Goebbels Speaks after the 1944 Assassination Attempt on Hitler

Goebbels used the 20 July 1944 attempt on Hitler's life to assert that God had preserved his life and that new weapons would shortly transform the war. His speech was delivered on 26 July, six days later.

Goebbels meets with Hitler shortly after the assassination attempt

Goebbels Feels Sorry for Himself

In July 1943 Goebbels wrote an article titled "Does the Government Know about That." The article suggests that people who wonder if the government knows what is going on greatly underestimate the German leadership. Goebbels says that he works day and night serving Germany. People should appreciate him.

Goebbels on Lenin and Hitler (1926)

In 1926 Goebbels frequently gave a speech titled “Lenin or Hitler,” an effort to win over the Marxists. It is a good example of his early rhetoric.

Goebbels on Victory (March 1942)

On the fourth anniversary of Hitler’s takeover of Austria, Goebbels gave a speech in Vienna on “Victory at Any Price.” It was after the first winter of the war with the Soviet Union. Goebbels expresses optimism and congratulates the Viennese on their sacrifices for the Reich.

Goebbels Boasts of Electoral Success

Hitler did not win the German presidential election of 10 April 1932, but did well enough to make Goebbels write a boasting article titled "The Rising Tide."

Goebbels is Optimistic (March 1945)

I’m interested in the propaganda of the last days of Nazi Germany. What does one say when there is nothing good to say? Today I add parts of a Goebbels speech of 10 March 1945. The Nazis had recaptured the city of Lauban from the Russians, and Goebbels visited the area, giving a speech in the nearby city of Görlitz. His dubious argument was that it proved that the course of the war could still be changed.

Goebbels’s Penultimate Speech

 Goebbels delivered his penultimate speech over the radio on 28 February 1945, which I am adding today.  His final speech was on 19 April on the occasion of Hitler’s birthday. 

The military situation was grim. The Soviets were charging in from the east, the Americans and British from the west. Goebbels had no good news to give, as he commented privately in his diaries.  He was forced to resort to what Earnest Bramsted called the “lure of historical parallels.” If Frederick the great had done it then, Germany could to it in 1945.

Goebbels on British Propaganda (April 1941)

 In April 1941 the war was looking good from the Nazi perspective.  Goebbels published the article I am adding today that gloated over the failures of British propaganda.

Goebbels mentions a British Ministry of Information campaign on the theme “How Not to Do It.” I’ve tried to chase down that campaign, with limited success. The MoI did began a campaign in June 1941 with the theme “Mend and make do.” Professor David Welch tells me that one element of that campaign was advice on “How not to do this,” which is close to the theme Goebbels provides.  Perhaps information on the campaign was released before it began?

If anyone has more information I would surely appreciate it.

Goebbels on Hitler’s Takeover (1933)

Today I’m adding Goebbels’s article “The Miracle” published four days after Hitler’s takeover on 30 January 1933.

Goebbels on a Lost Election (1932)

After great success in the July 1932 Reichstag election, Nazi vote totals sank four months later during  the 6 November election.  The party’s momentum seemed at an end and there was considerable depression among the Nazis.

The day after the election Goebbels wrote an article titled “The Chancellor without a People.” He minimized Nazi losses while claiming (with some justice) that the election had been a disaster for Reich Chancellor von Papen.  With no hope of a parliamentary majority, he dissolved the Reichstag before it was able to do anything.

Premature Nazi Claims of Victory over the Soviet Union (1941)

Goebbels preferred to avoid claiming victory until there actually was one to claim, realizing that building up hopes only to dash them made for poor propaganda. One of his competitors in the Nazi system, Press Chief Otto Dietrich, was less cautious. In early October Dietrich ordered the press to claim the Soviet Union had been so badly mauled by the ongoing German offensive as to assure its defeat. The result was this front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official party daily newspaper. Today I am adding a translation of the article claiming victory.

Other German newspapers followed suit.  Before  long, it became evident that however badly the Soviets had been defeated, they were not yet out of the war.   It was still more than a year away from the German defeat at Stalingrad, perhaps the major turning point of the war.

Goebbels Speaks on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve 1944

Sometimes an e-mail from a visitor to the site sets my curiosity in motion.  Recently I received a question from a Russian scholar about Goebbels’s 1944 Christmas Eve speech, mentioned in one of  Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s poems.  I’d not looked at it before, so using that astonishing Austrian site that provides long runs of Austrian newspapers I found the speech, then wondered what he had to say a week later on New Years Eve.

Today I am adding translations of his 1944 Christmas Eve speech and the New Years Eve speech a week later.   Goebbels had little to say based on facts, but he did his best to argue that since Germany had survived until then, it somehow had to win the war.

A People on the Defensive (Goebbels in 1945)

Goebbels prided himself (not always accurately) at telling the truth, or at least as much truth as was useful under the circumstances.  Up until the Battle of Stalingrad, propaganda was relatively easy to make.  True, there were occasional setbacks, but he would point out that was to be expected in war.

By early 1945, he could no longer speak of occasional setbacks.  The Soviets had begun a major offensive on 12 January 1945 that quickly overran German positions and took them across the German border of 1939,  Germany was now fighting on German soil (and the Western allies were on German soil to the west).

In an essay dated 11 February titled “A People on the Defensive,” Goebbels admits the military situation is grim, but still makes empty arguments that Germany will win in the end if only it steadfastly continues the war.  His promises were empty and by then most Germans realized that the war was lost, but the one effective argument Goebbels had was fear of the Soviets.  This article discusses only the Soviets, not even mentioning the presence of Allied troops on German soil to the west.

Goebbels on the Success of Nazi Propaganda Abroad (1943)

The Nazis began a major anti-Semitic propaganda campaign in May 1943. Anti-Semitism was to be incorporated in as many ways as possible.  A few weeks after the start of the campaign Goebbels’s weekly article in Das Reich titled "Driving Forces” focussed on the alleged influence of Nazi propaganda abroad and on supposed Jewish attempts to limit its success.

Goebbels Responds to Insults

Joseph Goebbels was himself a master of invective, but wasn’t happy when others used it against him.  Today I am adding a 1929 essay from Der Angriff in which he takes up a variety of accusations against him.  He basically says he will not dignify them with a reply, but will instead respond in ways his enemies do not expect.

Goebbels on Depravity in Berlin

Today I’m adding an article from January 1928 in which Goebbels claims that the center of Berlin is a den of iniquity that the Nazis will clean up once in power.

The image is the dust jacket  to a later collection of essays in which the article is reprinted.

Goebbels Suggests Killing Allied Airmen

In 1943 as German air defense capacities declined, Goebbels began suggesting that German civilians kill captured Allied airmen.  He didn’t directly ask them to do so, but suggested that it was understandable if they took such actions.

Today’s addition to the German Propaganda Article is an article titled “A Word about Enemy Air Terror,” dated 27 May 1944.  Unlike most articles on the site, it was published in the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party’s daily newspaper, rather than in Das Reich.  It was also sent to the party’s speaker corps.  It surely encouraged them to make similar suggestions to the audiences they addressed. In the end, about 350 Allied airmen were killed by German civilians.

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.

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.

Two New Early Goebbels Articles

I’ve added two more articles by Goebbels from Der Angriff. The first is a 19928 article titled “Why Do We Oppose the Jews?” The second (also 1928), titled “When Hitler Speaks,” is another example of Goebbels’s attempt to present Hitler as a superhuman figure.