Joseph Goebbels

Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister (see Propagandaministerium) in Nazi Germany. Following Hitler's death he served as Chancellor for one day, approved the murder of his six children and committed suicide.

Ruin, murder and suicide

Chancellor for a day

During the final stages of the war in the spring of 1945 Hitler split the offices of Reichskanzler (Chancellor of the Reich) and Reichspräsident (President of the Reich), both of which he had held as Führer since the death of Hindenburg in August 1934. He appointed Goebbels Chancellor of Germany in his will, with Grand-Admiral Karl Dönitz, the commander-in-chief of the Kriegsmarine, as President without the Führer title (the post-Hitler Flensburg government had hopes of being recognized by the Allied powers but was ultimately arrested towards the end of May 1945 when the Allies decided to formally replace it with their own military administration).

Related Topics:
1945 - Hindenburg - 1934 - Chancellor of Germany - Karl Dönitz - President - Führer - Flensburg government

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Shortly after Hitler committed suicide at about 3.30 in the afternoon (Berlin time) on April 30, 1945 an emotional and agitated Goebbels sought out Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge and dicatated these lines as an addition to Hitler's political testament:

Related Topics:
Suicide - Traudl Junge

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:Der Führer hat mir den Befehl gegeben, im Falle des Zusammenbruchs der Verteidigung der Reichshauptstadt Berlin zu verlassen und als führendes Mitglied an einer von ihm ernannten Regierung teilzunehmen. Zum erstenmal in meinem Leben muß ich mich kategorisch weigern, einem Befehl des Führers Folge zu leisten. Meine Frau und meine Kinder schließen sich dieser Weigerung an. Im anderen Falle würde ich mir selbst (...) für mein ganzes ferneres Leben als ein ehrloser Abtrünnling und gemeiner Schuft vorkommen, der mit der Achtung vor sich selbst auch die Achtung seines Volkes verlöre, die die Voraussetzung eines weiteren Dienstes meiner Person an der Zukunftsgestaltung der Deutschen Nation und des Deutschen Reiches bilden müßte.

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:The Führer has given orders for me, in case of a breakdown of defense of the Capital of the Reich, to leave Berlin and to participate as a leading member in a government appointed by him. For the first time in my life, I must categorically refuse to obey a command of the Führer. My wife and my children agree with this refusal. In any other case, I would feel myself (...) a dishonorable renegade and vile scoundrel for my entire further life, who would lose the esteem of himself along with the esteem of his people, both of which would have to form the requirement for further duty of my person in designing the future of the German Nation and the German Reich.

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Murder

After several hours of anxiously waiting for news that German troops might be able to rescue the bunker's occupants, Goebbels and his wife resolved to carry out a previously arranged plan of murder and mutual suicide. Magda Goebbels had all six of their children put to sleep with morphine, then poisoned them with cyanide (to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Red Army), an act condemned by virtually every witness in the bunker who was subsequently asked about it by investigators and historians. Joseph Goebbels did not take a direct part in the murders but acquiesced throughout, even refusing the offers of others to take the children out of Berlin before it was too late. Contrary to what he hastily added to Hitler's last political will, by all accounts the children were in good spirits and entirely unaware of their parents' plans to kill them. They were:

Related Topics:
Magda Goebbels - Morphine - Cyanide - Red Army

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• Helga Susanne (born, September 1, 1932 ? aged 12)
• Hildegard (Hilde) Traudel (born April 13, 1934 ? aged 11)
• Helmut Christian (born October 2, 1935 ? aged 9)
• Hedwig (Hedda) Johanna (born February 19, 1937 ? aged 8)
• Holdine (Holde) Kathrin (born May 1, 1938 ? the day before what would have been her 7th birthday)
• Heidrun (Heide) Elisabeth (born October 20, 1940 ? aged 4)

A popular story that each had been given a name starting with an H for Hitler is generally discounted by serious historians. Magda and her ex-husband Dr. Quandt also gave their son a name beginning with H and Quandt's son by a previous marriage was named Helmut.

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Suicide

While early reports suggested Joseph and Magda Goebbels were shot by SS bodyguards in the ruins of the Chancellory garden at their own request on May 1, 1945, they likely took cyanide first. Another account claims Goebbels shot Magda then himself afterwards (as shown in the 2004 film, Der Untergang, where Goebbels was portrayed by actor Ulrich Matthes). Their bodies were partially burned, left unburied and quickly found by Soviet troops. The children's pajama-clad bodies were found still in the three sets of two-tiered bunk beds they were murdered in. A photograph of Goebbels' incinerated face was widely published. The bodies of the Goebbels family, along with those of Hitler and Eva Braun were secretly buried and reburied together by the Soviets. In April 1970 all the remains were reburned and scattered in the Elbe river.

Related Topics:
May 1 - 1945 - 2004 - Der Untergang - Ulrich Matthes - Soviet - Eva Braun - 1970 - Elbe - River

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