Thursday, July 28, 2016

One of Goebbels’s Less Effective Articles?

Goebbels wrote a weekly essay for the prestige publication Das Reich.  Most articles (and speeches) were later reprinted in one of three collections published during the war.  Goebbels was very careful in what he wrote and rarely had to eat his words.


Still, there were essays that didn’t get reprinted.  Sometimes he may simply have thought them not up to his usual standards.  Other times, they might prove uncomfortable given developments.  Today I’m adding one of the essays omitted from his books.  Titled “Where Do We Stand,” it may have seemed a tad too optimistic four or five months later when the book appeared.

Sunday, July 10, 2016

A Goebbels Article from March 1945

Today I’ve added a March 1945 essay by Goebbels titled “Look Confidently to the Helmsman!” The war situation was dreadful and Goebbels had nothing to say but empty words that Germany would somehow gain victory if only Germans kept fighting.  It is not one of his better efforts — but then there was little he could say.

He does recycle his marathon runner image used a few weeks before in a major speech.  Other nations were as exhausted as Germany, he claims.  The war is like a marathon, and if only Germany can keep up the pace other nations will fall by the wayside.