Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels, a doctor of philology who had failed as a novelist and playwright, became the most effective propagandist of the twentieth century as Hitler's Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He controlled all German media — press, radio, film, theatre, and art — through the Reich Chamber of Culture, transforming mass communication into an instrument of ideological saturation. His diary, kept from 1924 to the eve of his suicide, is one of the war's most important primary sources. He orchestrated Kristallnacht (1938) and sustained German morale through the disasters of 1943-45 with his 'total war' speech at the Sportpalast (February 1943) — arguably the most devastating piece of rhetorical manipulation in German history. Remaining with Hitler in the Führerbunker to the end, he killed his six children with cyanide and then killed himself and his wife on 1 May 1945.
- Lived: 1897 CE – 1945 CE
- Nationality: German
- Roles: minister, propagandist
