Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (German: [ˈpaʊ̯l ˈjoːzɛf ˈɡœbl̩s] ; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician and philologist who was the Gauleiter (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. He was one of Adolf Hitler's closest and most devoted followers, known for his skills in public speaking and his deeply virulent antisemitism which was evident in his publicly voiced views. He advocated progressively harsher discrimination, including the extermination of the Jews in the Holocaust.
Goebbels, who aspired to be an author, obtained a doctorate in philology from the University of Heidelberg in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924, and worked with Gregor Strasser in its northern branch. He was appointed Gauleiter of Berlin in 1926, where he began to take an interest in the use of propaganda to promote the party and its programme. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry quickly gained control over the news media, arts and information in Nazi Germany. He was particularly adept at using the relatively new media of radio and film for propaganda purposes. Topics for party propaganda included antisemitism, attacks on Christian churches, and (after the start of the Second World War) attempts to shape morale.
In 1943, Goebbels began to pressure Hitler to introduce measures that would produce "total war", including closing businesses not essential to the war effort, conscripting women into the labour force, and enlisting men in previously exempt occupations into the Wehrmacht. Hitler finally appointed him as Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War on 23 July 1944, whereby Goebbels undertook largely unsuccessful measures to increase the number of people available for armaments manufacture and the Wehrmacht.
As the war drew to a close and Nazi Germany faced defeat, Magda Goebbels and the Goebbels children joined Hitler in Berlin. They moved into the underground Vorbunker, part of Hitler's underground bunker complex, on 22 April 1945. Hitler committed suicide on 30 April. In accordance with Hitler's will, Goebbels succeeded him as Chancellor of Germany; he served one day in this post. The following day, Goebbels and his wife Magda committed suicide, after having poisoned their six children with a cyanide compound.
Acted in
Apocalypse: The Fall of Hitler
2023
as Self (archive footage)
Filmmakers for the Prosecution
2023
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Hitler: The Making of a Monster
2023
as Self (archive footage)
The Wannsee Conference: The Documentary
2022
as Self (archive footage)
The Secret Masonic Victory of World War II
2022
as Self (archive footage)
Belgique nazie
2021
as Self (archive footage)
Leni Riefenstahl - The End of a Myth
2020
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Stalin and the Katyn Massacre
2020
as Self (archive footage)
The Most Dangerous Man in Europe: Otto Skorzeny's After War
2020
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Winter Journey
2019
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Karajan: Portrait of a Maestro
2019
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
The Phoney War
2019
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Greatest Events of World War II in Colour
2019
as Self (archive footage)
Storm Front in Mayo
2019
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Who was Hitler
2017
as Self (archive footage)
The Clouzot Scandal
2017
as Self (archive footage)
100 Years of the UFA
2017
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Europa: The Last Battle
2017
as Self (archive footage)
Cinecittà Babilonia: Sex, Drugs and Black Shirts
2017
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Hitler's Hollywood
2017
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Dawn of the Nazis
2017
as Self (archive footage)
Les Champions d'Hitler
2016
From Caligari to Hitler
2015
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
The Man Who Was There
2013
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Propaganda
2013
as Self (archive footage)
Nazi Titanic
2012
as Self (archive footage)
Apocalypse: The Rise of Hitler
2011
as Self (archive footage)
180
2011
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Hitler's bodyguard
2010
as Self (archive footage)
De opkomst van Adolf Hitler
2009
as Self (archive footage)
Stealing Klimt
2007
as Self (archive footage)
The Private Voice of Hitler
2006
as Self
The Hidden Führer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality
2004
as Self (archive footage)
Days That Shook the World
2003
as Himself (archive footage)
Marlene Dietrich: Her Own Song
2002
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Tramp and the Dictator
2002
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Urlaub im Dritten Reich - Kraft durch Freude
2001
as Self (archive footage)
Hitlers Frauen
2001
as Self (archive footage)
WWII: The Lost Color Archives
2000
as Self (archive footage)
Sunshine
1999
as Self - Beside Hitler (archive footage) (uncredited)
Zelig
1983
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Genocide
1982
as Self (archive footage) (as Josef Goebbels)
Hitler: A Career
1977
as Self (archive footage)
Swastika
1974
as Self (archive footage)
Triumph Over Violence
1965
as Self (archive footage)
Secrets of the Nazi Criminals
1963
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Look at Life: Eagle's Nest
1962
as Self (archive footage)
Hitler an der Macht
1960
as Self (archive footage)
Adolf Hitler - Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer: Dokumente der Zeitgeschichte
1953
as Self (archive footage)
The Century Is Fifty
1950
as Self (archive footage)
Distant Journey
1949
as Self - Politician (archive footage)
Crusade in Europe
1949
as Self (archive footage)
Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today
1948
as Self
Will It Happen Again?
1948
as Self (archive footage)
Nuremberg Trials
1946
as Himself (archive footage)
Desert Victory
1943
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Fight For Peace
1939
as Self (archive footage)
Ich habe meine Pflicht getan
1939
as Self
Olympia: Part One – Festival of the Nations
1938
as Self - Spectator (uncredited)
Triumph of the Will
1935
as Self
The Victory of Faith
1933
as Self
Germany Awakens - A Document of the Rebirth of Germany
1933
as Self
Hitler's Flight Over Germany
1932
as Self
Der Nürnberger Parteitag der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei
1929
as Self