Literature
Nazi Party leader in Berlin and Reich Minister of Propaganda who used speeches, radio, film, and control of information to spread Nazi ideology and extreme antisemitism.
Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and philologist who became one of Adolf Hitler’s closest followers. Appointed the Nazi Party’s district leader in Berlin in 1926, he later served as Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. His ministry controlled news, media, the arts, and the flow of information in Nazi Germany. Goebbels publicly advocated increasingly severe persecution, including the extermination of Jews and other groups in the Holocaust.
Born in Rheydt in 1897, Goebbels aspired to become an author and earned a doctorate in philology from Heidelberg University in 1922. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924 and was appointed its district leader in Berlin two years later.
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Goebbels became Reich Minister of Propaganda. His ministry rapidly gained control over news, media, the arts, and the flow of information, using radio and film to promote Nazi ideology.
In 1943, Goebbels pressed Hitler to introduce measures for total war, including closing businesses deemed inessential to the war effort and expanding military and industrial conscription. Appointed Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War in July 1944, he made largely unsuccessful efforts to increase staffing for armaments production and the armed forces.
In April 1945, Goebbels moved with his wife, Magda, and their children into Hitler’s underground bunker complex in Berlin. After Hitler’s suicide, Goebbels served as Chancellor of Germany for one day. On 1 May, he and Magda killed themselves after poisoning their six children.
Every place in this city with a documented tie to this person.
Performed here
He delivered the notorious Sportpalast “total war” speech here on February 18, 1943.
These addresses are scattered across the city. Our routes and quests put them in an order that works.