Joseph Goebbels



If any writer after 1945 has ever wanted to write an evil character who specializes in propaganda, this is the first guy they think of.

The original spin-doctor, Paul Joseph Goebbels was fanatically devoted to Adolf Hitler and was ultimately appointed his successor as head of government. He was obsessed with the "Aryan race" and envied them, since he was a short black-haired man who was unable to fight on the front lines as a youth because of his limp. He compensated for this with his charisma, and after the Nazis lost in the Soviet Union, he whipped up their supporters at home into a frenzy, ensuring that they continued fighting against overwhelming odds. Goebbels was known for his slick and charming personality (he dated several film stars), and for being among the few intellectuals in the Nazi Party (Alfred Rosenberg was another). He was also a devoted family man and model father. After Hitler committed suicide in 1945, Goebbels succeeded him as Chancellor of Germany and reigned for thirty hours before he shot his wife and then himself. His wife had previously killed their six children, as they had agreed, despite several offers (including from Albert Speer) to take them to safety in the west beforehand.


 * Adolf Hitler: One of his most devoted fans, even though at one point their politics were almost entirely opposite.
 * Commie Nazis: He actually started his political career with some Communist sympathies, but was drawn towards Nazism and essentially served as the NSDAP's guy for luring Communists into the Nazi fold, even serving a bridge between the two groups during a brief alliance against common political enemies in 1927.
 * Family Values Villain: He and his wife put across the public image of being a happy, healthy family, but in truth their marriage was rocky, both cheated on one another more than once, and Hitler himself had to keep their marriage from disintegrating, which, given how they used this trope, would have been very embarrassing politically.
 * Magnum Opus: His "Principles of Propaganda". Regardless where or who you are on the political spectrum, this brief outline set the bar for how propaganda should be done ever since he first put it out.
 * Propaganda Machine: Not only did he run it, he even codified the principles of how one should be run, and those principles are still useful even today.