rise-and-fall-of-the-third-reich-william-shirer-pdf

THE ROAD TO POWER: 1925-31 109THE EMERGENCE OF PAUL JOSEPH GOEBBELSThis swarthy, dwarfish young man, with a crippled foot, a nimble mind and acomplicated and neurotic personality, was not a stranger to the Nazi movement.He had discovered it in 1922 when he first heard Hitler speak in Munich, wasconverted, and became a member of the party. But the movement did not reallydiscover him until three years later, when Gregor Strasser, hearing him speak,decided that he could use a young man of such obvious talents. Goebbels attwenty-eight was already an impassioned orator, a fanatical nationalist and, asStrasser knew, possessed of a vituperative pen and, rare for Nazi leaders, asound university education. Heinrich Himmler had just resigned as Strasser’ssecretary to devote more of his time to raising chickens. Strasser appointedGoebbels in his place. It was to prove a fateful choice.Paul Joseph Goebbels was born on October 29, 1897, in Rheydt, a textilecenter of some thirty thousand people in the Rhineland. His father, FritzGoebbels, was a foreman in a local textile plant. His mother, Maria KatharinaOdenhausen, was the daughter of a blacksmith. Both parents were piousCatholics.Through the Catholics, Joseph Goebbels received most of his education. Heattended a Catholic parochial grade school and then the Gymnasium in Rheydt.A scholarship from the Catholic Albert Magnus Society enabled him to go on tothe university – in fact, to eight universities. Before he received his Ph.D. fromHeidelberg in 1921 at the age of twenty-four, he had studied at the universitiesof Bonn, Freiburg, Wuerzburg, Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin. In theseillustrious institutions – the flower of German higher learning – Goebbels hadconcentrated on the study of philosophy, history, literature and art and hadcontinued his work in Latin and Greek.He intended to become a writer. The year he received his doctorate he wrotean autobiographical novel, Michael, which no publisher would take at the time,and in the next couple of years he finished two plays, The Wanderer (aboutJesus Christ) and The Lonesome Guest, both in verse, which no producer wouldstage. ∗ He had no better luck in journalism. The great liberal daily, BerlinerTageblatt, turned down the dozens of articles he submitted and his applicationfor a reporter’s job.His personal life also was full of frustrations in the early days. Because he wasa cripple he could not serve in the war and thus was cheated of the experiencewhich seemed, at least in the beginning, so glorious for the young men of hisgeneration and which was a requisite for leadership in the Nazi Party. Goebbelswas not, as most people believed, born with a club foot. At the age of seven hehad suffered an attack of osteomyelitis, an inflammation of the bone marrow. Anoperation on his left thigh was not successful and the left leg remained shorterthan the right and somewhat withered. This handicap, which forced him towalk with a noticeable limp, riled him all the days of his life and was one ofthe causes of his early embitterment. In desperation, during his university daysand during the brief period when he was an agitator against the French in theRuhr, he often passed himself off as a wounded war veteran.∗ Michael was finally published in 1929, after Goebbels had become nationally known asa Nazi leader. The Wanderer reached the stage after Goebbels became Propaganda Ministerand the boss of the German theater. It had a short run.