Editing Joseph Goebbels (section)

===Plenipotentiary for total war===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1992-093-13A, Offiziere und NS-Führer, u.a. Goebbels und Speer.jpg|thumb|Goebbels (centre) and Armaments Minister [[Albert Speer]] (to Goebbels' left) observe rocket tests at [[Peenemünde Army Research Center|Peenemünde]], August 1943.]]

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J31305, Auszeichnung des Hitlerjungen Willi Hübner.jpg|thumb|9 March 1945: Goebbels awards 16-year-old [[Hitler Youth]] Willi Hübner the [[Iron Cross]] for the defence of [[Lubań|Lauban]] (now Lubań in Poland).]]

After the [[Allied invasion of Sicily]] (July 1943) and the strategic Soviet victory in the [[Battle of Kursk]] (July–August 1943), Goebbels began to recognise that the war could no longer be won.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=594}} Following the Allied invasion of Italy and the fall of Mussolini in September, he raised with Hitler the possibility of a separate peace, either with the Soviets or with Britain. Hitler rejected both of these proposals.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=607, 609}}

As Germany's military and economic situation grew steadily worse, on 25 August 1943 ''[[Reichsführer-SS]]'' [[Heinrich Himmler]] took over the post of interior minister, replacing [[Wilhelm Frick]].{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=611}} Intensive air raids on Berlin and other cities took the lives of thousands of people.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|pp=268–270}} In December 1943, Hitler asked Goebbels to take on the job of ''Stadtpräsident'' (City President) of Berlin, and Goebbels agreed to this as a means of obtaining more direct control over the municipal authorities, though Hitler delayed the formal appointment for several months.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=622–623}} Goebbels took over direct administrative control of the city when he was formally named ''Stadtpräsident'' on 7 April 1944, thus uniting under his control the city's most powerful party and governmental offices.{{sfn|New York Times, 8 April 1944}} As air raids on Berlin continued, Göring's [[Luftwaffe]] attempted to retaliate with air raids on London in early 1944, but they no longer had sufficient aircraft to make much of an impact.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=627–628}} While Goebbels' propaganda in this period indicated that a huge retaliation was in the offing, the [[V-1 flying bomb]]s, launched on British targets beginning in mid-June 1944, had little effect, with only around 20 per cent reaching their intended targets.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=634}} To boost morale, Goebbels continued to publish propaganda to the effect that further improvements to these weapons would have a decisive impact on the outcome of the war.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=637}} Meanwhile, in the [[Normandy landings]] of 6 June 1944, the Allies successfully gained a foothold in France.{{sfn|Evans|2008|pp=623–624}}

Throughout July 1944, Goebbels and Speer continued to press Hitler to bring the economy to a total war footing.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=637–639}} The [[20 July plot]], where Hitler was almost killed by a bomb at his field headquarters in [[East Prussia]], played into the hands of those who had been pushing for change: Bormann, Goebbels, Himmler, and Speer. Over the objections of Göring, Goebbels was appointed on 23 July as [[Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War]], charged with maximising the manpower for the Wehrmacht and the armaments industry at the expense of sectors of the economy not critical to the war effort.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=643}} Through these efforts, he was able to free up an additional half a million men for military service.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=282}} However, as many of these new recruits came from the armaments industry, the move put him in conflict with armaments minister Speer.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=651}} Untrained workers from elsewhere were not readily absorbed into the armaments industry, and likewise, the new Wehrmacht recruits waited in barracks for their turn to be trained.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=660}}

Hitler ordered a nationwide militia of men previously considered unsuitable for military service — the ''[[Volkssturm]]'' (People's Storm) — to be formed on 25 September 1944; it was launched on 18 October.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=675}} In his capacity as ''Gauleiter'' and [[Reich Defense Commissioner#Activities in the final phase of the war|Reich Defense Commissioner]], Goebbels was named ''Führer des Deutschen Volkssturms im Gau Groß-Berlin'' on 25 September 1944, and he administered the oath of allegiance to the assembled Berlin ''Volkssturm'' troops on 12 November.{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2012|p=334}} Goebbels recorded in his diary that 100,000 recruits were sworn in from his ''Gau'' alone. However, the men, mostly age 45 to 60, received only rudimentary training and many were not properly armed. Goebbels' notion that these men could effectively serve on the front lines against Soviet tanks and artillery was unrealistic at best. The programme was deeply unpopular.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=284}}{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=676}}

Goebbels realised that his influence would diminish in wartime. He suffered a series of setbacks as propaganda became less important compared to warfare, the war economy, and the Allied bombing of German cities. Historian [[Michael Balfour (historian)|Michael Balfour]] states that from 1942 onward, Goebbels, "lost control over Nazi policy toward the press and over the handling of news in general."{{sfn|Balfour|1979|p=109}} Rival agencies expanded. The foreign ministry took charge of propaganda outside Germany. The military set up its own propaganda division, providing daily reports on the progress of the war and the conditions of the armed forces. The Nazi Party also generated and distributed its own propaganda during the war. Goebbels was still influential when he had the opportunity to meet with Hitler, who became less available as he moved his headquarters closer to the military front lines. They were together perhaps one day a month. Furthermore, Hitler rarely gave speeches or rallies of the sort that had dominated propaganda in the 1930s. After Hitler returned to Berlin in 1945, Goebbels' ministry was destroyed by an Allied air raid on 13 March, and Goebbels had great difficulty disseminating propaganda. In April 1945, he finally bested the rival agencies and took full charge of propaganda, but by then the Soviet Red Army had already entered Berlin. Goebbels was an astute observer of the war, and historians have exhaustively mined his diary for insights on how the Nazi leadership tried to maintain public morale.{{sfn|Balfour|1979|pp=103–110}}{{sfn|Reuth|1994|pp=251, 282, 287, 291, 295, 297, 349–351}}{{sfn|Carsten|1989|pp=751–756}}