threat, Schleicher began to cultivate Gregor Strasser instead of Hitler. Goebbels
learned that they had met on Sunday the fourth, and that Schleicher had offered to
Strasser the vice-chancellorship which Hitler had spurned, and had hinted at ministerial
positions for any other renegade Nazis as well.
The new Reichstag would shortly meet. As Hitler warned the Nazi bloc in harsh
terms about any tendency toward compromise, Goebbels saw Strasser’s features
harden. Two days later, hearing more specific rumours about Strasser’s treachery,
Hitler took him to task. Strasser took his hat and left: left the room, left politics, and
ultimately (nineteen months later) his life. Streicher called out, ‘Exit the traitor!’
Goebbels limped from group to group of the Nazi deputies, dispensing further details
of Strasser’s treachery.
At midday on the eighth Hitler received at the Kaiserhof a letter from Strasser
resigning all his high party offices on account of the refusal to cut a deal with the new
chancellor.58 Simultaneously Strasser invited all the senior gauleiters—whom Hitler
had just appointed as Landesinspekteuren—to meet him (except Goebbels). Since August,
he told them, Hitler had displayed no clear line except for his monotonous
demand to be chancellor. ‘He has got to realize that in the long run he has no prospect
of attaining this target.’ He refused to see the party ruined. Nor would he put
up any longer with the intriguing by Hitler’s entourage. ‘I have no desire to fall in
behind Göring, Goebbels, Röhm, and the rest.’ (According to Hans Frank he described
Göring as a brutal egoist who cared nothing for Germany, Goebbels as ‘a
280 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
hobbling devil,’ and Röhm as a ‘swine.’59) One gauleiter later described: ‘After the
individual participants had overcome their dismay, they went off bewildered—like
children who have lost their father.’ Gauleiter Rust took word of Strasser’s mutinous
remarks to Hitler at the Kaiserhof.60
At two A.M. Goebbels found Hitler there studying the first edition of the Täglicher
Rundschau. It headlined Strasser’s bid for power. ‘If the party falls apart now,’ he told
Goebbels, ‘I’ll finish myself off in three minutes!’61
The morning’s ‘Judenpresse’ fawned on Strasser, which probably sobered down
some of his supporters.62 Only Gottfried Feder had foolishly echoed his complaints.63
After that day’s Reichstag session—it adjourned until mid-January 1933—Hitler
spoke to all the gauleiters in his suite at the Kaiserhof. His speech was a masterpiece
of tragic oratory, and probably saved the party from oblivion.64 If they deserted him
now, said Hitler, his life’s work no longer had any purpose. ‘Apart from this movement
and my appointed mission,’ he appealed, glancing at the portable bust of Geli
on the mantlepiece, ‘I have nothing now that could detain me on this earth.’ He tore
apart Strasser’s arguments of the day before. Strasser had hinted at the path of illegality.
But General Walter von Reichenau had warned that the army and police would
open fire. Reichenau himself had urged patience—the party, he said, was bound to
achieve power legally sooner or later. The whole speech was ‘fabulously surefooted,’
in Goebbels’ words—
annihilating for Strasser… Spontaneous ovation at the end, everybody gave Hitler
his hand. Strasser is isolated. A dead man! I have fought for six years for this.65
Hitler was unquestionably the master, and Strasser only the sorcerer’s apprentice.
Two months later, events would prove Hitler’s strategy correct: and this would temper
the loyalty of every high party official who had tortured his conscience this day.
Still reluctant to make a final break, Hitler’s press office announced that Strasser
had only gone on three weeks’ leave.66 Goebbels’ newspaper published a more malicious
valedictory; he had to disown it the same day.67 He would continue his feud
with Strasser to the bitter end. As for Strasser, he had left for the sunnier climes of
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 281
Italy; he told friends afterwards that Germany was now at the mercy of a congenital
liar from Austria and a clubfooted dwarf, of which the latter was the worst. ‘He is
Satan in a human’s image.’68
1 Göring had met Emmy in the spring of 1932 on the Weimar stage, and sent her a telegram
from Capri in May.
2 Quoted by Erwin Giesing in USFET MISC report OI SR/36, ‘Adolf Hitler. A Composite
Picture,’ Mar 12, 1947 (NA: RG.407, entry 427, box 1954F).
3 Diary, Jun 13, 1932.
4 For the prosecution of Röhm for homosexual offences since 1925 see Landesarchiv
Berlin, Rep.58, item 517; a case against Berlin editors for publishing Munich court documents
against Röhm is ibid., item 710.
5 See e.g. Konstantin Hierl to Hitler, Mar 24, 1932 (Hoover Libr., NSDAP papers, box 2.)
6 H R Knickerbocker MS, ‘Nazi Germany’ (Syracuse Univ. George Arents Research Libr.,
Dorothy Thompson papers, box 2); for JG’s letter to Knickerbocker, Mar 8, 1932 see Columbia
univ., New York, Rare Book and MS Libr., Knickerbocker papers).
7 Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, vol.iii,.
8 Kaiserhof, Apr 26–30, 1932.
9 Diary, May 25; Kaiserhof, May 24, 1932.
10 Lohse MS; Kaiserhof, May 12, 1932.—Case files on JG’s antisemitic libels against Weiss
on May 12 are in Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 721.
11 JG’s secretariat to lawyer Dr Otto Kamecke, Sep 2, 1932 (ZStA Potsdam, Rep 90 Go 1,
Bd.2).
12 Tax accountant Paul Schüler to JG, Jan 2, 1933 (Hoover Libr., JG papers, box 2).
13 Diary, May 22–23, 1932. Not all was idyllic’ the diary on May 24 has Magda ‘irritating’
JG, but on May 30 ‘she is clever and pretty.’
14 Kampmann MS, May 13, 1938 (op. cit.)
15 JG to Otto Born et al., Jun 9, 1932 (NSDAP archives. NA film T581, roll 11a, BA file
NS.26/1224).
16 Angriff, Jun 14, 1932; Grzesinski MS.
17 Kaiserhof, Jun 24–25; diary Jul 2, 1932.
18 BA file R.55/1280.
19 Diary, Jul 6; Kaiserhof, Jul 10, 18, 1932. For JG’s broadcast script, with Gayl’s handwritten
cuts, see BA file R.55/1273.
20 Gau Gross-Berlin, candidates’ list, Jul 4, 1932 (NSDAP archives, NA film T581, roll 29,
BA file NS.26/546).
282 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
21 JG, declaration, Berlin, Jul 6, 1932 (original in Princeton Univ., Seeley Mudd Libr.,
Adolf Hitler collection.); for the one signed by Gauleiter Herbert Albrecht, Jul 5, 1932 see
his BDC file.
22 The Neuer Deutscher Verlag was prosecuted for publishing Goebbels’ picture with the
caption: ‘How’d it be, aside from murdering the workers, to bump off Superman Goebbels
too!’ (Landesarchiv Berlin, Rep.58, item 705.)
23 See the report in Hamburger Volkszeitung, Jul 16–17, 1932, and the Severing papers,
folder 192, in the Friedrich Ebert foundation.—Dokumente; Grzesinski MS; Kaiserhof, Jul
17, 1932.
24 For Severing’s dismissal see folders 193–6 and 317–322 of his papers in the Friedrich
Ebert foundation in Bonn; for his intercession on Dr Weiss’ behalf, folder 50.
25 Grzesinski MS
.
26 Captured by the Nazis, they were put on display in 1936. Angriff Oct 30, 1936.
27 Kampmann, op.cit.
28 Milch diary, Aug 1932; for correspondence on these negotiatons see BA file NS.51/14.
29 Diary, Aug 8–11, 1932.
30 The Wirtin in Fröhlich’s transcription of the diary, Aug 10, should of course read ‘Werlin’—
Jakob Werlin.
31 Diary, Aug 11, 1932.
32 Press release, Aug 12, 1932.
33 Papers and correspondence on Hitler’s talks with Papen, Aug 13, 1932, are in Party
chancellery files, NA film T120, roll 2621, pp. E381901ff; BA file NS.51/14).
34 Diary, Aug 15–18, 1932.
35 Kaiserhof, Aug 30–31, 1932; Milch diary, Aug 31, Sep 8, 1932 (Author’s film DJ-59).
36 Diary, Sep 19, 1932.
37 Ibid.
38 RPL, circular to gauleiters, Oct 17, 1932 (BA file NS.26/263).
39 Ditto, Oct 19 (ibid); and Angriff, Oct 20, 1932.
40 RPL circular to gauleiters, Oct 20, 1932.
41 Ditto, Oct 25, 1932.
42 Unsere Nation, No.18, Sep 15, and No.19, Oct 1, 1932.
43 RPL circular to gauleiters, Oct 27, 1932 (loc. cit.)
44 Kampmann, op. cit.
45 DAZ, Nov 3, 1932.
46 Leopold Gutterer, MS, 28 (Niedersächsisches Staatsarchiv, Wolfenbüttel: File 250 N.317).
47 Diary, Nov 8, 1932.
48 Angriff, No.230, Nov 7, 1932.
49 Diary, Nov 9; Kaiserhof, Nov 8, 1932.
50 Hitler to Papen, Nov 16, 1932 (NA film T120, roll 2621).
51 See note by Reichstag deputy Dr Hans Eugen Fabricius on this resignation, Nov 17,
1932 (BA file NS.26/4).
52 Hitler to Hindenburg, Nov 21 (NA film T120, roll 2621).
53 Hitler to Meissner, Nov 23, 1932 (ibid.)
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 283
54 VB,Ê Nov 25, 1932.—The original draft dated Nov 23 has all four signatures in the same
hand and Strasser’s appears to have been rubbed out (ibid.) Lohse, MS, doubts he did sign.
55 Lohse MS.
56 Diary, Dec 1, 1932.
57 For remarks by Schleicher and Ott on why they accepted, at defence ministry conferences
Dec 13–15, 1932 see General Liebmann’s papers in IfZ, ED.1, pp.257ff; also Dr Otto
Meissner’s MS, ‘Der Weg der Regierung,’ Sep 22, 1945 (US State dept. files.)
58 Diary, Dec 9, 1932; according to Wagener (IfZ: ZS.1732), Funk’s former secretary once
told him that Goebbels had helped Strasser dictate the letter in Funk’s apartment. There is no
confirmation of this odd detail in the diary.
59 Hans Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens. Deutung Hitlers und seiner Zeit auf Grund eigener Erlebnisse
und Erkenntnisse (Munich, 1953), 108. Frank wrote this MS in Nuremberg prison, and Justice
Robert H Jackson retrieved it.
60 Lohse MS.
61 Diary, Dec 9, 1932.
62 Vossische Zeitung, Dec 9, 10, 1932.
63 Diary, Dec 10; Feder subsequently published a cringing declaration of loyalty in Angriff,
No.258, Dec 10, 1932.
64 Based on Lohse’s MS.
65 Diary, Dec 10, 1932.
66 VB, Dec 9, 1932.
67 Angriff, No.257, Dec 9, 1932.
68 Quoted by Heiber, 104.
284 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
Goebbels
19: ‘It’s all Fixed!’
WE have just completed,’ reported Louis P. Lochner in December 1932,
‘one of the hardest months of reporting in my career: those days when
the Kaiserhof had to be watched every hour to see what Hitler was going to do next
about his bid for power; then the days during which the von Schleicher cabinet was
formed after the wily general had won the race against von Papen; still later, the new
Reichstag with its flying spittoons, chairs, desks, and chandeliers as “impressive” arguments
—I tell you,’ Lochner added to his family, ‘we had no end of excitement.’1
Goebbels had inevitably neglected the provincial election in Thuringia and the party’s
vote there slumped by forty percent. Wakening to the realisation that the Nazi
party was in danger of electoral extinction, he took immediate action to revitalize
the propaganda campaign: blaming Lippert for the tactless remarks about Strasser,
he replaced him as editor of Angriff by Kampmann.2 Hanke told him that the deputy
chief of national propaganda, Heinz Franke, had allowed his Munich organisation to
go to seed. Goebbels replaced him with Wilhelm Haegert, a sound and popular attorney
on his own legal staff.3
After consultation with Goebbels, on December 15 Hitler drafted a memorandum
explaining how the party was to pack more punch into the election battle.4
In the first two weeks of Schleicher’s chancellorship a quarter-million more Germans
had been thrown out of work. On December 15 the general delivered an insipid
broadcast on his economic programme. Goebbels wrote a caustic commentary
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 285
in Angriff entitled ‘The Programme without a Programme.’ The people were now too
weak, he wrote there a few days later, even to clench their fists.5
As he toured the gau’s Christmas parties at the historic Pharus rooms and the
Veterans building, he found worse scenes of poverty than ever before.6
RETURNING home immediately after the Strasser brouhaha he has found Magda feeling
ill. She is pregnant again. He is still madly in love with her—Magda tells Ello that
their honeymoon is going to last ten more years yet.7 Her husband worries constantly
about her as he mounts his new propaganda campaign. His hours grow longer
and longer. Sometimes he creeps in at three A.M.; when Magda weakly scolds him he
brings her roses. Her illness will not go away. When, at some of the Christmas parties,
he glances at the beautiful society women, Providence immediately raps his
knuckles. Magda collapses on Christmas Eve and is borne off in floods of tears with
a miscarriage. ‘Just perfect,’ he curses in his diary. ‘Now everybody else has their
gifts and fare, let my own Christmas begin!’8 He and Harald set up a Christmas tree
outside her ward and wheel the whole glittering contraption in.
Then, thrusting aside all the trappings of Christmas, he sketches out for Magda on
a white-lacquered clinic stool his plan for the upcoming election campaign in little
Lippe. The Nazi party will focus its entire national propaganda machinery on the tiny
rural constituency, like a burning glass. None of the other parties is bothering with
Lippe’s 150,000 voters.9 He has Hitler alone speak at sixteen meetings there.
Hitler invites the Goebbels family to the Obersalzberg. Leaving Magda in the clinic,
Goebbels takes Harald down there on then twenty-eighth but the news from Berlin
steadily worsens and he begins to brood upon the unimaginable, a future without
Magda. He pays scant attention to the seismic sounds of fresh political upheaval—
the renewed billets doux from Papen and Alvensleben to Hitler. All joy has left the
political fray. New Year’s Eve brings word of a relapse and of Magda refusing to eat.
Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death Page 46