Josef Goebbels
Paul Josef Goebbels was the Hitler’s Nazi regime ultimate mouthpiece for national socialism. Philosopher, orator, actor, and Hitler’s loyal man.
In this write up we are to examine the life of history’s greatest propagandist Josef Goebbels.
Born on 24th October 1897, was the Reich minister for propaganda and an extreme antisemitic, who’s propaganda eventually lead to the successful genocide of 6 million Jews.
When a child he developed a limp due to the contraction of polio, this would play a very important factor in the formative years of young Josef, due to his impairment he was forced to stay indoors and he found solitude in his books. This meant that he would focus more on his grades and education.
He eventually was brought up in a catholic boys school even though his parents were not that well off. In the University of Heidelberg he wrote his doctoral papers on the topic Wilhelm Von Schutz, under Friedrich Gundolf, a literary historian, both of who were Jewish.
He got his PHD in philosophy in the year 1921. By 1940 he had written close to 14 books.
After this he returned back home and began to work as a private tutor.
The first time Goebbels spoke on behalf of the NSDAP was at Weimar in 1926. In the following year Dr Goebbels proposed that the party rally be filmed. It was at this time that Goebbels would begin to change himself to fit his ideals to that of Hitler’s, Dr Goebbels would develop an immense sense of admiration and began to look up to Hitler and believed that he was the man who could be the messiah for Germany and began to create the Fuhrer myth. It was at this same time that Goebbels was placed in charge of Berlin for the NSDAP, which up to now was founded and developed in Bavaria.
A special ministry of national propaganda and enlightenment was created for him, he was also the chairman of the chamber of culture. By these positions in the government he was given full control of the press, radio and other forms of media.
In the years 1937–1938 Joseph Goebbels was on the brink of losing his power as he was having a love affair with a film star, but was later on married to Magda.
Interesting fact is that Hitler was his best man for their wedding..
After the defeat of Germany in North Africa and the snows of Stalingrad, he did not falsify and white wash the German people, instead he presented them with the facts as they were and encouraged them even more and gave them a larger cause to fight.
This is the genius of Dr Goebbels, manipulation and deception, he was too good at glorifying events which shook the foundations of what they stood for.
There is actually an interesting story , about an assassination attempt of Dr Goebbels, a grenade was thrown inside his meeting room and when the others ducked for cover, he just stood there and brushed off the dust on the paper he was reading and continued his work.
After the tide began to change for the Axis, Goebbel’s gives his famous speech total war encouraging all German to take to arms and protect the fatherland. It is said that during his speech people were shouting “ total war” in a frenzy and just kept on screaming and shouting the same over and over again.
Goebbel’s was able to regain Hitler’s trust again, he would be the most loyal follower of history’s greatest dictators.
On April 31 1944, only a day after Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide the Goebbels too took their lives. The six children were poisoned with cyanide and the couple shot themselves.
Let’s examine his role in the holocaust too.
Here we see that at certain time he was paradoxical , calling the entire theory of race as rubbish. But he was antisemitic from a very young age and joining the NSDAP only added fuel to fire. Goebbels would have the Jews wearing the yellow star of David for easy identification.
Hitler and Goebbels wanted to eradicate the Jews with the final solution. Hitler approved and Josef spoke and filled the hearts of the people with anti Jewish sentiments.
Once on visiting a concentration camp Josef was saddened by the killing in the gas chambers, but he said it was a necessary step for generations to come.
In conclusion Dr Goebbels was a genius, a master at propaganda and brain washing, his skills were useful for the Reich and they were fully utilised.
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