Joseph Goebbels
The propagandist
Manufactured consent for terror.
Reactionary NaziOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Nazi hall →- Role
- Propaganda Minister
- Era
- 1897–1945
- Region
- Germany
- Social band
- Reactionary
- Placement
- +22 · +95 · −80
§ Where Joseph Goebbels stands
3 axesIn the mid-1920s Goebbels belonged to the party's anti-capitalist northern faction, which backed the 1926 campaign to expropriate Germany's former princely houses, but he swung behind Hitler after Hitler rejected that programme at the Bamberg conference that year. In office he left private ownership intact while taking culture in hand, quietly buying up film companies such as Ufa for the state, which places him only slightly right of centre.
Goebbels built the most complete system of information control of his age. His Propaganda Ministry, created in March 1933, and the Reich Chamber of Culture that September required journalists, writers, musicians and film-makers to belong to state-controlled bodies, and the Editors Law of October 1933 made the press an arm of the state. He also spoke at the Berlin book burning of 10 May 1933.
Goebbels was among the regime's most virulent antisemites. His speech in Munich on 9 November 1938 unleashed the Kristallnacht pogrom, his ministry produced the hate films Jud Süß and Der ewige Jude in 1940, and his diaries record his pressure to make Berlin free of Jews. He also authorised the 1937 Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich, which pilloried modern art as racial decay.
How close are you to Joseph Goebbels?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
HistoricalPaul Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) was Nazi Germany's propaganda minister from 1933 until the regime's collapse. Born into a devout Catholic family in Rheydt in the Rhineland, he was rejected for war service because of a deformed foot, earned a doctorate in literature at Heidelberg in 1921 and drifted through failed attempts at writing before joining the Nazi Party in 1924. At first aligned with Gregor Strasser's anti-capitalist northern wing, he switched to Hitler in 1926 and became the party's Gauleiter, or regional leader, of Berlin.
Goebbels built the Hitler myth, staged the regime's spectacles and brought press, radio, film and the arts under state control through his ministry and the Reich Chamber of Culture. He incited the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, pressed for the deportation of Berlin's Jews and, after Stalingrad, called the nation to 'total war'. Named chancellor in Hitler's will, he held the post for a day: on 1 May 1945 he and his wife Magda had their six children poisoned in the Berlin bunker and then killed themselves.
Notable for
- 01Directed Nazi propaganda
- 02Total media control
- 03Architect of the 'big lie' technique
Key works & moments
- 1921Earns a doctorate in German literature at Heidelberg University.
- 1926Becomes Gauleiter of Berlin; he founds the party newspaper Der Angriff the following year.
- 1933Appointed propaganda minister in March; speaks at the Berlin book burning on 10 May.
- 1938His Munich speech on 9 November sets off the Kristallnacht pogrom across Germany.
- 1943Calls for 'total war' in a speech at Berlin's Sportpalast on 18 February.
- 1945Chancellor for one day after Hitler's suicide; he and Magda have their six children poisoned, then kill themselves.
In their own words
“Do you want total war?”
“We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies! As the wolf breaks into the flock of sheep, so we come.”
§ Minds closest to Joseph Goebbels
All minds →
§ Also in the Nazi hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat was Joseph Goebbels's political ideology?
Joseph Goebbels was a Nazi: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reactionary Nazi. Economically he sat slightly right of centre (+22); he began on the party's anti-capitalist wing but in power left private property intact while bringing culture under state control. On governance he was near the authoritarian maximum (+95) as the architect of total control over press, radio and film, and socially he was at the reactionary extreme (−80), an obsessive antisemite who incited pogrom and deportation.
Was Joseph Goebbels left-wing or right-wing?
Right-wing, on the far right, although he flirted with anti-capitalist ideas early on. In the mid-1920s Goebbels stood with Gregor Strasser's 'socialist' faction of the Nazi Party, but from 1926 he served Hitler unconditionally. In power he crushed the Communist and Social Democratic movements, censored all dissent and devoted his ministry to racial hatred and the glorification of war, which places him firmly on the ultranationalist, authoritarian right.
Did Goebbels say 'If you tell a lie big enough, people will believe it'?
There is no reliable source for it. The line usually attributed to Goebbels, that a lie repeated often enough will be believed, does not appear in that form in his speeches, articles or diaries. The phrase 'big lie' comes from Hitler's Mein Kampf (1925), which accused Jews of using the technique, and Goebbels in turn accused British propaganda of lying on a grand scale. His own methods relied less on single falsehoods than on endless repetition, emotional spectacle and a monopoly over every channel of information.
Which minds are closest to Joseph Goebbels?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Joseph Goebbels are Reinhard Heydrich (100% alike), Hans Landa (99% alike) and Heinrich Himmler (99% alike). The furthest is Emma Goldman (0% alike).