Joseph Goebbels Quotes: 145 Quotes on Nationalism and Socialism

“We do not want to make everyone the same. Nor do we want levels in the population, high and low, above and below. The aristocracy of the coming state will be determined not by possessions or money, but only on the quality of one’s accomplishments. One earns merit through service. Men are distinguished by the results of their labor. That is the sure sign of the character and value of a person. The value of labor under socialism will be determined by its value to the state, to the whole community. Labor means creating value, not haggling over things.”

Joseph Goebbels

1930s, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (1932)

Money , Personality , Communication , Making love

“Russia ... our natural ally against the fiendish temptation and corruption from the West.”

Joseph Goebbels

Rußland ... der uns von Natur gegebene Bundesgenosse gegen die teuflische Versuchung und Korruption des Westens ist. Source: National Socialist Letters (Nationalsozialistische Briefe), “National Socialism or Bolshevism”, (November 15, 1925), quoted in: Ralph Georg Reuth, Goebbels, Piper, 2nd ed., Munich, 1991, p. 96. ISBN 3-492-03183-8.
1920s

Nature

“Russia [...] will awaken in the spirit of its greatest thinker, in the spirit of Dostoevsky.”

Joseph Goebbels

1920s
Original: (de) Rußland ... einst im Geiste seines größten Denkers, im Geiste Dostojewskis erwachen wird.

National Socialist Letters (Nationalsozialistische Briefe), “National Socialism or Bolshevism”, (November 15, 1925), quoted in: Ralph Georg Reuth, Goebbels, Piper, 2nd ed., Munich, 1991, p. 96. ISBN 3-492-03183-8.

“1927. I stood in front of your grave; in radiating sunshine there was a still, green mound. And it was preaching about mortality.
My answer was: resurrection.”

Joseph Goebbels

1927. Ich stand an deinem Grab; im glastenden Sonnenschein lag ein stiller, grüner Hügel. Und predigte Vergänglichkeit.
Meine Antwort war: Auferstehung.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

“Old Christmas Songs. I feel something like a longing for a lost homeland.
We are giving gifts to each other. A beautiful, old New Testament from Hertha Holk is my greatest joy. I thank her for being my solace and my strength.”

Joseph Goebbels

Alte Weihnachtslieder. Ich habe etwas wie Sehnsucht nach einem verlorenen Vaterland.
Wir beschenken uns. Ein schönes, altes Jesustestament von Hertha Holk ist meine größte Freude. Ich danke ihr, dass sie mein Trost und meine Stärke ist.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Beauty , Feeling , Joy , Christmas

“She has confessed her parentage to me. Since then, the first enchantment ruined.”

Joseph Goebbels

Goebbels diary entry in 1924 after finding out his girlfriend Else Janke had a Jewish mother.
Diary excerpts

“The political bourgeoisie is about to leave the stage of history. In its place advance the oppressed producers of the head and hand, the forces of Labor (Arbeitertum), to being their historical mission.”

Joseph Goebbels

“Warum sind wir Sozialisten,” Der Angriff editorial, July 16, 1928, reprinted in Der Angriff, Munich 1935, p. 223. David Schoenbaum, Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939, W.W. Norton & Company (1997) p. 25
As quoted in "Erkenntnis und Propaganda," Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1934), pp. 28-52
The Pharus Hall was a meeting hall the Nazis often used in Berlin.
1920s

History

“How beautiful life is! Music and dancing! The violins are sobbing. The first stopper of a bottle of champagne bangs. And now there's a mad singing and shouting. Everybody joins in and sings and shouts! Embracing, friendship, eternal friendship! How beautiful the women are! Dressed in black and red. But you are the prettiest, Hertha! … Hey, you grumblers, go to hell! Music and dancing. The violins are sobbing. Women dressed in black and red. But you are the prettiest, Hertha!”

Joseph Goebbels

Wie schön ist das Leben! Musik und Tanz! Die Geigen schluchzen. Der erste Sektpfropfen knallt. Und nun ein tolles Singen und Schreien. Man singt und schreit mit. Umarmung, Freundschaft, ewige Freundschaft! Welch' schöne Frauen! In schwarz und rot! Und doch bist Du die Schönste, Hertha Holk! … Heda, ihr Miesmacher, der Teufel soll euch holen! Musik und Tanz. Die Geigen schluchzen. Frauen in schwarz und rot. Und doch bist Du die Schönste, Hertha Holk!
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Life , Women , Friendship , Beauty

“1923. You challenged your fate. To surmount or to die! It was not yet time. Therefore you became a victim.
Your answer was: Death!”

Joseph Goebbels

1923. Du fordertest dein Schicksal in die Schranken. Biegen oder brechen! Noch war es zu früh. Deshalb wurdest du Opfer.
Deine Antwort war: Tod!
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Death , Fate , Time

“The Jew is contrary to our being. … He desecrated our people, spat on our ideals, paralyzed the strength of the nation, made our customs rotten, and polluted the morale.”

Joseph Goebbels

Der Jude ist uns im Wesen entgegengesetzt. … Er hat unser Volk geschändet, unsere Ideale besudelt, die Kraft der Nation gelähmt, die Sitten angefault und die Moral verdorben.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

People

“While National Socialism brought about a new version and formulation of European culture, Bolshevism is the declaration of war by Jewish-led international subhumans against culture itself. It is not only anti-bourgeois, it is anti-cultural. It means, in the final consequence, the absolute destruction of all economic, social, state, cultural, and civilizing advances made by western civilization for the benefit of a rootless and nomadic international clique of conspirators, who have found their representation in Jewry.”

Joseph Goebbels

Speech at the Nazi party Congress at Nuremberg (September 1935) http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/goeb58.htm
1930s

War

“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly and with unflagging attention. It must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over. Here, as so often in this world, persistence is the first and most important requirement for success.”

Joseph Goebbels

Actually from "War Propaganda", in volume 1, chapter 6 of Mein Kampf (1925), by Adolf Hitler
Misattributed

World , Success

“I dedicate this book to the memory of my friend Richard Flisges, who died as a brave soldier of work in a mine at Schliersee on the 19th of July 1923.”

Joseph Goebbels

Dieses Buch widme ich dem Andenken meines Freundes Richard Flisges, der am 19. Juli 1923 in einem Bergwerk bei Schliersee als tapferer Soldat der Arbeit in den schweren Tod ging.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Books , Memory

“I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even yet imagine?”

Joseph Goebbels Sportpalast speech

Ich frage euch: Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg? Wollt ihr ihn, wenn nötig, totaler und radikaler, als wir ihn uns heute überhaupt erst vorstellen können?
Sportpalast speech, 18 February 1943
1940s

War , Imagination

“I demand that the petty bourgeois Adolf Hitler be expelled from the Nazi Party.”

Joseph Goebbels

As quoted in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany, William L. Shirer, New York: NY Simon & Schuster (2011), p. 127, first published 1960
Attributed

“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)

“To be modern only means to fill new forms with eternal truths.”

Joseph Goebbels

Modern sein heißt nichts anderes als ewige Inhalte in wechselnde neue Formen zu füllen.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Truth

“Hypocrisy is the characteristic feature of the dying bourgeois epoch.”

Joseph Goebbels

Die Heuchelei ist das charakteristische Merkmal der untergehenden bürgerlichen Epoche.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

“We are not a charitable institution but a Party of revolutionary socialists.”

Joseph Goebbels

“Einbeitsfront,” Der Angriff editorial, May 27, 1929. David Schoenbaum, Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939, W.W. Norton & Company (1997) p. 25
1920s

“If the German people lay down their weapons, the Soviets, according to the agreement between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, would occupy all of East and Southeast Europe along with the greater part of the Reich. An iron curtain would fall over this enormous territory controlled by the Soviet Union, behind which nations would be slaughtered.”

Joseph Goebbels

Article titled ' Das Jahr 2000 http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/goeb49.htm' printed in the newspaper Das Reich, February 25, 1945, pp. 1-2
1940s

People , Parting

“Devotion, fervor, longing! Those are my pillars. We have to be the bridge to the future.”

Joseph Goebbels

Hingabe, Inbrunst, Sehnsucht! Das sind meine Pfeiler. Brücke zur Zukunft müssen wir sein.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Future

“When you stroll through Munich it can happen that you suddenly stand in front of an old house, an idyllically-dreaming church that smiles like a friendly anachronism into our modern time.”

Joseph Goebbels

Wenn man durch München ohne Ziel streift, kann man es erleben, daß man plötzlich vor einem alten Haus, einer heimlich-verträumten Kirche steht, die wie ein freundlicher Anachronismus in unsere moderne Zeit hineinlächelt.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Smile , Dreams , Time , Housing

“The war we are fighting until victory or the bitter end is in its deepest sense a war between Christ and Marx.
Christ: the principle of love.
Marx: the principle of hate.”

Joseph Goebbels

Der Kampf, den wir heute ausfechten bis zum Sieg oder bis zum bitteren Ende, ist im tiefsten Sinne ein Kampf zwischen Christus und Marx.
Christus: das Prinzip der Liebe.
Marx: das Prinzip des Hasses.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Love , Hate , War , Sense

“The Fuhrer is deeply religious, though completely anti-Christian. He views Christianity as a symptom of decay. Rightly so. It is a branch of the Jewish race.”

Joseph Goebbels

Dated 29 December 1939
Diary excerpts

“I have devoted exhaustive study to the Protocols of Zion. In the past objection was always made that they were not suited to present day propaganda. In reading them now I find that we can use them very well. The Protocols of Zion are as modern today as they were when published the first time! At noon I mentioned this to the Führer. He believed the protocols to be absolutely genuine!”

Joseph Goebbels

As quoted in The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, by Will Eisner, (10/2/2005), p.110; and in Survivors Victims and Perpetrators:, Essays on the Nazi Holocaust https://books.google.com/books/about/Survivors_Victims_and_Perpetrators.html?id=Hyg98sfH3CAC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false by Joel E. Dimsdale, p.311.
Diary excerpts

Study , Time , Reading , Past

“At night I sit in my chamber and read the Bible. Far in the distance roars the sea. Then I lie down and think for a long time about the calm and pale man from Nazareth.”

Joseph Goebbels

Abends sitze ich auf meinem Zimmer und lese die Bibel. In der Ferne braust das Meer. Dann liege ich noch lange wach und denke an den stillen, bleichen Mann von Nazareth.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Lie , Thinking , Time , Reading

“After supper we are sitting close to the church in a quiet spot. As if from a distance we hear prayers and singing. The monks are holding their vesper services. Then it falls silent, wonderfully silent!
The sun has already set. … We are quiet, too. … A door is closed somewhere. A man's, then a woman's voice. Children are praying! My dear Jesus! Then it falls silent again. Wonderfully silent!
The night spreads its wide, black wings over the land.”

Joseph Goebbels

Nach dem Abendbrot sitzen wir an der Kirche in einem stillen Winkel. Wie von ferne hören wir Gebet und Singen. Die Mönche halten ihre Abendandacht. Und dann wird es still, wunderbar still!
Die Sonne ist schon untergegangen. … Auch wir schweigen. … Irgendwo wird eine Tür geschlossen. Eine Männer-, dann eine Frauenstimme. Kinderbeten! Du lieber Jesus mein! Dann wird es wieder still. Wunderbar still!
Die Nacht legt ihre breiten, schwarzen Flügel auf das Land.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Children , Singing , Sun , Night

“My God is a God of strength. HE does not like the smell of frankincense and the dishonoring crawl of the crowd. I stand before HIM proudly, with the head held high, as HE created me, and I profess gladly and freely before HIM. The true German seeks God for all of his life.”

Joseph Goebbels

Mein Gott ist ein Gott der Stärke. Er mag nicht den Weihrauchdampf und das entehrende Kriechen der Menge. Ich stehe vor ihm stolz erhobenen Hauptes, wie er mich erschaffen hat, und bekenne mich freudig und frei vor ihm. Der wahre Deutsche bleibt Zeit seines Lebens ein Gottsucher.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Life , God

“Great hour! Spent together, rejoicing and dreaming. Days and years are gathering. We are a still island in the ocean of the world. Beginning and end! Border between life and eternity! Euphoria, fulfillment, existence!”

Joseph Goebbels

Große Stunde! Mit dem zweiten Menschen, dem anderen verjubelt und verträumt. Tage, Jahre sammeln sich. Eine ruhende stille Insel im Ozean Welt sind wir. Ende und Anfang! Grenze zwischen Leben und Ewigkeit! Rausch, Fülle, Dasein!
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Life , World , Dreams

“I should like to be a parson on this island. Explain the Sermon on the Mount to ordinary people and let the world be the world.”

Joseph Goebbels

Ich möchte Pastor auf dieser Insel sein. Einfachen Menschen die Bergpredigt erklären und die Welt Welt sein lassen.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

People , World

“He who defends the Jew harms his own people.”

Joseph Goebbels

"Der Jude," Der Angriff. Aufsätze aus der Kampfzeit (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1935
1930s

People