the left; its heel was drawn up and the sole looked inwards (equino-varus). The right
leg was correspondingly shorter than the left, and thinner. The indications are that
Goebbels’ defect was not genetic but acquired as the result of some disease.23 It
defied all attempts at surgical remedy; had the deformation occurred at birth, when
the bones are soft, it would have been relatively easy to manipulate them back into
the right alignment. Perhaps he acquired it from osteomyelitis (a bone marrow inflammation)
or from infantile paralysis. He would hint, at age thirty, that the deformity
developed from an accident at age thirteen or fourteen.24
This schoolboy with a large, intelligent cranium, a puny, underdeveloped body and
a club foot lived out his childhood to a chorus of catcalls, jeers and ridicule. It was,
he later accepted, ‘one of the seminal episodes of my childhood… I became lonely
20 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
and eccentric. Perhaps this was why I was everybody’s darling at home.’25 He learned
how cruel children could be. ‘I could say a thing or two about that,’ he would sigh in
his diary, aged twenty-six.26 Each creature, he now saw, had to struggle for survival in
its own way.
When he was ten they operated on his deformed foot. He later recalled the family
visiting him one Sunday in the hospital; he flooded with tears as his mother left, and
passed an unforgettably grim half hour before the anaesthetic. The operation left the
pain and deformity worse than before. But his Aunt Christine brought him some
fairy tales to read, and thus he discovered in reading a world of silent friends that
could not taunt or ridicule.
When he returned to his mansard room he began to devour every book and encyclopedia
that he could lay his hands on.
He would show them: the brain, if properly prepared and used, could outwit the
brawniest physique.
1 Soviet documents on the identification of the cadavers of Goebbels and his family were
published by Lev Bezymenski in Der Tod von Adolf Hitler (Munich, Berlin, 1982), 48ff and
97ff; Soviet surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel Grachow established the children’s cause of death
as ‘toxic carbohæmoglobin,’ and makes no mention of bullet wounds in Joseph or Magda
Goebbels; but for political reasons the KGB also suppressed references to the bullet entry in
Hitler’s head.
2 Testimony of Paul Schmidt at Amtsgericht Berlin-Zehlendorf, Oct 21, 1955 (Institut für
Zeitgeschichte, Munich [hereafter IfZ]: F82, Heiber papers); William Henning in Hamburger
Freie Presse, Nov 5, 1947.
3 Testimony of Fritzsche, Apr 30, 1947 (Hoover Libr.: K Frank Korf papers).
4 On May 5 the British ambassador in Moscow was told that the bodies of Goebbels and
family (but not of Hitler) had been found. ‘The cause of death was poison.’ (Tel. 1738 to
Foreign Office London [cit hereafter as FO], May 6. Public Record Office [PRO] file FO.371/
46748); also Krasnaya Zvyezda, Moscow, and United Press despatch in New York Times [cit. as
NYT ], May 18, 1945.
5 Former Kommissar of Geheime Feldpolizei Wilhelm Eckold, quoted in ‘Zehn ehemalige
Generale zurückgekehrt,’ in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung [cited as FAZ], Jan 9, 1956; he was
Goebbels’ personal detective 1934-38, 1942-45.
6 Today it is numbered 202 Odenkirchener Strasse.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 21
7 Ralf Georg Reuth, Goebbels (Munich, 1990); a solid volume particularly well-researched
in Reuth’s native Berlin archives and the Goebbels papers held by François Genoud in Lausanne
(cited hereafter as Reuth).
8 Birth certificate issued by Rheydt-Mitte registrars’ office, No.1017/1897 (IfZ: F82, Heiber
papers); under Germany’s Data Protection Act such documents are no longer available to
historians.—Copy of certificate in Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 47, vol.vii. —JG’s
brother Hans listed their father’s occupation as Werkmeister (overseer) on his NSDAP (Nazi
Party) application form (in BDC files); in his handwritten early memoirs (Erinnerungsblätter,
henceforth cited as EB) JG himself described his father as a Handlungsgehilfe (trade clerk).—
The Erinnerungsblätter and some diaries (1924–41, incomplete) are transcribed expertly by
Dr Elke Fröhlich of the IfZ in Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Sämtliche Fragmente (4 vols.)
(Munich, 1987); the original manuscript of EB is on microfiche in packet 26, box 2, of the
Goebbels collection (‘Fond 1477’) recently located by Fröhlich in the former Soviet Special
State Archives in Moscow, a collection of 1,600 glass plates (approximately 80,000 images)
of his diaries and manuscripts, first researched and used by myself. On one microfiche is a
‘Tagebuch 1897—Okt 1923’ but this diary is nearly empty.—On the family name, see Peter
Jansen’s article ‘Der Sippenname “Goebbels”’ by Peter Jansen (of Uebach) in Westdeutscher
Beobachter, Nr.212, Apr 28, 1939; he found traces of GOBELIN (tapestry) and GODEBERAHT
(God-famed) in the name. Also the article ‘Geilenkirchener Land. Stammland der Sippe
Goebbels,’ with photographs of the ancestral Goebbels homes in Uebach, Odenhofen etc.,
ibid., Oct 26, 1938.
9 In 1923 Goebbels mentioned a ‘Rechtsanwalt Joseph’ in EB. Dr Josef Joseph published
an open letter to JG in Nov 1944 from his exile in the USA. Günter Erckens, Juden in
Mönchengladbach (Mönchengladbach, 1989), 189f.
10 Conrad was a Hofverwalter (farm bailiff) from Gevelsdorf. He had married Gertrud
Margarete Rosskamp of Beckrath.
11 I have adhered more closely to what Goebbels himself wrote in his Jul 1924
Erinnerungsblätter [EB], ‘Von 1897 bis zu meinem ersten Semester 1917 in Bonn,’ than to
Helmut Heiber or to other secondary sources.
12 Wilfried von Oven, Mit Goebbels bis zum Ende, 241 (‘Apr 24, 1944’).
13 Diary, Aug 8, 12, 13, 1924. The birth certificate identifies his job as Handlungsgehilfe
(trade clerk).
14 Against which, see New York Times [NYT], Jun 10, 1946: ‘Goebbels Never Helped Aged
Mother’ (an alleged interview of her and Goebbels’ sister Maria).
15 Diary, Jul 20, 1924: ‘Dat kömp op Kreg ut’—That comes from the war. On the Dutch
side of the border river Wurm the Dutch spoke Limburg platt, almost identical to the platt
spoken on the German side.
16 She was born at Uebach on Apr 18, 1869 and died Aug 8, 1953, aged 84. She stated on
Mar 25, 1948 that her mother Maria Katharina Odenhausen née Coervers was born in 1824
at Uebach and died in Krefeld, Germany, in 1886; her father (Johann) Michael Odenhausen
was born at Uebach and died at Mönchen-Gladbach in 1880. All were Catholic (Korf papers).
17 Born Aug 8, 1893; joined the NSDAP in Dec 1928, becoming a Kreisleiter; promoted to
Gau publishing chief in 1933, acting as business manager of the Völkischer Verlag in Düsseldorf.
22 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
In 1935 he became publisher of the Frankfurter Volksblatt then head of the Gau publishing
house in Hessen-Nassau and manager of the Rhein-Mainische Zeitung. From 1932 to 1933 he
was in the SA reserve. Promoted to Reichsamtsleiter (a medium Party rank) in 1936.—
Biographical file in the Berlin Document Center and in the National Archives, Washi
ngton
DC [hereafter: NA]: Record Group [RG] 319, XE.246725, Werner Naumann.—And, Frankfurter
Neue Presse, Aug 31, 1948.
18 Hans Johann Friedrich Goebbels, born Jan 25, 1895, died Aug 13, 1947; joined NSDAP
in 1929 (No.160,449) and the SA in 1931, rising to Oberführer on Nov 9, 1942. In 1931-32
he was Propagandaleiter of an Ortsgruppe (Local), then of a Kreis (District) and chairman
of a Kreis party court (Uschla). From 1933 to 1945 he was general manager of the Provincial
Fire and Life Insurance Co. of the Rhineland, and permanent deputy president of the
provincial Landesversicherungsanstalt Rheinprovinz from 1937. To the rage of his parents he
married a protestant, Hertha Schell, by whom he had a son Lothar (1929) and daughter
Eleonore (1935).—Ibid.
19 Konrad Goebbels, born Jun 6, 1910, died June 11, 1949 leaving one daughter. Maria’s
(deceased) sisters were Maria (died in infancy) and Elisabeth (born 1901, died 1915): testimony,
Mar 25, 1948 (Korf papers). There were also aunts and uncles: his mother’s sisters
were Anna Simons (1849-1939 or 1940), Christine Jansen (1856-1939) and Maria Jansen
(1862-1916); her brothers were Joseph Odenhausen (died 1902), Peter Odenhausen (1860-
1915) and Johann Odenhausen (1857-1916).
20 In Genoud’s papers are Fritz Göbbels’s bank statements 1900-1920, and a blue account
book in which he recorded every penny spent (Reuth, 14, 17).
21 Writing to Anka Stalherm on Sep 17, 1918 he described poring with Willy Zilles over
old school relics—‘a little picture of my First Communion, a school picture of the Second
Form, a dictation book from the First.’ (Bundesarchiv Koblenz [cited as BA] Goebbels papers,
‘Film 1,’ NL.118/109); François Genoud, guardian of Goebbels’s papers (and interests)
owns a letter from Willy Zilles to him dated Jan 4-5, 1915.
22 Goebbels manuscript for Else Janke, 1923 (BA: NL.118/126).
23 The late Curt Riess, in Joseph Goebbels (Baden Baden, 1950), states that JG suffered from
a bone marrow inflammation at age seven, and the foot deformation resulted from the consequent
operation. JG’s diary for Aug 21, 1930 records his brother Konrad as suffering from
an unspecified chronic foot complaint.
24 Later he would suggest it was a war injury: Party Court, session of Jun 10, 1927 (BDC
file, Goebbels; author’s microfilm DI–81).
25 EB, 1924. Wilfried von Oven saw that a Somerset Maugham novel about a youth born
with a club foot, taunted and bullied in his childhood, featured prominently in JG’s bookshelf
in the Second World War (Finale Furioso, Tübingen, 1974, 289f).
26 Diary, Jul 11, 1924.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 23
Goebbels
1: Eros Awakes
THE OTHER boys at the Gymnasium in Rheydt’s Augusta Strasse, which he
entered at Easter 1908, regarded him as a sneak and know-all.1 He in
gratiated himself with teachers, particularly with the scripture teacher
Father Johannes Mollen, by telling on his truant comrades. ‘My comrades,’ he would
confess, ‘never liked me, except for Richard Flisges.’2 He would find Flisges in the
upper fifth (Obersekunda) in 1916. His closest friends were three ‘Herberts’—
Hompesch, Beines, and Lennartz.3 Herbert Lennartz, son of his father’s boss, died
after a minor operation leaving Goebbels grieved and shocked. It moved him to
compose his first poem (‘Why did you have to part from me so soon?’)4
At first he was lazy and apathetic, numbed by the realization of his physical deformity.
Then he overcompensated, and later he was never far from the top of the
class. His love of Latin came falteringly at first, then in full flood. With biting irony
and sarcasm Christian Voss tutored him in German literature—and in sarcasm and
irony as well. While brothers Hans and Konrad had to leave school early, Joseph
excelled.5 His agile brain enabled him to tackle everything, his essays attracted scowls
of envy from his fellow pupils. With clenched fists and gleaming eyes young Goebbels
listened as history teacher Dr. Gerhard Bartels taught his class about Germany’s
chequered past.6 His father and mother wanted him to become a priest—not just
because the church would then pay for his higher education; they were a deeply
religious family. When Joseph’s little sister Elisabeth died in 1915 they all knelt around
24 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
her death-bed and held hands and prayed as a family together for her soul.7 Joseph
composed another poem for her, ‘Sleep, baby, sleep.’
When the Great War came in August 1914 his friends all rallied excitedly to the
Kaiser’s colours; he too went to the local recruiting office, but the officer dismissed
him with barely a glance. Back at school he wrote a thoughtful essay, ‘How can a noncombattant
help the fatherland in these times?’ He argued in it that ‘even those who
are denied the right to shed their blood for the honour of the nation’ could be of
service, ‘even if not in such a creditable way.’ His teacher marked it ‘Good’.8
The classroom emptied as the war dragged on. His pals Hubert Hompesch and
Willy Zilles wrote him exciting letters as fusiliers from the western front.9 His brother
Konrad was a gunner and Hans was soon in French captivity.10 In one exercise book
Joseph, now in the Upper Sixth (Oberprima) , wrote in 1917, ‘We have already witnessed
great and terrible events. Greater still and even more terrible is what lies in
store for us. May the German people persevere, because if we do then victory cannot
be long in abeyance.’ Again his teacher red-inked gut onto the essay.11 As author
of the best essay, Goebbels had the honour of delivering the valedictory speech when
school ended on March 21, 1917. He implored his listeners that they were the very
elements of a Germany on which the entire world now gazed with fear and admiration;
he spoke of Germany’s ‘global mission,’ not merely as a nation of poets and
thinkers, but one entitled to become ‘the political and spiritual leader of the world.’12
‘Very good,’ the headmaster Dr Gruber told him. ‘But mark my words, you’ll never
make a good orator!’13
Goebbels passed the school-certificate examination at Easter 1917. In the main
qualities—conduct, attentiveness, behaviour, diligence, and handwriting—he gained
a string of “very goods,’ as he did in religion, German and Latin; in Greek, French,
history, geography, physics and even in mathematics he was gut. He again tried to
enlist, but was accepted only for a few weeks’ service as a penpusher at the Reichsbank.
His painful deformity had thus given him at least one advantage, a headstart on his
later comrades in the political battle. He would already be at university while Adolf
Hitler, Hermann Göring, and Rudolf Hess were fighting under the skies of Flanders.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 25
His intellectual horizon was expanding. In 1909 his father had purchased secondhand
a piano, that symbol of the solid middle class; the family and neighbours clustered
Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death Page 4
