Joseph Goebbels

Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels (29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was Adolf Hitler's Propaganda Minister in Nazi Germany. He also served as Chancellor for one day, following Hitler's death. He was known for his zealous and energetic oratory and virulent anti-Semitism.

Sourced

• Success is the important thing. Propaganda is not a matter for average minds, but rather a matter for practitioners. It is not supposed to be lovely or theoretically correct. I do not care if I give wonderful, aesthetically elegant speeches, or speak so that women cry. The point of a political speech is to persuade people of what we think right. I speak differently in the provinces than I do in Berlin, and when I speak in Bayreuth, I say different things than I say in the Pharus Hall. That is a matter of practice, not of theory. We do not want to be a movement of a few straw brains, but rather a movement that can conquer the broad masses. Propaganda should be popular, not intellectually pleasing. It is not the task of propaganda to discover intellectual truths.
  • Speech by Joseph Goebbels on 9 January 1928 to an audience of party members at the so-called "Hochschule für Politik", a series of training talks for Nazi party members in Berlin
  • As quoted in "Erkenntnis und Propaganda," Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1934), pp. 28-52
  • The Pharus Hall was a meeting hall the Nazis often used in Berlin.

• What does Christianity mean today? National Socialism is a religion. All we lack is a religious genius capable of uprooting outmoded religious practices and putting new ones in their place. We lack traditions and ritual. One day soon National Socialism will be the religion of all Germans. My Party is my church, and I believe I serve the Lord best if I do his will, and liberate my oppressed people from the fetters of slavery. That is my gospel.
  • Diary entry for October 16, 1928. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goebbels/filmmore/pt.html

• That is of course rather painful for those involved. One should not as a rule reveal one's secrets, since one does not know if and when one may need them again. The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
  • "Aus Churchills Lügenfabrik" ("Churchill's Lie Factory"), 12 January 1941, Die Zeit ohne Beispiel (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1941), pp. 364-369
  • This and similar lines in Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf about what he claimed to be a strategem of Jewish lies using "the principle & which is quite true in itself & that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily," are often misquoted or paraphrased as: "The bigger the lie, the more it will be believed."

• Berndt reicht mir eine Ausarbeitung über die von uns zu betreibende okkultistische Propaganda ein. Hier wird in der Tat Einiges geleistet. Die Amerikaner und Engländer fallen ja vorzüglich auf eine solche Art von Propaganda herein. Wir nehmen alle irgendwie zur Verfügung stehenden Kronzeugen der okkulten Weissagung als Mithelfer in Anspruch. Nostradamus muß wieder einmal daran glauben.
  • Berndt handed in a plan for the occultist propaganda to be carried on by us. We are getting somewhere. The Americans and English fall easily to this kind of propaganda. We are therefore pressing into service all star witnesses of occult prophecy. Nostradamus must once again submit to being quoted.
  • Diary of Joseph Goebbels, 19 May 1942, concerning the use of Nostradamus's famous "Hister" quatrain
  • as displayed and translated in Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy, Discovery Channel

• If the German people lay down their weapons, the Soviets, according to the agreement between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, would occupy all of East and Southeast Europe along with the greater part of the Reich. An iron curtain would fall over this enormous territory controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which nations would be slaughtered.
  • Manifesto named 'Das Jahr 2000' printed in the newspaper Das Reich, February 25, 1945, pp. 1-2

Michael : a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Michael: ein Deutsches Schicksal in Tagebuchblattern, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, Franz Eher Nachf., Munich, 7th edition, 1935

• A mother who is not everything for her children: a friend, a teacher, a confidant, a source of joy and founded pride, inducement and soothing, reconciliator, judge and forgiver, that mother obviously chose the wrong job.
  • Eine Mutter, die ihren Kindern nicht alles: Freund, Lehrer, Vertraute, Quell der Freude und des gefestigten Stolzes, Ansporn, Dämpfer, Ankläger, Versöhner, Richter und Vergeber ist, die Mutter hat offenbar ihren Beruf verfehlt.

• I'm looking for the teacher who is unaffected enough to be great, and great enough to be unaffected.
  • Ich suche den Lehrer, der einfach genug ist, um groß zu sein und groß genug, um einfach zu sein.

• Everything is what you make of it, even yourself.
  • Alles ist das, was du daraus machst, auch du selbst.

• Man only honors what he conquers or defends.
  • Man schätzt überhaupt nur das, was man erobert oder verteidigt.

• When I sit near the ocean in the morning and write my verses and breathe the salty wind which is coming from the water, I rejoice in God and I am blissful, like I was as a child.
  • Wenn ich morgens am Meere sitze und Verse dichte und atme dabei den salzigen Wind, der vom Wasser herüberspringt, dann gehe ich auf in Gott und bin glücklich, wie ich es nur noch in der Kinderzeit war.

• A nation without a religion & that is like a man without breath.
  • Volk ohne Religion, das ist so wie Mensch ohne Atem.

• Today there seems to be only one absolute thing: relativism.
  • Für die Zeitgenossen gibt es anscheinend nur ein Absolutes: die Relativität.

• Christianity is not a religion for the masses, let alone for all. Cultivated by few and translated into deeds, it is one of the most splendid blossoms that a decent man's soul can develop.
  • Das Christentum ist keine Religion für viele, geschweige denn für alle. Von wenigen gepflegt und in die Tat umgesetzt, ist es eine der köstlichsten Blüten, die eine Kulturseele je getrieben hat.

• If Christ came back he would drive his treacherous servants out of the temple with a whip.
  • Käme Christus wieder, wie würde er seine falschen Bediensteten mit der Peitsche aus seinem Tempel jagen!

• Mozart didn't need a scheme for his music. He played and sang with the heavenly lightness of a child.
  • Mozart brauchte kein Programm für seine Musik. Er musizierte und sang mit der göttlichen Leichtigkeit eines Kindes.

• I would like to be a parson on this island. Explain the Sermon on the Mount to ordinary people and let the world be the world.
  • Ich möchte Pastor auf dieser Insel sein. Einfachen Menschen die Bergpredigt erklären und die Welt Welt sein lassen.

• My God is a God of strength. HE does not like the smell of frankencense and the dishonoring crawl of the crowd. I stand before HIM proudly, with the head held high, like HE created me, and I profess gladly and freely before HIM. The true German seeks God for all of his life.
  • Mein Gott ist ein Gott der Stärke. Er mag nicht den Weihrauchdampf und das entehrende Kriechen der Menge. Ich stehe vor ihm stolz erhobenen Hauptes, wie er mich erschaffen hat, und bekenne mich freudig und frei vor ihm. Der wahre Deutsche bleibt Zeit seines Lebens ein Gottsucher.

• To be modern only means to fill new forms with eternal truths.
  • Modern sein heißt nichts anderes als ewige Inhalte in wechselnde neue Formen zu füllen.

• I feel how inside of me word follows word and thought follows thought, growing to the last act of creation. Holy hour of bringing forth & you are pain and pleasure, and a longing for form, image and essence. I am only the instrument that God uses to sing his song. I am only the vessel that nature smilingly fills with new wine.
  • Ich fühle, wie in mir sich wachsend Wort an Wort, Gedanke an Gedanke reiht zum letzten Akt der Schöpfung. Heilige Stunde des Gebärens, Schmerz bist du und Lust und eine Sehnsucht nach Form, Gestalt und Wesen. Ich bin nur Instrument, darauf der alte Gott sein Lied singt. Ich bin nur harrendes Gefäß, in das Natur den neuen Wein mit Lächeln füllt.

• At night I sit in my chamber and read the bible. Far in the distance roars the sea. Then I lie down and think for a long time about the calm and pale man from Nazareth.
  • Abends sitze ich auf meinem Zimmer und lese die Bibel. In der Ferne braust das Meer. Dann liege ich noch lange wach und denke an den stillen, bleichen Mann von Nazareth.

• We shall be quiet and wait till a star falls from heaven. Can you see, how above one light appears after the other and they together form a dome! We sit in silence and fold our hands in prayer. We shall be quiet and wait until a star falls from heaven.
  • Wir wollen stille sein und warten, bis ein Stern vom Himmel fällt. Siehst du, wie oben Licht an Licht sich zündet zu einem Dom! Wir sitzen im Schweigen und falten die Hände zum Gebet. Wir wollen stille sein und warten bis ein Stern vom Himmel fällt.

• A child laughs when it feels joy and cries when it feels pain. Both things, laughing and crying it does with its whole heart. We all became so tall and so clever. We know so much and we have read so much. But one thing we forgot: to laugh and cry like the children do.
  • Das Kind lacht, wenn es Freude, und weint, wenn es Schmerz empfindet. Bei beidem, bei Lachen und Weinen ist sein ganzes Herz dabei. Wir sind alle so groß und klug geworden. Wir wissen so viel und haben so viel gelesen. Aber eines haben wir vergessen: zu lachen und zu weinen wie die Kinder.

• Devotion, fervor, longing! Those are my pillars. We have to be the bridge to the future.
  • Hingabe, Inbrunst, Sehnsucht! Das sind meine Pfeiler. Brücke zur Zukunft müssen wir sein.

• Dostoyevsky is ahead of his time & a few daring steps. You follow him & dizzying, fearful, incredulous; but you follow. He won't let loose, you have to follow. ... You simply have to call him unique. He comes from nowhere and belongs nowhere. And yet he is always a Russian.
  • Dostojewski ist seiner Zeit noch um ein paar gewagte Schritte voraus. Man folgt ihm schwindelnd, bange, ungläubig; aber man folgt. Er lässt nicht locker, man muss folgen. ... Man muss ihn einfach als Unikum nehmen. Er kommt von nirgendwo und gehört nirgendwo hin. Und dabei bleibt er doch stets Russe.

• That's what the democratic parties personify: business groups! Nothing more. 'Weltanschauung? What kind of reactionary expression is that? Honor, loyalty, creed, convictions? Man, you are a back number!'
  • So sind die Parteien der Demokratie: Geschäftsgruppen! Weiter nichts. Weltanschauung? Was ist das für ein reaktionärer Begriff? Ehre, Treue, Glauben, Überzeugung? Mann, sie sind von Gestern!

• To be a socialist means to let the ego serve the neighbour, to sacrifice the self for the whole. In its deepest sense socialism equals service. The individual refrains and the commonwealth demands.
  Frederick the Great was a socialist on a king's throne.
  "I'm the first servant of the state." A kingly socialist saying.
  Property is theft – so says the mob. Each to his own – so says the personality.
  • Sozialist sein: das heißt, das Ich dem Du unterordnen, die Persönlichkeit der Gesamtheit zum Opfer bringen. Sozialismus ist im tiefsten Sinne Dienst. Verzicht für den Einzelnen und Forderung für das Ganze.
    Friedrich der Große war ein Sozialist auf dem Königsthron.
    "Ich bin der erste Diener am Staat." Ein königliches Sozialistenwort!
    Eigentum ist Diebstahl: das sagt der Pöbel. Jedem das Seine: das sagt der Charakter.

• Every age that has historical status is governed by aristocracies.
  Aristocracy with the meaning - the best are ruling.
  Peoples do never govern themselves. That lunacy was concocted by liberalism. Behind its "people's sovereignty" the slyest cheaters are hiding, who don't want to be recognized.
  • Jedes Zeitalter wird, wenn es historischen Rang hat, von Aristokratien gestaltet.
    Aristokratie = die Besten herrschen.
    Niemals regieren Völker sich selbst. Diesen Wahnsinn hat der Liberalismus erfunden. Hinter seiner Volkssouveränität verstecken sich nur die gerissensten Schelme, die nicht erkannt sein wollen.

• How beautiful life is! Music and dancing! The violins are sobbing. The first stopper of a bottle of champagne bangs. And now there's a mad singing and shouting. Everybody joins in and sings and shouts! Embracing, friendship, eternal friendship! How beautiful the women are! Dressed in black and red. But you are the prettiest, Hertha! ... Hey, you grumblers, the devil shall get you! Music and dancing. The violins are sobbing. Women dressed in black and red. But you are the prettiest, Hertha!
  • Wie schön ist das Leben! Musik und Tanz! Die Geigen schluchzen. Der erste Sektpfropfen knallt. Und nun ein tolles Singen und Schreien. Man singt und schreit mit. Umarmung, Freundschaft, ewige Freundschaft! Welch' schöne Frauen! In schwarz und rot! Und doch bist Du die Schönste, Hertha Holk! ... Heda, ihr Miesmacher, der Teufel soll euch holen! Musik und Tanz. Die Geigen schluchzen. Frauen in schwarz und rot. Und doch bist Du die Schönste, Hertha Holk!

• O this world is beautiful because of you! To love somebody means that we're closer to God.
  • O diese Welt ist schön durch dich! Die Liebe zu einem Menschen führt uns Gott näher.

• After supper we are sitting close to the church in a quiet spot. As if from a distance we hear prayers and singing. The monks are holding their vesper services. Then it falls silent, wonderfully silent!
  The sun has already set. ... We are quiet, too. ... A door is closed somewhere. A man's, then a woman's voice. Children are praying! My dear Jesus! Then it falls silent again. Wonderfully silent!
  The night spreads its wide, black wings over the land.
  • Nach dem Abendbrot sitzen wir an der Kirche in einem stillen Winkel. Wie von ferne hören wir Gebet und Singen. Die Mönche halten ihre Abendandacht. Und dann wird es still, wunderbar still!
    Die Sonne ist schon untergegangen. ... Auch wir schweigen. ... Irgendwo wird eine Tür geschlossen. Eine Männer-, dann eine Frauenstimme. Kinderbeten! Du lieber Jesus mein! Dann wird es wieder still. Wunderbar still!
    Die Nacht legt ihre breiten, schwarzen Flügel auf das Land.

• Great hour! Spent together, rejoicing and dreaming. Days and years are gathering. We are a still island in the ocean of the world. Beginning and end! Border between life and eternity! Euphoria, fulfillment, existence!
  • Große Stunde! Mit dem zweiten Menschen, dem anderen verjubelt und verträumt. Tage, Jahre sammeln sich. Eine ruhende stille Insel im Ozean Welt sind wir. Ende und Anfang! Grenze zwischen Leben und Ewigkeit! Rausch, Fülle, Dasein!

• Christ is the genius of love and as such the most diametric antipole to Jewry, which is the incarnation of hate. ... Christ was the first anti-Jewish opponent of stature. ... The Jew is the lie that became flesh. He nailed Christ to the cross, and thus for the first time in history nailed the eternal truth to the cross.
  • Christus ist das Genie der Liebe, als solches der diametralste Gegenpol zum Judentum, das die Inkarnation des Hasses darstellt. ... Christus ist der erste Judengegner von Format. ... Der Jude ist die menschgewordene Lüge. In Christus hat er zum erstenmal vor der Geschichte die ewige Wahrheit ans Kreuz geschlagen.

• He who cannot hate the devil cannot love God.
  • Wer den Teufel nicht hassen kann, der kann auch Gott nicht lieben.

• Hereafter we all have to be redeemed. The world is pulling with a thousand strings. We sin because of indifference and negligence and heap new guilt on the old original one. Our life is a chain of sin and expiation controlled by a destiny that can not be understood.
  • Wir müssen alle einmal erlöst werden. Die Welt zieht uns mit tausend Banden. Wir fehlen aus Gleichgültigkeit und Nachsicht und häufen neue eigene Schuld auf alte ererbte. Unser Leben ist eine Kette aus Schuld und Sühne, darüber ein nach unerforschlichen Gesetzen wirkendes Schicksal waltet.

• The night folds her trembling hands over a weary world. Out of a pale blue rises the shining moon. My thoughts are flying to the stars like lonely swans.
  • Nacht faltet zitternde Hände über der müden Welt. Aus blassem Blau steigt leuchtend der Mond. Meine Gedanken fliegen wie einsame Schwäne in die Sterne.

• I believe in God. When everything collapses, we grip the last hold, we look from the secure haven how the godless society of the old, holy Europe falls apart. May the game begin.
  • Ich glaube an Gott. Wenn alles stürzt, wir fassen die letzte Planke, wir schauen vom sicheren Port, wie die entgötterte Gesellschaft der alten, heiligen Europa zusammenstürzt. Das Spiel beginne.

• Give your goods to the poor: Christ.
  Property is theft - as long as it's not mine: Marx.
  • Verteile Dein Gut an die Armen: Christus.
    Eigentum ist Diebstahl – solange es nicht mir gehört: Marx.

• The war we are fighting until victory or the bitter end is in its deepest sense and war between Christ and Marx.
  Christ: the principle of love.
  Marx: the principle of hate.
  • Der Kampf, den wir heute ausfechten bis zum Sieg oder bis zum bitteren Ende, ist im tiefsten Sinne ein Kampf zwischen Christus und Marx.
    Christus: das Prinzip der Liebe.
    Marx: das Prinzip des Hasses.
    

Unsourced

• I am very interested in social developments in America. I believe that President Roosevelt has chosen the right path. We are dealing with the greatest social problems ever known. Millions of unemployed must get their jobs back, and this cannot be left to private initiative. It is the government that must tackle the problem.
  • 1934 interview.

• One of the most ridiculous aspects of democracy will always remain... the fact that it has offered to its mortal enemies the means by which to destroy it.

• Once more a red fire blows steeply upwards...the factory will do no more work for Herr Churchill... tomorrow morning Coventry will lie in smoke and ruins.
  • September 1940

• It is on this beautiful day that we celebrate the Fuhrer's birthday and thank him for he is the only reason why Germany is still alive today.
  • April 26, 1945

• We have a feeling that Germany has been transformed into a great house of God, including all classes, professions and creeds, where the Führer as our mediator stood before the throne of the Almighty.
  • April 19, 1936 broadcast

Misattributed

• But the most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.
  • Actually from "War Propaganda", in volume 1, chapter 6 of Mein Kampf (1925), by Adolf Hitler

• (multiple alternatives) If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. // If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. // If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. // If you repeat a lie long enough, it becomes truth. // If you repeat a lie many times, people are bound to start believing it.
  • no reliable source; probably misquotations of the Big Lie idea

About Goebbels

• This man's rhetoric and ability to organize are unique. There was no situation he couldn’t deal with. The party members followed him with great love. The stormtroopers would have let themselves be shattered to pieces for him. Goebbels, that was like Hitler himself. Goebbels, well that was our Goebbels.
  • Horst Wessel in the 1920s.
    Was dieser Mann an Rednertalent und Organisationstalent aufwies, ist einzigartig. Es gab nichts, dem er sich nicht gewachsen zeigte. Die Parteigenossen hingen an ihm mit großer Liebe. Die S.A. hätte sich für ihn in Stücke schlagen lassen. Goebbels, das war wie Hitler selbst. Goebbels, das war eben unser Goebbels. Source: Ralf Georg Reuth: Goebbels, Munich 1990, p. 114

• Goebbels must have had a tremendous hatred for the Jews - but not more than Himmler. I have no doubt, at this date, that Goebbels knew of the murder of 5 million Jews, a fact which he kept hidden from me and others at that time.
  • Hans Fritzsche to Leon Goldensohn, May 24, 1946

• I met him several times. He was clever, fanatic; having a clubfoot he might have suffered a minority inferiority complex, knowing that because of his physical appearance, he knew he never could reach leadership. He was unscrupulous in his propaganda. I always opposed Goebbels. I always tried to have people educated on a broad basis, while Goebbels tried to supply them with knowledge for the moment. Goebbels considered humans as objects to be used for political purposes - for the moment.
  • Otto Ohlendorf to Leon Goldensohn, March 1, 1946

• I always had the feeling that Goebbels didn't respect people as a whole. He was reckless in his contacts in his own office. He had no consideration for anyone. He was only concerned about governing.
  • Otto Ohlendorf to Leon Goldensohn, March 1, 1946

• Did I ever tell you about Goebbels? He incurred Hitler's disapproval after that incident with the movie actress for which he was beaten up. That clubfooted fanatic! He forced women to submit to him sexually because of his powerful position. He influenced Hitler to become anti-Semitic more than Hitler had been before. Hitler used to come to my house once in a while for a cup of coffee, and because I led a normal life, he would leave about nine o'clock. I was in the habit of retiring early. However, Hitler used to spend practically all of his nights, sometimes until four a.m., with Goebbels and his family. God knows what evil influence Goebbels had on him during those long visits.
  • Hermann Goering to Leon Goldensohn, May 24, 1946

• Goebbels was the strongest representative of anti-Semitism. He saw his big chance to become powerful by using the press for anti-Semitic reasons. Personally, I think Goebbels was using anti-Semitism merely as a means of achieving personal power. Whether he had any deep-seated hatred against the Jews is questionable. I think he was too much of a thief and dishonest opportunist to have any deep-seated feelings for or against anything. But for years Goebbels had been trying in vain to become a big power. At last he saw his chance. He had whipped up anti-Semitic feelings to such a point by his vicious propaganda that he now thought he could do anything. He probably didn't think about the consequences himself. He was a fanatic of an abnormal caliber. Streicher was a tame man compared to Goebbels, because Streicher is half crazy and stupid, whereas Goebbels was just unscrupulous, clever and dangerous. You couldn't discuss anything with Goebbels. And for the same reason, you couldn't discuss anything with Himmler. Goebbels was so dishonest that it didn't pay to discuss anything with him.
  • Hermann Goering to Leon Goldensohn, May 24, 1946