Goebbels, (Paul) Joseph (1897–1945)

German Nazi leader. As minister of propaganda from 1933, he brought all cultural and educational activities under Nazi control and built up sympathetic movements abroad to carry on the ‘war of nerves’ against Hitler's intended victims. On the capture of Berlin by the Allies, he committed suicide.

He was born in the Rhineland, became a journalist, joined the Nazi party in 1924 when it was still in its early days, and was given control of its propaganda in 1928. He was totally committed to Nazism and as minister of propaganda his organizational abilities and oratory were major factors in disseminating the party line throughout Germany and abroad. He was appointed special plenipotentiary for total war in August 1944 and was granted powers to draft any able‐bodied person in the Reich into war work. In the final days of Berlin he moved into the Führerbunker, poisoned his six children, and then ordered an SS officer to shoot him and his wife.

His swift reaction to the 1944 July Plot was instrumental in preventing the anti‐Nazi conspirators gaining any advantage. He instigated myths about resistance organizations, which gave many Allied leaders sleepless nights and led to complex military tactical dispositions to deal with threats that never actually existed.