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.[1] 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.
- Driven to Suicide: He just could not imagine life without Hitler, much like his wife, hence why they both chose to end their life. Horrifyingly, they forced their children to join them.
- 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.
- Hypocrite: On top of his infidelity problems, he made a point to criticize Nazis like Goering who lived high on the hog during the war. While he did walk his talk when it came to not pigging out on black market food, he otherwise was little better than the rest in other areas like property and war spoils.
- Lean and Mean: He was a skinny man, to the point a 1945 joke by Germans went, "The war will end when Goering can fit in Goebbels' trousers."
- Magnum Opus: His "Principles of Propaganda". Regardless of 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.
- Prima Donna Director: In spades. He was super picky about how he wanted media to be shown and would micromanage the littlest things if it annoyed him.
- 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.
- Red Right Hand: Had a deformed foot that required a special shoe. This even identified his corpse.
- Your Cheating Heart: The length of this page would likely require splitting to list all the details of his numerous affairs. His wife Madga wasn't much better. Ironically, Hitler was the one who helped get them married in the first place and often had to be their unofficial marriage counselor.
- ↑ He did cheat on his wife with an actress and used his happy healthy kids as evidence that disabled children should be euthanized.