to 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 110
pounds.
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 ‘blissful
memories.’
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, Dec
22, 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). The
microfiches in this box also contain the following segments: Dec 31, 1923—Mar 11; Mar
13—Jun 12; Jun 27—Aug 6, 1924. JG also wrote a 32pp sketch for Else entitled, ‘From my
diary.’ This reflected his painful lack of any vocation and his crushing doubts in God and the
world. ‘I feel the need,’ he began, ‘to give some account of my life so far.’ The best way, he
felt, would be to sit in judgement each day upon himself. ‘My goal,’ he wrote, ‘is God. And
my greatest joy, the search for Truth.’ (BA: NL.118/126); cf. Fröhlich, cv.
24 Diary, Jul 19, 1924.
25 JG, ‘Aus meinem Tagebuch,’ Jun 1923 (BA file NL.118/126).
26 Else Janke to JG, Nov 4, 1923 (Genoud papers; cit. Reuth, 74).
27 Diary, Jul 2, 1924.
28 Ibid., Jul 11, 1924.
29 Ibid., Jul 15, 1924.
30 Ibid., Aug 13, 1924.
31 Ibid., Aug 1, 7, 1924.
32 Ibid., Jul 9, 1924.
33 Ibid., Jun 27, 1924.
34 Ibid., Jul 4, 1924.
35 JG to Rudolf Mosse Verlag (BA file NL.118/113).
36 The papers of Theodor Wolff (1868-1943), chief editor of the Berliner Tageblatt , are in BA
NL.207.
37 Diary, Jul 30, 1924.
38 Ibid.Jul 17, 1924.
39 Rheydter Zeitung and Düsseldorfer Nachrichten.— JG’s diary for Nov 8, 1928 suggests that
he began his career ‘as a little country orator’ at Hattingen.
40 Boris von Borresholm, Dr Goebbels. Nach Aufzeichnungen aus seiner UmgebungÊ (Berlin, 1949),
46ff. It is not clear who the author was.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 63
41 See Manfred Müller, Den Weg zur Freiheit bahnen! Um Sozialismus und Sozialpolitik: NSArbeiteragitator
Wilhelm Börger (Essen, 1993). Börger (not ‘Berger,’ as Fröhlich has it) was a
close friend of JG.
42 Diary, Jun 30, 1924. Presumably Rosenberg’s diary (Mar 1, 1939) reference to JG’s
alleged remark to Darré on Feb 25, 1939 that Hitler ought to have told him (JG) ‘in 1924’ to
comport himself differently, is a mistake.
43 Diary, Jul 4, 1924.
44 Ibid., Jul 7, 9, 1924.
45 Ibid., Jul 25, 1924.
46 Ibid., Jul 28, 1924.
47 Ibid., Jul 30, 1924.
48 Ibid., Mar 27, 1925.
49 Harden’s real name was not Isidor but Felix Ernst Witkowski.
50 Diary, Jun 30; Jul 2, 4, 1924; see too Dietz Bering, Kampf um Namen. Bernhard Weiss gegen
Joseph Goebbels (Stuttgart, 1992), 215, and Angriff’s hate-filled obituary, Nov 21, 1927.
51 Diary, Jul 4, 1924.
52 Briefe aus dem Gefängnis an Karl Liebknecht, 1919; diary, Jul 4, 1924.
53 Diary, Aug 25, 1924.
54 Ibid., Aug 1, 13, 1924.
55 Ibid., Aug 15, 1924.
56 Ibid., Aug 20, 1924.
57 Ibid., Aug 22, 1924.
58 W von Ameln, ‘Die Stadt Rheydt und die Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei,’
in Einwohnerbuch der Stadt Rheydt 1936 (Mönchengladbach archives).
59 Diary, Jul 2, 1938. ‘I receive a secret protocol from the Belgian war ministry on my
interrogation by Detective Nagel in 1924.’—And cf. von Ameln. op. cit.
60 E.g., in Rheinische Landeszeitung und Volksparole, Nr.239, Sep 1, 1935 (Höffkes collection);
JG’s police file however states under Feb 1, 1926, he ‘fled from the occupied territories
because of political machinations.’
61 Diary, Aug 29, 1924.
62 Ibid., Sep 1, 3, 4, 1924.
63 Völkische Freiheit. Rheinsch-westfälisches Kampfblatt der Nationalsozialistischen Freiheitsbewegung
für ein völkisch-soziales Deutschland.
64 Diary, Sep 1, 9, 17, 22, 24; Oct 6, 1924.
65 Ibid., Sep 15, 1924.
66 Ibid., Sep 23, 1924.
67 Ibid., Sep 27, 1924.
68 Ibid., Oct 21, 1925.
69 Ibid., Oct 3, 1924.
70 Ibid., Sep 23, 1924.
64 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Goebbels
4: The Little Agitator
IN the May 1924 Parliamentary elections 1,918,329 people had voted for the
rightwing parties’ united front, giving them thirty-two of the 472 seats in the
Reichstag; but of these only ten, under Gregor Strasser, owed allegiance to Hitler. In
the election of December 7 the right wing, now named the National Socialist Freedom
movement, attracted only 907,242 votes: fourteen MPs, with only five representing
Hitler.
Writing after this reverse Goebbels encouraged his readers on December 20: ‘There
is no use denying it: we lost this battle, and the enemy triumphed all along the line.’
He had intuitively perceived the correct propaganda tactic—ruthless depiction of
the sombreness of the hour. ‘The Idea,’ he continued, ‘is worth any sacrifice, even the
sacrifice of lives and property!’ And then, in a pale pre-echo of his famous proclamations
in the last days of his life, he hinted at the darkness that precedes each dawn:
‘Every disaster at Jena is followed by a victory at Leipzig.’
The first rays of the new dawn appeared that same afternoon. Hitler arrived back
at his Munich apartment, a free man again. Goebbels acclaimed him in his weekly’s
Political Diary, published on New Year’s Day 1925: ‘We greet thee, leader and hero,
and there is an enormous joy and anticipation in us with the knowledge that thou art
again in our midst.’ ‘Germany’s youth once more has its leader,’ he concluded. ‘We
await his command.’
Hitler’s release from Landsberg threw his party into flux. Goebbels reassessed the
conflict between the national and socialist elements of the party’s programme. He
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 65
found it impossible to swallow the internationalist aspects of Marxism. He hoped to
steer the nationalist movement towards socialism, rather than see its socialist aspects
drenched in mindless nationalism. In the Ruhr and Rhineland, he found many activities
he thought like him—particularly the former members of the paramilitary Free
Corps.
Among these young activists was Karl Kaufmann. Kaufmann, three years his junior,
had organised N.S.D.A.P. Ortsgruppen (local groups) in several Ruhr cities until
forced by the Prussian police to flee to Bavaria. Now he was back in Elberfeld, raising
a political force aligned against the bourgeois, comfortably-off Wiegershaus.
Goebbels to
o was evidently disillusioned with the folkish movement. In the final
issue of his weekly, an anonymous advertisement appeared on January 17, 1925,
announcing under Box R.26:
Situation wanted. Editor, young, folkish, accustomed to work independently;
good leader-writer, organizer, workaholic; unemployed because of political developments;
seeks position, possibly in financial firm.
Three days later Wiegershaus invited him to resign, and he cast his lot with Kaufmann
instead.
His personal life now was overshadowed by a humiliating lack of funds.1 He was
often unable to pay his rent or buy food, but when Kaufmann needed it desperately
Goebbels proudly loaned him his last forty marks.2 They became firm friends;
Kaufmann was one of the very few men he addressed as du.3 To forget his own poverty
he would crawl, his stomach aching for nourishment, into a church pew to hear
St. Matthew’s Passion with tears streaming down his cheeks at the beauty of the
music.4 He found it hard to make true friends. He found his Alsatian dog more likeable
than many a human being; indeed, he began to hate the human race as he often
wrote in his diary.5 While his brother Konrad had now acquired a housemaid and a
car, Joseph loathed the trappings of the bourgeoisie.6
His romantic escapades left him filed with self-hatred too. Else now rarely wrote
to him, having found him juvenile and adolescent. He had started a parallel relation-
66 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
ship with another girl, Elisabeth Gensicke, but nothing came of it. ‘From year to
year,’ he reflected, ‘I shall be more and more lonely until I end up all alone without
love and without a family.’7 That was his dread.
Comforting afterglows of his expired Catholic faith still flickered. That March he
dutifully hurried home to celebrate his Saint’s Day in the family fold.8 His brother
Hans was no longer welcome there as he had married outside the Catholic faith. This
brought home to Joseph once more the impossibility of marrying the ‘voluminous,
chubby, healthy, cheerful’ half-Jewess Else, although he did sometimes envisage it: ‘I
should like her as my wife—if only she were not half-blooded.’9
Thus he toyed with Elisabeth’s affections. ‘The poor child has gone to pieces over
me,’ he wrote in bemusement. ‘She trembles with anguish and joy when she sees
me.’10 He knew that tremor well. On the twentieth a farewell letter came from
Elisabeth—she could not stand it any longer. He replied with bleeding heart. ‘And
now,’ he noted, ‘this beautiful yet oh so ephemeral flowering dream is over. A great
loneliness besets me.’11
DR GOEBBELS’ party membership file is missing, but according to Karl Kaufmann he
formally joined soon after Hitler had reconstituted the party in Munich on February
27, 1925.12 In March Hitler activated a Gau (region) covering the North Rhineland.
He appointed the middle-aged Baltic German journalist Axel Ripke as gauleiter. At
Kaufmann’s instance, Ripke appointed Goebbels his manager (Geschäftsführer); among
Ripke’s other officials were such personalities as the later notorious Erich Koch, one
of Leo Schlageter’s comrades, and the later Sturmabteilung (S.A.) commander Viktor
Lutze. The Elberfeld police soon took note that ‘Goebbels appears as speaker at every
function’ and directed the evenings organised by the Elberfeld Ortsgruppe (district)
of the N.S.D.A.P. (Nazi party) whose Führer was identified as ‘K Kaufmann’.13
Ripke’s gau ran into immediate difficulties. On March 17 the French occupation
authorities in Düsseldorf banned the organisation and a week later arrested officials
of its Elberfeld local.14 ‘We request,’ wrote Goebbels to the Reich Minister for the
Occupied Territories on April 3, ‘that you take appropriate steps to secure the im-
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 67
mediate release of our men from custody.’15 ‘The same old grief,’ he observed in his
diary. ‘But an Idea cannot be put down.’ And, ten days later: ‘Prosecution and arrests
by the French..Ê .Ê . They’ve knocked us flat. This is the proof that our Idea is the right
one.’ He had founded a local group at Krefeld, and often spoke to them: one evening
three Belgian detectives appeared, blocked the doors, and asked him if ‘a Dr Goebbels’
was in the hall. Goebbels replied calmly, ‘He’s busy right now, I’m speaking on his
behalf.’ The officials left empty handed.16
His radical views attracted the mistrust of other local officials. Arthur Etterich,
who had founded the Hattingen local three years before, likened him to Maximilien
de Robespierre; Ripke agreed, and cited Honoré Count de Mirabeau’s words about
Robespierre: ‘The man is dangerous—he believes what he says.’17 Neither Goebbels
nor Kaufmann felt that their gauleiter, Ripke, was a match for the French. He was
too old, conservative, and diplomatic.18 ‘Ripke is no activist,’ concluded Goebbels, as
the friction grew. Ripke loathed Goebbels’ leftwing slant, while the latterÊ detested
the gauleiter’s bourgeois attitudes. Suppressing the actual epithet, he wrote: ‘You
can’t stage a revolution with —’s like these.’19 But Ripke had Hitler’s ear, and often
travelled to Berlin to deal with Gregor Strasser, Hitler’s deputy in all of northern
Germany. Disillusioned by this situation, Goebbels toyed with the idea of quitting. A
friend showed him over the Heinrichshütte blast furnaces at Hattingen—and he
marvelled at this gigantic sulphurous inferno of capitalist corruption.20 These men,
he felt, were crying out to be freed. After a speech to Krupp steel workers at nearby
Essen on April 25, he decided to struggle on within the party’s still threadbare ranks,
paupered and starving though he was.
He conceived the idea of a fanatical Freedom League (Freiheitsbund) of thirty members
pledged to donate a fixed amount each month—a sort of ‘intellectual stormtroop’
as he put it.21 Ripke was dismissive, but the first whipround at Hattingen yielded 268
marks. For hours Goebbels plotted with Kaufmann ways of getting rid of their tedious
gauleiter.22 He had a long talk with Ripke on May 18 which ended, if Goebbels is
to be believed, with Ripke on his knees pleading forgiveness. The gauleiter accused
him of promoting a new class-struggle. ‘Too true!’ commented Goebbels: ‘With
68 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
capitalism, you’ve got to call a spade a spade.’23 After another five-hour session with
Ripke he defined, ‘Socialism means the liberation of the proletariat, not just breaking
the Versailles peace treaty. God, preserve my passion!’24 He was beginning to
hate Ripke, and this feeling was mutual. The one wanted bourgeois reform, the other
socialist revolution.25
In Munich, Hitler had revived the Party newspaper Völkischer Beobachter and Alfred
Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death Page 11
