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Book Club: Struggle for Berlin by Joseph Goebbels

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The Struggle For Berlin by Joseph Goebbels is a personal account of events throughout the late 1920s and into the early 1930s Germany regarding the NSDAP movement in Prussia in general and Berlin in particular. Throughout the book, Goebbels frequently discusses the issues and challenges he faces as a district leader of the party as well as writing about how he was able to overcome these issues. Many parallels can be drawn between the issues faced by Goebbels and the issues faced today by many fringe political movements and regardless of if one agrees with the author his account of events, intentional or otherwise, may make for excellent advice.

Goebbels comes off as surprisingly charming for a clubfoot manlet and this is in no doubt to his ambition early in life to become an author which were put on hold following the failure of two plays he wrote in ‘23. By 1940 he would have 14 books under his belt, I suppose dreams do come true after all. Goebbels charm would go on to serve him well in acquiring the position of chief propagandist for the Third Reich.

Selected Quotes

Page 17

Modern propaganda as well rests in essence on the effect of the spoken word. Revolutionary movements are not made by great writers, rather by great speakers.

Page 14

Socialism such as we understand it is essentially the result of a healthy feeling of justice, tied to a consciousness of responsibility toward the nation, without regard for the “interests of an individual”.

Page 40

Poster and assembly propaganda doubtlessly promised a better effect. But they as well, applied in the same style as the other parties were accustomed, would have hardly brought successes of significant magnitude. For the other parties were firmly anchored in the masses, after all. The political camps had already become so encrusted toward each other that it was hardly possible to chip parts off from them. We hence had to make the attempt to replace the lack of financial means and numeric following with amusing originality adapted to the thinking of the Berlin populace. It was about appealing as much as possible to the fine understanding of the Berlin populace for pointed formulations and effective slogans. We started with it early and, as the later development showed, it did not remain without success.

Page 11

The struggle for the capital always forms a special chapter in the history of revolutionary movements.

Page 159

That would hardly move him inwardly. Stare at him hard and calm for a while and then say to him; ”You are presumably a Jew!” And you will notice with amazement how unsure, how embarrassed and guilt ridden he becomes at the same moment.

Page 71

Among nationalist writers, I usually had the impression that, quite the opposite, they wanted to put our organization into the service of their pens. And hence for me, the verdict over them was pronounced from the start. Above all, they seemed to lack the necessary civil courage. One was afraid to discredit oneself among the civilization literati. It is the fear of the educated philistine, who does not dare to protest against whatever Jewish insanity out of fear of appearing not modern and being ridiculed as untimely. Nationalism will always be decried by the civilization literati as reactionary. One must then simply summon up the civil courage to shout it into the hacks in the editorial offices: if nationalism is in their opinion reactionary, then we are just in God’s name reactionaries. But we are in no way ready to allow our worldview to be prescribed for us by egotistical, excessively arrogant cattle of the pen.