Doctor Goebbels: His Life & Death
Page 63
R.58/739). VB, Mar 29.—Unpubl. diary, May 9, 13, 1935.
40 Ibid., Jan 10, 1935.
41 Ibid., Jan 12, 1935. ‘In her second month… I hope, I hope it’s a boy!’
42 Diary, Mar 22, Aug 1, 15, Sep 8, 1935.
43 Unpubl. diary, Apr 9, 11, 1935.
382 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
44 Diary, Apr 29, Sep 19, 25, Oct 1, 1935.
45 Ibid., Apr 15, Aug 1, Sep 4, 1935.
46 Ibid., Apr 21, 23, 1935.
47 Ibid., Jul 3, 1935 (‘I console her to the best of my ability’).
48 Ibid., Jul 8, 1935.
49 Ibid., Jul 13, 1935.
50 Fromm diary, Nov ,12, 1935.
51 Diary, Aug 3, 1935.
52 Ibid., Jul 25, Aug 9, 15, 27, 31, 1935.
53 Ibid., Sep 25, 1935.
54 Ibid., Oct 3, 1935.
55 Ibid., Oct 5, 1935. Otto Meissner’s wife later claimed the real father was Hitler: Stars &
Stripes, Oct 9, 1946.
56 Post mortem on Hellmut Goebbels, May 1945; Behrend, op. cit., No.8, Feb 23, 1952;
JG diary, Oct 3, 1941 on the need to put Hellmut with other boys. ‘Nothing’ll come of a boy
who grows up surrounded by girls.’ (BA file NL.118/28).
57 Diary, Oct 24, 1935.
58 Ibid., Nov 21, 1935.
59 Ibid., Oct 26, 1935.
60 Ibid., Oct 24, 1935; and ZStA Potsdam,Rep.50.01, vol.748.
61 t 9, 1935.
62 Borresholm, 139.
63 Diary, Dec 9, 11, 1935.
64 JG to Anka, Christmas 1935 (Irene Prange papers); diary, Jan 1, 9, 1936.
65 Ibid., Jan 11, 19, 21, 23, 1936.
66 Ibid., Jan 29, 1936.
67 Ibid., Jan 29, 1936.
68 Ibid., Mar 4, 1936.
69 Ibid., Aug 21–27, 1935; JG’s testimony in subsequent court proceedings, 1936 (BA file
Kl.Erw.550); Daluege’s final report (BA file R.19/77), and police file (ibid., /406).
70 Diary, Oct 11, 13, 1935; the deaths of Gauleiter Wilhelm Loeper and Ministerialrat
Otto Laubinger, head of his Dept.VI, Theatre also unsettled him: Ibid., Oct 24, 26, 28; Nov
1, 9, 1935.
71 Newton to Hoare, Jul 31, 1935 (PRO file FO.371/18858).
72 Diary, Dec 1, 1935; Borresholm, 137f.
73 Diary, Jan 11, 13, 19, 1936. Staging his own press ball he was careful to pre-empt
comparisons (ibid., Jan 17, 1936).
74 Ibid., Oct 6, 1936.
75 Ibid., Oct 13, 1935.
76 RMVP budget for fiscal 1935. Revenues were 18·45m marks higher than estimated;
increased domestic propaganda and cultural efforts would increase costs to 37,893,650 marks,
partly offset by savings from closing down the Pornographic Literature Censorship office.
Rebuilding the opera house had cost 2.9m. JG’s ministerial salary was 102,840 marks less
21,640 across-the-board cut, or 86,000 net ($21,000). (ZStA Potsdam, Rep 50.01, vol.1059).
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 383
77 Julian Petley, Capital and Culture. German Cinema 1933-45 (London, 1979), 60; Viktoria
de Grazia, ‘Mass Culture and Sovereignty. The American Challenge to European Cinemas,
1920–1960,’ in Journal of Modern History, vol.61, Mar 1989, 53ff.
78 Diary, Oct 15, 1935.
79 Premiere in Munich’s Gloria Palace cinema, Mar 28; Best Film, May 1; major triumph
at Venice festival (diary, Aug 27, 1935).
80 Interview with Riefenstahl, Jul 15, 1989. Ufa Filmverleih loaned her 300,000 marks to
make ‘Triumph,’ of which she used 270,000. JG diary, Mar 25 (unpubl.), Aug 17, 21; Oct 3,
10; Nov 7, 1935.
81 Ibid., Nov 27, 1935.
82 Ibid., Jul 21, 23, Aug 17, 1935.
83 Ibid., Sep 6, 9, 1935.
84 Interrogation of Hans Fritzsche, Nov 1, 1946 (ZStA Nuremberg, F86); and Karl Hederich,
Jul 9, 1948 (ibid., G15).
85 Diary, Jul 15; he referred to the demo in a speech at Essen, Aug 4; Newton to Hoare,
Aug 6, 1935 (PRO file FO.371/18858).
86 12 Uhr Blatt, Feb 17, 1933.
87 Rösner to legal dept of SA-Gruppe Berlin-Brandenburg, May 4, 1935, quoting witnesses
Oberführer von Arnim and (the late) Karl Ernst. Hanussen’s killers were named as
the SA men Schmidt alias Schweinbacke, Obersturmbannführer Ohst (Ernst’s adjutant),
and Steinle (BDC file, Helldorff).
88 SA Gruppe Berlin-Brandenburg to Röhm, Mar 29, 1933 (BDC file, Helldorff).
89 Rösner minute, Feb 2, 1935; in Helldorff’s file (BDC) are receipts for 500 and 1,000
marks signed by him on Feb 9 and Mar 4, and by Stabsführer von Arnim for 400 marks on
Mar 4, 1933.
90 Diary, Jul 19, 1935; and BDC file, Helldorff.
91 Manchester Guardian, Aug 24, 1935: ‘Starving out the Jews.’ RMVP to German FO, Sep 9,
1935 (NA film T120, roll 467, 4318).
92 Taubert report.—Acquitted at the Reichstag fire trial, Torgler had been taken into ‘protective
custody’ during which he and fellow communist deputy Maria Reese jointly wrote
this manuscript. The book was suppressed (JG diary, Dec 2), but Torgler himself was freed
(diary, Dec 23, 1935); Hitler subsequently paid him 800 marks monthly as a consultant
provided he did not resume his public career (diary, Dec 25–6, 1937). In 1940 he began
working for the RMVP’s black transmitters. See BA files R.55/450, 567, and 1289.
93 Kommunismus ohne Maske (Munich, 1935); Phipps to Hoare, Sep 16, 1935 (PRO file
FO.371/18883).
94 For Hitler’s reluctance, see e.g. diary, Jun 25, 1936: ‘Führer strongly disapproves of
work of all the race agencies.’
95 Circular directive by Hinkel to presidents of the sub-chambers, Apr 29, 1936 (BA file
R.56V/102).
96 Ibid., Sep 17, 1935.
97 Ibid., Oct 1, 5, Nov 1, 7, 15, 1935.
98 Ibid., Sep 19, 1935.
384 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
99 Ibid., Sep 25, 1935. The Bundesarchiv would not permit me to review the missing
word. See Introduction.
100 Ibid., Oct 1, 1935.
101 Ibid., Oct 19; Cabinet, Oct 18; and see Oct 26, Nov 15, 1935.
102 Ibid., Nov 1, 1935.
103 Ibid., Nov 6, 1935. Emil Ludwig, Der Mord in Davos (Amsterdam, 1936), on which see
ZStA Rep.50.01 file 998.
104 Ibid., Dec 9–16, 1936. Speaking at Magdeburg in ‘impressive language’ (Phipps) on the
world menace of Jewry, JG stated: ‘I regret that the foreign press should display the attitude
“it is not the murderer but the murder victim who is guilty”’ (Phipps to FO, Feb 22, 1936.
PRO file FO.371/19922).
105 Files on the case in ZStA Potsdam, Rep.50.01, files 570, 714–5, 994–7, 999, 1040.
97 Diary Jul 5, 1936.
106 Phipps to FO, Nov 3, 1936 (PRO file FO.371/19924).
107 JG speech to Eleventh International Penal and Prison congress in Berlin, Aug.1935
(ibid., /18880); NYT, Aug 28, 1935.
108 JG speech to Wehrmacht academy, ‘The Nature of Propaganda,’ (NA film T78, roll 372,
5312ff.)
109 Unpubl. diary, May 15, 1935.
110 Ibid. May 15, 25, 27, 1935.
111 Ibid., May 27, 1935.
112 Diary, Aug 19, 1935. As Italy became more deeply involved in Abyssinia JG longed for
Britain to declare war on Italy. ‘That’s when we’ll reap the harvest.’
113 Ibid., Oct 13, 15, 1935.
114 JG speech to gau, Jan 17—the DAZ, Jan 18, alone printed the missing passage; Phipps
to FO, Jan 18 (PRO file FO.371/19922); The Times, Jan 18, 1936.
> 115 Diary, Jan 21, 1936.
116 JG speech in Cologne, Jan 24; British consul general in Cologne, J E Bell, to Phipps, Jan
27, 29, 1936 (PRO file FO.371/19884).
117 Diary, Feb 29, 1936.
118 Ibid., Mar 2, 1936.
119 Ibid., Mar 6, 1936.
120 Ibid., Mar 8, 1936.
121 Ibid., Mar 17, 1936.
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 385
Goebbels
25: A Man of Property
SPEAKING on March 10, 1936 Goebbels clearly implied that Germany now had an
agenda. ‘We are a first rate political power,’ he bragged. ‘There is no serious
opposition in the whole nation… Only three years have passed. Thirty years, three
hundred years will pass. Germany will become a world power. We shall no longer be
plagued as pariahs. We shall fight for that world position which we deserve. Germany,’
he concluded, intoxicated by the audience’s noisy delight, ‘is once more capable
of striking out.’1
Striking out? Where, and when? Hitler discussed several options with him. Germany
might offer to refrain from fortifying her frontier with France, in return for
some of her former African colonies. Goebbels agreed that was not a bad idea. ‘You’ve
got to take what you can get,’ he said. ‘We can always build the fortifications later.’2
HITLER had called an election to endorse his action in the Rhineland. The climax was
vintage Goebbels. He ordained that fifteen minutes before Hitler broadcast from
Krupps’ munitions works in Essen, a fitting stage, on March 27, every radio station
would transmit the command to Hoist Flags on every building and homestead in
Germany, to flutter until the election was over. As Hitler himself stepped to the
microphone at four P.M., the Krupps’ sirens were to hail ‘the beginning of the Führer’s
great appeal for peace,’ joined by the klaxons of every factory, locomotive, barge,
386 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
and ship. While these sirens sang all traffic was to halt, demonstrating that the entire
nation stood behind the Führer and his ‘policy of peace.’ The election’s eve, Saturday
March 28, was to see immense demonstrations throughout the country. Ten minutes
before eight P.M. the great bells of Cologne’s Gothic cathedral would toll, splendidly
amplified throughout the radios of the country, their clangour fading only as Hitler
himself began to speak. After that, decreed Goebbels, the entire nation in unison,
sixty-seven million voices, would sing the ancient Netherlands Prayer of Thanksgiving
(to which he was particularly attached). Then would come the crucial Goebbels
master-stroke—the deft touch which set him apart from all his imitators: every
radio station would fall silent for fifteen minutes, marking a reverent end to this, his
1936 campaign.3
Thus it came to pass. Two weeks earlier he had written, ‘This election just can’t go
wrong.’ (It would have been a miracle if it had, as the ballot papers bore only the
names of Hitler and, in suitably smaller print, of Göring, Hess, Goebbels, and Frick;
there was no provision whatever for voters to express dissent.4) On Sunday March
29 98·6 percent of the voting population streamed into the polling booths, and 98.7
percent of those voted for Hitler—44,399,000 adult Germans, opposed now by
only 542,000 doubters.
A concrete gesture of Hitler’s gratitude followed.
For some months Goebbels, now a best-selling author, had been wondering if he
could afford to buy their summer cottage at Cladow.5 On one visit to Obersalzberg
Goebbels had told Max Winkler, his business adviser, that he wanted to provide for
his family and was thinking of buying a farm. Winkler advised against it—the minister
would only lose money on the land. Besides, what funds had he in mind? After he
mentioned this idea to Hitler, who promised to have a word with Goebbels’ publisher
Amann6, the minister raised his sights and inspected a more luxurious redbrick
property on Schwanenwerder, a millionaire’s peninsula jutting into the Wannsee
lake.7 The villa and its gate lodge in Insel Strasse stood on a gentle wooded incline
verging on the bullrush fringed lakeshore.The property had, it seems, formerly be-
GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH 387
longed to one of the Barmat brothers, the Jewish embezzlers who had fled to Holland
even before Hitler came to power.8 It was now in the name of the Jewish bank
director Oskar Schlitter.9 Almost ten years earlier, Dr Goebbels and Angriff had repeatedly
inveighed against ‘Schweinenwerder’ (Isle of Pigs) as a ‘Jew-boys’ paradise.’10
Now he was going to ‘out-Jew’ them all.
At the climax of the Rhineland election campaign Karl Hanke brought the necessary
papers over to Goebbels at Godesberg.11 Hitler whole-heartedly approved of
the purchase. He believed in assisting his best lieutenants to become men of property.
12 The final purchase price was 270,000 marks. He personally phoned Goebbels
from Munich guaranteeing that the money would be forthcoming—‘Amann has
turned up trumps again,’ Goebbels wrote. He moved his family, including his young
sister Maria, into the Schwanenwerder property just before Easter 1936.13
How did he eventually finance the deal? Goebbels asked Winkler to discuss the
capital value of his private diaries with Max Amann, the party’s publisher. Amann
accompanied him back to Berlin one day in October and they agreed terms: Goebbels
had in mind an outright payment of three million marks for the diaries, but Amann
came up with a different proposal: Goebbels should sell all rights to Amann, for
publication twenty years after his death. ‘250,000 marks immediately and 100,000
marks per annum. That,’ Goebbels recorded in a massive understatement, ‘is most
generous.’14 This was undoubtedly the cash he handed over in November to complete
the Schwanenwerder deal.15
MEANWHILE Magda has furnished the guest lodge for her idol, Adolf Hitler. In later
years he will often show up unannounced, bringing perhaps Jakob Werlin, general
manager of Daimler-Benz, to sample her crême caramel. His adjutant tips the
Goebbels’ servants and, later, will surrender to her the food-ration coupons for Hitler’s
share of the meal.16
For most of 1936 Magda Goebbels alternates between a sulky obstinacy and uxorial
bliss. She grouses that she never has enough housekeeping money but the ministry’s
records show that two days before they move in to Schwanenwerder Goebbels has
388 GOEBBELS. MASTERMIND OF THE THIRD REICH
ordered his ministerial and parliamentary salaries paid directly into her bank account.
17
She resigns herself to his (perhaps imagined) infidelities.18 Vacationing with her in