Ralf Georg ReuthReviews
Author of Goebbels
Reviews
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Another thing implied is a picture of Goebbels as a complete non-entity without Hitler. The early part of his life is undistinguished and, in fact, boring. Only when he attaches himself to the NSDAP, first through Gregor Strasser and, later, Hitler, does he become a more animated being. I am willing to buy into this notion more firmly than the relatively power dependent figure discussed above. For without Hitler, it is clear that Goebbels was nothing. The "poison dwarf" only found purpose through anger and revenge at the bourgeois representatives of capital or the reactionary aristocratic class all of whom he felt conspired against people such as himself to keep them from their proper place in society. Only the arrival of Hitler into his life allowed Goebbels to focus his disappointments and anger in a way that gave value to the Nazis.
Lastly, there is an emphasis on Goebbels' commitment to socialism and a volkisch socialist revolution. He never let that notion go. It was the mechanism through which he wanted to overthrow the old aristocratic order when he was younger. And towards the end of the war it fed his fantasies about making a separate peace with the Soviets in order to fight the Allies on one front.
The tone of this biography, meanwhile, tends towards reflecting an objective attitude. On that score Reuth is much more akin to earlier biographers of the Nazis, such as Alan Bullock, although even Bullock was much more eager to assess and place blame on the likes of Goebbels for their actions than is Reuth.