Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death

weekly calledVölkische Freiheit (Folkish Freedom) since March 1924. Around this time Else returnedto his life, arousing God and the Devil in his Catholic loins. ‘Next to money,’he defined, ‘Eros is what makes the world go round.’61 More usefully, a typewriteralso arrived, a machine whose intricacies seemed more easily mastered than women’s.62 The first contributions signed by ‘DrÊ G’ appeared in issue No.24 dated September13, 1924.63 One was an article examining the concepts of National and Socialist(it concluded: ‘We are nothing. Germany is everything!’) It was followed aweek later by ‘The Führer Problem.’64 On October 4 his name appeared in the im-60 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICHprint for the first time, as ‘Dr Paul J Goebbels’—an odd clue that he disliked thetaint of ‘Joseph’.Hitler was still incarcerated in Landsberg prison. Meeting Gregor Strasser, Hitler’sburly viceroy, at Elberfeld on September 13 Goebbels asked him whether Hitlerwould soon be released. ‘We are all missing him,’ he confessed to his diary. In Hitler,whom he had yet to meet, he saw the unifying concept of the movement—‘Thefixed pole around which all national socialist thinking orbits.’65He was still flexing his muscles as a public speaker. He recognized in himself theelements of a ‘ripe old demagogue’ and set about refining his delivery.66 When hefailed to inspire an audience of farmworkers at Wickrath he blamed it on the dullnessinculcated by the Occupation. A speech the next day however inspired some hardboiledworkers nearer home. Ruthlessly mixing metaphors, he recorded that the flameswould rage on and he would reap later what he was sowing now. Other workersasked to hear the Little Doctor speak. A locomotive engineer brought his mates tohear him in an ugly tavern in the Ruhr. ‘I have found a firm objective,’ Goebbelswrote, ‘one to which my eyes unblinking turn. This objective is: Freedom for Germany!’67Over the next year he would deliver no less than 189 speeches, learning to cast offall cant and phoney philosophizing, becoming preacher, apostle, and agitator alike.68In his hands, he would write, he found that the soul of the German working man wasas soft as wax, and he could knead it and mould it as he desired.He soon fell out with Wiegershaus. His proprietor wanted his little weekly toemphasize German nationalism. Goebbels preferred to put the socialism first. Soonthree-quarters of the weekly was being written by Goebbels. By threatening to quithe bluffed Wiegershaus into appointing him ‘managing editor’ as from October 2,1924. It was another rung up the ladder. ‘Since yesterday,’ he wrote the next day, ‘Iam quite a different person. At home too’—and what measure of relief lies in thesewords— ‘they look at me with quite different eyes.’ He had his own mouthpiece.Upward to the stars, onward to freedom for Germany, God be at our side! Thesewere the thrilling phrases that he inscribed in his diary.69GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 61Under Dr Paul J Goebbels the weekly became readable and hard hitting. He wasnot happy with his writing style, but practice made perfect and his thoughts flowedfast and free. He installed a sub-office in his parental home. As his twenty-seventhbirthday came and went his parents were astounded by the change. He still loungedaround unshaven, but he had a sense of purpose. He increased his literary intake stillmore: he digested ten newspapers each day, and dealt with correspondence untiltwo or three A.M. He began a new article, ‘The Basic Problems of Jewry.’70 His parentsstopped nagging. His fame as orator and writer was noised across the Rhineland.True, he was not being paid, but this fame was gratification enough.1 German FO files, Feb 15, 1923, on the Ruhr occupation: Friedrich Ebert foundationarchives, Bonn: Carl Severing papers, file 95; execution of Schlageter, files 99ff.2 Albert Krebs, Erinnerungen an die Frühzeit der Partei (Stuttgart, 1959), 158. Krebs, nofriend of JG’s, excused the ‘uniform’ and remark as a necessary propaganda tactic given thehostile atmosphere of the times. The writer Franz Schauwecker exposed JG’s ‘military career’later in an open letter.

Goebbels3 A blue-carbon copy typescript of Goebbels’ much-revised...Menschenschicksal in Tagebuchblättern,’ dedicated to the memory of Flisges, is in BA fileNL.118/127. In it, Michael’s mother sends to the mining apprentice Alexander Neumann acopy of Zarathustra that had belonged to Michael; Neumann writes to Hertha Holk that hehas found one passage lined in red, reading: ‘Many die too late, and some too early. Neverforget the lesson: Die at the right time!’4 NYT, May 4, 1945.5 Karl Kaufmann to Otto Strasser, Jun 4, 1927 (BDC: Goebbels file; author’s microfilmDI-81).6 Müller (editor) to JG, Oct 13, 1922 (BA file NL.118/113).7 JG, ‘Ausschnitte aus der deutschen Literatur der Gegenwart,’ Oct 30, 1922 (Genoudpapers; cit. Reuth, 58).8 Kölner Tageblatt also published two articles by JG in the summer of 1923; a dozen earlynewspaper articles by JG are preserved in BA file NL.118/113.9 ‘Heinrich Kämpfert, Ein Drama in drei Aufzügen’ (BA: NL.118/114); completed Feb12, 1919.10 ‘Die die Sonne lieben’, summer 1917 (BA: NL.118/117)62 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH11 ‘Bin ein fahrender Schüler, ein wüster Gesell...’ A 32pp. novel handwritten in summer1917 on squared paper, ‘Novelle aus dem Studentenleben von Joseph Goebbels,’ dedicatedto Kölsch (BA: NL.118/127)12 ‘Bei Nacht’ (BA: NL.118/118)13 Cf. diary, Mar 8, 1926: ‘I weigh just one hundred Pfund,’ i.e. 50 kilos or about 110pounds.14 Diary, Jul 14, 1924; JG’s correspondence with Else Janke is in BA file NL.118/110.15 Diary, Aug 6, 1924.16 Ibid., Aug 8, 1924.17 In his diary on Dec 28, 1933 JG would describe another visit to the castle, with ‘blissfulmemories.’18 On Jul 19, 1924 JG noted, ‘Today is one year since Richard was killed at Schliersee.’19 JG to Else Janke, Sep 22, 1923 (BA file NL.118/110).20 Fritz Göbbels to JG, Sep 27, 1923 (BA file NL.118/113).21 JG, ‘Schöpferische Kräfte. Richard Flisges, dem toten Freunde!’ in Rheydter Zeitung, Dec22, 1923 (BA file NL.118/113; and Moscow archives, Goebbels papers).22 Cf Diary, Jul 31, 1924.23 Diary Oct 17, 1923—Jun 22, 1924 (Moscow archives, Goebbels papers, box 2). Themicrofiches in this box also contain the following segments: Dec 31, 1923—Mar 11; Mar13—Jun 12; Jun 27—Aug 6, 1924. JG also wrote a 32pp sketch for