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Joseph Goebbels Facts

Joseph Goebbels Facts
Joseph Paul Goebbels was among Hitler's inner circle and one of the most important people in the Nazi regime. He served as the Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945 and was instrumental in crafting many of Hitler's speeches as well as the anti-Jewish propaganda that was disseminated throughout Germany after the Nazis came to power. Goebbels was born Paul Joseph Goebbels on October 29, 1897 in Rheydt, German Empire to Fritz and Katharina Goebbels. Rejected from the army due to a birth defect that gave him a limp, Goebbels focused his life on academic pursuits. He earned a PhD in German literature from the University of Heidelberg in 1921 and went on to work as a journalist and stock broker before joining the Nationalist Socialist German Worker's Party in 1924. Goebbels met Nazi Party member Magda Quandt in 1930 and the two were married in 1931. The couple would have six children to go along with a son Magda had from a previous marriage.
Interesting Joseph Goebbels Facts:
Goebbels was member #8762 of the Nazi Party
Goebbels, along with Gregor and Otto Strasser, wanted to promote the "socialist" part of the National Socialist German Worker's Party, which eventually conflicted with Hitler's view of the party's future. Hitler was able to bring Goebbels and the left wing of the Nazi Party back into the fold, though.
He kept a detailed diary of his time in the Nazi Party and throughout World War II.
He had several affairs with different women. While Goebbels was married to Magda, he had an affair with Czech actress Lida Baarova.
Although a hardcore anti-Semite, Goebbels disagreed with many of the standard race based views of the Jewish people that his party held.
It was Goebbels idea to make Jews wear the yellow Star of David identification badge.
Although raised a Catholic, Goebbels had mixed views on the Church and advocated more government control over it as well as the Protestant churches in Germany.
Goebbels introduced the idea of "total war" in 1943, which entailed the closing of non-essential businesses and increased rationing of commodities.
Goebbels urged Hitler to take the last stand in the Berlin bunker instead of retreating to his mountain fortress in Bavaria.
After Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, Goebbels became the Chancellor of the Third Reich.
On May 1, Goebbels young children were given morphine injections and then administered cyanide. Goebbels and Magda then took cyanide capsules and were shot by SS officers.
The bodies were repeatedly buried and exhumed by the Soviets until they were disposed of in a tributary of the Elbe River.
Goebbels' stepson, Harald Quandt, was a Luftwaffe pilot who was captured by the Americans in Italy in 1944. Quadt would later go on to become one of West Germany's leading post-war industrialists.


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