Portrait of our Times, Packed with Laughter and Hate.’38
The entertaining public face off between the pompous police chief and the propagandist
continued throughout the year. One beerhall battle on February 23 ended
with his driver Tonak again injured, stabbed this time three times in the back dangerously
close to the heart.39
Those were hectic weeks.40 The next morning Goebbels was arrested at six A.M.
That evening he was heading for Cottbus with his S.A. ‘lads’. On March 12 he wrote
to the courts asking to be excused from testifying in the trial of Nazis involved in the
gun battle at Lichterfelde station.41 But the political police would not brook any
delays, and he had to testify42. ‘He is in fact the leading personality,’ they pointed out,
‘in the fight against the police headquarters.’43 Six of his men involved in the gun
battle were sentenced to a total of three years and seven months imprisonment. On
March 24 he was back in court. ‘Today I have six hearings,’ he recorded. Four were
for slandering ‘Isidor,’ one for high treason and one for causing bodily harm.44 The
courts fixed April 28 for the case against Goebbels and Dürr for libelling Dr Weiss in
Angriff. Goebbels did his damndest to wriggle off the hook, writing several appeals
for postponements.45 Weiss’ deputy Wündisch, head of the Berlin political police,
demanded that Goebbels be arrested if he failed to show up, as he was expected to
keep spinning things out until he won immunity in the forthcoming election.46 Mid-
124 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
day on the twenty-eighth found the gauleiter duly in court with his editor Dürr.
‘Before German judges,’ he seethed in his diary. ‘A ridiculous farce. Prosecutor demanded
two months for Dürr and myself.’ The sentence was three weeks. ‘I just kept
silent,’ he added. ‘Once I’m immune I will accept full blame to spare Dürr.’47 The
judgement concluded that the newspaper had published wicked and deliberate libels
on the worthy Dr Weiss: ‘By calling him “Isidor” and publishing the comment, “How
dare you kick me with your flat little tootsies” they were underlining Dr Weiss’ Jewish
origins.’ Revenge in this case was sweet and cold: in May he received the printers’
proofs of ‘Isidor’.48 As for the donkey cartoon, Goebbels allowed Angriff to publish it
again with this caption: ‘In convicting our editor Dürr the judge stipulated inter alia,
“This donkey bears the face of Vice Police President Dr Weiss”.’49
How he hated that man, and how the Nazis and communists alike laughed when
truncheon-wielding police officers accidentally thrashed Weiss as well.50 The
Brownshirts added a new verse to their marching song on ‘Isidor’ and Goebbels
composed an unsympathetic leader for Angriff about ‘the story of a Jew who didn’t
want to look like one,’ who ‘forbade people to call him Isidor because his name was
Bernhard—‘Bear’s Heart’,’ and who in broad daylight was ‘thrashed by his own police
officers with their rubber truncheons because they couldn’t believe they could
possibly have a chief who looked like that.’ The result was yet another prosecution
for libelling the humourless Dr Weiss.51
THE Reichstag dissolved in March 1928. On the last day of the month Dr Weiss lifted
the ban on the party, because the elections would be held in May. Goebbels formally
relaunched the party in Berlin at a ceremony on April 13, then sent long columns of
Brownshirts to march defiantly through the streets again.52 ‘We marched,’ wrote one
of his S.A. men,’ ‘and we marched. We marched although people bombarded us with
every conceivable projectile and missile.’53
The five weeks of electioneering were crippled by lack of funds.54 Goebbels sat in
street cafes with his artist Schweitzer, suggesting poster themes.55 In the evenings he
patrolled the section headquarters at Alexander Platz, Tempelhof, Friedenau and
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 125
elsewhere. Experimenting with propaganda techniques, he dictated one speech onto
phonograph discs.56 He spent his spare time tinkering with ‘Michael,’ inserting now
vitriolic lines attacking the Jews, and ‘Blood Seed.’57 May Day found him in a grubby
Polish international train heading for Düsseldorf; sitting in the audience there he
glimpsed his mother, brothers, and little sister Maria; he only rarely saw them nowadays.
On May 17 he hobbled at the head of 250 S.A. men marching through Spandau
and Tegel and into working class Wedding, heedless of the screeches and whistles of
their baffled enemies—‘chinstraps tightened,’ he recorded proudly afterwards, ‘a
bunch of heroes, without flinching. With these lads we’ll conquer the world.’58
In the final weeks before the election he detected signs of unrest among these
‘lads’. Munich had appointed Walther Stennes, a former police captain aged thirtythree,
to command the S.A. in this part of Germany: ‘a regular chap!’ Goebbels had
written in February, and ‘a splendid fellow’ in April.59 But he soon kept Stennes at a
distance. He was independently wealthy, and had only joined the Party in December
when Goebbels insisted. Stennes had found in the Berlin S.A. an undisciplined rabble
who goaded the police to no real purpose.60 He had introduced Prussian discipline,
and now he began asking for a larger slice of the cake—more Reichstag
candidates should be from the S.A. To Goebbels it was the old story, of ‘soldiers’
meddling in politics. ‘The military should sharpen the sword,’ he decided, ‘and leave
it to us politicians to decide when it has to be used.’61
That he was now fighting with the ballot box rather than by revolution seemed a
total betrayal of his own teachings. It was expediency. Besides, he intended to raid
the Reichstag as the ‘arsenal of democracy’ and seize its weapons. ‘If,’ he wrote, ‘we
succeed in planting in the Reichstag sixty or seventy of our own agitators and organisers,
then the State itself will equip and pay for our fighting machine.’62
AS Germany went to the polls on May 20 it streamed with rain. Nationwide, the Nazi
Party had finished tenth in 1924; it now did rather better, though is share of the vote
in Berlin was poor (only 1·5 percent). Over eight hundred thousand voted for the
Hitler movement, but only thirty-nine thousand Berliners. The Party increased its
126 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
representation in the Reichstag from seven to twelve. Goebbels heard the results at
a jampacked election bash at the Victoria Gardens. They shouldered him around the
hall with whoops of triumph. He would now be a Reichstag deputy: the other eleven
lucky Nazis would include Gregor Strasser, Wilhelm Frick, and Hermann Göring.63
As the spectre of prison faded, he wrote cynically in Angriff: ‘I am an I.d.I. and an
I.d.F.: Inhaber der Immunität and Inhaber der Freifahrkarte,’ possessed of immunity and a
free travel pass. ‘The I.d.I.,’ he continued, ‘can call a dungheap a dungheap. He doesn’t
have to mince his language by calling it a State.’ And he added: ‘This is but a prelude.
You’re going to have a lot of fun with us. It’s show-time!’
1 Albert Grzesinski, typescript me
moirs (BA: Kl.Erw.144)—See too his published memoirs
Inside Germany (New York, 1939), translated by Alexander S Lipschitz; and his brochure
Verwaltungsarbeit im neuen Staat (Berlin, 1928; copy in Friedrich Ebert Stiftung archives.)
2 Zörgiebel to JG, May 5, 1927 (BA: Schumacher collection, 199a).
3 JG to Grzesinski, May 6, 1927 (ibid.)
4 Stuttgart report, May 18, 1927 (police file).
5 Police file.
6 JG to Charlottenburg administrative court (Oberverwaltungsgericht), May 11 (BA:
Schumacher collection, 199a); Zörgiebel to JG, May 23, 1927 (ibid.)
7 Announcement of May 9, 1927 in NSDAP Hauptarchiv (NA film T581, roll 5; BA file
NS.26/133); on Haake, see JG’s diary, Jun 5, 1925; Feb 15, Jun 10, 1926; May 19, 1928.
8 See Hinkel interrogation SAIC/28; and Lippert’s reminiscences in Angriff, Oct 30, 1936
(BA file NS.26/968)
9 Strasser to Hess, Jun 15, 1927 (BDC file, JG)
10 JG to Hitler, Jun 5, 1927 (ibid.)
11 JG to Hess, Jun 9, 1927 (ibid.)
12 Minutes of the meeting (ibid.)
13 Strasser to Hess, Jun 18 (ibid.)
14 Holtz, of Gauuntersuchungs- und Schlichtungsausschuss (Uschla), to Hitler, Jun 17 (ibid.)
15 Bruno Heinemann, minute on meeting with JG, Hitler, Hess, Jun 21, 1927 (ibid.)
16 Police file (NA film T581, roll 52; BA file NS.26/1224). In Aug 1930 the Supreme
Court in Leipzig began an investigation of JG’s speech as an incitement to treason. JG cited
Hermann Esser as a witness that he had not uttered the words alleged. Assize Court Judge
Braune to Police HQ Munich, Aug 13, 21, 1930 and Jan 19, 1931 (ibid.), and see Prussian
ministry of the interior, minute on the NSDAP, Feb 1932 (BA file R.18/3864; IFZ, ED.4)
17 JG leader in Angriff, Oct 5, 1930; and Kampf um Berlin, 1934, 136.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 127
18 VB, Jul 14, 1927; cit. in minute of Feb 1932.
19 JG, Der Nazi-Sozi.. Fragen und Antworten für den Nationalsozialisten (Franz Eher Verlag,
Munich, 1927); JG mentions it in his diary as early as Oct 17, 1926.
20 The Prussian ministry of the interior commented (loc. cit) that the Elberfeld courts had
ordered Der Nazi-Sozi confiscated on Jan 30, 1928; the case against JG was dropped on Aug
31, 1928 in a general amnesty. See too Angriff, Nov 21, 1931.
21 Speech on Sep 14, 1927; cit. in Prussian minute of Feb.1932.
22 Puns on his name: e.g., references to Edelweiss in Angriff No.25, 1927, and to his police
as ‘Weiss-Guards’.
23 Angriff, No.26, 1930, ‘He whose name one may not utter, like the name of the God who
is honoured and prayed to in the temples of his homeland;’ Bering, 275f.
24 Bering, 79ff, disputes that Weiss was humourless; I disagree.
25 Aug 15, 1927; Apr 8, Jun 18, Oct 29, 1928; Mar 11, May 6, 1929.
26 JG, ‘Isidor,’ in Angriff, No.7, Aug 15, 1927; republished in JG’s anthology, Der Angriff.
Aufsätze aus der Kampfzeit (Franz Eher Verlag, Munich, 1936), 307ff.
27 Dokumente, 268.
28 Diary (unpubl.) Feb 18, 128 (Moscow, JG papers, box 2).
29 Eher Verlag to NSDAP Hauptarchiv, Jul 5, 1937 (NA film T581, roll 47; BA file NS.26/
968) Documents in the Hauptarchiv dated Feb 27 and Apr 23, 1936 give these quarterly
average print figures: III/31, 68,600; IV/31, 58,300; I/32, 68,300; II/32, 107,300; III/32,
108,300; IV/32, 110,600; I/33, 103,500; II/33, 119,300; III/33, 100,600; IV/33, 92,000.
JG’s diary gives different figures, a circulation of 80,000 (Mar 12, 1931) and 90,000 (Aug
12, 1931)
30 Albertus Magnus Society files. It had taken them until Nov 12, 1927 to find JG, now
living at No 79/II Frege Strasse in Berlin-Friedenau.
31 Krebs, 161.
32 JG to Ilse Pröhl, Nov 16, 1927 unpubl.; on NS Briefe letterhead (R Hess papers,
Hindelang).
33 Diary, Jan 19, 22, 23; Feb 4, 1928; the unpublished diary Jan—Apr 1928 is in the
Moscow archives, JG papers, Fond 1477, box 5.
34 Ibid., Feb 18, 1928.
35 Ibid., Mar 16, 1928.
36 Police file.
37 Grzesinski MS; Weiss boasted he had 429,686 fingerprint sets on file: B. Weiss, ‘25 Jahre
Kriminalpolizei,’ in Die Polizei, (Berlin, 1928), 212.
38 JG, Das Buch Isidor: Ein Zeitbild voll Lachen und Hass; diary, Feb 20, Mar 3.
39 Diary, Feb 24, 1928.
40 Ibid., Feb 26, 1928.
41 JG to the courts, Mar 12, 1928, Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 24, vol..viii, 8.
42 Diary, Mar 12, 23, 24, 26; Apr 2, 1928; Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 302.
43 Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 24, vol.vii, 16.
44 Diary, Mar 24, 1928.
45 JG to prosecutor, Apr 17, 23, Aug 6, 1928 (Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 24, vol.i)
128 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
46 Regierungsdirektor Wündisch to state prosecutor, Apr 23, 1928 (ibid., vol.iv); Bering,
306.
47 Diary, Apr 28, 1928; op.cit., item 24.
48 Diary, May 4, 5, 12, 13, 1928.
49 Angriff, Sep 9, 1929.
50 Diary, Jun 5, 1928; Berliner Tageblatt, Jun 4; Rote Fahne, Jun 7; Bering, 77.
51 Angriff, Jun 11, 1928; Landesarchiv, Rep.58, item 23. Weiss also prosecuted Ernst Schulz,
Angriff’s printer: ibid, item 28.
52 Diary, Apr 14, 1928.
53 Gau history (BA file NS.26/133).
54 Diary, Apr 16, 20, 1928.
55 Ibid., Apr 17, May 11, 1928.
56 Ibid., Apr 20, 1928.
57 Ibid., Apr 22, 1928.
58 Ibid., May 17, 19, 1928; and K Daluege, ‘Zehn Jahre Berliner S.A.,’ spring 1935, in his
papers, BA file R.19/377 (‘Dr Goebbels mit an unserer Spitze.’)
59 Diary, Feb 26, Apr 3, 1928.—Born Apr 12, 1895, Stennes was an army officer in Aug
1914, formed the Hacketau Freikorps on Jan 1, 1919, employed by Berlin police HQ Jul 19,
1919, promoted to police captain Jun 12, 1920, resigning Jan 28, 1922; joined NSDAP Dec
20, 1927. See ‘Hauptmann Stennes. Ein alter Geheimbündler und Verschwörer’ in Vorwärts
Nr.411, Sep 3, 1930 and ibid, Oct 15, 1929, and 8 Uhr Abendblatt Berlin No.78, Apr 2, 1931;
NSDAP Hauptarchiv file on Stennes (BA: NS.26/1368).
60 Stennes MS and interview, Jul 29, 1968 (IfZ, ZS.1147)
61 Diary, Apr 5, 14; May 10, 16, 1928.
62 Cit. by Manvell & Fraenkel.
63 Diary, May 22, 1928.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 129
Goebbels
8: Anka is to Blame
THERE WERE disadvantages in having such a high profile. On June 19, 1928 the
Catholic charity again wrote to Goebbels from Cologne, suggesting now that
he pay off his ten-year-old debt at fifty marks per month. Their letter was returned
endorsed ‘delivery refused.’
He had resumed the feud with Dr Weiss at once. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT ISIDOR IS BEHAVING
HIMSELF? his newspaper headlined. ‘Yes, indeed: Isidor,’ Goebbels repeated. ‘I’ll
defy the ban. Under the cowardly protection of immunity I’ll name names. Isidor!
The o must be long drawn out, and the r rolled until this name reverberates with
Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death Page 21
