Download Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels
1897-1945
Biography
• Born 28th October 1897 in Rheydt, Prussia, Germany.
• He was born into a Catholic family. His father was a factory clerk, his
mother a farmhand.
• He had 4 siblings; Hans, Konrad, Elisabeth, and Maria
• He went to a Christian high school, where he completed his Abitur
in 1916.
• He had a deformed right leg, the reason for it unknown.
• He married Magda Ritschel in 1931, and had six children with her.
• He studied literature and philosophy at the universities of Bonn,
Wuerzburg, Freiburg and Heidelberg.
• He married Magda Ritschel in 1931, and had 6 children with her.
• When the war was clearly over, the couple killed their 6 children
before committing suicide.
Joining the Nazi Party
• He came into contact with the party in 1923,
when Hitler was campaigning the resistance
to the French occupation of the Ruhr.
• Hitler was imprisoned in 1923, so Goebbels
joined under the infuence of Gregor Strasser
(Nazi organiser in northern Germany).
• Goebbels, since he had journalistic skills,
became a key ally to Strasser
Role before they came to power
• Goebbels was given the task of building up
Nazi support in Berlin.
• He had this from 1926 and 1930
• Elected to the Reichstag in 1928, and again in
1930.
• He was given overall charge of the
propaganda machine in 1929. This is where
Goebbels excelled.
Role after they came to power
• When Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933,
Goebbels was given the title of Minister of
Enlightenment and Propaganda.
• He held this post until 1945.
• Something that made Goebbels different was that he
could control what people thought.
• When these people were taken in by Goebbels, they
were attracted by a colour film of propaganda videos
(like “The Eternal Jew or Triumph of the Will.
• These displays at Nuremburg are significant even today
for how organised it was.
What happened to him during the war
• During the war, Goebbels used his skill for public
speaking to persuade the German people that
the war was going their way.
• After the Battle of Stalingrad, this was much
more difficult.
• They had to come up with a propaganda film
about the battle, which they ended up portraying
as a mistake on the General’s parts.
• Goebbels demaded ‘total war’ from Germany.
• In 1944, he was appointed Reich Commissioner
for Total Mobilisation.
What happened to him after the war
• When it was clear that Germany were going to lose the
war in 1945, Goebbels stayed with Hitler in his bunker.
• He wrote in his diary that he blamed the German
people for their defeat, not Hitler.
• On May 1st, he, along with this wife, gave poison to his
six children, killing them
• He then shot his wife, followed by himself.
• He gave orders that their bodies should be burned.
• Before his death, it is said that he received Hitler’s wrist
watch because he was the only senior Nazi leader to
have stayed with the Fuhrer until the end.