A politician and Hitler’s propaganda minister, Goebbels was arguably one of the most skillful and cynical propagandists of the twentieth century.
Joseph Goebbels, German minister of propaganda, attends a demonstration in 1934.
Although a serious childhood illness left him with a clubfoot, he excelled academically as a student. In 1921 he graduated from the University of Heidelberg with a doctorate. After fruitless attempts to make a living as journalist, writer, or dramatic adviser, he began his political career by joining the Nazi Party (NSDAP). His antibourgeois attitudes made him a sympathizer with the Strasser wing of the party, but in 1926 he took Hitler’s side in an internal power struggle and subsequently advanced in the party hierarchy. Hitler appointed him leader of the Berlin NSDAP the same year. Goebbels became one of the party’s most prominent and effective speakers, easily exploiting the freedom that a democratic society granted even its fiercest enemies. As editor of the party newspaper Der Angriff (The Attack) he fashioned it into a powerful propaganda weapon. He became a member of parliament in 1928 and served as the Nazi Party’s national propaganda leader beginning in 1929. Continuing to organize demonstrations and unrest to disrupt democratic order, he was one of the major figures to turn the NSDAP into a powerful political force. In 1930 he succeeded in persuading the German government to ban temporarily the film All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).
On 13 March 1933, shortly after the Nazis assumed power in Germany, Goebbels became minister for “Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.” Newspapers, radio, film, and all other cultural activities were brought in line with the dictatorship’s principle of coordination (Gleichschaltung). As president of the Chamber of Culture (autumn 1933), it was primarily Goebbels who defined the new “German culture.” Despite some competitors in the field like Alfred Rosenberg (18931946), Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945), and Hermann Goering (1893-1946), he remained the central figure of propaganda in Nazi Germany. His influence upon Hitler varied, reaching its weakest point during Goebbels’s affair with Czechoslovakian actress Lida Baarova (1914-2000), which threatened his ministerial position. The outbreak of war took Goebbels by surprise, but he soon turned the German newsreel into a gripping part of his film program, personally supervising the latest installments. His role became even more important when the nature of the war altered. His rallying cries and the part he took in reorganizing the armaments industry definitely contributed to the prolongation of the war.
As Goebbels often and quite frankly explained, his convictions about propaganda were based on the dual assumption that propaganda and truth had no necessary connection and that the best type of propaganda was that which was not felt by the audience. These assumptions resulted in a mixture of demagogic presentations and seemingly apolitical entertainment. Organizing the anti-Semitic pogroms of 9 November 1938, promoting Hitler as a messiah, and forcing his audience to support “total war” during his infamous speech delivered in February 1943, he proved his ability as a ruthless and effective propagandist. His policy resulted in overtly propagandistic attempts in radio and film combined with a wealth of supposedly non-political works. This combination altered with the political situation, with a preponderance of pure propaganda in the first years of the war. Nevertheless he consistently aimed to keep the people content, which gave his approach to propaganda an undeniable modern touch. An agitator against bolshevism, democracy, and liberalism and a preacher of hate, Goebbels did not merely threaten people or make them obey his message; he also calculated the effects of entertainment sanitized of any forbidden or subversive qualities. His loyalty to Hitler was finally rewarded when the dictator declared him his successor as chancellor (with Admiral Karl Donitz [1891-1980]) in his last will and testament. A few hours after Hitler committed suicide, Goebbels and his wife poisoned their six children before following the example of their leader.
