion. 2. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority. a. It must issue all the propaganda directives. b. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale. c. It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences 3. The propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action. 4. Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and action. a. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence b.

By openly disseminating propaganda whose content or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions c. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself d. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity 5. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign 6. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting communications medium. 7. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false. 8. The purpose, content and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted. 9. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored. 10. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective. 11. Black rather than white propaganda may be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects. 12. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige. 13. Propaganda must be carefully timed. a.

The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda. b. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment c. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness 14. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans. a. They must evoke desired responses which the audience previously possesses b. They must be capable of being easily learned c. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations d. They must be boomerang-proof 15. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events. 16. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level. a. Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat b. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and which cannot be reduced by people themselves 17. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration. a. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated b. Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective 18. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred. 19.

Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both. 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 Joseph Goebbels Hitler's Minister of Propaganda - YouTube Joseph Goebbels Hitler's Minister of Propaganda Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

Uploaded on Jan 17, 2007 TO BUY THE DVD of the Goebbels Experiment go here: IN THIS SCENE: Goebbels discusses how Hitler's power of personality is efficiently distributed through his propoaganda machine, creating fear in their opponents. "Arguably the most gifted of Hitler's henchmen, Joseph Goebbels was an enigmatic genius whose successful manipulation of mass political opinion was unprecedented. His rise to power, and that of the Nazi Party itself, will forever stand as one of history's most terrifying examples of the reach of propaganda, a tool with which Goebbels's name is virtually synonymous. In their fascinating documentary, the filmmakers provide a rare and chilling glimpse into a brilliant but toxic mind. Rejecting commentary, they allow Goebbels to speak for himself (in the voice of Kenneth Branagh), via the extensive diaries that he kept from 1924 to 1945." -- Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times Category Joseph Goebbels: 1933-1945 “The Jews are Guilty” : An attack on the Jews (16 November 1941).

“The Clay Giant” : Why England will lose the war (23 November 1941). “Roosevelt Cross-examined” : Goebbels on FDR (30 November 1941). “A Different World” : The war after Pearl Harbor (21 December 1941). “ What is Sacrifice ”: Encouraging the home front during a hard winter (28 December 1941). “The New Year” : On the outlook for 1942 (4 January 1942). “The Good Companion” : On German radio policy (1 March 1942). “Churchill’s Trick” : Goebbels is happy with Winston Churchill (1 March 1942). “ A Word to All ”: Encouraging courtesy (8 March 1942). “An Open Discussion” : Why food rations are being cut (29 March 1942). “The Paper War” : On bureaucracy and complaining during war (12 April 1942). “Heroes and Film Heroes” : Germans are better heroes than Americans (7 June 1942).

Propaganda in Nazi Germany - History Learning Site Home » Nazi Germany » Propaganda in Nazi Germany Propaganda in Nazi Germany Citation: C N Trueman "Propaganda in Nazi Germany" historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 9 Mar 2015. 16 Aug 2016. Propaganda within Nazi Germany was taken to a new and frequently perverse level. Hitler was very aware of the value of good propaganda and he appointed Joseph Goebbels as head of propaganda. Propaganda is the art of persuasion – persuading others that your ‘side of the story’ is correct. Propaganda might take the form of persuading others that your military might is too great to be challenged; that your political might within a nation is too great or popular to challenge etc. In Nazi Germany , Dr Joseph Goebbels was in charge of propaganda. Goebbels official title was Minister of Propaganda and National Enlightenment. As Minister of Enlightenment, Goebbels had two main tasks: to ensure nobody in Germany could read or see anything that was hostile or damaging to the Nazi Party. to ensure that the views of the Nazis were put across in the most persuasive manner possible.

To ensure success, Goebbels had to work with the SS and Gestapo and Albert Speer. The former hunted out those who might produce articles defamatory to the Nazis and Hitler while Speer helped Goebbels with public displays of propaganda. To ensure that everybody thought in the correct manner, Goebbels set up the Reich Chamber of Commerce in 1933. This organisation dealt with literature, art, music, radio, film, newspapers etc. To produce anything that was in these groups, you had to be a member of the Reich Chamber. The Nazi Party decided if you had the right credentials to be a member. Any person who was not admitted was not allowed to have any work published or performed. Disobedience brought with it severe punishments. As a result of this policy, Nazi Germany introduced a system of censorship. You could only read, see and hear what the Nazis wanted you to read, see and hear. In this way, if you believed what you were told, the Nazi leaders logically assumed that opposition to their rule would be very small and practiced only by those on the very extreme who would be easy to catch. Hitler came to power in January 1933.

By May 1933, the Nazi Party felt sufficiently strong to publicly demonstrate where their beliefs were going when Goebbels organised the first of the infamous book burning episodes. Books that did not match the Nazi ideal was burnt in public – loyal Nazis ransacked libraries to remove the ‘offending’ books. “Where one burns books, one eventually burns people” commented the author Brecht. The same approach was used in films. The Nazis controlled film production. Films released to the public concentrated on certain issues : the Jews ; the greatness of Hitler; the way of life for a true Nazi especially children , and as World War Two approached, how badly Germans who lived in countries in Eastern Europe were treated. Leni Riefenstahl was given a free hand in producing Nazi propaganda films. A young film producer, she had impressed Hitler with her ability. It was Riefenstahl who made “Triumph of Will” – considered one of the greatest of propaganda films despite its contents. What was seen in the cinemas was controlled. “Hitlerjunge Quex” was made in 1933.

This film told the story of a boy brought up in a communist family in Germany who broke away from this background, joined the Hitler Youth and was murdered by the Communists in Germany for doing so. “The Eternal Jew” was a film that vilified the Jews – comparing the Jews in Europe to a hoard of rats, spreading disease etc. “Tarzan” films were banned because the Nazis frowned on so little clothing being worn especially by women. One film that celebrated the might of the German Navy was not screened as it showed a drunken German sailor. However, the cinemas were not full of serious films with a political message. Goebbels ordered that many comedies should be made to give Germany a ‘lighter’ look. The ensure that everybody could hear Hitler speak, Goebbels organised the sale of cheap radios. these were called the “People’s Receiver” and they cost only 76 marks. A smaller version cost just 35 marks. Goebbels believed that if Hitler was to give speeches, the people should be able to hear him. Loud speakers were put up in streets so that people could not avoid any speeches by the Fuhrer. Cafes and other such properties were ordered to play in public speeches by Hitler.

Goebbels and his skill at masterminding propaganda is best remembered for his night time displays at Nuremberg. Here, he and Speer, organised rallies that were designed to show to the world the might of the Nazi nation. In August of each year, huge rallies were held at Nuremberg. Arenas to hold 400,000 people were built. In the famous night time displays, 150 search lights surrounded the main arena and were lit up vertically into the night sky. Their light could be seen over 100 kilometres away in what a British politician, Sir Neville Henderson, called a “cathedral of light”. Part of the Nuremberg Stadium’s “Cathedral of Light” Why was so much effort put into propaganda? At no time up to 1933, did the Nazi Party win a majority of votes at elections. They may have been the largest political party in 1933, but they did not have a majority of support among the people. Therefore, those who had supported the Nazis needed to be informed on how correct their choice was with an emphasis on the strength of the party and the leadership.

Those who opposed the Nazi Party had to be convinced that it was pointless continuing with their opposition. The fact that Goebbels had so much power is indicative of how important Hitler thought it was to ensure that the people were won over or intimidated into accepting Nazi rule. “The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.” Goebbels “The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.” Goebbels “Propaganda is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.

If the means achieves the end then the means is good………the new Ministry has no other aim than to unite the nation behind the ideal of the national revolution.” Goebbels Step-Grandchildren Of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister, Are Billionaires: Report | The Huffington Post Step-Grandchildren Of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister, Are Billionaires: Report 01/28/2013 02:45 pm ET | Updated Jan 28, 2013 2.6k Bonnie Kavoussi Economics writer Keystone / Hulton Archive / Getty Images Four step-grandchildren of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels are worth $1.2 billion each, according to an investigation by Bloomberg. That's largely thanks to an inheritance from their biological grandfather, Guenther Quandt. Harald Quandt, Goebbels' step-son , and his half-brother Herbert inherited and rebuilt their father's industrial conglomerate, which produced guns and missiles for Nazi Germany's war effort, Bloomberg reports.

One of the most lucrative parts of the conglomerate turned into a stake in BMW, and Herbert's widow and two children now own nearly half of the company. Goebbels played a key role in implementing Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's agenda. Goebbels authorized violence against Jews , banned Jews from making cultural contributions, regulated the news media and led the creation of Nazi propaganda films . Goebbels killed himself, his wife, and his six biological children the day after Hitler committed suicide in 1945. The profits that companies made in Nazi Germany remain controversial. Some descendants of Holocaust victims have sued European banks for allegedly hoarding their relatives' money during and after the Holocaust. And Deutsche Bank allegedly bought gold stolen from Jewish Holocaust victims and helped finance the construction of the Auschwitz concentration camp , according to research cited by the New York Times. Check out the Goebbels family photo below: Earlier on HuffPost: Propaganda - Goebbels' Principles Propaganda - Goebbels' Principles Joseph Goebbels Dr. Joseph Goebbels, beside being an intriguing character, was the Propaganda Minister for Hitler's Third Reich. He was recognized as a master of propaganda as his work was studied after WWII.

Goebbels did not survive to enjoy the recognition; he and his wife committed suicide on 1 May 1945, a week before the final collapse of the Third Reich. After the war, US personnel discovered a very large diary dictated by Goebbels. In it are his principles of propaganda. Leonard Doob's 1950 article details them from a translation of the diary by Louis Lochner (1948). Hitler's Basic Principles These principles are abstracted from Jowett & O'Donnell. Avoid abstract ideas - appeal to the emotions. Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases. Give only one side of the argument. Continuously criticize your opponents. Pick out one special "enemy" for special vilification. Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda When reading these propaganda principles, keep in mind that they were applied in wartime (WWII) and involve issues that don't arise otherwise. It's a long list, but Goebbels was dealing with the complexity of an all-out war. While reading them you may realize that some of the principles are generally applicable and not limited to wartime. Some might be quite familiar today.

It is interesting to note that Goebbels' principles derive from Hitler's own ideas of propaganda. Propagandists must have access to intelligence concerning events and public opinion. Propaganda must be planned and executed by only one authority. It must issue all the propaganda directives. It must explain propaganda directives to important officials and maintain their morale. It must oversee other agencies' activities which have propaganda consequences. The Propaganda consequences of an action must be considered in planning that action. Propaganda must affect the enemy's policy and actions. By suppressing propagandistically desirable material which can provide the enemy with useful intelligence. By openly disseminating propaganda whose contents or tone causes the enemy to draw the desired conclusions. By goading the enemy into revealing vital information about himself. By making no reference to a desired enemy activity when any reference would discredit that activity. Declassified, operational information must be available to implement a propaganda campaign. To be perceived, propaganda must evoke the interest of an audience and must be transmitted through an attention-getting medium. Credibility alone must determine whether propaganda output should be true or false.

The purpose, content, and effectiveness of enemy propaganda; the strength and effects of an expose'; and the nature of current propaganda campaigns determine whether enemy propaganda should be ignored or refuted. Credibility, intelligence, and the possible effects of communicating determine whether propaganda materials should be censored. Material from enemy propaganda may be utilized in operations when it helps diminish that enemy's prestige or lends support to the propagandist's own objective. Black rather than white propaganda must be employed when the latter is less credible or produces undesirable effects. Propaganda may be facilitated by leaders with prestige. Propaganda must be carefully timed. The communication must reach the audience ahead of competing propaganda. A propaganda campaign must begin at the optimum moment. A propaganda theme must be repeated, but not beyond some point of diminishing effectiveness. Propaganda must label events and people with distinctive phrases or slogans. They must evoke responses which the audience previously possesses. They must be capable of being easily learned. They must be utilized again and again, but only in appropriate situations. They must be boomerang-proof. Propaganda to the home front must prevent the raising of false hopes which can be blasted by future events. Propaganda to the home front must create an optimum anxiety level.

Propaganda must reinforce anxiety concerning the consequences of defeat. Propaganda must diminish anxiety (other than that concerning the consequences of defeat) which is too high and cannot be reduced by people themselves. Propaganda to the home front must diminish the impact of frustration. Inevitable frustrations must be anticipated. Inevitable frustrations must be placed in perspective. Propaganda must facilitate the displacement of aggression by specifying the targets for hatred. Propaganda cannot immediately affect strong counter-tendencies; instead it must offer some form of action or diversion, or both. These would be principles guiding the conduct of propaganda operations. References Goebbels' Principles of Propaganda, Leonard W. Doob, Public Opinion Quarterly, Fall 1950 pp. 419-442 Propagation and Persuasion; Jowett & O'Donnell Goebbels' secretary, 100, breaks her silence about the cold and distant monster who made Germans hate Jews | Daily Mail Online comments The former secretary of Hitler's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels has broken a 66-year vow of silence to talk about her service for the man who made Germans hate the Jews.

Since the end of World War II, Brunhilde Pomsel, now 100, has refused all requests for interviews and offers to publish her memoirs. But after five months of negotiations she has given a single interview to Bild, Germany's biggest newspaper, in which she describes her four years as the chief secretary of the man closest to Hitler. Hitler's master propagandist Joseph Goebbels rabble-rousing a crowd. His secretary Brunhilde Pomsel, who has given her first interview, was employed by Goebbels from 1942 until the end of the war in May 1945 Frau Pomsel describes how Goebbels' children - the children he and his wife Magda would murder with cyanide in Hitler's bunker in April 1945 - used to play with her typewriter on Sunday afternoons. She reminisces about eating goose with the Reich's propaganda minister at his island home outside of Berlin and of receiving dresses from Magda because Allied bombs destroyed her own home and everything in it.

RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share She took down every word that Goebbels uttered, both his private correspondence and his official orders, including those ordering round-ups of Jews in Berlin to please Hitler that the capital was becoming 'Jew-free'. Frau Pomsel was employed by Goebbels from 1942 until the end of the war in May 1945. But while his propaganda presented himself to the German people as a jovial fellow Nazi, she remembers him as a cold and distant monster. 'You couldn't get close to him,' said Frau Pomsel. 'He never once asked me a personal question. Right up until the end I don't think he knew my name. 'He got away lightly with suicide. He knew he would be condemned to death by the Allies. His suicide was cowardly, but he was also smart because he knew what was coming if he didn't take that way out. Joseph Goebbels, his wife Magda and three of their children with Adolf Hitler in the Bavarian Alps. The children would all be murdered by Magda in Hitler's bunker in the final days of the war.

She and Joseph then committed suicide 'I was working as a typist at the propaganda ministry, and his radio station, and was the fastest. It was an order to be transferred to work for him. You couldn't refuse. 'I didn't know about the Holocaust. I was a stupid, politically uninterested little sausage of simple means. I only learned about the Jewish extermination programme after the war. Goebbels never mentioned it in his correspondence. 'I joined the party in 1933 - why not? Everyone did. I worked with three other secretaries in a wonderful library in a palace on the Wilhelmplatz in Berlin. 'A lot of the stuff I did was somewhat boring. But I gradually became his chief stenographer, recording everything that gushed out from him and from his chief aides. 'I wanted to live up to this ideal that if a boss trusted me, then I mustn't disappoint him.' Frau Pomsel recalls how Goebbels ordered her and three junior secretaries on February 18, 1943, into the Sportspalast Stadium in Berlin. It was shortly after the defeat of the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad, the turning point of the war from which there was no way back.

The Berlin Sportspalast filled to capacity for Goebbels' 'Total War' speech on February 18, 1943. It was given shortly after the defeat of Germany's Sixth Army in Stalingrad, a turning point in the war On this day Goebbels delivered his infamous 'Total War' speech to the German public, exhorting them to heights of frenzied sacrifice as he warned of a wave of vengeful, barbaric Russians bearing down on the Fatherland. She recalled: 'This was a service order, we had to attend. Magda Goebbels sat directly behind me as he raged. 'The photos show the crowd going wild as he asked them if they wanted total war and springing to their feet to give the Hitler salute. I wasn't as jubiliant as them. I knew what was coming...' As chief secretary, Frau Pomsel had access to top-secret papers which showed how badly the war was in fact going for Germany. She spent the last 10 days of the Third Reich in the cellars of the propaganda ministry. Russian artillery and American bombers flattened the city by day, RAF aircraft by night.

In this troglodyte world she pumped out the orders from Goebbels exhorting more and more resistance to a people crushed under the weight of the lost war. 'On May 1 the news came that The Boss - Hitler - had committed suicide the day before. The Russians came shortly afterwards and dragged me from the cellar. I spent the next five years as a prisoner of the Russians in special camps,' said Frau Pomsel. It was only after the war that she learned Goebbels and his wife killed their six young children by breaking cyanide vials in their mouths. Goebbels then shot his wife before shooting himself. Aides poured petrol on the corpses but the remains were only partially burned and found by the Red Army. 'I will never forgive Goebbels for what he brought into this world,' said Frau Pomsel. 'And the fact that he could murder his innocent children in this way. 'I never believed also that I would have a happy life after working for him. But I found a way somehow.' Dr. Goebbels and his Ministry ﻿ Background: Hans Fritzsche, the author of this essay, was a leading Nazi radio broadcaster.

Here he praises Goebbels and outlines the nature of the newly-founded Reich Ministry for People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda. He makes the interesting argument that Goebbels is promoting a higher form of artistic freedom in attempting to guide art from his position as propaganda minister. The picture of Goebbels is taken from the book. The picture of the Propaganda Ministry comes from a 1937 postcard. The source: Hans Fritzsche, “Dr. Goebbels und sein Ministerium,” in Hans Heinz Mantau-Sadlia, Deutsche Führer Deutsches Schicksal. Das Buch der Künder und Führer des dritten Reiches (Munich: Verlag Max Steinebach, 1934), pp. 330-342. Dr. Goebbels and his Ministry by Hans Fritzsche It takes only five minutes to walk from Postdamer Straße 109 in Berlin to the Wilhelmplatz. Five minutes from the more than modest first business office of the newly-named National Socialist Gauleiter of Berlin, Dr.

Joseph Goebbels, to the Leopold Palace, the current headquarters of the Reich Ministry for Publc Enlightenment and Propaganda. It took Dr. Joseph Goebbels six and one half years to cover the distance. It led him through the middle of the Red hell of Berlin. Dr. Goebbels came to Berlin in 1926 on Adolf Hitler’s orders to reorganize the Berlin party, which was at the edge of collapse. He came alone. He came as a fighter who had proved himself against the French, separatists and Communists in three years in the Rhine and Ruhr areas. He came without support; he had to build his own support. The Red flag flew over Berlin, and it seemed absurd to believe that the Red domination of the city could even be threatened. A few years later the Red lords of Berlin had to build their courage against Adolf Hitler’s ambassador, who had come alone, with the slogan “Berlin remains Red!” It was too late by then, for the Gauleiter of the National Socialist German Workers Party, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, had already conquered Red Berlin. The NSDAP won twelve seats in the Reichstag in the May, 1928 election. Dr.

Goebbels was one of the twelve. Adolf Hitler named him the National Propaganda Leader of the NSDAP. Two and a half years later, on 14 September 1930, the National Socialists came to the Reichstag with 107 men. And on 30 January 1933, after the unique evening mass meeting of hundreds of thousands, Dr. Goebbels could with pleasure tell the newly-named Reich Chancellor that the Berlin movement had organized the event. When Reich President von Hindenburg appointed the National Propaganda Leader of the NSDAP the Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, this man who already had behind him the battles in the Rhineland and Berlin as well as enormous accomplishments in the party leadership, was the youngest minister: only 36! * It is but five minutes from the dark and smoky business office of 1926, which had the mocking name opium den, to the Leopold Palace. The road took Dr. Joseph Goebbels through a sea of poison and hate and lies.

Each old follower of Adolf Hitler, each old National Socialist, had to withstand battles that no young party member will have to endure, no matter how long he lives. But no one had to face as much hate as Dr. Goebbels. It was almost open season on Dr. Goebbels during the six-and-a-half year battle for Berlin. At first he was called the “Chief Crook of Berlin” by the Communists  a title he accepted without embarrassment and made a title of honor. Soon the middle class newspapers and speakers declared open season on him too. He is a man of sharp phrases and pitiless language. The danger he represented had long been recognized. The entire artillery of the political battle, for which any means is justified, was turned on him. It also seemed easy to fight a man who was under the constant fire of the state prosecutors of the day. There seemed no risk in dumping piles of filth on the editor of a newspaper that held the record for the number of times it was banned. No German newspaper was in fact banned as often as Berlin’s Der Angriff.

The results of the unprecedentedly bitter battle the organs of the Weimar state and the parties were different than they had expected: He hardened his weapons in the fire of this battle, and the masses his enemies attempted to mobilize against him instead joined him. It is not surprising that those who feared the oncoming National Socialism attacked with poison and gall. It is surprising that this man, mocked, ridiculed, and insulted as no one else, did not fall into deep despair and spiritual misery after those years of struggle. What most surprised his opponents is his disarming honesty. One accused him with contempt of being a propagandist, of being dishonest. The charge was loaded with the contempt and accusations of dishonesty that had been earned by years of bad propaganda. What did Dr. Goebbels do? He said: “Propaganda? Certainly! Good propaganda for a good cause!” We make propaganda not in the pay of men in the background, but rather we make propaganda for our own honest convictions.

We advertise for our own ideal, and therefore we fight using all good means to make good propaganda to win the soul of our people.” Eugen Hadamovsky, the Reichssendeleiter of German radio, put it this way: “Under the brilliant leadership of Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the master of political propaganda, the neglected weapon of German politics became a creative art.” The feared sharpness of Dr. Goebbels’s language was a result of his honesty. At a time when the word “lie,“Or even the direct term “liar” were thought unrefined and unusable in the columns of the German press, although they carried lies in their columns, Dr. Goebbels did not hesitate to call one who lied a liar. When it is necessary to call things by their proper name, when it is necessary to expose persons, then things are called by their name and people are presented in such a way that even a dog will no longer take a bone from them. The journalist and speaker Dr. Goebbels did not change his impolite methods, even when he faced a certain ban or a certain legal process.

His honesty and determined stubbornness use a language and manner of expression that display crystal clear clarity and irresistible logic. His clarity of thought won him the respect of international journalists in Geneva in 1933, certainly the toughest, most hard-boiled audience. It is impressive that, after Minister Dr. Goebbels’s speech in Geneva, the correspondent of the Paris Journal wrote: “Dr. Goebbels combines German mysticism with Latin logic.” In everything there is a good portion of humor. Dr. Goebbels drew from humor the sharpness of irony, once the scourge of Red Berlin. And satire, too, came from humor, which drove many an opponent to lose his head. A flood of clever ideas came from his humor. Remember, for example, Dr. Goebbels’ humorous success with Brüning! Dr. Goebbels had challenged the then Reich Chancellor over and over again to a debate. Brüning preferred to speak in carefully prepared meetings. Dr. Goebbels had a recording of the Brüning’s radio speech in Königsberg, and took it to the Berlin Sport Palace to debate an opponent who was unwilling to appear in any other way.

Those are the weapons that served the faithful National Socialism of Dr. Joseph Goebbels in the battle for Berlin and the battle for Germany. Armed with these weapons, he succeeded everywhere he attacked. If one asked a journalist, regardless of the camp in which he stood, who was the best German journalist, one would get the answer, however reluctant: Dr. Goebbels. In an era when hundreds of German newspapers had given upon the familiar old institution of the lead article, since its old platitudes no longer found readers, Dr. Goebbels wrote his lead articles  and they were read. He wrote in a language that captivated the reader, who otherwise looked only for sensation. If one asked for the name of a great speaker in the Reichstag, honest people answered that no one since Friedrich Naumann so held the attention of the Reichstag as Dr. Joseph Goebbels. That is what is unique about him: Dr. Goebbels says what he has to say in the way that it must be said to those to whom he is speaking.

Hundreds, even thousands of politicians travel about giving the only speech than can give, using the only language that they know how to use  regardless of whether they stand in the Reichstag or before a mass meeting or in a political salon. Dr. Goebbels speaks every language. He is at home in the north of Berlin as he is in the west of Berlin. He can be understood by the average man and the educated. He speaks to the people in mass meetings, to the representatives in the Reichstag. Once, long before the beginning of the church’s renewal at the time when the ecclesia militans was just beginning to awake, I heard him speak to a small circle of Catholic and Protestant clergy who were concerned with the political persecution they were encountering in ministering to S.A. and Stahlhelm units. Dr. Goebbels, the “noisy agitator,” spoke to these clergy of both confessions with a quietness and depth that gave these pastors new strength to endure all the consequences of holding services for the Brown Shirts and Stahlhelm men. They were again determined to stand in the pulpit and speak openly to the needs of the day.

This man, uniquely successful as the propaganda chief of Hitler’s party, is now the propaganda minister of Reich Chancellor Hitler. The official building he took over, the old Leopold Palace, had long been the seat of the Press Office of the Reich government. It was dark and musty. Dark carpets and curtains carried the dust of years. Only the Garden Room was cheerful and bright. But for years the representatives of the German press had heard there only the peculiar wishes of changing Reich governments; it was not a place with pleasant memories. After Dr. Goebbels had been in office for a few days, the dusty old hangings had been removed from the majority of the rooms, and simple, but friendly furniture filled bright rooms. When Dr. Goebbels spoke for the first time to representatives of the German press in the Garden Room of the Leopold Palace, no one failed to see that the evil spirit of a press hostile to the people had been forever driven out. “There are two ways to make a revolution,” the newly-named Reich Minister said. “One can fire at the opponent with machine guns until he recognizes the superiority of those who have the machine guns. That is the simplest way.

One can also transform a nation through a revolution of the spirit, not destroying the opponent, but winning him over. We National Socialists have gone the second way, and will continue on it. Our first task in this ministry will be to win the whole people for the new state. We want to replace liberal thinking with a sense of community that includes the whole people.” Most memorable, however, was a style of speaking never before been heard in this room: “Our revolution will never stop.” Thus Dr. Goebbels began his task of being the constant intermediary between the National Socialist Reich government that sprang from the people, and the people. At every moment and in each individual measure, the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda should maintain the living relationship between government and people. “We have not become a minister to be above the people, but rather we are now more than ever the servant of the people.” The Propaganda Ministry is not bureaucratic administrative apparatus, but rather an spiritual center of power that stays in constant touch with the whole people on political, spiritual, cultural, and economic matters. It is the mouth and ear of the Reich government. * Dr.

Goebbels laid his hand on all the powers that once made common front against him and against the idea of Adolf Hitler that he represented. On radio, the press, literature, theater, film. On the whole enormous apparatus of propaganda that once in the Reich capital used the whole of its enormous power to make the unknown but dangerous Dr. Goebbels from the Rhineland into a dreamer and crackpot, the subject of public scorn. The same enormous apparatus that some others, using enormous millions had attempted to influence without having any real success; for decades only one had dominated it, the Jewish intellect. This multifaceted apparatus of modern propaganda, which Dr. Goebbels had faced without the weapon of money, only with the strength of the idea even though the struggle seemed foolish, fell into the hands of the people that Dr. Goebbels, as a colleague of the Führer, had mobilized against this citadel of Jewish power. Now he can begin the reconstruction of German spiritual life after the foreign elements have been eliminated.

Even during the very first beginnings of the work on building the ministry, the new Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda could give the first evidence of what it was capable of: The organization of the first Day of National Labor, 1 May 1933. Although its success was surpassed by 1 May 1934, Dr. Goebbels showed then for the first time that once the path was made clear for National Socialism, not hundreds of thousands, but rather millions could gather at a single place when it called. Relatively little had to be changed in 1934 on the Day of Labor after the example of 1 May 1933. Organizationally, it had been done right the first time. The tradition had been created, and after a year one could assume that the content German national holiday needed only to be deepened. The waves of the first May mass meeting rolled over the many unions and parties. 1 May awoke old May customs in all the German Gaue had gave renewed life to the almost decayed German cultural treasure. Department II, Propaganda (under Ministerialrat Haegert) in the Propaganda Ministry has the task of carrying out such mass meetings.

One might call this department the general staff of practical propaganda. But that is only part of the broad domain of Department II. To name only a few areas, it includes positive propaganda for the worldview, the structure of governmental life, youth and sports questions, economic advertising of every form, agricultural advertising, propaganda in the area of transportation and education in matters of public health. Department III, Radio (Ministerialrat Dreßler-Andreß) unites the whole of the German radio system. The radio, once a collection of private broadcasters in which the influence of the Reich, the states, political parties and private concerns battled, was united, cleansed and clearly organized. The radio was not only placed under National Socialist control, but also reconstructed on National Socialist lines. The new people’s radio has proven that it is able literally to draw a whole nation to the receiver for some “big events.” Occurrences such as the state visit of the Führer and Reich Chancellor to Hamburg on 17 August 1934 have shown that the new German radio can make such events festivals for the whole nation.

The radio allowed a whole nation to participate in the ceremony of the German Reichstag for the deceased Reich President, and the world followed as the General Field Marshal found his final resting place on the field of his greatest victory. A year after Dr. Goebbels had taken the German radio in his hand, it was possible at noon on the first day of spring that not even three people could be seen at a major point in Berlin, the Potsdamer Platz, because the Führer was opening the second great battle for work in Bavaria. He was speaking to a few thousand, but he spoke over the radio to millions and millions. The new radio system, even at a time when the economic crisis had not been completely overcome, was able to win millions of new listeners and produce millions of new receivers, above all the Volksempfänger [an inexpensive radio receiver]. Without exaggerating, one can say that there is no country in the world where the radio is anywhere near as intensive an intermediary between the government and the people as in Germany. A true labor of Sisyphus was necessary in the area of the press.

From the chaos of 3500 German newspapers, of which only 120 were National Socialist in 1932, a responsible German press had to be created. Department IV, the Press (Ministerialrat Dr. Jahnke) is the tool of the Propaganda Ministry in this area. It is simultaneously the Press Office of the Reich government. Its head is the Assistant Press Chief of the Reich government, State Secretary Walter Funk of the Reich Ministry for People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda. The destructive effects of the past liberal era had especially serious effects on the German newspaper system. Anyone, even foreigners and those foreign to the German spirit, could with no regard for the people or the state write whatever he wanted about any political question, even if that which he wrote offered foreign opponents all possible support and aid. Bans could not help deal with the general decay of the German newspaper system. They are only a temporary means to deal with the worst manifestations. Dr. Goebbels therefore created the new Editor’s Law, which laid the foundation for a complete transformation of the German newspaper system in the moral, political, and economic areas.

The law gave the German editor major rights, but also major duties.The German editor is now the representative of the whole people, and must as such give account for all his actions and inactions. For the first time in the world, this law makes the interests of the people and the state the supreme law for the whole press. Some foreign newspapers thought this was the end of press freedom. Within a year, even those abroad realized that true freedom stabilizes a decent and nationally-conscious journalist class. Department IV, which supports the press, holds a daily press conference. It provides constant information for the never-ending work of domestic and foreign newspapers, news agencies and correspondents. It also incorporates the Drahloser Dienst, the news agency of the German radio that provides all Reich stations with news and broadcasts as well in four languages over shortwave. Since the most modern ministry works with the most modern methods, the Drahtlosen Dienst has an excellent teletype system that transmits its news to all German stations in a form ready for broadcast. Department V (Ministerialrat Dr. Seeger) is responsible for all matters regarding the film system, the film industry and film technology.

Department VI (Ministerialrat Laubinger) handles the broad areas of theater, music, and the arts. Department VII (Ministerialrat Demann) is responsible finally for defense. That is the staff that the Reich Minister for People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda called to work closely with the National Socialist Party leadership. From here come the new slogans for the people, who are to be formed into a new unity and set to the work of reconstruction. It is surprising how rapidly Dr. Goebbels became a cultural organizer after the years of struggle. He succeeded in bringing order to the most difficult of all areas of public life, culture, in the form of the Reich Chamber of Culture. The Reich Chamber of Culture includes the Reich Chamber of Film, the Reich Chamber of the Visual Arts, the Reich Chamber of Theater, the Reich Chamber of Radio, the Reich Chamber of the Press, the Reich Chamber of Music, and the Reich Chamber of Literature. In these chambers, all those German creators of culture are united in a rational manner and without unnecessary compulsion in the place where they can most effectively work for cultural reconstruction. Speaking to the presidents of the specialized chambers of the Reich Chamber of Culture, Dr.

Goebbels explained: “If professional thinking is really the great sociological idea of the Twentieth Century, then Germany is breaking new ground.” Dr. Goebbels discussed the foundation of the National Socialist state: Art is free, and one may never attempt to replace a lack of intuition with organization. He warned against bureaucratizing the Chamber of Culture. He explained its duties in this way: “It is a fundamental mistake to think that the task of the Reich Chamber of Culture is to produce art. It cannot, it will not, and it may not. Its task is to bring culture-creating people together, to organize them, to remove the restrictions and contradictions that surface and to assist in administering existing art, the art being produced today, and the art that will be produced in the future for the benefit of the German people.” Dr. Goebbels, who came to know writers, journalists, theater agents, film managers, politicians and so on during the years of struggle, is at home in these areas.

To film producers who complained about a lack of material, he replied: “There is no shortage of material, but rather the courage to use it is lacking.” To the press he said: “The more unified the national ability of a people to concentrate is, the more effective national discipline will be.” Speaking of the tasks of German theater: “We do not want the pendulum of the times to stop at the door of the theater, but rather that it strike deep into every artist’s soul, and the artist does not merely see the new era as an unpleasant but unavoidable necessity, but rather that he understands the time and sees in it a powerful national drama of historic-artistic scale, an event that will give impulse, material and drive to German artists for three or four generations.” Or as he said to booksellers: “As long as the book remains the privilege of a small, elite class and does not find reception by the people, one will not be able to speak of real benefits to the nation through the book.” It is obvious that the creative artist Joseph Goebbels is a bitter enemy of any form of Kitsch. Where inappropriate means are used, and where ability is not able to achieve the greatness and dignity of the task, he intervenes. Dr.

Goebbels, the first to expose the presumed objectivity of creative activity, but rather openly affirms the goal of constantly serving the whole of the people, is the declared and sworn enemy of incompetence. He does not want to place the intellectual creations of the nation under censorship from above. The artist, the writer, each creative artist is free. He wants to bind them from below; after years of unrestrained influence streaming in from foreign directions, he wants art to again be rooted in the soil of the homeland, in the soil of the people. This binding is no chain, but rather liberation and fruitfulness. For each German, ethnicity must be the decisive reality. From this ground and no other, creative artistic and cultural forces must rise. The deeper art’s roots are in the soil of the nation, the greater will be its international significance. [Page copyright © 2000 by Randall Bytwerk. No unauthorized reproduction. My e-mail address is available on the FAQ page .]

Question: Who was Hitler's minister of propaganda?
Answer: Josef Goebbels