55 Diary, Mar 3, 1937.
56 Lochner to his children, Dec 5, 1937 (State Hist. Soc. of Wisconsin: Lochner papers,
box 47).
424 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
57 See Yivo files G.58, G.60; and JG diary, Dec 3, 1937.
58 Ibid., Mar 6; German FO circular to all missions, Apr 24, 1937 (NA film T120, roll
4673, 4420).
59 Diary, Oct 26, 1937.
60 Ibid., Dec 9, 1937.
61 Ibid., Sep 11, 13, Oct 6, 14, 1937; on the Jewish-organized boycott of German films in
the USA see JG’s unpubl. diary, Mar 15, 16, 1938.
62 Diary, Mar 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 1937.
63 Ibid.Mar 17, 1937.
64 Ibid., Mar 20, 21, Apr 17, Aug 3, 19, 20, 1937.
65 Ibid., Jan 2, 1937.
66 Ibid., Jan 10, 13, 17, 26, 1937.
67 Ibid., Feb 14, 1937.
68 Ibid., Feb 24, 1937.
69 Ibid., Feb 10 and 18; the flooring at Lanke stank of creosote and was having to be
renewed (diary, Jan 4, 1937).
70 Other writers have assumed this famous incident occurred in 1938; but Fröhlich had
sold his villa by Sep 1937 (cf JG diary, Sep 5, 1937). Lida Baarova has stated that it occurred
while she was filming ‘Patrioten’. Filming began late in Jan 1937 (diary, Jan 26), and he
showed the film to his family on Apr 20, 1937 (diary). I have preferred to follow her version
(see notes to previous chapter) than Fröhlich’s.
71 Diary, May 16, 1937.
72 Ibid., Jul 27, 1937.
73 Author’s interview of Lida Baarova, Salzburg, Jul 4, 1993. ‘I had not gone … the whole
way. Noch nicht ganz.‘
74 Author’s interview of Lida Baarova, Salzburg, Jul 4, 1993.
75 Ibid.
76 Stan Czech, op.cit.; otherwise based on her testimony.
77 Baarova interviews, especially with WDR and with the author.
78 Diary, Feb 25, 1937; the actress was Irene von Meyendorff.
79 Ibid., Feb 28, 1937.
80 Ibid., Feb 2, Mar 3, Apr 3, 13; she may be referred to in the entry of Mar 22, 1937 about
a grey Sunday at Lanke: ‘But indoors it is warm and comfortable… Sat as model. Gossiped.
Read until late. Then stayed out at Bogensee. And a long, beneficial sleep.’
81 Ibid., Feb 10, 17, 1937.
82 Ibid., Mar 21, 22, Apr 13, 16, 1937.
83 Ibid., Mar 24, 1937.
84 Ibid., Apr 13, 1937.
85 Ilse Hess to Magda, Jan 21, 1938 (Rudolf Hess papers, Hindelang).
86 Diary, Apr 1, 2, 13, 25, 1937.
87 Ibid., May 15, 1937.
88 Ibid., Apr 17–19, 25; Prof Paul Baumgarten took over the design work, but Hitler did
not at first like his model: Ibid., Aug 24, Oct 7, 17, 1937.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 425
89 Ibid., May 3, 26; Hitler had already spoken of this aim to JG (diary, Feb 23, 1937); he
repeated it a year later (unpubl. diary, Sep 18, 1938).
90 Speech reported by Phipps to FO, Feb 15 (pro file FO.371/20709); diary, Feb 14, 1937.
91 Diary, May 29, 30; on Ribbentrop: Mar 3, 3; May 17, 22; Oct 27, Nov 16, 1937.
92 Thus JG said in Reichenberg, ‘When one has the feeling that the time is ripe, the Goddess
of History is descending on earth, and the hem of her mantle is touching mankind.’
(British embassy to FO, Nov 25, 1938: PRO file FO.371/21665).
93 Diary, Feb 5, 13, Mar 4, 12, Apr 22, 23, 30, May 8, 27, Jun 19, 30, 1937. Speaking at
lunch on Jul 17, 1942, Hitler blamed JG for the failure to carry out his pre war instructions
to set up the cable radio (Picker, Table Talk, 455f).
94 Diary, Feb 13, 1937; the Drahtfunk system, first devised in 1934, carried high-frequency
radio transmissions over telephone wires to existing radio sets. See OSS R&A Report
No.2100, May 29, 1944. Ministerialrat Schroeder of the Post ministry reported to the
Defence Council session of Apr 21, 1937 that cable radio would provide three programmes;
it would take four or five more years to ring it to all radio subscribers. (NA film T77, roll
131, 3465ff).
95 Diary, Feb 18, 1937.
96 Ibid., Oct 13, 1937.
97 Ibid., Oct 15, 17, Dec 2, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29. Ogilvie Forbes to FO, Dec 30 (PRO
file FO.371/20919); on Dec 7, 1937 the British ambassador in Egypt had expressed puzzlement
as to why JG and Fritsch should be visiting Egypt at the same time as Himmler was in
Libya (ibid.)
98 Borresholm; diary, Jul 31, Aug 1, 1937; interviews of Col von Below, 1967.
99 Diary, Aug 3, 1937.
100 Ibid., Sep 14, 1937.
101 FO minute on Kirkpatrick’s report, Sep 10 (PRO file FO.371/20749). That day
Henderson sat between Himmler and JG, the two men whom ‘he most distrusted’, at Hess’s
castle for lunch. Henderson to FO, Sep 12, 1937 (ibid., /20722).
102 Diary, Sep 3, 7, 8, 1937. BDIC/FIR/31 interrogation of Sauerbruch, Oct 10, 1945
(NA file RG.332, ETO Mis-Y, Sect box 22).
103 Minute by Ridsdale, FO, on conversation with Daily Mail Oct 2, 1937 (PRO file FO.371/
21176).
104 Diary, Nov 5, 1937; JG had spoken at Bad Segeburg on Oct 10, 1937 about Germany’s
need for colonies (Ogilvie Forbes to FO, Oct 11, 1937 (PRO file FO.371/20722).
105 Diary, Oct 19, 20, 22, 27, Nov 3, 4, 1937.
106 Ibid., Nov 6, 1937.
107 This was the notorious ’Hossbach conference’ of Nov 5, 1937: a partial transcript, ND:
386-PS. Cf Walter Bussmann, in VfZ, 1968, 373ff, and General Ludwig Beck’s commentary
(BA file N.28/4).
108 Diary, Nov 17, 1937.
109 Ogilvie Forbes to FO, Oct 21, 1937 (PRO file FO.371/20736); on Jan 4, 1938 he
described JG as ‘small, dark and Jewish in appearance’ with one leg crippled (Ibid., /21671).
110 Diary, Jan 7, 1938: Eden was a ‘danger to Britain’ as her foreign secretary.
426 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
111 JG had demanded that Low’s cruel cartoons of Hitler be suppressed. See Rex Leeper’s
memo of Dec 9, 1937 (PRO file FO.371/20737).
112 Diary, Nov 22; Henderson, memo on JG’s talk with Halifax, Nov 21 (PRO file FO.371/
20736); diary of Lord Halifax, Nov 21, 1937 (Ibid., and Borthwick Institute, York Univ.:
Hickleton papers).
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 427
Goebbels
28: Something about March
ONCE in 1937 Harald Quandt, now sixteen, tiptoes into his stepfather’s study
at Schwanenwerder and finds him writing in a diary. He sees three other
diaries on the desk. Consumed by curiosity, in 1938 he picks the lock, rummages
around, and finds one of the notebooks; to his disappointment the handwriting is
illegible.1
Joseph Goebbels has now filled sixteen such books, and he has begun a seventeenth,
as usual with a motto: ‘Don’t look back, keep marching on!’ This 1938 volume
will cover 476 closely written pages.* Probably he himself no longer knows
why he is writing a diary. Few diarists do. It would take a psychiatrist to explain the
narcissistic self-pity, the recurring proclamations of dire physical exhaustion, and the
broad hints at Magda’s infidelities (which were clearly not intended for publication
in this form.) The text is often stupefyingly banal, and he no longer reveals all to the
diary that was once like Jiminy Cricket, his ‘dear therapeutic conscience’.2 Thus the
new 1938 volume will draw a veil across his
politically subversive views, as well as
his own familial misdemeanours. The diary tells us of his profound misgivings about
* Transcribed and annotated by the author on behalf of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore,
Milan, this previously unknown Goebbels diary, February 11 to October 26, 1938, is
published by Focal Point, London, 1994.
428 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Hitler’s brinkmanship only after the Munich agreement has removed the threat of
war; and we hear nothing of Lida Baarova at all.
THE first weeks of 1938 had brought an important reorganisation of his ministry,
originating in Hjalmar Schacht’s replacement as minister of economics by Goebbels’
Staatssekretär Walter Funk, a move which Goebbels himself had suggested.3 Funk
had been the government’s press spokesman, and Hitler appointed the party’s press
chief Otto Dietrich to the vacant position. ‘I’ve just promoted you to Staatssekretär,’
Hitler called out to Dietrich as he walked past. ‘Minister Goebbels hasn’t signed it
yet, but he will—you can bank on that.’4 Goebbels moved swiftly—his dislike for
Dietrich was by now notorious—and divided up Funk’s old functions, promoting
his trusted chief aide Karl Hanke to senior Staatssekretär as well as Dietrich.5 To
Hanke’s old post as personal assistant Goebbels appointed at his recommendation on
December 6, 1937 Dr Werner Naumann, the former chief of propaganda in Breslau.6
At the time, Naumann was only twenty-eight. Tall, slim, and athletic, he was a
fanatical believer in National Socialism with the accent, where Goebbels too placed
it, on the latter word. At seventeen he had already been concerned about the prevailing
social injustices in Germany. A young man had invited him to a Nazi discussion
evening and he fell in with them at once, joining the party late in 1928; in Berlin he
had befriended Horst Wessel, and worked on Goebbels’ propaganda staff in Berlin in
1929. Voluble and hard-working, self-assured but moody, Naumann would become
Goebbels’ closest confidant, outlasting all the others, and in the final days succeeding
him as minister.7 His party record had in fact been seriously flawed: in 1933 he had
become commander of No.9 S.A. Brigade in Stettin and at the time of the Röhm
putsch he was an S.A. Standartenführer. After trying unsuccessfully to flee that day
he was relieved of his command, and imprisoned for eight weeks accused of having
known of the plot. ‘Naumann,’ his successor Friedrich spitefully reported, ‘a §175er
[homosexual], was introduced to Pomerania by Heines. He got No.9 Brigade, Stettin,
immediately. Heydebreck and Naumann were close friends.”8 (The S.A. commanders
Heines, Heydebreck, and Spreti—all his friends—were shot.) Accused too of
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 429
homosexuality and of permitting financial irregularities in his brigade Naumann had
been expelled from the S.A., and then from the party on December 3, 1934. He had
returned to university in 1935, studied oriental languages, and gained a doctorate in
politics before being rehabilitated in 1936 when the principal accusations against
him proved unfounded.
In his little speech introducing Hanke and Dietrich to their respective staffs,
Goebbels made clear that Dietrich would have no say in the ministry, and that his
preferred confidant was Hanke.9 His faith in Hanke, this handsome, dynamic Silesian,
was unspoken and implicit. Hanke gained automatic in-and-out access to Hitler’s
chancellery.10 He was privy to Goebbels’ tax affairs11, he had introduced him to the
architect Albert Speer, he would undertake delicate missions for him.12 Goebbels
gave him the keys to his private despatch box—an act of trust which ultimately led
to his undoing, because Hanke became an even firmer friend and adviser of Magda
too.
From now until 1945 Otto Dietrich was a thorn in Goebbels’ flesh. Dietrich claimed
to be, not Reich minister Goebbels’ subordinate as Staatssekretär, but his equal as
Reichsleiter, with only Hitler having the authority to arbitrate between them; and
since he was attached to Hitler’s personal staff he—and not Goebbels—effectively
controlled the essential political news output of the daily press. Nor was Goebbels’
ministry later able to attach its own man to Hitler’s headquarters comparable with
Hewel, Koeppen, Bodenschatz, and the military adjutants. The minister swore later
that Dietrich was not even a real Reichsleiter—he had had a tailor run up a fantasy
uniform for him as ‘Reichspressechef’ to which he had stitched the same badges of
rank as a Reichleiter; Hitler, said Goebbels, had good-naturedly allowed Dietrich his
conceit.13 There is a ring of authenticity about the story.
AS a storm rumbles and lashes the little lake at Lanke in August 1937 Goebbels finds
it too melancholy there and drives back to Berlin where he sends for Lida’s film
‘Patriots’ once more.14 He and Magda are drifting apart. As in 1936, she stays away
from the 1937 Nuremberg rally. Unhappy at the multiplying rumours of her hus-
430 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
band’s behaviour, she accusingly sends him a copy of the latest communist Red Flag
which contains the latest scandal. Goebbels splutters, ‘A pack of bloody lies,’ and
buys her off with a silver coffee service.15 Despite all her doctor’s warnings she has
become pregnant again. Professor Walter Stöckel, her gynæcologist, urges her to
withdraw entirely from social life and to rest out at Schwanenwerder.16 Goebbels
spends more and more time out at Lanke, although Lida is not always there. Now
approaching the apogee of her career, she often films in Prague as well as in
Babelsberg.17 For whatever the reason Goebbels spends much of his time away from
Magda and the children. His diary makes no explicit comment on this, but notes the
days when he is with his home and family.18 No matter how late he arrives when
visiting Schwanenwerder, he wraps his toddlers in blankets and shows them the latest
movie. They become his best critics. ‘He acts so well,’ says Helga about film star
Otto Gebühr, ‘that you can’t even tell he’s acting.’ (He records too her cute praise for
Mussolini, paying a state visit to Berlin: ‘The other Führer’s quite nice too!’ she
says.)19
There is no doubt about his own favourite film star. In October 1937 he reads a
film treatment of Dostoyevsky’s novel ‘The Gambler.’ The lead role goes to Lida
Baarova. She signs up with Tobis to play Rosalinde in a film version of ‘Die Fledermaus’.
Simultaneously she makes a successful stage debut in Berlin, taking the title role in
Hermann Bahr’s ‘Josephine’ in December. Goebbels rapturously leads the applause,
and is enchanted all over again by his Liduschka’s performance.20 ‘I have never loved
another woman as much as you,’ he confesses to her.
The raise in his ministerial salary has resolved some problems, but invited others.21
Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death Page 70
