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VOM KAISERHOF ZUR REICHSKANZLEI
By Joseph Goebbels
The ICaiserhof was the headquarters of the National Socialist Party in Berlin, and the scene of most of Herr Hitler's staff-work in the closing stages of his campaign for power. This diary (Munich : Franz Eher, Mk. 4.50) was written during that period, the year preceding the National Socialist triumph. It is not very informative about details— no National Socialist publication ever seems to be ; for an adequate account of the development of the Party it seems to be necessary to rely on writers in opposition, such as Herr Heiden in his recent History of National Socialism. But on one aspect of National Socialism this diary throws a flood of light ; it reveals the terrifiC energy, the nervous excitement, often the critical danger, that accompanied the building-up of the machine which was eventually to control the whole German people. " Tempo " is a word that again and again occurs in these pages ; more than once it is emphasized by the addition atemberauberid," "breathtaking." Herr Goebbels seems to live in a world of superlatives ; sometimes they are not applied to politics, as when he describes Greta Garbo, after a film which both "held and shook" him, as "the greatest living actress." Such evidence of relaxation from the overwhehning task of organizing Nazi propaganda is rare in these pages, but it does occur occasionally. Wagner always rouses him to almost religious ecstasy, though once or twice Puccini is found delightful. There is an even more intimate touch later, when, in the middle of his raging and tearing campaign, his wife falls dangerously ill and is for some time in a critical condition. Were it not for such exceptions the reader of this diary would hardly believe that Dr. Goebbels was human ; one would rather think of a formidable propa- ganda-machine, untiring, unreflecting, moving relentlessly onwards with only one motive and one goal—devotion to the " Fiihrer " and the annihilation of " Marxist " lies. It is remarkable to find in his well-known physique such a feverish activity, such unquenchable zest. There were often obstacles ; how low the finances of the Party came is, for example, revealed in these pages, which also illustrate and explain Goebbels' intense antipathy to Gregor Strasser. But on actual developments in the Party such as this the diary gives comparatively little information : it deserves to be read chiefly as a self-portrait of the super-propagandist, the man whose oratorical power and understanding of mass-psychology were among the chief factors in "putting Nazi-ism over" the
Asphaltdenzokrcdie."
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