EN

Paul Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels was Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany.

Person

  • Joseph Goebbels

Goebbels (1897-1945) was Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany.[1] He received his doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 1921 for a dissertation on 19th century romantic drama. He then worked in journalism and banking. From 1923-1924, he quickly rose through the ranks of the National Socialist Party. In 1933, he became propaganda minister and initiated the book burnings, among other things.[2] On 1 May 1945, the day after Hitler's suicide, Goebbels and his wife killed their six children with morphine and cyanide. They then committed suicide using cyanide capsules. Far less petrol was available for burning their bodies than for Hitler and Eva Braun. Identification by Soviet troops was therefore quite easy.[3]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Anne refers to him as Goebels. Anne Frank, Diary Version A, 3 February 1944, in: The Collected Works, transl. from the Dutch by Susan Massotty,  London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019.
  2. ^ Wikipedia: Joseph Goebbels.
  3. ^ Ian Kershaw, Hitler. 1936-1945: Vergelding, Utrecht: Spectrum, 2003, p. 1100-1101.