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Dr Joseph Goebbels was the Third Reich’s master propagandist. He was born on 29th October 1897 in the Rhineland, to a pious Catholic family. He attended a Roman Catholic school and later studied History and Literature at the University of Heidelberg under a Jewish literary historian. During the First world war, military service rejected him because of his crippled foot. His clubfoot was a result of contracting polio as a child. Also, he had a diminutive figure and black hair. His physique led the German people to refer to him as the “little doctor.” What he lacked for in physique his intellect made up for it. Being conscious of his disability, he strived to belong to the ruling class. The fear of being regarded as a self-proclaimed intellectual fueled his insatiable thirst for power. He was described as cynical, hostile and hateful to the entire human race. All these traits in his personality were as a result of self-loathing, and inferiority complex (“Joseph Goebbels”). He was also quite skilled at igniting the same emotional state of rage and hatred that he felt onto masses both verbally and via writing.

A friend introduced him to socialist and communist ideas. Later, he joined the NSDAP in 1922. Initially, he was not antisemitic. Goebbels was under Professor Friedrich Gundolf, a Jewish professor renowned as a Goethe scholar and a close disciple of the poet Stefan George, whom he looked up to and admired (“Joseph Goebbels | German Propagandist”). The development of his antisemitic beliefs is believed to be purely tactical. Before joining the Nazi party, his talents were unappreciated. He tried his luck as a novelist. He only wrote a single book that was published in 1926. Nevertheless, Goebbels was intelligent, sensible, sharp, and his oration skills were exceptional (Michael 3).  He put his skills to use for the Nazi administration.

The Nazi saw his potential, and he became the district administrator of the National Socialist Worker’s Party (NSDAP) in Elberfeld. He established and edited the NS letters (Nationalsozialistischen Briefe). The main theme of these publications was to spread the anti-capitalist opinion and mobilise the citizens. The papers would draw examples from the Soviet Russia which he regarded as a socialist and nationalist country. He was among the co-authors of the Hanover conference in 1926, which called for the expulsion of Adolf Hitler (“Joseph Goebbels”). Goebbels’s political savvy instinct made him switch to Hitler’s side in the same year. Hitler rewarded him by appointing him as the Nazi district leader of Berlin-Brandenburg.

Berlin-Brandenburg was on the northern side of Germany where the Strasser brothers were superior. Goebbels was able to take control of the region by establishing and editing his weekly newspaper. He discovered the power of words both oral and written on the credulous German population. He hatched schemes, published propaganda, and orchestrated impressive parades to further his political agendas. Propaganda is biased information that is used to promote a political cause. By 1927, his powerful voice and his ability to appeal to people’s emotions made him the most influential demagogue in the capital city (“Joseph Goebbels | German Propagandist”). The onset of the great depression made the citizens more credulous to his manipulation. He silenced his opponents by combining slander and insinuation to attack them.