1930s, Nazi Germany. Democracy is destroyed and the Nazi Party eliminated all political
opposition. All power is centralized in Hitler's person who became absolute dictator
of Germany under the title of Führer, or “Leader”. The first concentration camps
are already established, and Jews are persecuted and imprisoned. To influence public opinion,
Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels makes effective use of film
and mass rallies. One of the most prominent representatives of this criminal Nazi regime
and unofficial first lady of the Third Reich is his wife, Magda Goebbels.
Magda Goebbels was born on 11 November 1901 in Berlin as Johanna Maria Magdalena Ritschel.
Her father Oskar Ritschel was a rich building contractor and engineer, and her mother Auguste
was a servant. They married around the time of Magda’s birth, and they divorced 3 years later.
In 1908 Magda’s mother Auguste married Richard Friedländer – a wealthy merchant
from a Jewish German family. Magda bore the surname “ Friedländer “ after she was
adopted by her Jewish stepfather and they had a good relationship.
The family lived in Brussels where Magda was enrolled at the Ursuline Convent and received
the basics of her excellent education. After the outbreak of the WW1 in 1914,
the family moved to Berlin. The same year Magda’s mother divorced Richard Friedländer.
However, Magda’s stepfather was not the only Jewish man who played an important
role in her life. During her school days Magda met a young Jewish man named Haim
Arlosoroff. Arlosoroff was then a socialist Zionist and he would later
become an important politician. The two fell in love. According to Haim’s sister,
Magda wore a necklace with the Star of David that Haim gave her, and they even planned to emigrate
to British-ruled Palestine together. However, they broke up and he left for Palestine in 1924.
In 1920 while travelling to school by train, Magda met Günther Quandt – a widow,
twice her age. He turned out to be one of the richest industrialists in Germany
and he fell in love with Magda. Quandt proposed to Magda but demanded that she changes her Jewish
surname from Friedländer to Ritschel. She agreed and they got married in January, 1921.
Their son – Harald – was born in November the same year.
To Magda this marriage opened the door to unlimited wealth and social connections. However,
while Magda was looking after their son Harald as well as Quandt’s two sons from his first marriage
and 3 children of a deceased friend, Günther was busy building his business empire. Life as a young
rich wife and mother did not satisfy Magda and she found a lover. When her husband discovered
she had an affair, they separated and divorced in 1929 when the Great economic depression started.
Even though the economic crisis hit Germany hard, it did not impact Magda’s lifestyle at all.
She led life of a wealthy divorcee as Magda’s ex-husband was paying her generous
alimony which enabled Magda to maintain the lifestyle she became accustomed to.
She was young, independent but bored.
When in 1930 Magda attended a meeting of the Nazi Party, her life changed completely.
She met Joseph Goebbels who would become the Nazi Minister of Propaganda and Adolf Hitler.
Magda and Joseph became lovers and they got married in December
1931. Adolf Hitler was the best man at their wedding and he was very fond of Magda and
he had become couple’s close friend often staying in their luxurious Berlin apartment.
In 1933 Hitler was appointed as Germany's new chancellor and Magda became one of the
most prominent figures of the Nazi regime and unofficial first lady of the Third Reich. This is
because Adolf Hitler’s relationship with Eva Braun was kept secret until their death and Hitler had
created a public image of a celibate man dedicated entirely to Nazi Germany with no domestic life.
Between 1932 and 1940 Magda and Joseph Goebbels had 6 children with their names
starting with H in honor of Hitler who was often photographed playing with them.
Goebbels family also belonged to Hitlers’ s inner circle at Berghof
which was Adolf Hitler’s vacation residence in the Bavarian Alps from 1935 until 1945.
Even though the Goebbels family were presented as the ideal family of the Third Reich to the public,
the reality was very different. Joseph was a womanizer and Magda knew about it.
With one of his mistresses– famous Czech actress Lída Baarová – Joseph Goebbels
fell in love and their affair lasted from around Berlin Olympics in 1936
until 1938. After Magda approached Hitler and asked him for permission to divorce her husband,
Hitler stepped in and ordered his propaganda minister to stop the affair at once. As a result,
Baarova fled to Prague and Hitler arranged for publicity photos to be taken of himself
with the reconciled couple in October 1938. However, Magda too had an affair with Karl
Hanke who was a State Secretary in the Propaganda Ministry.
When the Nazis came into power in January 1933,
Joseph Goebbels had to deal with the Jewish past of his wife, too.
When they started to persecute Jews in Germany and restrict their civil and human rights,
Haim Arlosoroff - Magda’s ex Jewish lover - was then an important political figure in Palestine.
Arlosoroff came into Germany in 1933 to negotiate Haavara agreement which would allow the emigration
of German Jews to Palestine along with most of their property. It is believed that he tried
to contact Magda to help him secure this agreement as he learned that his exgirlfriend was married to
one of the Nazi top leaders. However, they did not meet and allegedly she warned Arlosoroff that his
life was in danger, and he should leave Germany immediately. 2 days after his return from Germany,
he was assassinated on a beach in Tel Aviv. It is believed that Joseph Goebbels was
responsible for the assassination and sent two Nazi agents to kill Arlosoroff.
In June 1938 Richard Friedländer, Magda’s stepfather – once a rich man,
now an impoverished Jew - was deported to Buchenwald concentration camp
where he was put to forced labor in a stone quarry. Friedländer died in February 1939.
There is no evidence that Magda attempted to intervene to save her stepfather.
World War II started on the 1st September 1939. Magda’s son Harald from her first marriage to
Günther Quandt became a Luftwaffe pilot and Magda spent her time raising her 6 children,
entertaining the wives of foreign heads of state, comforting war widows or working
with the electronics company where she travelled on a bus, like her colleagues.
While some witnesses claimed that in her inner circle, she started to be critical of
the regime, she never stopped publicly supporting Hitler and the Nazi Party.
Because she also knew about the horrors and atrocities the Nazis were committing in the
name of what they to be the Aryan master race, she knew that her situation, if Germany lost the war,
would be very complicated. As a result, towards the end of the war,
she suffered from severe depression and intense pain due to which she was frequently bedridden.
In April 1945 the Soviet Red Army entered Berlin and Goebbels family including 6 children moved
into Hitler’s bunker under the Reich Chancellery garden on 22 April 1945. It was obvious that the
war was lost, and Magda refused several offers from others, such as Adolf Hitler himself,
to flee. She rather chose a different end for herself and her children because according to
her own words, the world which would come after Hitler and national socialism would not any longer
be worth living. Thus, after Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide on the 30th of April, 1945,
Magda and Josef decided to follow them with their children on the following day. In the
evening of 1st of May, 1945 Magda ordered the SS dentist Helmut Kunz to inject her six children,
dressed into long white nightgowns, with morphine to make them unconscious.
After that, Magda Goebbels, with help of Ludwig Stumpfegger, Hitler’s personal surgeon,
crushed an ampule of cyanide in each of their mouths. Once she killed her own 6 children,
Magda and Joseph walked up the stairs to the garden of the Chancellery, where they committed
suicide. After Joseph shot Magda and himself, their bodies were doused with petrol and burned.
Even though Magda could escape this horrible end,
she rather chose to die and take her 6 innocent children with her. As with many fanatic Nazis,
Magda Goebbels could not imagine life after Hitler and the Nazi Party would be over.
The regime, which was responsible for the murder of millions, she represented until the bitter end.
With much of Germany in ruins, the war in Europe ended seven days later on May 8, 1945.
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