Editing Joseph Goebbels (section)

==Role in Hitler's government==
Support for the party continued to grow, but neither of these elections led to a majority government. In an effort to stabilise the country and improve economic conditions, Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Reich chancellor on 30 January 1933.{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=307}}

To celebrate Hitler's appointment as chancellor, Goebbels organised a torchlight parade in Berlin on the night of 30 January of an estimated 60,000 men, many in the uniforms of the SA and SS. The spectacle was covered by a live state radio broadcast, with commentary by longtime party member and future Minister of Aviation [[Hermann Göring]].{{sfn|Evans|2003|pp=310–311}} Goebbels was disappointed not to be given a post in Hitler's new cabinet. [[Bernhard Rust]] was appointed as [[Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture|Minister of Culture]], the post that Goebbels was expecting to receive.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=206}} Like other Nazi Party officials, Goebbels had to deal with Hitler's leadership style of giving contradictory orders to his subordinates, while placing them into positions where their duties and responsibilities overlapped.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|p=131}} In this way, Hitler fostered distrust, competition, and infighting among his subordinates to consolidate and maximise his own power.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=323}} The Nazi Party took advantage of the [[Reichstag fire]] of 27 February 1933, with Hindenburg passing the [[Reichstag Fire Decree]] the following day at Hitler's urging. This was the first of several pieces of legislation that dismantled democracy in Germany and put a totalitarian dictatorship—headed by Hitler—in its place.{{sfn|Evans|2003|pp=332–333}} On 5 March, yet another Reichstag election took place, the last to be held before the defeat of the Nazis at the end of the Second World War.{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=339}} While the Nazi Party increased their number of seats and percentage of the vote, it was not the landslide expected by the party leadership.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=212}} Goebbels received Hitler's appointment to the cabinet, becoming head of the newly created [[Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda]] in March 1933.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=27}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-14597, Berlin, Opernplatz, Bücherverbrennung.jpg|thumb|[[Nazi book burning]] in Berlin, 10 May 1933]]

The role of the new ministry, which set up its offices in the 18th-century [[Ordenspalais]] across from the [[Reich Chancellery]], was to centralise Nazi control of all aspects of German cultural and intellectual life.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=212–213}} Goebbels hoped to increase popular support of the party from the 37 per cent achieved at the last free election held in Germany on 25 March 1933 to 100 per cent support. An unstated goal was to present to other nations the impression that the Nazi Party had the full and enthusiastic backing of the entire population.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=121}} One of Goebbels' first productions was staging the Day of Potsdam, a ceremonial passing of power from Hindenburg to Hitler, held in [[Potsdam]] on 21 March.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=214}} He composed the text of Hitler's decree authorising the [[Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses]], held on 1 April.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=218}} Later that month, Goebbels travelled back to Rheydt, where he was given a triumphal reception. The townsfolk lined the main street, which had been renamed in his honour. On the following day, Goebbels was declared a local hero.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=221}}

Goebbels converted the 1 May holiday from a celebration of workers' rights (observed as such especially by the communists) into a day celebrating the Nazi Party. In place of the usual ad hoc labour celebrations, he organised a huge party rally held at Tempelhof Field in Berlin. The following day, all trade union offices in the country were forcibly disbanded by the SA and SS, and the Nazi-run [[German Labour Front]] was created to take their place.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|pp=128–129}} "We are the masters of Germany," he commented in his diary entry of 3 May.{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=358}} Less than two weeks later, he gave a speech at the [[Nazi book burning]] in Berlin on 10 May,{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=224}} a ceremony he suggested.{{sfn|Gunther|1940|p=67}}

Meanwhile, the Nazi Party began passing laws to marginalise Jews and remove them from German society. The [[Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service]], passed on 7 April 1933, forced all non-[[Aryan]]s to retire from the legal profession and civil service.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=40}} Similar legislation soon deprived Jewish members of other professions of their right to practise.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|p=40}} The first [[Nazi concentration camps]] (initially created to house political dissenters) were founded shortly after Hitler seized power.{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=344}} In a process termed ''[[Gleichschaltung]]'' (coordination), the Nazi Party proceeded to rapidly bring all aspects of life under control of the party. All civilian organisations, including agricultural groups, volunteer organisations, and sports clubs, had their leadership replaced with Nazi sympathisers or party members. By June 1933, virtually the only organisations not in the control of the Nazi Party were the army and the churches.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=14}} On 2 June 1933, Hitler appointed Goebbels a ''[[Reichsleiter]]'', the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party.{{sfn|Orlow|1973|p=74}} On 3 October 1933, on the formation of the [[Academy for German Law]], Goebbels was made a member and given a seat on its executive committee.{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2012|p=293}} 
{{anchor|Schriftleitergesetz}}
In a move to manipulate Germany's middle class and shape popular opinion, the regime passed on 4 October 1933 the ''Schriftleitergesetz'' (Editor's Law), which became the cornerstone of the Nazi Party's control of the popular press.{{sfn|Hale|1973|pp=83–84}} Modelled to some extent on the system in [[Benito Mussolini]]'s [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]], the law defined a ''Schriftleiter'' as anyone who wrote, edited, or selected texts and/or illustrated material for serial publication. Individuals selected for this position were chosen based on experiential, educational, and racial criteria.{{sfn|Hale|1973|pp=85–86}} The law required journalists to "regulate their work in accordance with National Socialism as a philosophy of life and as a conception of government."{{sfn|Hale|1973|p=86}}

In 1934, Goebbels published ''Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei'' ("From the [[Hotel Kaiserhof (Berlin)|Kaiserhof]] to the Reich Chancellery"), his account of Hitler's seizure of power, which he based on his diary from 1 January 1932 to 1 May 1933. The book sought to glorify both Hitler and the author.{{sfn|Low|1996|pp=94–95, 198}} It sold around 660,000 copies, making it Goebbels's best-selling publication during his lifetime.{{sfn|Adam|2021|p=104}}

At the end of June 1934, top officials of the SA and opponents of the regime, including Gregor Strasser, were arrested and killed in a purge later called the [[Night of Long Knives]]. Goebbels was present at the arrest of SA leader [[Ernst Röhm]] in Munich.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|pp=132–134}} On 2 August 1934, President von Hindenburg died. In a radio broadcast, Goebbels announced that the offices of president and chancellor had been combined, and Hitler had been formally named as ''[[Führer]] und Reichskanzler'' (leader and chancellor).{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|p=137}}

===Workings of the Ministry===
The propaganda ministry was organised into seven departments: administration and legal; mass rallies, public health, youth, and race; radio; national and foreign press; films and film censorship; art, music, and theatre; and protection against counter-propaganda, both foreign and domestic.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|pp=140–141}} Goebbels's style of leadership was tempestuous and unpredictable. He would suddenly change direction and shift his support between senior associates; he was a difficult boss and liked to berate his staff in public.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=370}} Goebbels was successful at his job, however; ''Life'' wrote in 1938 that "[p]ersonally he likes nobody, is liked by nobody, and runs the most efficient Nazi department."{{sfn|LIFE Magazine|1938}} [[John Gunther]] wrote in 1940 that Goebbels "is the cleverest of all the Nazis", but could not succeed Hitler because "everybody hates him".{{sfn|Gunther|1940|p=19}}

The Reich Film Chamber, which all members of the film industry were required to join, was created in June 1933.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=224–225}} Goebbels promoted the development of films with a Nazi slant, and ones that contained subliminal or overt propaganda messages.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=157}} Under the auspices of the ''[[Reichskulturkammer]]'' (Reich Chamber of Culture), created in September, Goebbels added additional sub-chambers for the fields of broadcasting, fine arts, literature, music, the press, and the theatre.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|p=142}} As in the film industry, anyone wishing to pursue a career in these fields had to be a member of the corresponding chamber. In this way anyone whose views were contrary to the regime could be excluded from working in their chosen field and thus silenced.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=138}} In addition, journalists (now considered employees of the state) were required to prove Aryan descent back to the year 1800, and if married, the same requirement applied to the spouse. Members of any chamber were not allowed to leave the country for their work without prior permission of their chamber. A committee was established to censor books, and works could not be re-published unless they were on the list of approved works. Similar regulations applied to other fine arts and entertainment; even cabaret performances were censored.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|pp=142–143}} Many German artists and intellectuals left Germany in the pre-war years rather than work under these restrictions.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|p=140}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H14243, Berlin, Verteilung von 500 Radios (Volksempfänger).jpg|thumb|left|Free radios were distributed in Berlin on Goebbels' birthday in 1938.]]
Goebbels was particularly interested in controlling the radio, which was then still a fairly new [[mass medium]].{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|p=127}} Sometimes under protest from individual states (particularly [[Prussia]], headed by Göring), Goebbels gained control of radio stations nationwide, and placed them under the ''[[Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft]]'' (German National Broadcasting Corporation) in July 1934.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=226}} Manufacturers were urged by Goebbels to produce inexpensive home receivers, called ''[[Volksempfänger]]'' (people's receiver), and by 1938 nearly ten million sets had been sold. Loudspeakers were placed in public areas, factories, and schools, so that important party broadcasts would be heard live by nearly all Germans.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|p=127}} On 2 September 1939 (the day after the start of the war), Goebbels and the Council of Ministers proclaimed it illegal to listen to foreign radio stations. Disseminating news from foreign broadcasts could result in the death penalty.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=434}} [[Albert Speer]], Hitler's architect and later Minister for Armaments and War Production, later said the regime "made the complete use of all technical means for domination of its own country. Through technical devices like the radio and loudspeaker, 80 million people were deprived of independent thought."{{sfn|Snell|1959|p=7}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2004-0312-504, Nürnberg, Reichsparteitag, Rede Adolf Hitler.jpg|thumb|Hitler was the focal point at the 1934 [[Nuremberg Rally]]. [[Leni Riefenstahl]] and her crew are visible in front of the podium.]]
A major focus of Nazi propaganda was Hitler himself, who was glorified as a heroic and infallible leader and became the focus of a [[cult of personality]].{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=292–293}} Much of this was spontaneous, but some was stage-managed as part of Goebbels' propaganda work.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=122–123}} Adulation of Hitler was the focus of the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, where his moves were carefully choreographed. The rally was the subject of the film ''[[Triumph of the Will]]'', one of several Nazi propaganda films directed by [[Leni Riefenstahl]]. It won the gold medal at the 1935 [[Venice Film Festival]].{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=123–127}} At the 1935 [[Nuremberg rallies|Nazi party congress rally]] at [[Nuremberg]], Goebbels declared that "Bolshevism is the declaration of war by Jewish-led international subhumans against culture itself."{{sfn|Goebbels|1935}}

Goebbels was involved in planning the staging of the [[1936 Summer Olympics]], held in Berlin. It was around this time that he met and started having an affair with the actress [[Lída Baarová]], whom he continued to see until 1938.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|pp=184, 201}} A major project in 1937 was the [[Degenerate Art Exhibition]], organised by Goebbels, which ran in Munich from July to November. The exhibition proved wildly popular, attracting over two million visitors.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=171, 173}} A degenerate music exhibition took place the following year.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=351}} Meanwhile, Goebbels was disappointed by the lack of quality in the National Socialist artwork, films, and literature.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=346, 350}}

===Church struggle===
{{See also|Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Germany}}
In 1933, Hitler signed the ''[[Reichskonkordat]]'' (Reich Concordat), a treaty with the Vatican that required the regime to honour the independence of Catholic institutions and prohibited clergy from involvement in politics.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=234–235}} However, the regime continued to target the Christian churches to weaken their influence. Throughout 1935 and 1936, hundreds of clergy and nuns were arrested, often on trumped up charges of currency smuggling or sexual offences.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=189}}{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=382}} Goebbels widely publicised the trials in his propaganda campaigns, showing the cases in the worst possible light.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=189}} Restrictions were placed on public meetings, and Catholic publications faced censorship. Catholic schools were required to reduce religious instruction and crucifixes were removed from state buildings.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=239–240}}{{efn|name=crucifixes}} Hitler often vacillated on whether or not the ''[[Kirchenkampf]]'' (church struggle) should be a priority, but his frequent inflammatory comments on the issue were enough to convince Goebbels to intensify his work on the issue;{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=382}} in February 1937 he stated he wanted to eliminate the [[Protestant]] church.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=223}}

In response to the persecution, [[Pope Pius XI]] had the ''"[[Mit brennender Sorge]]"'' ("With Burning Concern") Encyclical smuggled into Germany for [[Passion Sunday]] 1937 and read from every pulpit. It denounced the systematic hostility of the regime toward the church.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|pp=234–235}}{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=241–243}} In response, Goebbels renewed the regime's crackdown and propaganda against Catholics.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=244}} His speech of 28 May in Berlin in front of 20,000 party members, which was also broadcast on the radio, attacked the Catholic church as morally corrupt. As a result of the propaganda campaign, enrolment in denominational schools dropped sharply, and by 1939 all such schools were disbanded or converted to public facilities. Harassment and threats of imprisonment led the clergy to be much more cautious in their criticism of the regime.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=245–247}} Partly out of foreign policy concerns, Hitler ordered a scaling back of the church struggle by the end of July 1937.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=334}}

===Antisemitism and the Holocaust===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1971-099-63, München, zerstörte Ohel-Jakob-Synagoge.jpg|thumb|{{ill|Old Synagogue Ohel Jakob|de|Alte Synagoge Ohel Jakob}}, Munich, after ''[[Kristallnacht]]'' ]]
Goebbels was antisemitic from a young age.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=24–25}} After joining the Nazi Party and meeting Hitler, his antisemitism grew and became more radical. He began to see the Jews as a destructive force with a negative impact on German society.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=39–40}} In 1930, he criticised Italian Fascist dictator [[Benito Mussolini]] for his relative lack of hostility towards Jews, stating that "Mussolini appears to have not recognized the [[Jewish question]]."{{sfn|Bernhard|2019}} After the Nazis seized control, he repeatedly urged Hitler to take action against the Jews.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=145}} Despite his extreme antisemitism, Goebbels spoke of the "rubbish of race-materialism" and of the unnecessity of [[biological racism]] for the Nazi ideology.{{sfn|Michael|2006|p=177}} He also described Himmler's ideology as "in many regards, mad" and thought [[Alfred Rosenberg]]'s [[Nazi racial theories|racial theories]] were ridiculous.{{sfn|Michael|2006|p=177}}

The Nazi Party's goal was to remove Jews from German cultural and economic life, and eventually to remove them from the country altogether.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=454–455}} In addition to his propaganda efforts, Goebbels actively promoted the persecution of the Jews through [[pogrom]]s, legislation, and other actions.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2010|p=156}} Discriminatory measures he instituted in Berlin in the early years of the regime included bans against their using public transport and requiring that Jewish shops be marked as such.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=454}}

In November 1938, the German diplomat [[Ernst vom Rath]] was killed in Paris by the young Jewish man [[Herschel Grynszpan]]. In response, Goebbels arranged for inflammatory antisemitic material to be released by the press, and the result was the start of a pogrom. Jews were attacked and synagogues destroyed all over Germany. The situation was further inflamed by a speech Goebbels gave at a party meeting on the night of 8 November, where he obliquely called for party members to incite further violence against Jews while making it appear to be a spontaneous series of acts by the German people. At least a hundred Jews were killed, several hundred synagogues were damaged or destroyed, and thousands of Jewish shops were vandalised in an event called ''[[Kristallnacht]]'' (Night of Broken Glass). Around 30,000 Jewish men were sent to concentration camps.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=455–459}} The destruction stopped after a conference held on 12 November, where Göring pointed out that the destruction of Jewish property was in effect the destruction of German property since the intention was that it would all eventually be confiscated.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=400–401}}

Goebbels continued his intensive antisemitic propaganda campaign that culminated in Hitler's [[30 January 1939 Reichstag speech]], which Goebbels helped to write:{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=205}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B04490A, Berlin, Ältere Frau mit Judenstern.jpg|thumb|upright|Woman in Berlin wearing the yellow star]]

{{blockquote|If international finance Jewry in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=469}} }}

While Goebbels had been pressing for expulsion of the Berlin Jews since 1935, there were still 62,000 living in the city in 1940. Part of the delay in their deportation was that they were needed as workers in the armaments industry.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|pp=464–466}} Deportations of German Jews began in October 1941, with the first transport from Berlin leaving on 18 October. Some Jews were shot immediately on arrival in destinations such as [[Riga]] and [[Kaunas]].{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=236}} In preparation for the deportations, Goebbels ordered that all German Jews wear an identifying [[yellow badge]] as of 5 September 1941.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=235}} On 6 March 1942, Goebbels received a copy of the minutes of the [[Wannsee Conference]],{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=513}} which indicated indirectly that the Jewish population of Europe was to be sent to [[extermination camp]]s in occupied areas of Poland and killed.{{sfn|Longerich|2010|pp=309–310}} His diary entries of the period show that he was well aware of the fate of the Jews. "In general, it can probably be established that 60 per cent of them will have to be liquidated, while only 40 per cent can be put to work.&nbsp;... A judgment is being carried out on the Jews which is barbaric but thoroughly deserved," he wrote on 27 March 1942.{{sfn|Longerich|2015|p=514}}

Goebbels had frequent discussions with Hitler about the fate of the Jews, a subject they discussed almost every time they met.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|p=328}} He was aware throughout that the Jews were being exterminated, and completely supported this decision. He was one of the few top Nazi officials to do so publicly.{{sfn|Thacker|2010|pp=326–329}}