Goebbels: A Biography

by Peter Longerich

  18. TB, 26 August 1932. While the coalition with the Center Party was seriously considered as a second best solution, Goebbels, in revising the text for the Kaiserhof version, was to portray this solution as merely a feigned option (and thereby to emphasize that in this instance Strasser, who was no longer referred to by name, was advocating a maverick policy): “We set up contacts with the Center Party, if only as a means of putting pressure on the other side. It’s naturally not really an option. A certain section of the Party strongly supports the Center Party solution. The Führer is in favor of continuing with the old line. I fully support him in this.” On the meeting between Brüning and Strasser, see Brüning, Memoiren, 623; Morsey, Untergang, 61.

  19. TB, 27 and 28 August 1932.

  20. TB, 29 August 1932.

  21. TB, 30 August 1932. Thus, according to this, the meeting between Brüning and Hitler took place on 2 August. Brüning confirmed in his memoirs that during this conversation he had offered to mediate between the NSDAP and the Center Party’s central committee (p. 623f.). Schulz, Brüning, 968; Morsey gives 28 August as the date of the conversation. Untergang, 61.

  22. TB, 31 August 1932. See also 30 August 1932: “Göring’s going to be president of the Reichstag. That too!”

  23. TB, 1 and 2 September 1932.

  24. TB, 8 and 9 September. On the negotiations between the NSDAP and the Center Party, see Morsey, Untergang, 61ff.; on the subsequent “covering up of their tracks” by the Center, see 65ff.; on the plan to get rid of Hindenburg, see Pyta, Hindenburg, 736.

  25. TB, 1–4 September 1932; see also 9 September 1932.

  26. TB, 2 and 3 September 1932.

  27. TB, 9 and 11 September 1932. In the published version of the diary (Kaiserhof) Goebbels omitted the demand for Hindenburg’s resignation and maintained that Hitler had gone into the meeting convinced that it would not be possible to “bring [the Center] around” (10 September).

  28. Brüning, Memoiren, 625f. According to Brüning he told the Center Party’s Reichstag group that he would resign from the Party if any of its members entered negotiations with the NSDAP to bring “a charge” against Hindenburg for a breach of the Constitution.

  29. Pyta, Hindenburg, 737. The law that was originally envisaged as implementing Article 51 in the end, under the changed circumstances of December 1932, was given the status of a law altering the Constitution. RGBl. 1932 I, 547.

  30. TB, 13 August 1932; on the session, see Reuth, Goebbels, 235f.; Verhandlungen Reichstag, 6. Wahlperiode, 13ff. In view of the NSDAP/KPD majority in the Reichstag the Center Party’s parliamentary group considered it foolish to continue sticking to this position. Morsey, Die Protokolle der Reichstagsfraktion der deuschen Zentrumspartei, no. 711, Vorstand, 2 September 1932. Bericht des Abg. Perlitius.

  31. Schulz, Brüning, 973 and 993f.

  32. TB, 14 September 1932.

  33. Reuth, Goebbels, 236; Paul, Aufstand, 104ff.; BAB, NS 26/263, Streng vertrauliche Informationen der RPL, 20, 25, and 27 October 1932.

  34. Der Angriff, 24 and 25 September 1932; TB, 22, 24, 27, and 30 September 1932.

  35. Paul, Aufstand, 249f.

  36. TB, 8 September 1932.

  37. TB, 7 October 1932; VB (R), 27 October 1932, “Neuordnung der Reichspropagandaleitung”; BAB, NS 22/1 Anordnung no. 11, signed by Strasser and Goebbels, 4 October 1932; Paul, Aufstand, 74.

  38. TB, 4 November 1932. On the BVG strike, see Winkler, Der Weg in die Katastrophe, 765ff.; on Goebbels’s role, see Reuth, Goebbels, 238f.

  39. TB, 5 November 1932.

  40. Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Berlin, 1933, 264f.

  41. TB, 7 November 1932; on the breaking off of the strike, see 8 November 1932; Winkler, Der Weg, 771.

  42. The first entry on the strike is in TB, 3 November 1932; see in contrast the Kaiserhof version, 2–5 November 1932.

  43. TB, 19 November 1932.

  44. Kabinett von Papen, no. 222, Note by Meissner concerning the Reich president’s meeting with Hitler, 19 November 1932; Pyta, Hindenburg, 753ff.; on the conversations between Hindenburg and Hitler in November, see Meissner, Staatssekretär, 247ff.

  45. TB, 22 November 1933; on this second meeting, Pyta, Hindenburg, 756f., Kabinett von Papen, no. 224, Aufz. Meissner, 21 November 1932.

  46. TB, 21 November 1932.

  47. TB, 22 November 1932.

  48. TB, 21 November 1932.

  49. TB, 22 November 1932. There followed an exchange of letters between Hitler and the president’s office which did not, however, alter the positions. TB, 23 and 24 November 1932; Kabinett von Papen, no. 225, Meissner to Hitler, 22 November 1932; no. 226, Hitler’s reply, 23 November 1932.

  50. TB, 1 December 1932. In the Kaiserhof book Goebbels expanded his description of this scenario in which Strasser had been “pessimistic” to a degree that they “would not have thought possible” (1 December 1932). In the published version he does not mention the fact that Strasser had given way in the end.

  51. TB, 1 December 1932. In this entry Ott is wrongly referred to as Otte.

  52. TB, 2 December 1932. In the Kaiserhof version Goebbels added to the word “toleration” the half sentence “but there can no longer be any question of that.” In fact, at the beginning of December 1932 this was a feasible option from the point of view of the Nazi leadership.

  53. Kabinett von Papen, no. 239 b, Tagebuchaufzeichnung des Reichsfinanzministers über den Verlauf der Ministerbesprechung vom 2. Dezember 1932, 9 Uhr; IfZ, ZS 279, Ott note of 1946, concerning the war game. On Schleicher’s soundings, see Bracher, Die Auflösung der Weimarer Republik, 667ff.; Vogelsang, Reichswehr, Staat und NSDAP, 318ff.; Kissenkoetter, Gregor Straßer und die NSDAP, 162ff.; Plehwe, Reichskanzler Kurt von Schleicher, 234ff.; Strenge, Kurt von Schleicher, 182ff.

  54. The Tägliche Rundschau of 8 December estimated on the basis of the total number of votes that the Nazi party in Thuringia had lost 37.7 percent of the vote compared with the election of July 1932.

  55. Vogelsang, Reichswehr, 340f.; Schulz, Brüning, 1040f.; Strenge, Schleicher, 205; Winkler, Weimar, 561.

  56. On the notion of a “cross-front” and its continuing use in the literature, see above all Schildt, Militärdiktatur mit Massenbasis?; Schulz, Brüning, 1034ff. (with some reservations); Schulze, Weimar, 393ff.; Kolb, Die Weimarer Republik, 137, 205.

  57. In the Kaiserhof version Goebbels added a paragraph according to which the Nazi leadership had already been informed about Schleicher’s offer to Strasser on 5 December. “By chance we heard about the real reason for Strasser’s sabotage policy: He had a meeting with General Schleicher on the Sunday evening in the course of which the general offered him the position of vice chancellor. Strasser not only did not reject this offer but informed him of his intention, in the event of new elections, to put forward his own list of candidates.” Goebbels then added a devastating assessment: “That is the worst kind of betrayal of the Führer and the Party. I was not surprised. I never believed anything else of him. We are now simply waiting for the moment when he carries out his betrayal in public.”

  58. TB, 9 November 1932 on Hitler: “He’s furious about Strasser. I can believe it. Strasser’s always carrying out sabotage.” Kaiserhof, 8 November 1932: “When I’m alone with the Führer he talks about how angry he is with Strasser and his undermining and sabotage activities. Much of our failure can be attributed to the unfair behavior of his clique. I also believe that this failure [he meant the BVG] was not unwelcome to him because this means that at least it looks as though he’s been proved right and can blame us to the Party for our radical course.” 21 November 1932: “Strasser is sticking with it. So are Frick and Göring.” Kaiserhof, 20 November 1932: “All the sub-leaders are sticking with it, it’s only Strasser who as usual is doing his own thing.”

  59. In June 1934 Goebbels noted that his “exposing of Strasser” had been heavily criticized by some Gauleiters. Goebbels believed that naturally the “old Strasser clique” had been behind this criticism (TB, 3
and 7 June 1934.) A few weeks later Alfred Rosenberg noted criticism from Gauleiters; that the things Goebbels was writing about Strasser were like “someone who now felt he was safe triumphantly kicking a rival when he was down.” Alfred Rosenberg, Seraphim (ed.), 36.

  60. Although such ideas may have been contemplated by Schleicher’s entourage during the previous months, they did not play a decisive role in his policy at the end of 1932, which was influenced above all by his attempt somehow to survive the next few months through an arrangement with the NSDAP. See Turner, “The Myth of Chancellor von Schleicher’s Querfront Strategy.” Turner had already expressed previous doubts about Schleicher’s offers. Ibid.; Winkler, Der Weg, 116.

  61. TB, 8 December 1932.

  62. The social policy section of the emergency decree of 4 September (through which the system of wage agreements had been largely abolished) was suspended, an amnesty law was passed, motions for the introduction of winter aid for the unemployed and for the suspension of the whole of the emergency decree of 4 September 1932 were sent to the committees, all with the support of the NSDAP; Winkler, Weimar, 560.

  63. As early as 3 December the Schleicher cabinet was dealing with the question whether, as the chancellor formulated it, the “domestic emergency decrees” might be relaxed to a certain extent. Akten der Reichskanzlei, Das Kabinett von Schleicher 1932/33, Golecki (ed.), doc. 1. These efforts led to the Reich president’s emergency decree for the Maintenance of Domestic peace of 19 December 1932, through which, among other things, the emergency decrees of 14 and 28 June, of 9 August, and of 2 November 1932 were suspended (RGBl. 1932 I, 548) and the Reich government’s decree concerning the suspension of the special courts of the same day (RGBl. 1932 I, 550).

  64. Kabinett von Schleicher, no. 5, Ministerbesprechung vom 7 December 1932.

  65. At the beginning of 1927 he had already watched a dance presentation by Riefenstahl with great enthusiasm (TB, 13 January 1927: “A delightful and delicate creature.”). On 1 December 1929, after seeing the film Piz Palü he wrote about Riefenstahl, that she was “a marvelous child.” After seeing the Riefenstahl film “The Blue Light” he noted: “Sweet Riefenstahl” (TB, 1 April 1932).

  66. Riefenstahl had written a letter to Hitler in May 1932 and then later met him personally. Kinkel, Die Scheinwerferin, 40f. The account of this meeting is based on Riefenstahl, Memoiren, 154ff. During the following months she was filming abroad.

  67. On the Strasser crisis, see Reuth, Goebbels, 244ff.; Schulz, Brüning, 1040f.; and the reports in Der Angriff, 9–12 December 1932, and in the VZ, 12 December 1932.

  68. Kissenkoetter discusses the contents of the letter in Strasser, 172, on the basis of a surviving draft. On these events, see also VZ, 9 December 1932, “Konflikt Hitler-Strasser”; VZ, 10 December 1932, Konrad Heiden: “Schach oder matt? Gregor Strassers Rebellion” (editorial).

  69. TB, 9 December 1932.

  70. Tägliche Rundschau, 10 December 1932, “Die Vorgänge in der NSDAP” (headline).

  71. TB, 9 December 1932.

  72. TB, 10 December 1932.

  73. TB, 11 and 13 December 1932; Der Angriff, 9 and 12 December 1932.

  74. On the reorganization after Strasser’s departure, see Paul, Aufstand, 76f.

  75. TB, 14 December 1932, also 13 December.

  76. TB, 24 December 1932–1 February 1933. See also Reuth, Goebbels, 246f.

  77. TB, 13 January (Hitler was with Magda) and 20 and 23 January 1933 (with Hitler in the Clinic).

  78. Salzuflen (4 January 1933), various places on 9 January and (after a short trip to Berlin) between 10 and 14 January in Detmold and in various other places. On the election campaign in Lippe, see also Reuth, Goebbels, 248f.; Ciolek-Kümper, Wahlkampf in Lippe.

  79. TB, 10 January 1933. 21 December 1932 was the first diary entry in which Goebbels indicated that he was no longer tolerating the Schleicher government.

  80. TB, 13 January (quotation) 1933, 14 and 15 January 1932.

  81. Der Angriff, 16 January 1933.

  82. TB, 17 January 1933. On Hitler’s negative comments on Strasser, see TB, 20 December 1932 and 1 January 1933; see also 22 January 1933.

  83. TB, 25 January 1933.

  84. TB, 26 January 1933.

  85. TB, 28 January 1933.

  86. TB, 28 and 29 January 1933.

  87. TB, 30 January 1933.

  10. “WE’RE HERE TO STAY!”

  1. TB, 1–5 February 1933.

  2. Akten der Reichskanzlei, Regierung Hitler, Karl-Heinz Minuth (ed.), no. 21; Bracher, “Stufen der Machtergreifung,” 45ff.; Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, vol. 2, 555ff.

  3. TB, 1 February 1933.

  4. TB, 23 January, 9 August 1932.

  5. Kaiserhof, 22 January 1932 and 8 August 1932; Reuth, Goebbels, 269f., already made this point.

  6. TB, 3 February 1933.

  7. TB, 2 February 1933. Such rumors can be confirmed for February from other sources: Diller, Rundfunkpolitik im Dritten Reich, 76; FZ, 2 February 1933, 2nd ed. (M), “Gerüchte über Dr. Göbbels [sic]”: According to this the Berlin evening newspapers had spread the rumor that he would be appointed radio commissar and also it was said that he would be made police president of Berlin. Both rumors were, however, officially denied.

  8. TB, 6 February 1933.

  9. TB, 10 February 1933.

  10. Kaiserhof, 7 March 1933.

  11. On the newspaper bans above all of communist and Social Democratic papers, see the reports in the FZ in February 1933; TB, 16 February 1933: “Newspaper bans are coming thick and fast. Vorwärts and 8 Uhr. Terrific!”

  12. TB, 6 February 1933; Der Angriff, 6 February 1933, “Berlin trauert um Sturmführer Maikowski und Schupowachtmeister Zauritz”; Reuth, Goebbels, 256.

  13. TB, 5 February 1933; the funeral oration is published in Heiber (ed.), Goebbels Reden, no. 10.

  14. TB, 10 February 1933.

  15. TB, 11–24 February 1933.

  16. TB, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 18, and 21 February 1933.

  17. TB, 16 February 1933.

  18. TB, 14 February 1933.

  19. TB, 15 February 1933.

  20. TB, 21 February 1933. According to this, financial difficulties recurred because the flow of money took time to get under way: 26 and 28 February 1933.

  21. Paul, Aufstand, 111ff.

  22. See Diller, Rundfunkpolitik, 65ff.; Regierung Hitler, vol. 1, no. 17, Niederschrift über die Ministerbesprechung vom 8. Februar 1933; Hadamovsky, “Großkampftage der Rundfunkpropaganda”; this was already mentioned in Reuth, Goebbels, 259.

  23. Heiber (ed.), Goebbels Reden, no. 11; TB, 10 February 1933.

  24. TB, 11–25 February, 2, 3, and 5 March 1933. His appearances can be followed through the reports in Der Angriff during this period.

  25. TB, 20 February 1933.

  26. TB, 16 and 18 February 1933.

  27. E.g. TB, 17, 22, and 28 February.

  28. TB, 15 February; on the opening, see FZ, 12 February 1933 (M), “Die Berliner Internationale Automobil- und Motorrad-Ausstellung.”

  29. TB, 16 February 1933.

  30. TB, 24 February 1933.

  31. TB, 28 February 1933. The telephone conversation is confirmed in Hanfstaengl, Zwischen Weißem und Braunem Haus, 294f.

  32. The question of who was responsible for the Reichstag fire has been the subject of a long controversy that has by no means been resolved in favor of the theory of a sole culprit. The most important works are Tobias, Der Reichstagsbrand; Backes et al., Reichstagsbrand; Hans Schneider, Neues vom Reichstagsbrand—Eine Dokumentation. Ein Versäumnis der deutschen Geschichtsschreibung, with a preface by Iring Fetscher and contributions from Dieter Deiseroth, Hersch Fischler, Wolf-Dieter Narr (Berlin 2004); Deiseroth (ed.), Der Reichstagsbrand und der Prozess vor dem Reichsgericht; Kellerhoff, Der Reichstagsbrand; Hofer et al., Der Reichstagsbrand; Hehl, “Die Kontroverse um den Reichstagsbrand”; on Goebbels’s role, see Reuth, Goebbels, 262ff.

  33. Der Angriff, 28 February 1933, “Der Reichstag b
rennt.”

  34. Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 I, p. 83.

  35. TB, 5 March 1933.

  36. Der Angriff, 25 February 1933, with Goebbels’s editorial “Der Tag der erwachenden Nation.”

  37. See the reports in Der Angriff of 4 and 6 March 1933; VB (B), 5/6 March 1933, “Der Freiheitstag der erwachten Nation.” The quotation refers to Hamburg.

  38. “Hitler über Deuschland. Rundfunkreportage aus Königsberg zum Tage der erwachenden Nation am 4. März 1933,” published in Goebbels, Signale der neuen Zeit, 109–117, quotations 109f., 116f.

  39. TB, 5 March 1933.

  40. FZ, 6 March 1933 (M). The election slogan in the VZ of 4 March 1933 (E) conveys the same image.

  41. Statistisches Jahrbuch der Stadt Berlin 1933, 385.

  42. TB, 3 March 1933.

  43. TB, 7 March 1933; VB (B), 14 March 1933, “Dr. Goebbels an die Berliner Parteigenossen.”

  44. TB, 7–12 March; Regierung Hitler, vol. 1, no. 56; see also no. 46, Denkschrift über die Errichtung eines Reichskommissariats für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, 7 March 1933. Erlaß über die Errichtung des Reichsministeriums für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, RGBl. 1933 I, 104.

  45. TB, 12 March 1933.

  46. TB, 9 March 1933.

  47. TB, 9–11 March 1933; Bracher, Machtergreifung, 136ff.; Kershaw, Hitler. 1936–1945, 585ff.

  48. Statistisches Jahrbuch Berlin 1933, 268ff.

  49. TB, 13 March 1933.

  50. TB, 15 March 1933; on his appointment, see also 14 March 1933. The document of appointment of Goebbels, “writer,” as propaganda minister is in BAB, R 43 II/1149 (13 March 1933).

  51. TB, 16 March 1933; Regierung Hitler, vol. 1, no. 61, 15 March 1933.

  52. Speech to the press in Berlin on 16 March 1933, published in Goebbels, Revolution der Deutschen, 135–51.

  53. TB, 18 March 1933, see also 17 and 20 March 1933.

  54. Der Angriff, 21 and 22 March 1933; VB (B), 22 March 1933.

  55. TB, 23 March 1933; Scheel, Der Tag von Potsdam; Sabrow, “Der ‘Tag von Potsdam’ ”; Reuth, Goebbels, 277ff.

  56. TB, 21 March (quotation) concerning the preliminary meeting on the previous day and 23 March 1923 concerning the cabinet meeting on 21 March; Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zur Abwehr heimtückischer Angriffe gegen die Regierung der nationalen Erhebung, 21 March 1933, RGBl. 1933 I, 135. The law imposed the death penalty in particularly serious cases: Regierung Hitler, vol. 1, no. 70, Sitzung vom 21 March (the session of 20 March is not documented).