Joseph Goebbels: Trending quotes (page 5)

“The Führer once again expressed his determination to clean up the Jews in Europe pitilessly. There must be no squeamish sentimentalism about it. The Jews have deserved the catastrophe that has now overtaken them. Their destruction will go hand in hand with the destruction of our enemies. We must hasten this process with cold ruthlessness.”

Joseph Goebbels

Dated 14 February 1942
Diary excerpts

“…we can see the commencement of our own national and socialist survival in an alliance with a truly national and socialist Russia.”

Joseph Goebbels

National Socialist Letters (NS-Briefe), Nov 15, 1925

“Lenin is the greatest man, second only to Hitler, and that the difference between Communism and the Hitler faith is very slight.”

Joseph Goebbels

As quoted in The New York Times, “Hitlerite Riot in Berlin: Beer Glasses Fly When Speaker Compares Hitler to Lenin,” November 28, 1925 (Goebbels' speech November 27, 1925)

according to Curt Riess, journalist, author, and Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany, Goebbels was “praising Lenin” and drawing “parallels between Bolshevists and the Nazis.

Faith , Communication

“The night folds her trembling hands over a weary world. Out of a pale blue rises the shining moon. My thoughts are flying to the stars like lonely swans.”

Joseph Goebbels

Nacht faltet zitternde Hände über der müden Welt. Aus blassem Blau steigt leuchtend der Mond. Meine Gedanken fliegen wie einsame Schwäne in die Sterne.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

World , Star , Flying , Night

“To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole.”

Joseph Goebbels

As quoted in Escape from Freedom, Erich Fromm, Farrar & Rinehart (1941) p. 233, Matthew Lange, Antisemitic Elements in the Critique of Capitalism in German Culture, 1850-1933, Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, (2007) p. 290
1940s

“Money is the curse of mankind. It smothers the seed of everything great and good. Every penny is sticky with sweat and blood.... It poisons our own values and subjects us to the service of low and base instincts.”

Joseph Goebbels

Nazi Culture by George L. Mosse (1966) p. 109
Attributed

Money

“Christianity is not a religion for the masses, let alone for all. Cultivated by few and translated into deeds, it is one of the most splendid blossoms that can grow in the soul of a good man.”

Joseph Goebbels

Das Christentum ist keine Religion für viele, geschweige denn für alle. Von wenigen gepflegt und in die Tat umgesetzt, ist es eine der köstlichsten Blüten, die eine Kulturseele je getrieben hat.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Religion , Soul

“Give your goods to the poor: Christ.
Property is theft - as long as it's not mine: Marx.”

Joseph Goebbels

Verteile Dein Gut an die Armen: Christus.
Eigentum ist Diebstahl – solange es nicht mir gehört: Marx.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Christ

“I put down the oars and float endlessly as if to the eternal shore. Blue light of the moon shines on my sail. My boat is gliding to a secure haven. Only silent waves break against it. Deepest silence surrounds me and my soul builds a golden bridge to a star.”

Joseph Goebbels

Ich lege die Ruder ein und fahre endlos, wie einem ewigen Gestade zu. Mondlicht spielt blau auf meinem Segel. Mein Nachen gleitet in einen sicheren Hafen. Nur leise schlagen die Wellen an meinen Kahn. Die tiefste Stille ist um mich, und meine Seele spannt eine goldene Brücke zu einem Stern.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Soul , Star , Light , Silence

“That was my longing: for the mountains' divine solitude and peacefulness, for pure, white snow. I got tired of the big city.
I am at home again in the mountains. There I sit for many hours amid their white virginity and find myself again.”

Joseph Goebbels

Das war meine Sehnsucht: nach göttlicher Einsamkeit und Ruhe der Berge, nach unberührtem, weißen Schnee. Ich war der großen Stadt müde geworden.
Ich bin wieder zu Hause in den Bergen. Da sitze ich viele Stunden in ihrer weißen Jungfräulichkeit und finde mich selbst wieder.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Peace , Home , Mountain , Solitude

“We enter the Reichstag to arm ourselves with democracy’s weapons. If democracy is foolish enough to give us free railway passes and salaries, that is its problem… We are coming neither as friends or neutrals. We come as enemies! As the wolf attacks the sheep, so come we.”

Joseph Goebbels

Why Do We Want to Join the Reichstag? Der Angriff, 30 April 1928
1920s

Democracy , Problem , Wolf

“When I sit near the ocean in the morning and write my verses and breathe the salty wind which is coming from the water, I rejoice in God and I am blissful, as I was as a child.”

Joseph Goebbels

Wenn ich morgens am Meere sitze und Verse dichte und atme dabei den salzigen Wind, der vom Wasser herüberspringt, dann gehe ich auf in Gott und bin glücklich, wie ich es nur noch in der Kinderzeit war.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

God , Water

“To attract people, to win over people to that which I have realised as being true, that is called propaganda. In the beginning there is the understanding, this understanding uses propaganda as a tool to find those men, that shall turn understanding into politics. Success is the important thing. Propaganda is not a matter for average minds, but rather a matter for practitioners. It is not supposed to be lovely or theoretically correct. I do not care if I give wonderful, aesthetically elegant speeches, or speak so that women cry. The point of a political speech is to persuade people of what we think right. I speak differently in the provinces than I do in Berlin, and when I speak in Bayreuth, I say different things from what I say in the Pharus Hall. That is a matter of practice, not of theory. We do not want to be a movement of a few straw brains, but rather a movement that can conquer the broad masses. Propaganda should be popular, not intellectually pleasing. It is not the task of propaganda to discover intellectual truths. Those are found in other circumstances, I find them when thinking at my desk, but not in the meeting hall.”

Joseph Goebbels

Speech on 9 January 1928 to an audience of party members at the "Hochschule für Politik", a series of training talks for Nazi party members in Berlin
1920s

Love , Women , Men , People

“I'm looking for the teacher who is simple enough to be great, and great enough to be simple.”

Joseph Goebbels

Ich suche den Lehrer, der einfach genug ist, um groß zu sein und groß genug, um einfach zu sein.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Teachers

“[T]he NSDAP is the German Left. We despise bourgeois nationalism.”

Joseph Goebbels

Der Angriff, (December 6, 1931) written by Goebbels. Der Angriff (The Attack) was the official newspaper of the Nazi-Sozi party in Berlin.
1930s

“I believe in God. When everything collapses, we grip the last hold, we look from the secure haven how the godless society of the old, holy Europe falls apart. May the game begin.”

Joseph Goebbels

Ich glaube an Gott. Wenn alles stürzt, fassen wir die letzte Planke und schauen vom sicheren Port, wie die entgötterte Gesellschaft des alten, heiligen Europa zusammenstürzt. Möge das Spiel beginnen.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

God , Game

“Today there seems to be only one absolute thing: relativism.”

Joseph Goebbels

Für die Zeitgenossen gibt es anscheinend nur ein Absolutes: die Relativität.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

“He who cannot hate the devil cannot love God.”

Joseph Goebbels

Wer den Teufel nicht hassen kann, der kann auch Gott nicht lieben.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Love , God , Hate

“The end of the year! I draw the balance. Inquiry of conscience and request to the Spirit for progress and maturity.
I grew stronger inside of me and I strive for a clearer knowledge and stronger faith.”

Joseph Goebbels

Jahresende! Ich mache Bilanz. Gewissensschau und Bitte an den Geist um Fortschritt und Reife.
Ich bin stärker im Innern geworden und strebe zu klarerer Erkenntnis und festerem Glauben.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Faith , Knowledge , Drawing

“Everything is what you make of it, even yourself.”

Joseph Goebbels

Alles ist das, was du daraus machst, auch du selbst.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)