Goebbels, Joseph

Goebbels, Joseph (1897–1945) Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels was the mastermind who crafted the ongoing propaganda campaign that was indispensable in selling Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party (NSDAP), the Nazi regime, and Nazi war aims to the German people. He was born in the Rhenish town of Rheydt, the son of a factory clerk. Highly intelligent, Goebbels earned a doctorate in philology from Heidelberg University in 1922, having been exempted from World War I service because of a clubfoot. Goebbels had literary and journalistic aspirations, but, much as Hitler had been frustrated in his youthful aspiration to become an artist, Goebbels found no market for his works. After he befriended a group of early Nazis in 1924, Goebbels drifted into National Socialist politics, and when it was discovered that he was a talented public speaker, he was named gauleiter (district leader) of the Nazi Party in Elberfeld, where he was given the job of editing the biweekly National Socialist magazine. The Nazi Party was, understandably, poorly supplied with intellectuals and writers of ability. Although the dark-featured, clubfooted Goebbels hardly fit the "Aryan" Nazi mold, he rose quickly within the party, and Hitler appointed him gauleiter of Berlin in 1926. This was an important assignment, since the party, having established itself in Bavaria, had no real presence in the capital. Goebbels rapidly built up the Nazi organization in Berlin while expanding his journalistic career on behalf of the party by editing a new magazine, Der Angriff ("the Assault"). In 1928, Hitler recognized his prodigious abilities as a communicator by appointing Goebbels propaganda director for the party. Goebbels set to work not merely to promote the Nazi political agenda, but to create around Hitler a powerful cult of personality, which imbued Hitler with the "Führer myth," transforming his image into that of a combination savior, messiah, and infallible leader. Goebbels's propaganda program went far beyond the printed page. He developed speeches and radio broadcasts, and he orchestrated and choreographed vast ritualistic party convocations, demonstrations, rallies, and celebrations. It was Goebbels who introduced the universal Nazi salute and salutation, "Heil Hitler!" No person other than Hitler himself was more responsible for the creation of the führer's public persona. When Hitler rose to the office of chancellor in 1933, he created a Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda at the cabinet level, with Goebbels as its minister. Goebbels was also named president of the Reich Chamber of Culture, which gave him control not only of the print press and radio, but also the stage, cinema, literature, music, and the other fine arts. Goebbels also enlarged his brief to encompass education, especially at the high school level, which became an important institution for dissemination of propaganda. Goebbels was more than sufficiently intelligent to exercise his extraordinary authority sparingly, and, in fact, he regulated the various media and arts with a surprisingly liberal hand. He understood that he was, in effect, a salesman and that his wares consisted of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism, and he understood that nothing dulls the appeal of merchandise like enforced repetition. He therefore integrated propaganda into the stream of general culture and took care to avoid smothering the media and the arts. Moreover, he worked with creative writers, artists, and especially filmmakers to produce propaganda that was entertaining and even aesthetically appealing. He did not want to coerce, but to seduce. Many within the party hierarchy were jealous of Goebbels's power, and by the late 1930s, his critics had made inroads into his domain that lessened his influence. Goebbels also allowed his personal life to compromise his political existence when a romantic affair with a Czech movie star became widely known and created a scandal in outwardly prudish Nazi society. He managed to salvage his career but was not highly influential in the lead up to World War II, a conflict he did not believe wise. Once the war began, however, he carved out a fresh niche for himself by developing propaganda directed toward Germany's enemies for the purpose of undermining their morale. He developed broadcasts to be beamed to Polish and French soldiers, and he planted rumors concerning fifth column (subversive) activities in the Allied nations. He also created for such generals as Erwin Rommel myths of invincibility, much as he had done for Hitler during the dictator's rise. Among Goebbels's best-known creations were Axis Sally and Lord Haw Haw. Axis Sally was an American named Mildred Gillars who lived in Germany and whom Goebbels hired to broadcast propaganda to American troops. (After the war, Gillars was convicted of treason and sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment; she was paroled in 1951.) Lord Haw Haw was an American-born Englishman named William Joyce who joined the British Fascist Party in 1923 and, in 1933, the British Union of Fascists. In 1937, he founded the pro-Nazi British National Socialist League, then fled Britain in 1939 and went to work in Germany for an English-language radio station. As Lord Haw Haw (a name he appropriated from an earlier German propaganda broadcaster, usually identified as Norman Baillie-Stewart), Joyce broadcast propaganda intended to erode the morale of British as well as American troops. (Although Joyce was naturalized as a German citizen in 1940, a postwar court ruled that his allegiance was still to the Crown because he held a British passport. Found guilty of high treason, he was hanged in 1946.) Goebbels's efforts at subverting Allied morale had little effect, and he did not again come into his own as a master propagandist until the tides of the war turned against Germany. As bad news came out of North Africa and the Soviet Union, Goebbels launched his most elaborate and far-reaching campaigns. He was not merely a censor or a liar, but, rather, a shaper of popular interpretation. He continually presented himself before the German public to present a vision of inevitable, destined victory in spite of defeats and setbacks. If his earlier merchandise had been Hitler and the Nazi Party, his new product was hope, which he built up by references to historical example on the one hand and the imminence of future salvation on the other: Goebbels repeatedly invoked the emergence of a new "wonder weapon," which would surely reverse the fortunes of war yet again. In contrast to other highly placed Nazis, who retreated from the public as defeat was piled upon defeat, Goebbels continually thrust himself into the forefront. As the perimeter of Nazi conquest shrank in the final months of the war, Goebbels turned his attention to rallying the homefront for a final stand, advocating what he called total war. When the attempted assassination of Hitler failed on July 20, 1944, Goebbels took charge of the situation in Berlin and suppressed the incipient coup d'état there. This earned from Hitler a grandiose appointment as Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War, making Goebbels the third most powerful figure in the Third Reich, behind Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. Yet, by this time, it was an empty appointment. Goebbels remained by Hitler's side to the bitterest of bitter ends. He served as witness to the marriage of Hitler and Eva Braun in the Führerbunker on April 29, 1945. On the next day, before taking his life and that of his bride, Hitler named Goebbels chancellor of the reich. It was an office in which Goebbels served barely a day. On May 1, 1945, in the bunker beneath the streets of besieged Berlin, Goebbels and his wife administered poison to each of their six children then took their own lives.