Leaders of Nazi Germany Part One

it's 6 30 a.m on the 30th of june 1934 at the hotel hansel bauer 30 miles south of munich a convoy of cars comes to a halt and dozens of ss and regular german police officers surround and then storm the hotel adolf hitler the newly instated chancellor of germany leads the party and after rapidly ascending the staircase he finds several leaders of the sa in compromising positions hitler bursts into another room confronting one of his oldest and closest comrades who hangs his head in shame the compromised sa officers are arrested and a day later on the first of july 1934 the man is executed in stadleheim prison in munich marking the final death of the knight of the long knives his name ernst rome lord of the sa [Music] the man known to history as ernst julius gunter rome was born on the 28th of november 1887 in the bavarian region of the empire of germany and's father was guido julius joseph rome he worked in railway administration and because this was a government position the family lived relatively affluently rome had trouble getting along with his father who was often described as a disciplinarian but when left to his own devices he showed great potential as he naturally gravitated toward his interests and pursued them with vigor whenever given the opportunity rome's mother was sophia emily rome whom he described as the best wife and mother in the world stating that his mother loved him the most of all the family he also had two older siblings a sister emily and a brother julius rome was closer to his sister than his brother and despite her moving to austria after she was married they held a close bond rome grew up in an increasingly tumultuous time in europe as germany had thrust itself onto the world stage turning a once shattered array of small duchies and kingdoms into an economic political and militaristic powerhouse hungry to prove itself the german unification movement began in 1862 25 years before rome was born under the leadership of the famed otto von bismarck who would skillfully challenge europe as if facing an opponent in a chess match the north german confederation was officially dissolved on the 18th of january 1871 and the prussian ruled the german empire was established and whilst the german unification would not be complete for some years with habsburg ruled austria-hungary remaining sovereign it was the closest the german people had yet come to the realization of a cohesive german nation-state a relatively united german world living in the shadow of competing empires shaped rome's views on european politics rome attended the royal maximilian high school but was unmoved by academics deciding to join the military instead he officially joined the royal bavarian 10th prince ludwig infantry regiment as a cadet on the 23rd of july 1906 in the garrison town of ingolstadt and received his first commission on the 12th of march 1908 and with the outbreak of the first world war rome became the adjutant to the koenig regiment's first battalion which were sent to emily near metz to defend the border and railways rome first saw action at flame val on the 25th of august 1914 and by the 10th of september he had only eight active officers in the field after suffering terrible casualties near gerlainencourt and whilst fighting in the spada in lorraine rome was struck in the face by a shell fragment which shattered the bridge of his nose leaving the first and most distinctive of more than a dozen wounds that rome sustained during his service in world war one after recovering rome would be given the rank of first lieutenant or obelitant along with the command of the 10th company at aileywood after his promotion rome spent time in france and romania commanding troops at the battle of verdun in june of 1916 his company would be the first to storm the french trenches and take the redoubt at fearmont he was wounded repeatedly most dramatically by a bullet passing close to his lung and exiting his shoulder but would survive receiving the first of his military honours the iron cross first class for his quote outstanding devotion to duty and bravery on all occasions since the beginning of the war following his recovery rome was accepted into the war ministry under colonel collar being appointed adjutants to the head of the army department and by april of 1917 rome had been promoted to captain or hauptmann following this in mid-may he would be sent to fox arnie romania to work as an adjutant to the divisional staff for the 26th 27th and 28th infantry regiments and the 22nd artillery regiment but towards the end of 1917 russia and romania negotiated a truce which meant that rome's division was moved to missile to retrain for the western front rome left romania on the 17th of april 1918 and continued to serve on divisional staff until the 2nd of october when he was transferred to the guardacore staff and after numerous officers came down with the spanish influenza rome was made third general stubbs officer which allowed him to consolidate and better evaluate all reports from the front for his division he also had control of all scouting missions from aerial to ground units and in october of 1918 rome was transferred to the 12th bavarian infantry division when they withdrew from flanders and became the second general stabs officer tasked with receiving feedback and complaints from troops and by this time he had gained a reputation with his comrades for bravery and even rashness showing little concern for his own safety the spanish influenza struck the triple on taunt with devastating force but even rome himself came down with the flu he was admitted to a field hospital on the 21st of october 1918 and later transferred to hala near brussels rome's case of spanish influenza had become so severe that the divisional doctor feared for rome's life and suggested they should replace him but he eventually recovered after a lengthy convalescence and returned to his post at saint siver on the 3rd of november 1918 only to discover that his post had been taken after all but only eight days later world war one would officially end following his return to health after his second bout of spanish flu in less than two months rome traveled back to munich he arrived only a few weeks after the november revolution during which the bavarian soviet republic had been declared and bavaria's former noble ruler deposed a sergeant discreetly approached rome and recommended he remove the black white and red cockade of imperial germany from his cap the sergeant whispered quote that is how far things have got here rome sought out lieutenant colonel von sonenberg questioning the failures of the bavarian army to react to the threat of a communist revolution the colonel responded that the revolt had taken them by surprise and that they must allow it to develop quietly and run its course this left rome discouraged rome regarded this strategy as an unpatriotic betrayal believing that the commanders of the bavarian army had shown quote their cowardice lack of resolve and inability to act hastening to comply with the advice of the trembling civilian bureaucracy these military commanders in rome's eyes had surrendered themselves to the mutinous mob without standing up for the king and kaiser in fact hiding from their responsibilities and so rome felt compelled to leave bavaria along with other army officials in february of 1919 to join the frey corps a right-wing nationalist paramilitary organization [Music] during his journey his train was halted near dhaka as kurt eisner the leader of the people's state of bavaria had just been assassinated in munich after losing control of the government his killer called eisner quote a bolshevist and a jew not a real german which illustrates the fraught political climate in germany at the end of the great war and rome was lucky to make it to aldruff as many potential troops and officers intending to join the bavarian fry corps like himself were caught and arrested rom's return to munich saw him becoming active in political life with the german national people's party and a frequent speaker at meetings he quickly became displeased with the party as he deemed them too narrow-minded many of them were coming from higher socio-economic backgrounds than rome but it wasn't long before a friend invited him to attend a meeting of the german workers party he was instantly attracted to this new organization and was amongst the first few dozen people to join the party which would attract many orators including adolf hitler upon reporting to the frey called general staff officer rome would be assigned to colonel franz ritter von epp as an aide rome excelled at management and was tasked with the command of catering and supplies and when he was first given the position the frey corps were experiencing constant supply problems but under rome's guidance the trains full of weapons equipment and horses began to roll in regularly it is believed that rome illegally requisitioned the weapons and other supplies from stocks pilfered from the former german army including caches of weapons which were supposed to have been destroyed under the versailles treaty and the logistical company that was assigned to handle everything became overwhelmed by the supplies flooding into aldruff by the 14th of april 1919 the situation in bavaria had deteriorated so dramatically that the rajveer ministry decided to speed up the formation of the freikorp in order to deploy them the bavarian soviet republic seated in munich and fractured and the people's state of bavaria was formed seated in bamberg military supplies were ready for mobilization when the first troop transports left ordruff on the 22nd of april with many more to come in the following days the fry corps was sent via stuttgart to ulm on the western side of bavaria and only two days later on the 24th of april 1919 the frey corps marched into ingolstadt after short skirmishes with the spartacists but the bavarian freikorp did not fight alone as the landsberg and swabian frykor as well as a small detachment of the german military worked in tandem to surround munich and although joint operations broke down the bavarian frycourt did manage to capture munich on the 2nd of may 1919. rome had never seen himself as an overtly political figure but he understood that due to his standing as an officer he would inevitably be thrust into a political position he argued that the imperial authorities had discouraged military officers from political pursuits or participation believing that it lay outside their duty and capacity and rome himself was surprised by the relatively apolitical attitudes of officers especially since 94 percent of active officers had been either killed or wounded in the imperial political pursuits of world war one he believed that this statistic alone should have encouraged a more politically active attitude rome believed that an officer could be apolitical as a mercenary in a foreign land in which he serves but not in his own country the politicians and parliamentarians now had influence over the army something that had never occurred in the old regime and rome would continue to view the military but not the politicians as the supreme instrument of an increasingly dangerous people's nationalism on the 24th of february 1920 at a mass meeting in the famous munich beer hall the half-brow house the german workers party presented the 25 points of its program to the public for the first time this in the minds of many historians constituted the founding of the nazi party and news of the event would push the party into the public spotlight in the spring of 1920 rome began attending meetings of the group iron fist or eisenfost held in the apartment of captain pepperoma this political organization held strongly nationalistic views as well as some revolutionary aims and it would be here that rome would first be introduced to adolf hitler a training officer at the time and a captain mayor as a consequence of the treaty of versailles following world war 1 germany had been significantly demilitarized to prevent another world war and further action would be taken by the weimar republic with the right law for the disarmament of the population in 1920 which would jail citizens for five years if they knowingly withheld information about secret weapons caches further humiliation in rome's eyes would occur on the 21st of january 1921 when the german army was reduced from a fighting force of two hundred thousand to one hundred thousand members of the armed forces had hoped that the german government would refuse and their anger and frustration grew and yet another capitulation to the allies and the ordinance depots at bamberg munich and ingolstadt were ordered destroyed on the 29th of july 1921 after significant internal party struggles adolf hitler was elected chairman of the newly named national society deutsche arbeita party or the national socialist german workers party known as the nsdap rome who was already an ally and friend of hitler had grown intrigued with the nsdap storm troops known as the sturmab thailand or sa when rome was invited by captain heiss to establish a reichsflagger or national flag unit in munich he wavered on the offer reluctantly accepting it but upon building up a small following he quickly threw himself into recruitment and commenting on the frenzy surrounding these nationalist movements rome observed that quote flaming protests and mass demonstrations are certainly valuable for whipping up sentiment and are perhaps often indispensable but if there is no man to make the practical preparations behind the smoke screen and then act they will be without effect rome became convinced of the need for an ultimate clash between nationalist militias and the internationalist and anti-fatherland allied and parliamentary dominated government forces in his estimation there would be no resolution by preaching peace and order but only through the use of force and violence the merger between the social democratic party of germany and the independent social democratic party of germany was an admission of the desire to counter the nationalist and volkisch movement and an expression of the anxiety felt over the movement's steady growth on the 8th of october 1922 bavaria replaced first minister graf lerkenfeld with eugene von niling a pro-nationalist politician and hitler's nazi party was successfully gaining traction and with fascism rising successfully in italy it only emboldened the nationalist cause the vienna newspaper nya frey presser wrote on the 14th of december 1922 that hitler had once been an outsider not really taken seriously but was now the strongest power in south german nationalism in an effort to curb the effects of the nationalist climate in bavaria the government placed the bavarian reichsphere under the control of the main army and made them subordinate to the reich president and the command headquarters in berlin separating them almost completely from the influence of the bavarian state to rome this was a coup an attempt by the reich to divert power away from bavaria and the nationalists according to a memorandum sent out by the leader of the bavarian freight corps colonel bonnie an official of the bavarian government named deputy earhart hour had made quote a series of personal attacks against captain rome and his colleagues which were to some extent fictitious in reality our had quite reliably accused rome of weapon smuggling in addition to racketeering political violence murder and desiring to impose a military dictatorship in germany uniting it with austria as a result of these accusations and the increasing pressure from the presence of rome's right-wing militiamen as well as the earlier order assimilating the bavarian military into the command of the reichsphere captain rome was transferred and demoted from general staff of infantry leader seven to general staff seventh division rome was deeply frustrated by this blatantly political move by the social democrat controlled reichstag and colonel von vonnep refused to accept their choice for rome's replacement this move by the social democrats was designed to gain control of the weapon stocks in bavaria a plan which had been long in the making ever since the introduction of the disarmament laws but due to their inability to convince the men guarding the weapon stocks to release them the social democrats sought to weaken their resolve by removing rome and other officers who would openly resist the disarmament of the bavarian army to rome the reichsphere had become a puppet for the reds a government that could be wielded by whomever controlled the reichstag rom described in 1923 as a distressing year due to his separation from colonel vonnep and the freikorp not to mention the criminal charges he faced none of which however resulted in conviction but the experience nonetheless left him better about having to defend himself from what he referred to as salvos of abuse a clear demonstration that like most nazi party members rome viewed law and justice as flexible relative and mostly secondary to questions of power as a result of germany's inability to deliver the reparations owed to the french and belgians the two countries forcefully occupied the rhine in rue and on the 23rd of january 1923 the reichstag passed a half-hearted resolution to hold quote a solemn protest against the occupation of the rule by armed force in breach of international law and treaties they claimed that the reichstag would quote support the government in any measure of purposeful resistance to the active force by any means at munich reacted with extreme protest with many condemning french imperialism as the government scrambled to unite the reich the nsdap made plans for a two-day rally in munich originally scheduled for the 27th and 28th of january 1923. rumors circulated that hitler planned to use the rally as a springboard to a coup and bavaria in response imposed strict regulations on the rally leaving hitler outraged and demanding the right to hold the rally outdoors to ensure the greatest number of attendees and as bigger fanfare as possible hitler's threats to use force led bavaria to declare a state of emergency but hitler would find the support he needed within the right sphere itself as government troops increasingly flocked to his side causing increasing unease within the bavarian government hitler assured them that all he wanted was a peaceful rally and so after meeting with numerous officials the rally was eventually approved rome along with many other nationalists viewed the government's reaction to outside threats such as those of france and belgium as mild in comparison to their treatment of their own right-wing domestic groups however groups like hitler's essay commonly known as the brown shirts were frequently seen bullying targets in the streets and invading rival political party spaces using intimidation and violence on the nsdap's behalf however hitler vehemently denied that such things were happening blaming wealthy jews for circulating lies on the 23rd of january 1923 rome was appointed a member of the policy staff of the reichslagger or national flag unit he was empowered now to make political decisions he began by working closely with hitler to quietly consolidate the various right-wing nationalist militias into an amalgamated pro fatherland camp fund or battle league to support the nazi party's eventual seizure of power formed initially as only a loose confederation of groupings by the spring of 1923 rome was being increasingly pressured to end his involvement with the group as their activities and military exercises would be quote highly welcome material to the french rome resigned his leadership role with the reichsflagger and distanced himself from the kampf bund policy committee but nevertheless by the early summer of 1923 tensions would grow still further the kampf bond policy committee presented the bavarian government with a declaration in an attempt to prevent a mayday parade from being held by socialist and proletarian militias they claimed a soviet-style armed parade was an affront to the people and a grim reminder of bavaria's red revolution of 1918 the kampf bond policy committee thought this declaration would provoke the bavarian government to declare a state of emergency cancelling all political activities but instead the bavarian government stumbled and failed to respond and reports of communists arming themselves despite later being proven false provoked the nationalists into calling a meeting to consolidate their allies and mobilize a force of their own on the morning of the first of may the kampfband set up their battle line on the oberwiesenfeld while the mayday demonstrators mobilized at tyrese and visor rome had been asked to mediate between the two groups but mindful of government scrutiny over his previous involvement with the kampfband he refused but apparently no bavarian government official believed rome's denials of involvement and on the day of demonstrations he discovered that his telephone had been tapped following the first of may standoff rome was relieved of his post and was instead appointed company commander in beirut however rome resigned to this commission the same day he received it but administrative and procedural negotiations prevented the acceptance of rome's resignation giving him time to quietly continue to work and plan for the fruition of the nsdap's plans by july the international situation had further deteriorated and france was demanding subjugation from germany with poland and czechoslovakia also snapping at their heels rome used this moment of nationalist uproar to return to the leadership of the reichslagger and lead them in a massive rally which took place between the 25th and 26th of july while rome still doubted the overall military strength unity and readiness of the kaf bond he realized that the nationalist situation was urgent the reichsphere and the state police would be used as a weapon against them if they failed to unite in an organized disciplined way and following an impassioned speech to the leadership of the kafband hitler's exhortation to fully support his political leadership was received with a claim rome described it as a highly emotional moment and with the unification of the nationalist cause under one leader rome submitted his second formal resignation to the army the consistent attempts to suppress the kampfband left hitler in a fighting mood but rome advised patience hitler issued an order prohibiting nsdap members from joining any brigades unaffiliated with the kampfband and tensions would build throughout october when the bavarian government forced the rights flagger to disband defiantly rome reformed the group under the new name reichskriegflager also known as the reich flag or rfk a further escalation of tensions occurred when the republic of the rhine was declared in saxony under a marxist government aggravating anti-communist nationalist sensibilities this along with the rising rate of inflation in the german state as a whole created the perfect storm on the 8th of november 1923 state commissioner gustav von karr was leading a meeting of officials at the berger brow keller hall with nearly 3 000 people in attendance hitler and his paramilitary forces surrounded the bear hall and at 8 45 pm they stormed the building to command the crowd's attention in the confusion hitler jumped onto a chair and firing a shot into the air promptly proclaimed the dissolution of the government and the establishment of a nationalist republic within the hour the nsdap had announced the composition of both the new bavarian government as well as the provisional german nationalist government and had placed carr in protective custody rome was tasked with delivering news of the coup to the war ministry and when rome's order to accept the new government was rejected and the centuries refused him entrance he seized the war ministry by force hitler arrived at 11 pm to greet and congratulate rome and the rfk yet an uneasy atmosphere still prevailed it was still an open question whether the government and its military forces would either accept or oppose the coup meanwhile rome was still holed up in the war ministry when he heard reports that the reichsphere and state police were finally on route to drive him out rome prepared his officers to defend the war ministry giving strict orders not to fire upon reichsphere troops stating that the reichsfield is nationalist and sooner or later will stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the struggle for liberation and after lengthy negotiation the terms of surrender arrived which were to honorably lower the rfk flag surrender all weapons to the state police and surrender rome to state custody lacking any alternative rome accepted the terms of the surrender and while rome was being taken into custody hitler was shot whilst leading a march on munich but was whisked away before he could be captured and on the 12th of november rome was taken to nydec for his first hearing and transferred two days later to statelheim prison to await trial the putch had failed whilst in prison rome authored a pamphlet entitled savior of the fatherland to counter the claims that carr had saved the country jerome hitler was the savior acting in defense of the reich while carr was the suppressor and according to rome the revolution of 1918 had ruined germany the forced acceptance of blame for the great war had crippled their political and economic standing germany had been robbed of upper silesia the rhine and the roar without any attempt to retain those territories and the reich's ongoing policy of international appeasement was starving the german people on the 26th of february 1924 hitler rome and the other punch conspirators were brought to trial all were convicted and sentenced but rome was one of the few given a conditional discharge and thus served no jail time following the trial hitler and four other conspirators were incarcerated but none would serve their full sentences and during his imprisonment hitler would write his manifesto mein kampf but in the meantime hitler requested that rome begin rebuilding the kampfband forces a process which had been forbidden by state commissioner carr the reichstag elections of the 4th of may 1924 brought stunning results as the national socialist freedom party won 32 seats one of which was taken by rome himself and whilst in government he sponsored bills relating to the rights and conditions of soldiers at the front the treatment of prisoners of war and the intervention for the rural fighters in french jails none of these bills would come to the floor for debate as they were sidelined by the deputies in the majority and this experience soured rome on the political process and made him question whether parliaments could ever function properly reinforcing his view of the military as the ideal arm for the establishment of a people's national will in the wake of attempts to reform some of the militia groups such as the reichsflagger the bavarian government proposed the knotban an emergency force that would absorb all fighting forces under government control and in response rome prohibited prior camp bond members from submitting to the not ban rome met with captain guring who was in exile in innsbruck to plan a major conference for sa leaders to take place on the 17th and 18th of may 1924 and rome founded the front ban or front league in order to consolidate the fighting brigades within the reich following hitler's release from prison he refounded the nsdap despite its having been banned and hitler offered the command of the sa to rome but he declined to accept the position unless his conditions were met whilst few of his colleagues would have attempted to impose conditions on hitler rome described his relationship with hitler as an honest friendship and was frequently observed speaking to him both openly and informally on the 26th of april 1925 he presented hitler with a memorandum stipulating his conditions for acceptance of the leadership of the sa rome would be in sole command of the front bun and it would remain an independent organization within the movement also they would be forbidden involvement in party affairs nor could they take direct orders from political leaders and lastly the front band would only accept directives from state authorities and the reich army if they were deemed necessary for the protection of the fatherland these conditions clearly highlighted the orientation of rome's politics which were belief in the power of the citizen soldier who could violently exercise his political will without being subordinated by politicians and belief in the military as the ideal instrument of nationalism hitler vehemently disagreed with rome's proposal as he wanted the front barn merged with the nsdap thus rome declined hitler's offer and resigned his position captain vice wrote of him wherever captain rome appeared there was life in the place and above all practical work was done he was the real founder of the german kampfband and the soul of this creation and following his resignation rome moved to bolivia where he served as a military advisor for the bolivian army one of the most frequently repeated facts about rome's personal life is his sexual orientation as ernstrom lived virtually his entire adult life as an openly gay man a fact that sometimes perplexes those familiar with the traditionalist views of the nazi party with which he was so deeply involved from the beginning having spent most of his life as a soldier rome approached life with a hyper-masculine aggressiveness which some biographers have speculated might have been a counterbalance to his homosexuality due to society's view of gay men as naturally effeminate his attitude and militaristic view aligned him with the nsdap but both his openness about his sexual orientation as well as the very fact of it would make him many enemies within the party following the failed stannis revolt an attempt to splinter the nsdap hitler recalled rome to germany to lead the sa under somewhat more lenient terms rome returned to find the sa a disorganized mess hardly a competitive unit his first act was to establish new groupings or groups that encompassed many regions under the command of an essay group and fuhrer who answered only to hitler and rome the essay under rome exploded into a powerful organization that would rival the size of the reichsphere by nearly 20 times the essay's main activities involved threats intimidation assaults and street battles with communists political rivals jews and others whom the nazis perceived as opposed to the nationalist volkisch cause the contrasting politics of the brownshirts with their more middle class or elite fellow party members was apparent in their support for labor strikes and their willingness to publicly and viciously beat strikebreakers the shutstaffer or ss a small subsection of the sa formed an intense rivalry with its parent organization as the leader of the ss heinrich himmler was looking for a way to break free of the essay's jurisdiction the ss had taken over the important role of protecting the top nazi officials while the sa were increasingly viewed as little more than uncouth street thugs the ss were fanatics cultistly devoted to hitler and this devotion made them perfect bodyguards and they quickly became an elite organization within the nazi party when the nazis assumed full power in 1933 rome was made a minister without portfolio as well as being named reichschleiter the second highest political office in the nazi party in this position rome made major political moves his first was to attempt merging the sa into the reichsphere but hitler felt threatened by this proposal as it gave the impression that rome might be preparing to overthrow the government not only did it threaten hitler it also threatened everyone in the existing military structure who were likely all insecure about rome's extreme popularity with the sa rome wanted to make the reichsphere a training organization for the sa but he made enemies by trying to consolidate the two and in an attempt to ease the tension rome tried to compromise by stating that only a few thousand of the sa would be allowed into the reichsphere but his proposal was rejected outright many sa members felt that following the nazis rise to power hitler had not done enough to reward them for their service during the campsite or fighting times they were hoping for radical social changes that would elevate their position yet nothing of the sort had happened the members of the essay were relatively poor and typically came from working class backgrounds unlike the primarily middle class ss and the rivalry between the sa and ss would become increasingly better under rome's leadership the assay created some of the first concentration camps for political prisoners and other undesirables from the perspective of the nazi party the introduction of the camps marked the height of rome's power but this displeased himmler and gerring heads of the ss and gestapo respectively and so the ss opened their own camps to rival the sas in 1933 and it wasn't long before himmler also successfully gained control of the saes concentration camps replacing their staff with the ss tiltenkoffer or death head regiments hitler held both fear and contempt for the power the sa could wield and wish to reduce their numbers rome resisted heavily the proposed reduction of the sa and instead expanded them leading to speculations of a potential essay coup hitler would resist suppressing rome directly but subtly worked against him and with aging president paul von hindenburg on the verge of death hitler attempted to gain the army support by promising to reduce rome's influence and focus on rebuilding the reichsphere and creek's marine a political power struggle ensued as himmler goring propaganda minister joseph goebbels and rome all fought for control both himmler and goring despised rome for his open homosexuality as well as his tolerance of it within the essay leadership hitler himself had always known of rome's homosexuality and seemingly turned a blind eye due to rome's undying support for the national socialist movement and their friendship might have played a role as well as rome was the only nazi official who was ever allowed to address hitler as adolph or addie instead of main fuhrer as a result of himmler's and guring's hatred of rome guring transferred de facto control of the gestapo to himmler on the 20th of april 1934. this consolidation was done to counteract rome's influence and with the tension growing in germany over rome's increasingly egregious demands hitler was threatened by hindenburg who warned that if he did not act to contain rome hindenburg would declare martial law and allow the army to take control it was probably at this point that hitler realized the sa was becoming more of a liability than an asset in preparation for the political purge documents were fabricated to suggest that rome had received payment from france to overthrow the nazi government leading officers of the ss were shown the falsified documents on the 24th of june 1934 implicating rome and the sa in a plan to overthrow the government and so with the intention of luring the sa leadership into a trap hitler requested a meeting with them in bad visay on the 30th of june 1934 hitler along with ss officials burst into the hanselbauer hotel and arrested rome along with other high-ranking sa officials in the early morning joseph goebbels who was with hitler during the initial arrest returned to berlin and issued the code word colibri or hummingbird unleashing the execution squads on the other unsuspecting victims of the purge hitler would make a public spectacle of the hotel raid claiming treachery and moral degradation of the officers as a cause for the mass arrest and rome and other sa leaders were accused of planning a coup as well as indulging in sexual activities culturally offensive to the nazi party's policy most of those arrested that morning were executed immediately yet for unknown reasons rome was simply imprisoned during the initial round of arrests hitler might have been hesitant to execute rome because of their friendship but on the 1st of july 1934 two days after the purge began he finally gave the order and ss officials entered rome's cell gave him a pistol and told him he had 10 minutes to kill himself or they would do it for him rome retorted quote if i am to be killed let adolf do it himself minutes later having heard no shots the ss officials re-entered the cell to find rome standing to attention they raised their pistols and fired multiple rounds into rome killing him the night of the long knives as it would come to be known would be the end of ernst rome along with roughly 100 to 200 other individuals including those connected to the sa as well as other political rivals to hitler's power and with rome's death himmler gained the autonomy he sought with the ss and goering was finally able to rid himself of a rival and in an attempt to erase rome from the party's history the nazis destroyed all known copies of the propaganda film the victory of faith in which rome had appeared rome's world was shaped by the wars and political chaos of the mid-20th century germany had become a politically unstable country following world war one with communist and fascist movements fighting for control of the government the stalemate was only broken with the success of italy's fascist movement along with the actions of highly militaristic and rabidly nationalist individuals like rome and it was the inability of the weimar republic to form a fully functioning government that could meet the people's needs which allowed people like rome and hitler to take advantage of the people's desperation rome was instrumental in hitler's rise as well as the creation of the concentration camps which the ss would grimly perfect and following rome's death the essay would slip into obscurity as they had outlived their usefulness they were a sacrifice hitler made in order to maintain power and appease the conservative elements of the party and although the sa lost influence the ss and gestapo would step into their place establishing hitler's brutal reign of terror across europe what do you think of ernst rome was he merely a brutal thug who wanted to seize power in germany for himself by force of arms or was he a cold calculating schemer who if given the chance would have replaced adolf hitler as fuhrer of the third reich let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] the man known to history as hermann wilhelm guring was born in the marimbat sanatorium on the 12th of january 1893 guring was born in the town of rosenbheim in the kingdom of bavaria to heinrich ernst guring and francisca tiefenbrunn gerring's father heinrich had already been married once and had five children he would marry tiffen brun at the age of 45 in london having been sent there by otto von bismarck on assignment to study the british method of colonial administration before studying british colonial administration methods he served as a cavalry officer in the bavarian army and following his studies he was reassigned to the oversight of german territories in southwest africa heinrich's time as minister resident for southwest africa would be relatively short as he would soon be appointed the ambassador of haiti hermann goering's mother francisca tiefenbrunn had given birth to three other children carl olga and paula before hermann and when goering was born his mother returned to haiti without him leaving him in fruit bavaria with a family friend and for the next three years goring would live with the gauf family holding much resentment for his mother for leaving him behind so much so that when they finally reunited in 1896 and she tried to give him a hug guring ran at his mother trying to punch her for leaving him for so long subsequently the family moved to berlin and lived in freyja strasse in the fritnau suburb and from a very early age guring wanted to become an officer in the german military just like his father the family dynamic shifted dramatically during gerring's childhood as his father's friend dr hermann aipenstein who was hermann's godparent spoiled the guring children and when dr aipenstein returned to germany he bought the castle maltendorf in austria not far from the bavarian border he would also buy a second smaller castle called feldenstein near the city of nuremberg goring would come to see feldenstein become the family's seat of nobility yet this was only possible due to his affluent godfather dr eidenstein was also friendly with francisca and she would become appenstein's mistress humiliating her frail husband as when appenstein visited he would be given the finest bedroom with francisco's bedroom not far away while heinrich was placed on the ground floor and was forbidden from entering that part of the castle he would take little to no part in raising gerring as dr aipenstein took over the care of the children dr aipenstein was a christian as he had been baptized as a child yet his family's roots were jewish he would often write to the germans about directing their children's lives in areas such as education marriage and investments while goring's father was obsessed with his past glory his godfather embodied true power yet going resented the relationship between eipenstein and his mother he was spoiled as a child and received little discipline stating he was daddy's darling he was a difficult pupil and left his first school in fruit in 1900 and in 1904 he was sent to boarding school in ansbach which he hated so much so that he spent his last change on a ticket home was making sure to cut all the stringed instruments before leaving his parents insisted he go back to school but he stubbornly resisted he was unable to cope with the restrictions placed upon him at ansbach and he believed his defiance towards authority figures was a sign of natural heroism his father said historical greatness ran through their blood and this saying would inspire going towards a grand vision in 1905 it was agreed upon by his father and aipenstein to send him to the cadet school in khalsa in baden ironically the two did not anticipate goings positive response to the idea of attending the academy as he thought it was finally a school fit for a hero by 1909 he enrolled into a military training college at lichterfelder near berlin he enjoyed the daily regime of military life and also his solitary nights spent alone he left lichterfelder with the highest distinction available at the academy and by march of 1912 he had joined the prince wilhelm regiment he would be part of the 112th infantry regiment stationed at moulus and by 1913 guring would become a commissioned officer it would be only a year later that the tenuous friendship with aipenstein would end in 1913 forcing the family from feldenstein as a result heinrich moved the family to berlin and shortly afterwards passed away though the loss of his father was devastating going settled into life at moulus and became friends with lieutenant bruno lerzer mullers was aboard a garrison town in german alsace with no more than a mile separating germany and france meanwhile in sarajevo the austro-hungarian heir apparent to the throne archduke franz ferdinand had been assassinated by gavrilo principe a member of young bosnia in 1914 this assassination resulted in the july crisis which saw the diplomatic relationship of european countries deteriorate when war was declared lieutenant goring and his men were ordered to retreat behind the rhine to take up a better defensive position and the french quickly took the town one of goring's first missions would be to provide a scouting report of the french position in moulus although going eager in the heat of the moment pushed the french out of the town he captured four french dragoon horses and returned to base with his war prizes on the following day goring and his platoon entered the town on bicycles and engaged the french troops in a skirmish sending them into a panic guring's success led him to concoct a plan to capture general paul powell but a nervous rifleman gave away the position when he misfired his gun with their position compromised the platoon returned back to base empty-handed leaving gerring bitter about his lost opportunity to gain instant fame guring became an experienced and reliable junior officer but would be unexpectedly struck down with rheumatism he was sent to a hospital in freiburg to recover and kept in touch with lerzer who had entered into an air training school guring applied for a transfer to the training school but was denied despite the official denial guring took the matter into his own hands by arranging his own transfer to be trained as an aviator guring would be caught marshalled for his actions but was never punished as he was attached to the 25th field air detachment of crown prince friedrich wilhelm's fifth army the two friends carried out reconnaissance missions which required photographing and drawing the enemy's entrenchment and gun placements the two became legends as goring drew the chain of forts surrounding verdan and shot at enemies with a pistol when lerzer flew low enough the pair would be awarded the first class iron cross for their bravery flying reconnaissance took up much of guring's spring in 1915 and he eventually learned morse code enabling him to send messages down to the base whilst in the sky the first morse code message he sent was quote you can stop firing you won't hit the bloody target anyhow when the french air force commenced a raid on the crown prince's headquarters during the visit of crown princess cecily guring and lerzer responded by badly damaging a french plane with a pistol before dropping a small bomb on a french aerodrome as a result of this raid guring decided to carry an improvised machine gun when flying becoming the first german airman to bring a machine gun with him into aerial combat once aviation technology had improved guring decided he wanted to pilot his own plane rather than being relegated to being just an observer guring and ludzer both attended senior meetings despite their low rank but their experience in the air proved too valuable for them to be left out at this time he caught the attention of crown prince friedrich wilhelm and returned to freiburg to gain his wings he never crashed a plane during his training and in october 1915 he gained the title of jacques vliga also known as a pursuit fighter following the award of his new title guring and lerzer joined the yagstaffalfonth the newest fighter group which was formed to fight on the western front guring saw aerial combat in november when he engaged the new british aircraft a hanley page which was a large aircraft for the time supporting a crew of two the pilot along with one other person who would observe repair and shoot at enemy aircraft although guring's aviatic was more nimble than the hanley page which allowed him to outmaneuver and take its gunner out of action guring was attacked by a squad of sopwith fighters and his engine and fuel tank were hit he sustained an injury himself and began to lose consciousness until the sound of machine gun fire brought him out of his state of shock allowing him to pull his throttle up from the nose dive his plane was in he crash landed in the cemetery of a church next to a field hospital where he was pulled from the wreckage and operated on for a critical wound to his hip which if not operated on would have caused him to bleed out in total 60 bullet holes were found in the fuselage of his aviatic guring's wounds left him out of action for over a year but it was during this time that the art of air combat was rapidly developing this new form of warfare was greatly romanticized as a deadly duel in which the ace with the best wit would win the day in the meantime lerzer was appointed as commandant to field squadron 26 based in malouz where goering would join him in 1916. guering's reputation as a fighter pilot had spread and he received the tsaring lion with swords the carl friedrich order along with the hohenzollen medal with swords third class in may of 1917 he was put in charge of the 27th air squadron which flew out of the same airfield as the 26th squadron near flanders guring and lerzer squadrons would combine to create a new unit called the yagut geschwarder commanded by mantril von richthoven also known as the red baron in 1918 germany launched an offensive against the triple antares on the western front but by april richthoven was killed in action leading to guering's rapid rise up the ranks in may goering was preparing to take off when his adjutant stopped him informing him he had been awarded the polymerit the highest honor that could be given to an individual for continual bravery on the battlefield rahitovan was soon replaced by captain reinhardt in may but he was killed shortly after crashing an experimental plane guring had recently flown himself on the 7th of july going was selected to command the yag gesvada and in a ceremony he was given the richthoven emblem a walking stick which had been passed down by the previous commanders goring would keep this walking stick with him till the day he died as the end of the war approached the orders the soldiers received became increasingly confusing and hypocritical for example on the 10th of november he received instructions telling him to surrender their planes to the american forces whilst another order told him to evacuate all of their equipment to darmstadt and then on the 11th of november the official news of the armistice reached the troops along with the order to halt the evacuations but goring refused he instead told his fighters to fly to darmstadt although some would surrender to the french at strasbourg as intended others mistook guering's instructions and flew to mannheim where soldiers and workers councils had revolted and confiscated the pilot's firearms word reached gerring and without hesitation he and the rest of his squadron flew to mannheim goering threatened he would shoot the aerodrome if the weapons were not released and the revolutionaries obliged the squadron flew to darmstadt where goring ordered them to crash land their planes so they would not fall into the hands of the enemy guring would be honorably discharged from the german air force with the rank of captain in the bavarian town of aschaffenburg and it was here that he discovered that he was a gifted orator and his men would often cheer him on as he raged against the german people for their betrayal of the army who had sacrificed so much to protect them gerring lived a nomadic life after his resignation from the army and would spend some time in denmark in 1920 guring was asked by count eric von rosen a renowned explorer to fly him to his estate on lake bavan however the weather was horrendous and by the time they landed on the frozen lake it was too late for gurring to return counter rosen offered guring to stay the night in the castle where he would meet kaut rosen's wife's sister baroness karen from kansov guring quickly fell in love with the woman during the night as the group sang songs karen was five years older than goring and was married with an eight-year-old son but she was estranged from her swedish husband and was looking for the love and affection guring was offering by the end of goering's stay they had arranged to meet kyrie's parents at their home in sweden karin's father was baron carl frock an officer in the swedish army while her mother was baroness holdini beamish fox who was an english woman whose family had lived in ireland karen's sister fanny was married to count rickard von villamovitz mullendorf who was an officer in the german army but had been killed in the great war the loss of her brother-in-law made her sympathetic towards germany and also towards going yet the prospect of divorce as well as guering's unemployed status made the match unlikely and so guring returned to berlin in 1921 to enroll in a university to study political science at the age of 28. meanwhile karine convinced her husband to divorce her and he even gave her a sum of money which would allow her to marry goring the couple married in munich on the 3rd of february 1922 and moved to hotkoith in the bavarian alps roughly 50 miles from munich the couple were avid nationalists and it did not take long for them to become involved in politics guring met hitler in 1922 and soon became active in the party the national socialist german workers party nsdap or nazi party was based in munich as the bavarian government was ineffective at handling radical political parties the corps of the party lay in the long which was composed of working class and ex-military men who guarded party meetings whilst also instigating fights with other political parties in fact the nsdap were a welcomed political party as they frequently attacked the communist party who were not welcomed at all since being ousted from power as a result of guering's interest in the party and his prior military experience hitler offered guering a position in the nsdap as the leader of the sturm up thailand giring set out two goals as leader he said quote at first it was important to weld the essay into a stable organization to discipline it and to make of it a completely reliable unit which had to carry out the orders which i or adolf hitler should give it i strive from the beginning to bring into the essay those members of the party who were young and idealistic enough to devote their free time and their entire energies to it in the second place i tried to find recruits among labourers guering's exploits from the great war made him an ideal candidate to run the sa as he was held in high regard by counter-revolutionaries as well as nationalists wishing to smash the communist party later in life hitler would praise goring whilst also dismissing the later work of ernst room when he said quote he is the only one of its heads that ran the sa properly i gave him a disheveled rabble in a short time he had organized a division of eleven thousand men the two formed an unlikely duo as guering was a highly decorated officer receiving orders from hitler who was low-born and never achieved a rank higher than a melda genga or officer's runner it was at this time that the gurings moved to a new home in the suburb of obermensing in the city of munich it was modestly furnished and their home became the meeting place for the nsdap during one of these meetings guring would meet rudolf hess a great war pilot alfred rosenberg a self-proclaimed philosopher and captain ernst roon an active military member with connections to weapons depots these men were needed to formulate the rise of the nsdap and were exactly who goring was comfortable being around both goring and room's relationship with hitler was similar as hitler found a way to leverage the best traits out of his leaders whilst also keeping the unruly aspects in line furthermore room's active status in the bavarian military allowed for easy recruitment into the essay and whilst viewed guring more as a rival than as an ally his own memoirs never outright declared his disdain for the man after all gerring was useful as he was more even-tempered and unwilling to make rash decisions unlike whom who was given the title of chief of staff of the sa however it was guring who was truly in charge rim would not be given command of the sa until 1930 yet throughout 1923 going strenuously organized and drilled the essay in the woods outside of munich and maintained a hesitant relationship with the state government violence erupted between the communists and the nazis on the 1st of may 1923 a rallying day for communist members and as a result of the first of may incident guring and the others were forced to rethink their strategy to grow the nsdap it would not be long before hitler and goring were both begging general von lossoff to join them as gustav schreizermann had become chancellor and had enacted martial law noticing the increased political unrest in part this declaration was made because of the black reichsphere under the direction of major buchike who now threatened the government the black reichsphere was a secret organization within the reichsvir which was associated with the secret society known as femi an organization marked by extreme violence even worse than the street violence perpetrated by the nazis and the communists objection towards passive resistance to the french occupation of the word deeply infuriated many germans especially the nazi party guring attempted one last time to convince general von losov to break his agreement to stay in line with berlin in order to join them in the coup to unseat strazeman and his government this would not come to fruition leaving hitler and goring without an ally however a prime opportunity would come along which prompted the need to act gustafonka the new state commissioner for bavaria colonel hans written fonscissa the premier of bavaria and general von lozov had announced a meeting on the 8th of november 1923 at the burger boy keller beer hall where they were going to give a speech to 3 000 people it was believed by hitler that carr's intention behind announcing the meeting was to declare bavarian independence if this was true an egotistical hitler could not let him steal the glory of revolution guring was stressed during the ordeal as his mother had just passed karen had pneumonia and all the while he was trying to gather the storm troopers for the revolution hitler stormed the beer hall and jumped on the table and fired a shot in the air shouting the national revolution has begun hitler motioned with his gun to the ministers to leave the room and guring was able to read the reaction of the crowd he took the podium and shouted there is nothing to fear we are your friends you've no reason to grumble you've got your beer meanwhile hitler and the ministers unwillingly formed the new government believing general ludendorff was going to be involved despite even him not knowing of his involvement ludendorff soon arrived and was irate at not being consulted over the plan yet there was a problem as hitler had to leave in order to settle a street fight between the sa and bavarian soldiers leaving ludendorff in charge of the ministers the ministers left and abandoned the plot carr quietly moved the state's government to regensburg printed pamphlets denouncing their allegiance to the nazi party and ensured the military was not aligned to the nazis meanwhile goring finally found time to telephone karen to tell her not to worry that he may not come home that night even during the coup his main thought was with karen the situation continued to deteriorate as hitler and guring did not act as quickly as room had who had taken over the military headquarters in munich as the morning came ludendorff proposed the group marched to the centre of munich believing the army and police would not fire on them because of his reputation by 11 in the morning ludendorff led the column of nazis towards the centre of munich the column of 3000 had to cross the ludwig bridge in order to reach the inner city of munich but armed policemen were blocking their path guring approached alone informing the officers that they held hostages and if they were to use force against the nazis the hostages and those who resisted would be shot the police stood down and allowed the column to advance but they had their weapons confiscated as a precaution the group continued through tsvi britain's heading towards the war ministry where room was being besieged but in order to get there they had to pass through the small street of resident strasse which was blocked by armed police the nazis shouted at the police to surrender but shots were fired and the nazis scattered guering was shot in the groin and was bleeding heavily from his injury he was taken by stormtroopers into the house of a furniture dealer named baleen and his wife ilsa who ironically were jewish and ilsa dressed the wound as best she could once knight had fallen goring was sent to professor von ache to treat his injuries and karyn arrived to learn that general von lossoff had issued a warrant for guering's arrest and guring begged her to help him escape from bavaria guerin's condition was serious and so he could not easily be moved but carrion did receive help from friends in the town of garmish to smuggle him there goering's recovery was slow as his wounds became reinfected leaving him bitter about the situation and before long guring's presence in garmish became well known and he was arrested and placed under guard at a hospital the crowd sympathized with going and mass demonstrations occurred outside in support and with currents persistence and support from the police guring was smuggled out of germany and into austria where he would be operated on in a hospital in innsbruck following the surgery goring would suffer from high fevers and excruciating pain which he would be given morphing for twice a day as a result of this guring would fight morphing addiction for the rest of his life guring spent a considerable amount of time in exile prohibited from returning to germany by hitler who refused to let him stand trial for the failed push his first assignment would be in february of 1924 when he was to speak at a nationalist convention in innsbruck guring soon took a leadership role for the nazi party in vienna and worked closely with austrian nazi valtteri he stayed at the tio lahoff with karin and was barely able to pay for their stay with most of their possessions impounded by the bavarian authorities at the end of the trial in april ludendorff was acquitted while hitler was found guilty along with the other nazi leadership including goring who was found guilty in absentia guering filed for amnesty but never received it the results of the trial should have ended the nazi party but instead it resulted in a resurgence seeing the nazis earn a seat in the reichstag the gorings left austria and travelled through italy before stopping in rome they would be given an audience with benito mussolini where they talked at length about the failed beer hall putch following their short stay in italy the couple moved into a flat in odengarten sweden to take care of karin's mother bakarin's own health soon started to decline as she started having epileptic seizures and as she suffered more from epileptic episodes gerring's health also deteriorated with his morphine addiction in 1927 paul von hindenburg was elected president and issued a general political amnesty which included goring who eagerly returned to his homeland guring worked hard to regain his wealth and connect with hitler for employment and political purposes goring's former position as the leader of the sa was currently occupied by frank von pfeffer a wealthy aristocrat who hitler could not afford to dismiss due to his economic advantages the nazi party was fiscally weak and needed strong economic backers to succeed and guering's vulnerable financial status did not help them despite this guring was accepted back into the nazi party and sent to berlin to work on accumulating wealth it was at this time that goering's connection to the airline industry paid off as his friend erhard milh senior executive of lufthansa got him a job working as a business representative with the bavarian moto works company by the winter guring had successfully petitioned hitler that he should be one of the representatives for the nazi party in the upcoming reichstag election he proved to hitler he could stand a chance as he stood against otto and gregor strasse the brothers who had earlier broken away from the nazi movement due to their leftist ideology being driven out eventually by hitler's cult personality in fact guring's position as a representative suited the nazi party as goring was able to banter with the elite of society while hitler was terrible at small talk and felt uncomfortable in the company of intellectuals in the election the nazis performed poorly but goebbels and goring both took seats in the reichstag hitler and goebbels were less than pleased but goring was ecstatic as it renewed his family's depleted wealth and allowed him to move into a modern flat with five rooms at seven baden-shastrasa as a reichstag deputy he sat on the communications committee which also oversaw the aviation section he lobbied to increase funding for the airline industry which was exclusively held by his friends at lufthansa because it was a quote great patriotic task which needed fulfillment in part this was also a ploy to build up germany's military air defense the push by going to finance these industrial giants also worked as a way to bribe the industrialist to side with the nazi party following the victory in the reichstag the guring family lost karin's mother on the 25th of september 1931. karin was barely well enough to attend the funeral in stockholm and guring returned to berlin to oversee political matters but on the 17th of october karin who had been ill with tuberculosis died of heart failure guring was devastated at the loss and he returned to berlin after the funeral as he believed it was the only way he could get over her death after months of political upheaval and multiple chancellors resigning from office hitler ascended to the chancellorship on the 30th of january 1933 goring held three positions in hitler's cabinet minister without portfolio minister of the interior for prussia and iraq commissioner for aviation as a minister without portfolio he acted as an ambassador speaking on behalf of nazi germany while the minister of the interior for prussia was technically under former chancellor from papuan's supervision it did give him authority over the police in the largest and most important german state meanwhile as the iraqi commissioner for aviation he had the honor to develop the air force of the reich he also maintained his role as president of the reichstag until the nazis dissolved it on the 5th of march 1933 it would also be in early march that the concentration camps were founded although guering's opinion of them differed to the other nazi leaders as he felt their role should be one of re-education for those who suffered from political delinquency much of the early history of the camps centers around the intense rivalry between guring himmler and rome as a result of this rivalry guring created a secret police force which would patrol prussia they would eventually become known as the gerhaim stats politzai or gestapo himmler soon became the police chief of bavaria and in an effort to keep power away from himmler goering moved the gestapo on the 26th of april from the prussian administration to their own headquarters hitler wished to unify the police forces and gave the gestapo to himmler on the 20th of april 1934. the rivalry with room was also growing at this time as he was attempting to replace the reichsvir with the sa a move which threatened both hitler and goring as an act of defiance room helped establish nearly 50 concentration camps by the end of 1933 despite guering's so-called approved concentration camps the ss out of their own defiance founded dachau concentration camp in the spring of 1933 and fired upon guring's men when they tried to investigate the unauthorized concentration camp hitler forced himmler to close the camp yet goring was outclassed as he lost control of the police to himmler um was becoming more bold with his demands and as a result guring allied with himmler to try to eliminate him they needed time before they could move on room but guring's health was starting to fail guring had grown fat as a result of inconsistent eating schedules and over indulgence when entertaining guests his preferred foods included sandwiches and beer along with his favorite which was cake goring's sleeping habits weren't much better as he would stay up late watching films privately going to bed at two or three a.m and requesting to be woken up at 6 30 although guerring hardly needed to be awakened since he suffered from insomnia in may of 1933 hitler appointed goring reichmaster of the hunt and master of the german forest gurring loved the countryside and quickly invoked laws to protect wildlife such as elk bison boars swans and birds of prey he restricted the number of hunters allowed and outlawed poaching hunting on horseback or the use of traps it was also due to this love of the forest that he purchased prime real estate in the schofida a vast area near the baltic sea and polish border he would build carrin hall in shawfider near the lake called vacazay and it would be here that he would create a sanctuary for both wildlife and himself it would be a great achievement for goring as he designed every aspect of the house quote down to the door handles just before himmler took control of the gestapo away from guring robert deals came to him with a new tool he had acquired abroad which could be used to listen in on telephone calls gerring turned it over to his agents and instructed his research staff officers to start monitoring nearly all high-ranking nazi officials on guring's list gerring received a wave of information including jokes about him but he seemed to enjoy them and laugh about it his most important wiretapping came in a conversation between general vienna von blomberg minister of defense and head of the reichsphere kruppenfuhrer carl ernst as well as ernstrum there were frequent conversations held by von blomberg over concerns surrounding rome usurping control of the army and his fears were backed by rome and ernst's own exchanges it also confirmed gerring's suspicions of graham's hatred for him as rim was heard calling him the pig guring and hair reaction or mr reaction guring and himmler's opportunity would come when room proposed a joint conference between the sa ss and reichsphere this led to growing resentment of room and if hitler would not stop him then the army would not support him the sa was called to bad weisse for a leadership conference and it was here that the trap would be sprung hitler and other top nazi officials raided the hanselbauer hotel on the 30th of june 1934 and arrested room and other sa leaders guring was in berlin raiding the essay headquarters where he meticulously went room to room pointing at individuals ordering their arrest the night of the long knives as it would be known was an act of political suppression against inner party members carried out to settle political disagreements the following year on the 10th of april 1935 guring would ask emmy sonoman an actress he had been dating since 1932 to marry him it was to be a grand event with great pomp and circumstance the streets decorated for the event soldiers lined the streets leading to the cathedral and all traffic was stopped for the procession hitler would serve as the best man for gerring at the wedding however there was a possibility that the wedding occurred at hitler's behest as he believed there were too many eligible men among the high-ranking nazi members following the wedding emmy would be crowned as first lady of the third reich by hitler and the couple retreated to karen hall with a small entourage guring slipped away and spent an hour at karen's tomb in the mausoleum the next morning guring and emmy left for wiesbaden and then went on to yugoslavia for their honeymoon guring was promoted to rice marshall on the 4th of february 1938 following hitler's dismissal of six generals for anti-nazi views and his promotion of himself as commander-in-chief of german armed forces in march austria was invaded and incorporated into the nazi reich under the eyes of goring following their annexation the austrian nazi party wanted goring to increase propaganda against the jewish population goring was reluctant as he enjoyed jewish composers and painters yet believed they were guilty of profiteering and scheming leading to the defeat of germany in world war one in private conversations with emmy he would say quote the jews were just like any other people but a bit smarter which he would often say with a grin he would also say that they had good and bad people he felt squeamish when goebbels and himmler talked about the extermination of the jews and would often excuse himself the gurings had their first and only child edda on the 2nd of june 1938 and hitler would act as the newborn's godfather in the following year on the 1st of september 1939 german troops invaded poland and goring would ascend to the pinnacle of his power hitler had selected guring to be his heir should anything ever happen to him as the war progressed guring started to argue with hitler over strategic decisions guring wanted to start the air assault on britain while hitler wanted to hold them for the attack on france hitler instead set his eyes on the nordic countries although goring had personally guaranteed sweden's neutrality despite hitler's own wishes to invade sweden for their iron ore goring was able to broker a treaty in which sweden would remain independent and in return give the nazis the iron ore they needed following the defeat of the british at dunkirk guring requested an immediate attack on the british he believed the disorientated state of the british military would allow for even the most ill-conceived plan to succeed hitler refused believing britain would surrender in the next few weeks unlike guring who knew they would only surrender once the final blow had been dealt the good weather turned terrible which prohibited them from flying because goring wanted the most accurate bombing raids to destroy ports factories and airfields when the luftwaffe was finally unleashed they met heavy resistance from the raf the luftwaffe lost nearly 1500 planes as they underestimated the advancement in british radar and code decryption this would be the beginning of a year-long campaign of bombing england which became known as the blitz on the 9th of august 1940 goering and hitler had an argument over their next military moves hitler wished to attack the soviet union as a preventative measure goring pulled hitler up on his hypocrisy as hitler had stated in his biography mein kampf he would never involve the german people in a two-front war similar to the great war hitler was outraged over guering's dismissal of his plan and even more so that goering ignored him to continue arguing his point hitler had become obsessed with attacking the soviet union and guring pleaded with hitler to look at napoleon's failure to conquer russia as comparable to the british he argued that the russians would not broker peace in 1941 goering became involved with his most infamous interest his love of art guring had long planned the hermann goring museum an art gallery which he planned to open in 1953 he loved renaissance and dutch paintings as he was well versed in the two he had four stately homes that needed to be filled and he enjoyed staring at paintings for hours going had multiple staff members who helped him acquire the art he even told them not to worry about the race of the individuals selling the art and instead focus only on the art when further anti-jewish laws were enacted goring used his power to assist jewish art dealers into switzerland to avoid prosecution guering also worked closely with directors of national institutes such as the louvre to build special bunkers to protect the art from bombing rates whilst guering did protect collections he plundered others having trains full of art shipped back to germany to be displayed in public museums or private collections it was an impressive collection with superb record-keeping by andreas hosfer and his assistant gizella limberger the two created a detailed ledger which included photographs of every piece of art when it was bought and sold along with the specific detail of what had been restored all money made from the sale of art would be directed towards the construction of the hammond gerry museum on the 31st of july 1941 guering ordered himmler's right-hand man reinhard heidegg to make quote necessary preparations for a total solution of the jewish question it was this command that would the following year in january 1942 culminate in heiderich calling the infamous vansay conference in which he laid out the details by which millions of jews across europe would be exterminated in purpose-built death camps although gehring had little involvement in the day-to-day operations of the final solution he did give the order for the ss to begin operations to liquidate the jews and it was this order more than anything else that would result in both guering's death sentence at the nuremberg trials and cement his reputation as being amongst the primary instigators of the holocaust by the end of 1941 and into 1942 it was becoming clear that the russian campaign would not be over quickly the troops supplies logistics and technology needed to defeat russia was outpacing the nazi's ability to produce them going was still in charge of labor currency and rationing but this changed on the 21st of march 1942 when he announced fritz salkul would take over the duties of assigning the use of labor while goring was still to be consulted on the matters he effectively removed his hands from the cruelty and extermination of the jewish people which was to begin in eastern europe sounkel filled the factories with slave labor and ordered they be worked to death hitler and guering's relationship became more strained as the war went on the allies increasingly became unopposed as the number of planes protecting german cities diminished hitler ordered an all-out assault on england by the luftwaffe a feat which was both impossible and suicidal and guring was distort over it hitler would neither accept guering's advice or take his resignation guring was stuck as the third reich was disintegrating going withdrew himself from the decision-making process and he wasn't present during the d-day invasion his last ounce of gravitas was used to release his nephew who had been arrested following the failed operation valkyrie he was suspected of being part of the coup but there was no evidence to prove it as the red army advanced in 1945 they were closing in on karen hall goring had the art removed and a demolition team rigged the house to explode as germany collapsed guring and emmy escaped into bavaria where us first lieutenant jerome n shapiro found him stuck in a traffic jam and brought him into american custody he remarked how the gorings were happy to be found by the americans as if they were escaping a bad dream guring was taken to the seventh army interrogation center in augsburg and it was here where he talked freely to the americans in the reports they noted quote guring is by no means the comical figure he has been depicted so many times in the newspaper reports he is neither stupid nor a full but generally cool and calculating he is certainly not a man to be underrated although he tried to soft pedal many of the most outrageous crimes committed by germany he said enough to show that he is as much responsible for the policies within germany gerring is at all times an actor who does not disappoint his audience guring painted a vivid startling and proven authentic account of life in nazi germany which had eluded the allies for so long he told the allies he was unable to save all of the art and some had fallen into the russians hands guering helped the allies recover all the art they could except for the ones that had fallen into the hands of the russians in berlin guring was moved to a small suite in the palace hotel at mondorf in luxembourg this would serve as the jail for many high-ranking nazis such as joachim von ribbentrop admiral karl dernitz albert speer and hilmar and it could be said that there was some irony here as dr robert m kempner was to prosecute the nuremberg trials and he was once the youngest prosecuting counsel in the prussian police department when guring fired him in 1933 leading up to the trial guring was detoxed from the morphine and lost significant weight there were unannounced room inspections to ensure there was no contraband and before the trial dr kempner indicted guring with all four counts crimes against peace war crimes crimes against humanity and conspiracy to plan and commit all three in response to the upcoming trial he said quote it's just a cut and dried political affair and i'm prepared for the consequences i have no doubt that the press will play a bigger part in the decision than the judges and i'm sure that the russian and french judges at least already have their instructions i can answer for anything i have done and i can't answer for anything i haven't done but the victors are the judges the trial at nuremberg would see the remaining nazi leadership turn on one another mainly albert speer and goring goring tried to keep the other nazis in line but spear won out in the end colonel andrus successfully found a way to lessen guring's influence by separating the lunch groups into specific categories to minimize guering's authority and it worked the judges found guring guilty on all four counts and sentenced him to death guring was to be hung but he requested to be executed by firing squad as it was a soldier's death his request was denied and the security of the prison was tightened to prevent the war criminals from cheating the hangman's noose in the final days of the war all nazi leaders carried poison with them in case they were captured yet medicines were heavily monitored by the guides preventing the possibility of poison pills being slipped to the defendants the executions were set for 2 a.m on the 16th of october 1946 and the next series of events is where the mystery begins the prison chaplain captain henry gureka saw goring in his cell in the evening before his execution and noted his depressed state when captain gareca left lieutenant john west came for his nightly inspection and found no contraband west stated goering was very happy and talked at length to him during the search at 9 30 p.m dr floyca and lieutenant arthur mclinden visited to give guering his nightly pill and left three minutes later when private first class gordon bingham came for guard duty at 10 30 private first class harold johnson took over for bingham johnson noticed guering's body was stiff and not moving around 10 44 pm and by the time the senior guard officers reached gerring's cell he was dead from cyanide poisoning guring wrote two farewell letters the first rebuts the claims of the trial but the second was an affectionate letter to emmy he claimed to have always had a vial of cyanide and he even wrote a letter to colonel andrus bragging about having one in his place ribentrop would be the first to be executed with the executions only lasting an hour and 15 minutes their bodies would be placed into caskets and taken to a crematorium the building had been heavily guarded in case of civil disturbance and once the bodies were verified and cremated they were driven to the countryside and dumped into a gutter hermann goering remains one of the more complex and fascinating members of hitler's inner circle his record as a fighter ace in the first world war along with his drug addiction love of the arts and the finer things in life undoubtedly made him a compelling figure at first glance however he was also greedy selfish and ruthless as time and again he schemed against his enemies in the nazi regime used his power to make himself rich and at all times placed his own interests above those of the nazi party and even his country furthermore his place as being one of the instigators of the final solution has ensured that no matter how charismatic or brave he may have been early on in his life he was in the end corrupted by power becoming just another mass murderer addicted to excess what do you think of hermann goring do you think he could have mustered the strength to stand up to hitler or was he doomed to cowardice please let us know in the comments section below and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] the woman known to history as elaine amelie berta riefenstahl or as she later became known lenny riefenstahl was born on the 22nd of august 1902 in the dreary and drab industrial sector of wedding in berlin germany rayford style's father was alfred theodore paul riefenstahl born in brandenburg germany in 1878 to emily and gustav riefenstahl who worked as a blacksmith alfred was tall blonde and burly often styling a kaiser wilhelm mustache he described himself as a salesman but in reality he was a plumber who had come to berlin in the pursuit of better economic possibilities he owned a large heating and ventilation company installing modern sanitation in the buildings of berlin alfred was quick tempered and friends and relatives did not dare to contradict the man as he had the final say on everything lenny's mother was berta ida sherlock described as a willowy beauty with dark eyes curly dark hair and a determined jawline berta was the 18th child born to her family on the 9th of october 1880 in vots suavec poland but she would not know her mother who died during childbirth her father would marry the nanny shortly after and have three more children bringing the total to 21 and when eastern poland was annexed by aggressive imperial russia the family moved to berlin the family had to live frugally though due to berta's father's inability to find work suitable for a man of his advanced age the refund style family moved in 1906 to a large flat in berlin noicon thanks to alfred's growing business with lenny's only sibling heinz being born on the 5th of march 1906 and although they had moved the new neighborhood was relatively similar to their old one and would be a source of contention in the next decade due to the family's increased wealth they would be able to afford excursions throughout frank's veda a village along lake zoitan in the countryside which was idyllic and green and was far away from the dangers of city life allowing the children to hike swim and watch the clouds go by berta influenced lenny's love for the theater at an early age as they spent one christmas in berlin seeing the play snow white and all throughout the train ride home she talked fanatically about the play so much so that the other passengers begged her mother to shut her up she wondered what went on behind the curtain declaring it a mysterious world this inquisitive nature often landed her into trouble at school as she consistently received bad marks for interrupting her teacher to ask questions she also received piano lessons but never liked to play instead she enjoyed swimming however the family's time in nycon would be short-lived as they moved to goldstrasser in 1916 then onto yorkstrasse following her graduation from elementary school she was signed up into a gymnasium by her father who believed it was an important part of education for young german children latin and greek courses bored lenny but instead she blossomed into athletics reefenstein was confirmed at kaiserville helm memorial church on easter sunday in 1918 and it was also in 1918 that riefenstahl saw an ad for the grim writer at the school of dance and attended an audition she was accepted into the dance school but could not fully enroll despite the director's wishes instead lenny had secret dance lessons paid for by her mother as her father would not have approved if he had found out the great war ended on the 11th of november 1918 following the capitulation of germany which saw the rise of communist revolutions all throughout the country there was no kaiser or king but instead rose the feeble weimar republic for eifenstahl however the political events of the revolution held minor significance she had a brief encounter with the revolutionary movement when she was caught in crossfire on a train between two opposing revolutionary forces but besides this close encounter ideas of nationalism patriotism and war were never to the forefronts of her thoughts like many other youths of her age the assassination of carl liebhnecht and rosa luxemburg in early 1919 saw counter-revolutionary movements against the communist uprising and the removal of many left-wing politicians from office and by 1922 over 500 left-wing politicians had been assassinated in fact political violence had become so widespread since the communist uprisings that most germans have become numb to it reef and style's dance lessons were occasionally interrupted by gunfire but she hardly ever paid attention as she was focused on becoming the top dancer at the grim writer arthur she was exposed to many stars while there including anita berber a former student at the dance academy barbara was only three years older than riefenstahl and already had an illustrious career starring in films highlighting the dangers of drugs barebear was due to dance with dancers from grim reitzerata on one occasion but ultimately was unable to perform due to falling ill riefenstahl replaced her in the dance by mimicking dance routines baba had prepared her substitution garnered her much attention including from her father who was furious with his daughter being linked to berber who led a scandalous life as she had not heeded her movie's own warnings abusing drugs and eventually contracting tuberculosis and dying at a young age the discovery of riefenstahl's dancing and the berber scandal caused such a rift in the family that her father threatened to divorce her mother and send lenny to boarding school riefenstahl's rebellion against her father led him to believe berlin had become the national sewer which was also heading towards moral anarchy reef and style couldn't have cared less as this behavior was normal for her father but she would eventually quit her dance lessons and instead enrolled in berlin's state school of arts and crafts to learn painting which pleased her father yet reefenstyle paid little attention to her studies so her father enrolled her instead into the lowman school in tali situated in the hearts mountains ensuring there was no arts program at the school despite her father's attempts to pry her away from the arts she found a way around it by packing her ballet slippers and practicing with her roommate hella gruel the two had a lot in common as both have been sent away by their parents in the hope the countryside would break their children of the desires to take up the stage instead her isolation allowed her to pursue her dream further as she participated in plays by gert and schiller in the town's outside theatre and when riefenstahl turned 19 she returned back to berlin with the resolve to be completely independent and not depend on others by 1923 inflation in germany was out of control one way a german could live comfortably among the economic turmoil was to have access to foreign cash refund style was able to gain such access by meeting heinrich sokol a jewish banker from innsbruck so carl had fallen for reefer style and had agreed to finance her debut and try out for the dance industry rifensteil decided she would make her first professional outing in berlin but the cost was increasing steeply socal recommended she have the tryout closer to innsbruck and they decided to compromise and settle for munich on the 23rd of october riefenstahl held her first official tryout at tonhalla which was at the center of munich the venue was only filled to a third of its capacity for reefer style but it was still an impressive feat for an unknown dancer socal paid for every aspect of her performance the venue the musicians and even a large marketing campaign both before and after her performance he paid for critics to write reviews and most were positive and not long after her first public appearance in munich her dream of performing in berlin came true as on the 27th of october she would perform for a full house at the plutner sal she viewed the tryout as a triumph beyond my wildest dreams because it was now clear to her father that riefenstahl had the talent to take her far in life she finally had the approval from her father and a growing admiration of the public despite the economic turmoil the theater never took an economic hit like the rest of german society and was an active social venue whilst no new productions were produced it was possible to allow those with no professional experience such as socal to showcase the talent reefer style had to offer it was only two weeks after lenny's first appearance in berlin that the weimar republic stabilized its currency allowing for german citizens to finally feel the economic weight lifted off their shoulders and since the currency had now stabilized this allowed the average german to easily attend the theaters leaving the theaters scrambling to find talent a situation which riefenstahl was well positioned to take advantage of riefenstahl found herself on stage at max reinhardt's deutsches theater in berlin with the occasional appearance in a camera spiel or silent film on average riefenstahl earned between 500 and a thousand marks or 125 to 250 dollars in u.s currency allowing her to live a comfortable life in the 1920s she had received job offers in the film industry yet turned them down in favor of focusing on her dancing career between october of 1923 and may of 1924 grief and style performed 70 concerts across germany including in the major cities of frankfurt leipzig cologne zurich dresden and prague unfortunately during grief and style's tour she suffered an injury to her left knee during a performance she visited numerous orthopedic doctors in several countries with all of them encouraging rest but in the end her career had ended in prague but in june of 1924 rufen styles saw a poster for the movie mountain of destiny which inspired her to take a trip to the countryside refund style socal and heinz grief and style's brother all lodged at the fancy hotel carousel and while they were there luis trenca the star of mountain of destiny appeared trencher showed the film and in that moment riefenstahl exclaimed that she would star in tranker's next film trencher told riefenstahl that the director arnold frank was staying in berlin and in typical reef and style style she instantly left for berlin riefenstahl and frank would meet at rumpelmeyer's pastry and coffee shop on the kurfurstendam where she showed fang her photographs and dance reviews and proclaimed she would star in his next film before leaving immediately after this reefenstyle went to have experimental reconstructive surgery on her knee that would either fully heal it or leave her paralyzed when she woke up from the surgery frank was there with his new script the holy mountain a continuation of the alpine romance film genre meanwhile soccal discovered frank's filmmaking firm freiburg mountain and sport film company was nearly bankrupt and so socal who had wanted to get into the filmmaking industry bought out the company and potentially due to this deal rafeen style took the lead part without an audition with tranker being given the lead role the filming for the holy mountain was set for january and rayford style was relieved to know her surgery was a success the plot of the film involved a love triangle between riefenstahl's character diatoma and two villager best friends diatoma is dancing at a luxury resort when the two best friends unknowingly both fall in love with her luis tranker's character the friend and viggo the skier fight for diatoma's love during the climax of the film the two are dangling from a cliff attached to one another with a rope the friend realizes he is unable to save vigo and unwilling to break the mountaineer code the two fall to their death together leaving diatoma heartbroken the holy mountain proved a drastic change in frank's filmmaking career as it was the first time a female was to be the main subject of the alpine film genre the holy mountain premiered on the 17th of december 1926 at the palace amzou theatre and eventually the film reached england france and the united states propelling thank to international filmmaking stardom following the success of the holy mountain frank created a new script for his new female star in the film a winter's tale though the new film was said to be produced the parent company farfank uffa had become insecure about financing the film after the exit of so-called and looked for support before signing off on the financial aspect of the movie since the holy mountain had run over budget ufa would look towards alfred hughenberg future chairman of the nazi party and finance minister during the early administration who took control of the company in march 1927. hughenberg's arrival brought much needed funding to ufa yet hugenberg would not be their only connection to the nazi party as general eric ludendorff and the other members of the german high command had established utha as a propaganda tool towards the end of the great war in 1917. yet with hergenberg at the helm he scrapped the winter's tale forcing frank to quickly create a new film called the great leap a ski comedy film starring lenny as gita the goat girl a simple goat herder who falls in love with an acrobatic skier snowflake it is suspected lenny's role in the film was a result of thanks jealousy and was used as revenge for lenny's toying with his emotions during the shooting of the holy mountain lenny had an affair with tranker and made fang aware of it knowing how frank felt about her tranca never fell for lenny as she did for him and the two constantly argued on set leading to tranker making comments to the media before the announcement of the newest film despite the drama lenny took the role in her stride as she wanted to prove to both tranker and frank that she could act in a comedy despite having no training in it the great leap was filmed for only six months and premiered on the 20th of december 1927 at the palace amzou to lukewarm reviews reef and style starred in numerous other films none of which garnered much support from the public leading to ufa to question whether refund style was actually star material as her filming stock declined along with uffa's growing mistrust of frank's writing and directing frank approached so-called to convince him to fund his new film socal agreed and the two drew up the contract on a napkin giving grief and style the lead role the new film was called the white hell of pittsburgh and at the insistence of reef and style frank was not the only director involved as gw pubs joined to help improve frank's often one-dimensional filmmaking as usual a trio of characters were in the film as a doctor who had lost his wife in an avalanche meets a honeymooning couple played by riefenstahl and eds peterson who played as vigo in the holy mountain during the trio's climb they encounter a storm and need to be saved but when the couple is saved the doctor stays behind to perish in the storm near where his wife had died the white hell of pittsburgh opened at the palace dam zoo on the 15th of november 1929 and quickly rose to number two at the box office it would be frank's most successful film in his career at riefenstahl's best acting picture it garnered so much attention that universal studios who originally rejected the film changed course and showed it in america many critics wrote that lenny was finally convincing in her acting and had outgrown her previous roles and finally found her way in acting despite the success of the film and never opened any new avenues for reefer style leaving her to remain with frank and so-called for two more films both of which were mediocre at best the innovation of sound in film traveled slowly from america across the world and especially to berlin where the financial strain was hampering the ability to adapt to the new technology for germans the use of the camera and its angles were more important than the use of sound in film and as a result of sound most cameras became immobilized resulting in a loss of progress on cinematography whilst refundstar's acting career was nearing its end she set her sights on directing as the new path instead she sketched a new movie the blue light in 1930 while on the set of a movie she was acting in and later expanded the script while on another set in 1931 reference styles the blue light was different than typical films of the mountains as unlike frank's vision where he focused on the mountain themselves grief and style focused on the characters who lived around the mountain the blue light was set back in time and used a fairy tale method of storytelling unlike other contemporary films rafeen styles character junta was a semi-wild woman who lived in the mountains worshipping blue crystals which illuminated the valley during the night it was the only character rifenstein created for herself and it was an escape from her typical empty-headed woman role however riefenstahl ran into problems even before the filming started as there were claims that she stole the idea from the book rock crystal published in 1930 by swiss author gustavranka frank knew of the book and when riefenstahl approached him to work with her in the film she refused to acknowledge the existence of the novel this led to him refusing to help with the project despite her refusal to acknowledge the similarities between rock crystal and the blue light the creation of the character junta was entirely down to reference style and so with fanx's lack of support she turned instead to bella balash a hungarian film critic and theorist to fill in the missing parts of the referenstar script she was unable to pay him for his time as suggested he take part of the prophet when the film was released to which he agreed but reefenstyle was still without a cameraman and so she approached schneeberger with the same deal as balash which he accepted along with many veterans of thanks movies not only did she struggle to find support from her friends within the industry but across the board she had issues she approached every major and minor studio but no one was willing to take on the financial aspect of the film and so she created the lenny riefenstahl studio film gmbh to give herself full licensing and creative control over the film before approaching so-called his film company to enter into a partnership to finance the film the filming for the blue light would finally begin in july of 1931 which showed the skill of reefing style in bringing together a crew despite heavy opposition from the film industry the filming for the movie only took three months but as a result of the low budget the crew slept outside or in barns provided by the locals the crew also had to hike to the filming locations and most were almost impossible to get to in the sun valley the problems were not only in the filming of the movie but also in the editing of it as most of reef and star's editing skills were choppy and unnatural when she approached frank for help with the editing of the film fang changed everything leaving riefenstahl devastated but by february 1932 the experience she had with fang allowed riefenstahl to see the movie she originally created was nothing more than a picture book by learning from fang raefenstein learned how to cut and piece film together and on the 24th of march 1932 the blue light premiered at palace dam zoo according to riefenstahl the movie was an undreamt of success a triumph beyond my wildest dreams a sensation yet so-called remembered it differently the critics who were deemed as the democratic papers the ones considered jewish were harsh in their reviews meanwhile the further right the papers were the better the reviews rayford style was outraged over the terrible reviews and blurted out what do these jewish critics understand about our mentality they have no right to criticize our work rafinstar's ego became more apparent as she completely ignored the only reason her filming career had become a reality was because socal financed her films and balash offered his skills of writing and film theory she ignored the jewish people who influenced and shaped her work falling in line with the growing rise of the nazi party riefenstahl disputed the claim by socal that she made such an outburst but on the 3rd of november 1932 she had a similar fit during an interview with rudolf arnheim in which she said as long as the jews are film critics i'll never have success but watch out when hitler takes the rudder everything will change the blue light would be re-released but the contribution of the jewish workers completely erased from the film's credits besides the credit being fully given to riefenstahl the blame for the film not being a box-office success would be given to the jewish people when the nazi party was rising in popularity rapidly among the public in 1932 rayford style was still within her own world she hardly paid attention to the political environment as her entire life had been consumed by the film industry but despite her busy lifestyle she did know about hitler's rise to prominence as between the filming and premiere of the blue light she attended a nazi rally in berlin's sport palast riefenstahl recounted the first time she saw hitler as like being struck with lightning hitler's vision for the new germany had opened riefenstahl's eyes to the possibility of the future and before starting her new film sos iceberg she wrote to hitler asking to meet him one day before the press release and her scheduled date to leave for filmmaking wilhelm bruckner adjutant called reefin style inviting her to meet with hitler rayford style gleefully accepted but she was also expected to meet the crew to leave for filming she boarded a train for wilhelm's haven following her arrival in wilhelm's haven she was driven to horu mercil with bruckner being informed that just before her letter was received hitler had been talking about how much he liked her dancing in the holy mountain reef and style would go on to describe hitler as unexpectedly modest as the two walked along the beach talking about her films enjoying even the blue light as riefenstahl recounts hitler suddenly stopped and exclaimed that she must make the films when the nazis come to power following their meeting hitler ordered a personal plane to fly riefenstahl to hamburg in order for her to make it in time to start filming sos iceberg upon her arrival she was seen grasping her copy of mein kampf and pictures of hitler showing her deep admiration for him during the filming reefing style's health deteriorated due to a bladder infection which removed her from filming for some time but allowed her to keep in constant correspondence with hitler and also at this time hitler was exploiting new technology with the help of joseph goebbels using the combination of new communication technology and the ability to fly allowed hitler to travel further despite the advantage the nazi party had they fell short of gaining full control with the majority as a result political street violence broke out between the communist and the nazi party the nazi party blamed the marxists for the violence and used that to call for ordnang or order griefenstein was absent for much of this time but there is no possibility that she did not know what was going on on multiple occasions she was invited by hitler to be his guest once to his own party and on another occasion to meet goebbels where she also met other top nazi officials like hermann gehring griefenstein became a staple of the nazi elite party scene and during one of her own parties she had received a phone call on the 30th of january 1933 hitler had gained the chancellorship and berlin had exploded into further with thousands of nazi supporters flooding the streets following the accession of hitler to the chancellor's position sos iceberg resumed filming in february and wouldn't wrap until may in the meantime everything seemed renewed under hitler's guidance hitler's charisma had carried him into power and for those who supported him it was like a fairytale ending following the reichstag fire on the 27th of february 1933 4 000 political prisoners were rounded up and sent to the converted gunpowder factory in dhaka which began taking in prisoners on the 20th of march the creation of dhaka was public knowledge with an announcement made along with a warning not to approach the camp or risk being shot furthermore the nazis established a boycott against jewish goods on the 1st of april which coincided with the ceremonial opening of dhaka julius streicher was charged with the organization of the boycott in order to ease the pressure building within the starmap tai long or sa headed by ernst rome news reached abroad about the violence perpetrated by the nazis leading to boycotts in both england and america of germany made products the nazi's boycott was not as effective as the administration had hoped but it did put up an incredible front for the world griefenstein would later claim that no one in her family was a member of the nazi party yet on the same day as the boycott her father joined becoming member 1670 383 on the 10th of may the book burnings began in berlin at other major centres and universities in which any book deemed ungerman was seized and thrown into massive burn piles many notable authors were put to the figurative torch such as albert einstein karl marx sigmund freud and helen keller raefenstein returned to berlin following the shooting for sos iceberg and immediately pushed ufa to star her in a movie about a spy in paris during the great war therefore refused on the grounds of the growing tension in europe yet riefenstahl walked away with the impression she had convinced them of the film on the 16th of may she accompanied goebbels and his wife to a performance of madame butterfly where the press was in a frenzy over her appearance there soon after their public appearance goebbels was appointed to the newly created minister of national enlightenment and propaganda a role designed for him much of what the nazis became known for was a result of goebbels he worked meticulously behind the scenes orchestrating the grand display of gestures and actions to show off germany's youth strength and vitality one result of goebbel's work was the expulsion of jews from the german film industry including foreign companies major companies such as mgm and warner brothers heavily employed jewish people which led to a mass exodus from germany but not all were lucky as joe kaufman a warner brothers representative was murdered by the sa as a result of the crackdown riefenstahl created a proof of descent but lied about who her grandmother was as she claimed her step-grandmother otterlee as her biological grandmother this change went unnoticed and unchallenged allowing reefensteil to receive a pass in order to continue her work before her next major project rayford style spent much of her time with goebbels in meetings social events private screenings and day trips out of berlin the elites of the nazi society would congregate and attend operas those who attended included prince friedrich christian of schaumburg lipper and prince august wilhelm von hoensalen the son of the exiled kaiser wilhelm ii along with prince philip of hesse she was invited to spend time with hitler to discuss the fiora's upcoming films rayford claims to have pressed hitler about the flight of the jewish people and the violence directed towards them yet hitler simply brushed her aside and refused to talk about it hitler instead redirected the conversation to ask if riefenstahl would be willing to take over artistic vision for the hitler film she had first declined the offer but as she thought on it she decided to take the position they would be two masters of charisma and charm constantly trying to gain the edge on one another to further their own ambitions in august of 1933 riefenstahl was to film the nazi party congress in nuremberg which would be the first major rally hitler would hold since becoming chancellor of germany riefenstahl had not been told that she was to direct the film when hitler exploded with anger towards goebbels that he must be envious that such an honor was to be given to a woman let alone someone who was not a card-carrying nazi party member either way reef and style was to take part in its creation but the question remains was she producing propaganda or political persuasion while she was not under the direct control of goebbels it was her vision that set the precedent and she decided to try and focus on the relationship between the fuhrer and his people the nazi party congress was different from an ordinary rally as it was a state event which included parades speeches and rituals the rally would be called reich's party rally of victory and hitler would name riefenstahl's film himself with the title victory of faith her position in the reich sparked envy from the male dominated industry as well as constant rumors as to how she attained her position which she cheerfully encouraged she openly clashed with the film crew over every aspect of the film from equipment to manpower and even external news organizations given access to film a total of 350 000 people were expected to attend including regiments from rome's sa and heinrich himmler's ss riefenstahl would also meet albert speer hitler's architect and eventual wartime minister of armaments who designed the rally's layout he was a gifted man who once turned a stage set for a provincial shooting match into a ceremonial stage he helped refin style by guiding her as to how much film time should be used between the warring factions of the nazi parties such as rome himmler and hess rafeen stahl and her team started filming early in the day to film a crucial part of victory of faith depicting the valk or german people preparing the benches that would be used for the rally hitler loaned riefenstahl a plane which allowed her to fly to berlin to be present during the premiere of sos iceberg on the 30th of august 1933. it was during this time that the producer paul koner noticed that his name was removed from the credit list due to him being jewish following the launch of her film she returned to nirenberg to continue filming but would have to borrow the rest of the film from the news organization's victory of faith premiered on the 1st of december 1933 at the palace dam zoo and would eventually be a required film to watch for school children but would be pulled seven months after its premiere and ordered destroyed following the night of the long knives in which members of sa high command including rome were accused of treason and executed before victory of faith was released to the public hitler had already seen the value riefenstahl brought to the image he was trying to make for the future and insisted she be given the rights to direct the next rally although she had been given this honor she proclaimed she would not film another event for the party and that her company would hold the sole copyrights to produce the film though the latter would eventually fall through yet major changes would set a different tone in the new film triumph of the will the first being the death of paul von hindenburg on the 2nd of august and the second being the purge of the sa both of these events would drastically change the public's perception of the nazi party and would play a particular role in helping the public forget about the past and focus on the future the filming of triumph of the well used many of the same angles and events as victory of faith but now with hitler as the centerpiece as rome had been removed triumph of the will premiered on the 28th of march 1935 at the palace dam zoo where she attended with their parents and brother the crowd swooned over the film and gave glowing reviews which even included her rival goebbels on may day goebbels awarded the film the national film prize of 1935 and described it as glowing with artistic passion following the filming of triumph for the well the wehrmacht demanded a film of their own to show their strength yet they had been strategically left out as it wasn't until two weeks before the premiere of the film that hitler had renounced the treaty of versailles riefenstahl set to work on day of freedom in which he filmed military exercises showing off the military might of germany while riefenstahl decided against filming party events it did not stop her from taking another opportunity one that would also be used as propaganda the 1936 olympics protests continued over germany's treatment of jews and their removal of dr theodor levald from the olympic committee due to his jewish heritage the backlash they faced resulted in them installing him as an advisor and an honorary aryan to quell the unrest the arrival of the olympics in berlin renewed the poor treatment of ethnic minorities and the undesirables as they were guided away from the tourist attractions in the cities only to be placed in the concentration camps any signs used to deter the jewish people or other ethnic minorities were removed and hidden berlin was to be on its best behavior as the world had its eye on her the olympics posed a challenge for riefenstahl as many times the events were hosted in venues far from her main command post this required new innovation with camera angles and type of cameras to keep up with the action for refin style every angle had to be covered which included using planes to capture overhead shots the berlin olympics would be the first olympics to be televised a technological feat never attempted before in part due to goebbels wanting to showcase germany's physical prowess to the world griefenstein went over budget during the filming which made goebbels freeze her funds this resulted in her manipulating hitler into believing that goebbels had been harassing her and so goebbels was removed from command of the olympia film rudolf hess replaced goebbels and gave riefenstahl the funding she needed allowing her to split the films into two separate projects one on the body of an olympian and the other about the history of the 1936 olympics the original goal of the project olympia would not be ready until the 20th of april 1938 in time for the fuhrer's 49th birthday but when it finally came to the premiere date at the palace dam zoo it was an event like no other diplomats from around the world attended along with high-ranking nazi officials whilst it was a celebration of hitler and the third reich's achievements it also highlighted the work of riefenstahl london would scoff at the film as propaganda but she received interest in america and was set to sail to america on the 29th of october on the europa rafen style arrived on the 3rd of november after an uneventful voyage but quickly met resistance from the non-secretarian anti-nazi league claiming she was there to spread nazi propaganda which is partially true but she would hardly agree to their claim while riefenstahl was in america reinhard heidrich gave the orders on the 9th of november 1938 to attack jewish-owned businesses and synagogues in what would infamously be known as kristallnacht riefenstahl claimed to not know what was going on in germany and was more disgusted by the reaction of americans than by the events of that night until she returned home three months later to find out it was true and not a lie she found very little support in america for her film olympia except at the california club where they showed the movie privately among their members her stay was extended by two weeks but there was still no interest in her film and so she returned home to berlin on the 1st of september 1939 hitler moved his troops into poland triggering world war ii in europe raefenstein was devastated at the thought of war as hitler had always talked of peace yet she embraced the conflict by becoming a war correspondent rafeen style received a special unit called the zonder film troop reefenster or the special reefing style film unit full of the best filmmakers the third reich had to offer who saw action in the spanish civil war and the annexation of austria on the 12th of september 1939 in the morning while in konski poland riefenstahl's tent was shredded by gunfire as she stated that she hadn't imagined it would be this dangerous on the same day polish partisans killed and mutilated a german officer and four soldiers as a result german soldiers forced local poles to dig their graves and were told to not retaliate yet the soldiers started to beat the gravediggers prompting riefenstahl to yell at them to stop one of the soldiers yelled and pointed his gun at her at which point another wartime photographer caught a horrified reaction as a result she asked for her grant to be terminated and for her to be allowed to return to berlin instead of returning to berlin she met with hitler in danzig as they celebrated its capture she informed hitler of what she had seen to which he was supposedly outraged about the event and promised justice instead he passed an amnesty decree which allowed war crimes to occur rafeen style continued filmmaking and remained autonomous as goebbels absorbed nearly all of the major and minor film companies rayford style began filming teefland but wartime difficulties created setbacks such as shooting locations being changed riefenstahl's film required extras and to get around the need for permits she visited max clan concentration camp and selected extras from amongst the imprisoned gypsies who would join her to make the film she would later refute claims that she visited the concentration camp but multiple people who survived the holocaust saw her there they recollected but she was hardly fazed at the condition of the camp only stating i can't take these people like this they need to be re-clothed the extras were isolated from the rest of the crew with armed guards being present to prevent them from escaping activities were heavily monitored such as smoking and using the bathroom all of which mirrored the control of the concentration camps the film budget was used to cover housing feeding and transportation of the extras and as well as this payment was to be given although it was a meager sum and was not to be paid to the extras themselves but to the fund to pay for the upkeep of maxclan in total 23 gypsies were used in the film with 15 of them being children some as young as 3 months old the shooting location changed on the 27th of april 1942 and riefenstahl took 68 gypsies from the marchsand camp both of these camps would close in may of 1943 with the extras as well as those who remained being sent to auschwitz where only a few survived the ordeal it was during the filming of teefland that reefenstyle met her first true love peter yacob a first lieutenant in the wehrmacht riefenstahl was 40 while jacob was 33 and a known womanizer yet lenny was unfazed by this as she had also used her looks to climb the social ladder in germany's film industry due to yankov's position in the military he was constantly being either called to the front or transferred leaving griefenstein alone for much of the war jacob would be promoted to major before their marriage in the spring of 1944 in the town of kitsbu after which she changed her name to riefenstahl jacob and she also visited hitler following her marriage but noticed the toll the war had taken on him on the 16th of july 1944 riefenstahl rushed to berlin when she learned her father had died of heart failure the funeral was arranged for the 20th of july 1944 and speer promised to be in attendance during the funeral speer was rushed away as at 12 42 pm a bomb had gone off in the wolf's lair at hitler's military headquarters the coup had been planned by colonel klaus von staufenberg and other officers but hitler survived and the traitors were executed shortly after the failed operation valkyrie riefenstahl learned her brother heinz had been killed by a grenade in east prussia in the town of letland riefenstahl was devastated at the loss of her father and brother in such quick succession and regretted not making use of her position a favor with hitler to have him pulled from the front she continued filming teefland but as the allied forces came closer the deferments from duty her film crew had previously enjoyed were being rescinded including for frank who was well over 50 years old with filming nearly complete she used her military connections to locate where jacob was and headed towards the italian front where she found he was bedridden with rheumatism she attempted to flee into the alps but was captured by american troops nick itzbuh she was put in a detention center escaping twice before making her way to her home at sabikal house which was the american headquarters in the town the acting commander colonel maydembach told riefenstahl that her mother had been relocated to the ribbon-trap estate and entertained the idea of finding griefenstein's husband within a day he found him and offered to make him a driver for the colonel allowing the two to be reunited raefenstauer was shortly afterwards taken to salzburg prison as a result of the de-nazification process and lived somewhat comfortably with the likes of hitler's senior secretary johanna wolfe at hermann guering she was forced to look at pictures from the concentration camps but she claimed she had no idea the holocaust was happening and would reel off the list of her jewish friends to the point that her list was called the alibi jew she claimed her fame originated before she knew hitler and goebbels and that knowing them was merely an unavoidable professional contact she also claimed that she only saw other nazi staff at official celebrations there was no mention of her wartime activities and the american interrogators came to the conclusion that quote if her statements are sincere she has never grasped and still does not grasp the fact that she by dedicating her life to art has given expression to a gruesome regime and contributed to its glorification both riefenstahl and wolf claimed there was no way hitler could have known about the holocaust and that it was the doing of himmler goebbels and borman many described riefenstahl as a nazi for hitler not for the party trying to distinguish the two but the fact of the matter is hitler was the nazi party on the 6th of june 1945 rafenstein was released by the seventh army and allowed to return to her home in kitzbuhel along with her staff allowing her to finish teefland colonel madem back recommended she moved to the american zone of occupation as the french were going to take over jakob left with mayhem back but riefenstahl did not which was a mistake the french detained her and transferred her to innsbruck where they interrogated her and determined she was undesirable giving her 24 hours to leave the french zone raefenstein called jakob and made them back to help her pack but they were late due to a car accident that madembak was injured in by the time the two men arrived they only had time to pack the essentials leaving teefland behind they were stopped by french authorities and driven to innsbruck where even star was put in the prison hospital due to a bladder infection she recovered and with the help of maidenbuck was allowed her travel documents as well as french protection but in reality she was under house arrest the french confiscated her bank account along with most of her films including tifland she was once again labelled undesirable and forced from the french zone arriving eventually in brazer she would file for divorce from jakob when she heard of his infidelities in may of 1947. after the war riefenstahl battled multiple lawsuits for her part in the holocaust most of which she won denying any and all allegations of cooperating with the nazis during her denuncification the evidence brought against her was limited and both party members and non-party members testified how she was not politically active with the nazis the judicial panel many of whom had been judges on the nazi bench came to the following determination concerning riefenstahl she made documentaries not propaganda she was coerced by hitler into making triumph of the well she was not responsible for uses the party made of her work olympia was an international project that had nothing to do with the party she had many jewish friends but no party associations beyond the professional and she did not require her employees to greet her with the hitler salute the final decisive factor was that riefenstahl had never been an official party member the only thing saving her from a prison sentence the french protested the hearing and appealed against it and a second tribunal was conducted in july 1949 in barden riefenstahl was taken to court one more time and found not guilty though riefenstahl played dumb and pretended once again to know nothing about the atrocities of the nazi regime all of her previous films were made to enhance the party's appearance and encourage people to join and even when she witnessed the atrocities at the beginning of the war she only spoke to hitler about it and never bothered with it again she used those who the nazis deemed undesirables as cheap replacements for the greek and italians she was looking to portray to avoid the longer processes of applying for permits riefenstahl benefited from the ngati regime and she was hardly the victim she portrayed many of riefenstahl's works were banned in post-war germany as imagery of the swastika was banned she attempted to get back into filmmaking with little success the only film left for her was teefland but it was tied up in a mess of a court case as the authorities had to determine who owned the film which was seized by the french on austrian soil riefenstein filed a claim with the bavarian restitution office and asserted that the film was hers and no nazi finances were used the austrians released the film tariff and style in early 1953 but she soon discovered four film reels missing and despite her searching she failed to find them teeflund premiered in stuttgart on the 11th of february 1954 with mixed reviews the association of survivors of concentration camps decided to boycott the film for its use of slave labor in 1962 riefenstahl went to africa as part of the nansen expedition to khartoum in sudan to record the nuba people and how progress would affect their way of life for eifenstahl it was about exploring the human body along with the rituals of tribal dancing wrestling body tattoos and funerals though riefenstahl's methods were deemed intrusive which resulted in slight hostility riefenstahl eventually learned enough of the language to speak with the nuba people she would go on to publish a photography book about the nuba people in 1974 and travelled between germany and sudan for nearly 30 years when the second sudanese civil war broke out in 2000 roof and style went to find out the fate of her noober friends but her helicopter crashed although she miraculously survived the ordeal rafenstahl celebrated her 101st birthday on the 22nd of august 2003 on lake steinberg in bavaria yet shortly after this she fell ill having already been battling cancer rufenstahl died at 10 p.m on the 8th of september 2003 in her home at perkin germany her death inspired mixed emotions as those who survived the holocaust still saw her as the woman who got away raefenstein pioneered many artistic film techniques one of her most well known was making the viewer feel as though they were physically inside the subject's mind making connections by focusing on the eyes of the subject before switching to the people being addressed despite these accomplishments however she was manipulative selfish and unapologetic this manipulative behavior allowed her to profit from the holocaust and when germany was finally defeated she manipulated the people who put her on trial to allow her to get away what do you think of lenny riefenstahl was she an artist who was held hostage by the nazi party or was she complicit in the third reich's propaganda regime having produced some of its most iconic films please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] the man known to history as verner von braun was born on the 23rd of march 1912 in the small town of visits in what is now northwest poland midway between poznan and godansk but which in 1912 was part of the eastern regions of the second german reich in prussia his father was magnus von braun who was a german government official in prussia the family belonged to the baronial rank in eastern germany and as such ferner had the noble cognoman fry hair included in his name magnus von braun rose to a position of some considerable power during verna's youth and he consequently served as the german minister for food and agriculture for a brief period between the summer of 1932 and early 1933 his mother emmy von quistop could trace her lineage back to several european royal houses and as such the von browns could lay claim to a high social status in germany however the family's claims to nobility were scuppered just years after verna's birth when german involvement and defeat by britain france italy in the united states in the first world war between 1914 and 1918 saw an end to the german second reich a new german republic known as the weimar republic was formed in late 1918 and early 1919 and the old german nobility had their legal privileges removed although the family did continue to use the freyja cognoman in their names although he was born in the ethnic polish parts of prussia the young werner was soon living in the heartland of germany but when he was just three years old his family moved to berlin to facilitate magnus's work as a government official and as he grew older the young verna was transferred to numerous private schools around the country the wider context in which he was growing up was critical in the development of fairness scientific interests in 1914 europe had been thrown into a continent-wide war which soon expanded to other parts of the world the first world war would have its winners and losers germany being one of the latter but what all sides benefited from was the burst of technological development which walked hand in hand with the conflict by the end of the war in 1918 new technologies had been rapidly developed mostly associated with the battlefield and the supply of the armed forces perhaps the most novel was the armored tank a mechanized war machine which did not exist in 1914 but the most significant for von braun's later career were surely the rapid advances in aviation and ballistics when the war started air flight had only recently been invented orville and wilbur wright having flown in the first ever plane at kitty hawk in north carolina in december 1903 but by the time the war ended aviation was much more common planes had been used from 1914 for reconnaissance as fighter planes and increasingly to drop bombs on the enemy and so individuals were consequently beginning to imagine new ways of sending ships and objects soaring into the sky using the more powerful explosives and ballistics which had been developed for use on the western front in france between 1914 and 1918 these new innovations clearly caught the young werner's imagination early on when he was just 12 years old von braun was arrested in berlin for having attached half a dozen of the biggest fireworks he could acquire to a small coastal wagon in an effort to see how fast he could make it move later in his life von braun reflected on his first ballistics experiment stating it performed beyond my wildest dreams the wagon careered crazily about trailing a trail of fire like a comet his interests were fueled further as he entered his teenage years and there was a growing societal fascination in germany with the idea of space travel for instance in 1927 the varane fuel ram shift or society for space travel an amateur rocket association was founded in germany and in october 1929 the german austrian film director fritz lang's acclaimed movie frauemonde or woman in the moon a tale about taking a trip to the moon premiered in berlin and through it the basics of rocket travel were presented on screen for the first time as he entered his late teens von braun's own fascination with rocketry space travel and engineering was gaining momentum and at some time in late 1929 or early 1930 he met and befriended willie lay an influential member of the german society for space travel he also entered the technical university of berlin in 1930 it was through lay and the society for space travel the von braun met the more significant influence on his early career hermann oberth who was a hungarian-born german physicist and engineer and one of the most important figures in the early development of the field of rocketry he had acted as a consultant to lang in his production of the woman in the moon and in 1929 had won the first pre-repurch awarded by the french astronomical society for his work in astronautics it was also in 1929 that he began experiments with liquid-fueled rockets which he called kegel dozer the concept of fueling modern rockets with innovative liquid fuels and the advances von braun would go on to make in this field for both the nazi regime in germany and later the united states would later constitute his most significant scientific achievements it is consequently impossible to understate the influence of oberth on the young von braun who in later life would refer to her birth as the guiding star of my life in the years that followed von braun's academic achievement expanded rapidly he spent the autumn term at the swiss federal institute of technology in zurich and then returned to berlin to finish a diploma in mechanical engineering at the technical university of berlin following this he very speedily completed a phd in physics at what was then the friedrich wilhelm university and is now the humboldt university in berlin this was awarded in april 1934 for a study entitled construction theoretical and experimental solution to the problem of the liquid propellant rocket throughout this time he maintained a keen interest in the concept of space travel but for the present time this would remain a theoretical interest and ultimately von braun's practical work increasingly focused on rocketry and ballistics even before von braun had completed his phd thesis he had been employed by the german government his first posting was under the weimar republic government working in the german ordnance department from 1932 onwards when he was also undertaking his doctoral research early in 1933 enormous changes which would impact on the trajectory of von braun's entire life swept through germany following a catastrophic economic collapse in germany in the aftermath of the wall street crash of 1929 and the great depression which followed it a number of extremist parties had gained larger followings in the country one of these the national socialist german workers party had risen to become the largest party in the country following the reichstag elections in 1932. now early in 1933 they entered government and soon afterwards used a fire at the reichstag building as an excuse to pass an enabling act which allowed their leader adolf hitler and his ministers to rule by decree the nazi party had come to power and in the months ahead began to tighten its grip on the german government and german society von braun's associations with the nazi party are unquestionably the most controversial feature of his life and career there is no doubting that he was a member of the ngati party and a top scientist for the administration however von braun was adamant after the second world war that was to follow from 1939 to 1945 that he had joined the party only when the war broke out in europe and purely in the interests of career advancement he also maintained that he had never been inclined towards the ideology of the nazis regarding his work developing weapons for the nazis throughout the war he simply stated that his country was at war and as a scientist in the employ of the government at the time he felt it was his duty as a german to conduct the work which he did controversy has raged around this ever since particularly around certain inconsistencies in von braun's version of his associations with the nazi party later in life he claimed he had only joined the nazi party in 1939 after he was effectively pressured into doing so however official records show that von braun had joined the nazi party in november 1937. moreover he had also joined the paramilitary wing of the nazi party the shuzduffle or ss in 1940 he gained promotion within that organization several times in the years that followed when questioned about this in the united states years later tom brown again argued that his membership of the ss was solely for the purposes of career advancement but many accounts have surfaced since from eyewitnesses some subsequent to von braun's own death which suggests von braun was a more enthusiastic member of the ss than he claimed the truth of all this is hard to determine many individuals were coerced into joining various branches of the nazi party during their 12-year rule in germany and von braun would certainly not have been alone in this regard but there is enough ambiguity to suggest he may have been a supporter of the nazis even if he wasn't his close associations with hitler's regime do not reflect well on his character by the time he completed his doctoral studies in 1934 von braun had started working for the nazi government at a laboratory and rocket test site at kumasdorf about 25 kilometers south of berlin it was here in december 1934 that von braun's team of engineers and scientists successfully launched two liquid fuel rockets to altitudes of between two and a half and three and a half kilometers named the a2 rockets for aggregate two they were the first in a series of exponentially more effective rockets which von braun and his team would develop over the next 10 years the technology here largely centered around alcohol and liquid oxygen as highly combustible fuels which are used to create extremely high temperatures to propel the rockets into the mid-1930s werner and his team at kumasdorf continued experimenting with various novel innovations around liquid fuels and rockets all of this was occurring as the german army was rearming and the nazi state was attempting to recover territory which it had lost at the end of the first world war to poland czechoslovakia and other neighboring states as part of this von braun was involved in developing prototype rocket-propelled aircraft for the german luftwaffe or air force between 1936 and 1938 however a very poor safety record and difficulty controlling the direction of the planes powered in this fashion made von braun's designs in this regard impractical for the time being these years also saw gradual improvements in the design of werner's rockets the a3 and a4 rockets being launched higher and faster than their predecessor the a2 in 1937 von braun was also relocated to the center where he would spend most of his remaining time in germany that year the nazi regime established panamunda army research center on the baltic sea coast of northern germany von braun and his research team removed here from kumasdorf and his research would be carried out here for most of the next eight years at a specially equipped liquid rocket fuel and guided missile center at its height over ten thousand people would be employed here such was the scale of the operations von braun would soon be in charge of and he served as technical director at panamunda from 1937 through to 1945. the innovations being developed at the research center at pennamunda would soon be needed for the war effort on the 7th of march 1936 the nazi regime had re-militarized the rhineland which german troops were forbidden from entering according to the terms of the treaty of versailles which had concluded the first world war two years later in march 1938 hitler oversaw the union of germany and austria and in the autumn of that year the nazis began applying international pressure to have a large portion of czechoslovakia known as the sudetenland which had a large german population annexed to the german state the process of bringing central europe under german control was largely completed in the spring of 1939 when czechoslovakia and hungary were formed into puppet regimes or annexed this finally forced britain and france to act and when hitler and nazi germany invaded poland on the 1st of september 1939 the two western powers declared war on germany in response on the 3rd of september the second world war had commenced it would last for six years and in the course of it von braun would oversee the development of some spectacular innovations in rocketry ballistics and liquid-fueled aircraft from the research center at paynamunder von braun was soon making advances to fit the war effort in the first 12 months of the war his team developed the a5 rocket the latest in the series of rockets he had been working on since the early 1930s the a5 reached altitudes of upwards of nearly 20 kilometers an enormous increase in propulsion on what von braun's rockets had been capable of just five or six years earlier by the early 1940s bomb brown set out on the final course to develop the weapon for which he would become an infamous figure in international scientific circles by the end of the war by 1941 it had been concluded that the a4 rocket had the best potential for development as a long-range guided ballistic missile by that time the necessary technologies were in place some derived from the other aggregate test rocket series and principle here were the liquid-fueled rocket engines but the team at penamunder had also developed advanced supersonic aerodynamics and a gyroscopic guidance system which would allow the missile to fly with some level of control after its initial propulsion what became known as the v2 rocket was first launched on a trial basis from penamonda in october 1942 and reached a height of 84 kilometers the rocket was 14 meters long and carried a 1 000 kilogram warhead at the very front of it it was fueled primarily using a mix of ethanol and liquid oxygen with a water mixture to reduce internal heating to prevent the rocket exploding in flight a turbo pump forced the liquid fuel into a combustion chamber at a rate of 33 gallons per second which was then ignited the resulting combustion gases then exited the combustion chamber at over 2800 degrees celsius and at a speed of 6500 feet per second it was this combustion process which allowed for the v2 to travel with the velocity it did even carrying such a heavy warhead the military potential of the new rockets being designed at panamunda by von braun was clear to the nazi regime they were also much needed from 1942 onwards germany's invasion of russia in the summer of 1941 had not worked out as expected the german army failed to capture moscow and several other key strategic cities before the harsh russian winter set in without adequate winter clothes german troops perished in large numbers on the eastern front in the winter of 1941. then during the following autumn and winter the nazis failed to seize the city of stalingrad in the south of russia after pumping huge resources and troops into the region in an effort to secure the vital oil fields of the region when the russians went on the counter-offensive late in 1942 they would ultimately not stop until they reached berlin two and a half years later with the war effort having soured the nazis increasingly began to hope that a miracle weapon could be developed in germany that would offset germany's losses on the battlefield although the rockets von braun had developed could not act as such a miracle weapon it could nonetheless prove extremely beneficial in striking a britain from europe accordingly in 1943 enormous resources were pumped into developing hundreds of a4 rockets they were also renamed as the vengeance 2 or v2 rockets eventually more than 3 000 v2s would be fired at london before the war ended killing more than 2 500 civilians and terrorizing the city there was no effective way of stopping a v2 rocket once it was fired and the level of damage the city and its people suffered when one was launched was purely dependent on how accurate its flight trajectory was admittedly the accuracy of the rockets at this early stage was quite mixed von braun's central role in developing this weapon for the ngati regime would have been controversial enough but the manner in which the v2 rockets were being manufactured between 1943 and 1945 was doubly so as more and more german men were conscripted into the german armed forces in the final years of the war the nazi regime increasingly turned to the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are being confined in the concentration camps which had been established around europe to detain jews gypsies political prisoners and pows as a source of slave labor when a labor shortage caused delays in the production schedule of the v2 rockets in the spring of 1943 one of the chief engineers at panamunda arthur rudolph proposed using inmates from the nearby middle baudora concentration camp as slave labor to produce the rockets this plan was soon implemented and many of the v2 rockets produced between 1943 and early 1945 were built by concentration camp inmates under duress many being beaten and tortured if they did not work sufficiently hard enough in the end more labourers were actually killed in the workshops where the rockets were built then were killed in london when the weapon was used against britain there is no denying that von braun knew about the conditions these slave laborers endured yet as with his membership of the nazi party he later excused it as something which he could not influence in any way and described the conditions at the factories as repulsive but again there are conflicting arguments several witnesses came forward many years after the war and claimed von braun had been complicit in the abuse of slave laborers from the camps and hand-picked those who would work in the factories producing the v2s however as with his sympathies or lack thereof towards the nazi party we may never know how complicit von braun was in the use of slave labor to build the thousands of v2 rockets which were produced between 1943 in 1945 von braun and his team at the research center at panama and then knew their value to the scientific community as the winter of 1944 turned into the spring of 1945 and the russians americans and british barreled into germany from the east and the west he and his team began considering what they would do how they would surrender to the victors and which ones ultimately they decided to surrender to the americans and in the spring of 1945 blueprints were made of much of the work and research which had been carried out at penamunda since the late 1930s these were hidden for future use they would have to wait for an opportunity to make the surrender though as in february and march they were being moved towards the austrian and bavarian alps by the german high command as the research center at panamunda was abandoned in the wake of the russian advance along the baltic coast in april while being moved in bavaria von braun and several of his team eloped crossed the border into austria and surrendered to the 44th u.s infantry division on the 2nd of may six days later germany surrendered unconditionally to the allies the war was over in europe von braun would not face prosecution or punishment for his involvement with the nazi regime and the german war effort he was considered to be too valuable and months before the americans british and russians began streaming into germany in 1945 the united states government had prepared a black list of top german scientists engineers and technicians which it wanted to locate and interrogate in germany von braun and the senior members of his research team at panamunda were at the very top of that list in the weeks following the end of the war the blacklist evolved into what became known as operation paperclip a secret u.s intelligence program through which 1600 german scientists and their families were taken from germany to the united states the trade-off was clear move to the united states provide information on the research they had been involved in for the nazis and put it to use for the united states in return the individual scientists would eventually be absolved of any crimes they had committed in their service to the nazi regime von braun was quickly involved and in june 1945 he was moved to the u.s occupied zone in germany he was kept confined and interviewed extensively in the weeks that followed curiously one of the interviewers was l s snell a british rocket engineer who would go on to play a critical role in the development of the concord engine years later and then in june von braun's transfer to the united states was approved and he arrived at wilmington delaware on the 20th of september 1945 the second act of his life had begun yet for all that the united states government had prioritized bringing von braun to america in 1945 his services were certainly not maximized in the years that immediately followed his relocation to america von braun and his team were sent to fort bliss on the state border between new mexico and texas and over the next few years here they were responsible for refurbishing some v2 rockets and outlining to the u.s military the procedures for their manufacture and launching but they were otherwise not given huge leeway to work on developing new rockets and their lives were heavily restricted here for instance being unable to leave the admittedly large grounds of fort bliss without permission on a personal level von braun underwent some profound changes at this time though raised as a lutheran his attitudes towards religion were ambivalent until 1945. he had also remained a bachelor into his thirties and had been something of a lothario at panamunda serially dating female employees at the north german research center this changed in the first few years of his american life in 1946 he became an adherent of evangelical christianity his religious beliefs seemed to have been genuine rather than some effort to better his image in america it has though been speculated with some justification that his religious conversion might have been an effort to absolve himself from his associations with the nazis and their crimes his marital status also changed shortly after his arrival in the united states in the spring of 1947 he received permission from the u.s government to briefly return to germany in order to marry his 18 year old cousin and not wholly unusual marital arrangement by the standards of the 1940s he and maria von braun would have three children iris margaret and peter in the years ahead thus whatever the moral ambiguity of werner's marriage arrangements might be by contemporary standards his life had settled down by the late 1940s he had become a pious christian and a family man in 1950 von braun and his associates were moved to huntsville in the state of alabama to work on developing the first large american ballistic rocket one which eventually could carry a nuclear warhead and replace the standard nuclear bomb what became known as the redstone rocket was the direct descendant of the v2 and was fueled using a mix of alcohol liquid oxygen and hydrogen peroxide the first such rocket lifted off on the 20th of august 1953. its operational range was up to 320 kilometers and by the late 1950s they were being deployed in europe on one of the major fronts which had developed in the new cold war between the us and soviet russia back in von braun's homeland of germany throughout the 1950s von braun was also seeking to popularize the idea of space exploration and travel the german scientists earlier interest in this area had never diminished and at the height of his work in germany he had been responsible for sending the first man-made object into space on the 20th of june 1944 a v2 rocket bearing the serial number mw18014 was launched from panamunda it reached an apogee of 196 kilometers and accordingly broke the karman line the defined boundary between earth's atmosphere and outer space this is the first recorded instance of a rocket being sent into space orbit during his hiatus at fort bliss bomb brown had returned to the issue and in 1948 he had written a book on the subject which he published in 1952 the mars project was a non-fiction work outlining a technical blueprint for how an expedition could be sent to mars and a colony established there as he stated himself in the preface to a later edition my basic objective during the preparation of the mars project had been to demonstrate that on the basis of the technologies and the know-how then available in 1948 the launching of a large expedition to mars was a definite technical possibility though he would never see anything approaching a manned mission to mars in his lifetime von braun was soon to be involved in the us's efforts to begin exploring space the country's attempts were belated in the aftermath of the second world war the soviet union had begun pumping resources into rocket development and tentative space exploration and on the 4th of october 1957 the soviets succeeded in launching sputnik 1 the first ever artificial earth satellite into low earth orbit a month later on the 3rd of november 1957 the soviets sent the first living organism into space on sputnik 2 a dog named laker these events shocked the us government which now determined to invest heavily in its own space program triggering what has come to be known as the space race a distinct part of the wider u.s soviet cold war the inception of the space race gave von braun a second life for 12 years in the united states he had been marginalized in the country given little room to do anything other than share and moderately develop the technology which had been used in the aggregate and v2 rockets back in germany now he was set free to begin experimenting again with his team within months his team had developed the jupiter c a modified redstone rocket which on the 31st of january 1958 launched the united states's first satellite named explorer 1 into low earth orbit consequently it was using a more developed version of von braun's v2 rockets that america launched its first satellite more was to follow on the 29th of july 1958 the united states government established the national aeronautics and space administration popularly known by its acronym nasa from its inception von braun was central to nasa's work his pivotal role was formalized in july 1960 when the george c marshall space flight center was established at huntsville in alabama as a successor to the redstone research center the marshall center was to become the single largest research center at nasa charged primarily with developing the launch vehicles and rocket propulsion systems for sending us spacecraft into orbit von braun was the center's first director and the senior research team was staffed almost entirely by nationalized germans who had been brought to the united states in 1945. he would serve in the role for nearly 10 years throughout the period of nasa's most ambitious and concerted efforts to further space exploration bomb brown's first years in charge of the marshall center focused on developing the launch capabilities for the spacecraft for nasa's project mercury the first space flight program undertaken by the agency mercury's goal was to put an american into space and return him safely to earth afterwards it was implicit that the goal was to achieve this feat before the soviets to achieve this in the later 1950s and early 1960s von braun and his team were working on a new generation of rockets one was the atlas class of rockets which had been under development since the mid-1950s the others were the saturn rockets which were the direct successors of the jupiter rockets which had fired the first american satellite into low earth orbit in january 1958. von brown proposed the rename in october 1958 and over the next few years at marshall von braun and his team were responsible for developing these two rocket classes which would serve as the primary launching vehicles for u.s spacecraft for the duration of the space race throughout the 1960s without them nasa would not have been able to achieve what it would eventually achieve during that period these rockets and launch vehicles were becoming particularly necessary in the early 1960s as the space race intensified the next major milestone for both the soviets and the us was to put a man in space this was eventually achieved on the 12th of april 1961 when the russian cosmonaut yuri gagarin completed one orbit of the earth in the vostok 1 capsule in many ways von braun seems to have been responsible for the soviets reaching this critical milestone before the u.s nasa had been ready to send a manned mission into space in early 1961 before gagarin's orbit but von braun had insisted on further tests being carried out to ensure the safety and efficacy of the redstone launching vehicle thus when alan shepard became the first american in space on the 5th of may 1961 he only narrowly missed out on being the first human being in space to gagarin who had completed his mission less than four weeks earlier the delay while unfortunate from the perspective of project mercury is a testament to the precision and safety standards which von braun was employing at marshall in the early 1960s the soviet union had comprehensively won the first acts of the space race but the u.s was catching up as the 1960s progressed and in february 1962 john glenn became the first american to complete an orbit of earth his spacecraft was jettisoned into space using the atlas d launch vehicle one of the first functioning rockets of the new classes being designed by von braun and his team at marshall standing at nearly 30 meters in height it was capable of jettisoning glenn's friendship 7 spacecraft weighing nearly 3 000 pounds into orbit before disengaging the space race settled into this pattern throughout the mid-1960s the united states was constantly close to reaching milestones before the soviets but was perennially pipped by them right at the end on the 12th of october 1964 the soviets sent the first multi-person spacecraft into space with vladimir komarov konstantin fjoktistov and boris jaegerov on board this outpaced the americans by five months virgil grissom and john young were the first americans to share a space flight on board the gemini 3 spacecraft in march 1965. more significantly the russians beat the americans to the first space walk on the 18th of march 1965 the russian cosmonaut alexei leonov became the first human being to exit a spacecraft and float around in space ed white had to settle for being the first american to do so when he conducted the same task on the third of june two and a half months after leonov finally though the us caught up and began to reach milestones before the russians in december 1965 the americans were the first to complete a rendezvous between two spacecraft in orbit when the gemini 6 and gemini 7 rendezvoused in earth's orbit then in march 1966 two american astronauts neil armstrong and david scott successfully completed the first docking in space when they successfully attached the gemini 8 spacecraft to a pre-launched orbital however the target was increasingly now the moon and on the 3rd of february 1966 the russians were the first to successfully land a lunar module on the surface of the moon the luna 9 was an unmanned spacecraft which took just over four days to reach the moon and then began transmitting back images from its surface the race was now on to see who could send the first manned mission to earth's only natural satellite von braun's contribution would be critical to these efforts the issue was developing a rocket launch vehicle which could propel a spacecraft capable of carrying multiple individuals and a lunar module to the moon some 385 000 kilometers away to undertake this action the apollo program had been launched in 1961 by president john f kennedy but it was some years before it was even remotely practical to speak of actually achieving this goal central to the apollo program's success were the saturn-class rockets which von braun and his team had been developing at huntsville since the late 1950s from late 1967 these were utilized by the apollo missions these missions were unmanned at first but from apollo 7 onwards were crude missions in december 1968 apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon a feat which apollo 10 replicated in may 1969 with these milestones reached the stage was set for apollo 11 which would eventually leave earth on the 16th of july 1969. it is impossible to understand von braun's role in the success of the apollo 11 mission the spacecraft was launched using a saturn 5 super heavy lift launch vehicle the culmination of von braun and his team's work at marshall throughout the 1960s this rocket was 110 meters in length and weighed 2.8 million kilograms the saturn v rocket launched through three phases using millions of liters of kerosene fuel liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen a combined defect of all this burn was immense for instance the first burn utilized 770 000 liters of kerosene fuel and 1.2 million liters of liquid oxygen which then created 7.5 million pounds of thrust by the time the rocket went through all three stages the saturn v rocket had created enough thrust to effectively jettison the spacecraft into deep space when it completed the three stages every part of the enormous rocket had been used and detached from the spacecraft which was the only portion of what started on the ground on earth that was left at the end of the launch it was this launch process which sent the comparatively tiny apollo 11 spacecraft into deep space on the 16th of july 1969. this was the culmination of werner von braun's experiments with liquid fuels and rocketry which he had commenced 40 years earlier in germany to this day the saturn v rocket is the only launch vehicle which has ever carried human beings outside of low earth orbit into deep space a half century after its first launch it remains the tallest heaviest and most powerful rocket to ever be used in space flight and holds the record for the heaviest payload launched from earth's surface when apollo 11 touched down on the surface of the moon on the 20th of july 1969 it was the culmination of the years of endeavour and innovation at nasa and the marshall center but unbeknownst to the individuals involved it would also be the beginning of the end for the space program von braun's research had been enormously costly adjusted for inflation the saturn 5 had cost 50 billion dollars to develop in today's money and each launch cost one and a quarter billion dollars consequently with the space race effectively won by landing the first human beings on the moon the us government began to wind down the apollo program five further apollo missions landed two men each on the moon between november 1969 and december 1972 each one blasted into deep space using the saturn v rocket but after that the apollo program was ended and no one has ever returned to the moon since and no rocket has ever been built to eclipse von braun's von braun's life seems like an anti-climax thereafter how could it not only continued missions and endeavors like the apollo program had been could have continued the level of achievement which had culminated in the apollo 11 moon landings looking ever outward von braun had expressed a desire following armstrong and aldrin's maiden moonwalk that the saturn 5 could be further developed to begin developing a rocket capable of sending a mission to mars his long-held dream but this was just not politically feasible in the 1970s as the cold war entered a period of significant detant and the space race ended in the end von braun appears to have realized that there was no possibility of this occurring reasonably quickly and in march 1970 he relocated with his family to washington dc to take up the position of deputy associate administrator at nasa's political headquarters in the u.s capitol but it did not suit him and eventually after two years of bickering over budget cuts he quit in may 1972. weeks later he had taken up a role as vice president for engineering and development at fairchild industries an american aircraft and aerospace manufacturer however within months his life took a darker turn when in 1973 he was diagnosed with kidney cancer a kind which could not be effectively treated in the 1970s but which could have been treated today and despite the terminal nature of this cancer he continued to work partly at fairchild and partly as an independent public speaker in the latter role von braun sought to keep american space travel in the public eye and to popularize the idea of launching a mission to mars but with little success eventually verna retired at the very end of 1976 deteriorating health forcing him to on the 31st of december he had been awarded a national medal of science by the administration of gerald ford in for his accomplishments in the field of engineering sciences and the medal was finally bestowed in 1977 owing to his illness he was unable to attend the ceremony to receive the medal from the country which had made him a citizen after his dubious earlier life in germany he died just weeks later on the 16th of june 1977 aged 65 the cancer in his kidneys having spread to his pancreas there is no denying that verna von braun was a brilliant scientist who made an enormous contribution to space exploration sam phillips who served as the director of the apollo program during its most critical period between 1964 and 1969 stated after the moon landings that he did not believe it would have been possible for the united states to reach the moon as quickly as it did had it not been for von braun's contributions to the space program if it had ever got there at all the saturn v rocket which carried each of the apollo missions which went to the moon remains the only rocket to have taken human beings beyond low earth orbit and is one of the greatest accomplishments of modern engineering and rocketry it was the culmination of von braun's life work the end point for the man who as a child at first attached fireworks to a coaster wagon and scented barreling down a berlin street on the way to producing the saturn v rocket many other accomplishments added to his legacy some of these have greatly influenced the modern world it was a von braun rocket which sent the first u.s satellite into space and today there are over 2 500 active duty satellites in low earth orbit powering everything from cable tv to the internet indeed the rocketry systems and engineering feats which he and his various research teams between the 1930s and the 1960s worked on have shaped the modern world in many ways which even they would not have foreseen when they developed them in the middle of the 20th century it is unsurprising that many streets buildings and even a crater on the moon have been named after him but his story is a complex one and in many ways an uncomfortable one as the author of a popular account of the moonlanders andrew smith wrote several years ago von braun's spirit haunts apollo like a spectre and while historians may argue about how deeply involved in the nazi regime von braun was in the 1930s and 1940s there is no denying that he was one of their principal scientists that his factories employed slave labor in the last years of the second world war and that he put his abilities to work producing weapons which showered london with the first ever ballistic rockets in the closing months of the war no account of von braun can overlook this record we are left with a paradoxical figure his leading biographer michael neufeld has perhaps best summarized his life stating that in evolutionary terms leaving earth to explore space constitutes one of the most important endeavors of the 20th century in those terms at least werner von braun deserves to be remembered as one of the seminal engineers and scientists of the 20th century his life is simultaneously a symbol of the temptations of engineers and scientists in that century and beyond the temptation to work on weapons of mass destruction in the name of duty to one's nation and the temptation to work with an evil regime in return for the resources to carry out the research closest to one's heart he truly was a 20th century faust what do you think of verner von braun was he a brilliant scientist whose political affiliations can be viewed separately from his scientific work or was he an amoral nazi sympathizer who should never have been rehabilitated by the united states government please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching [Music] we would like to thank our sponsor brilliant the problem-solving website and app for people like you who love learning and problem solving brilliant offers a choice of classes to develop your thinking including courses on machine learning neural networks and statistics to enhance your knowledge and make you think using interactive learning techniques and active problem solving to provide inspiring learning that makes problem solving fun if you're interested in science we would recommend the course on scientific thinking this expertly delivered course will tell you everything you need to know to start thinking like elon musk go to www.brilliant.org the people profiles to sign up for free and also the first 200 people will get 20 off their annual premium membership [Music] hello guys thank you so much for watching this video if you enjoy our work and would like to support the channel please visit our revamped patreon and buy me a coffee membership pages which contain rewards such as early access to our content merchandise discounts and audio versions of our videos along with much more than we give to our valued supporters if you have not yet signed up to help our cause we'd like to ask you to please consider doing so as we need to secure the channel by safeguarding it from possible demonetization and also invest in better equipment software and more people to help us improve our videos going forward in short without your contributions these videos would not be possible so if you would like to ensure this channel never has to shut down due to demonetization please spare whatever you can per month and become people profiles patrons thanks for listening it is the first of may 1945. the fuhrer adolf hitler is dead his private secretary martin borman leaves the shelter of the fiora bunker puts on his ss general's uniform tucks hitler's will and political testament into his breast pocket and sets off under the cover of darkness into the ruins of the crumbling capital of a thousand-year reich bormann runs north-west to the train station tearing his insignia from his uniform but encounters soviet troops who tell him hitler is kaput he hastily makes off and he's spotted running across a railway bridge but is never seen again did martin bormann perish in the ruins of berlin that night attempting to save his own hide or did he survive remaining the highest ranking nazi to escape the ruins of hitler's third reich [Music] before we begin we would like to draw your attention to our revamped patreon and buy me a coffee membership pages which contain rewards and perks such as early access to our content merchandise discounts and audio versions of our videos along with much more that we give to our valued supporters if you have not yet signed up to help our cause we'd like to ask you to please consider doing so as we need to secure the channel by safeguarding it from possible demonetization and also invest in better equipment software and more people to help us improve our videos going forward in short without your contributions these videos would not be possible so if you would like to ensure this channel never has to shut down due to demonetization please spare whatever you can per month and become people profiles patrons thanks for listening [Music] the man known to history as martin ludwig bormann was born on the 17th of june 1900 in vega laban prussia now part of saxony and halt in eastern borman's father theodore who was born in 1862 was the son of johann frederick bormann he worked as a bandsman in the halberstadt couracius before leaving the armed forces and gaining employment as a post office official borman's mother anthony bernadine menon was born in 1856 to tobias and louise menon she married theodore after he was widowed in 1898 although she herself was widowed when theodore died in 1903 after which she married albert woolbourne in the same year giving birth to four children over her two marriages theodore borman was a successful postal worker and had gained rapid promotion due to his ability to speak french as well as his managerial efficiency although he had also struggled with poor health since 1900 which led to his early death in 1903 at the age of 41. the loss of his father was a constant source of grief for bormann who remained angry at his mother for the rest of his life because she remarried the same year his father died despite the fact that she had no income other than a small state pension to support her children the bourman volborne household of 1904 was one of curious and tense relationships with nine children living together from the various marriages of theodore anthony and volborn and throughout this time martin remained close only to his brother albert bormann later refusing all contact with his extended family in 1906 the family moved to thuringia in central germany where his stepfather had found a better paid job as a bank clerk and martin borman enrolled in a private school in the town of eisenac and then three years later in 1909 the family moved to weimar in thoringia where martin enrolled as a fourth grader in a state school but he would soon come to despise his programme of education weimar was a city deep in the throes of xenophobic and anti-semitic sentiment patrolled by nationalists and wagnerites who viewed other european states as a threat and jews as inferior rhetoric which was emphasized in schools and by politicians throughout borman's childhood including by adolph bartles a pastor poet and journalist whose writings were renowned for their rabid anti-semitism and were a precursor to the nazi's anti-semitic stance indeed these tensions which were prevalent throughout europe combined with the german declarations of war in early august 1914 sent nationalist fervor into overdrive and borman joined his school friends marching through the streets of weimar and singing patriotic songs borman and his classmates were eager to join the fight and feared that the war would be over by the time they had reached the age of enlistment a matter which heightened tensions with his stepfather who had refused to join the army which deepened borman's resentment of him failing to excel at school borman's classmates later recalled that he had nil returns from his academic pursuits failing particularly in languages literature and music a situation which had a lasting impact on him and left him feeling insecure for a considerable proportion of his life borman was eventually drafted into the 55th field artillery regiment in june 1918 although he would later claim that he had eagerly signed up of his own accord and he served a few relatively insignificant months behind the lines before he left the army in february 1919 after turning in his uniform he decided not to return to his stepfather's house and instead search for work elsewhere gaining employment as an estate manager on the good herzberg estate near parchem in mecklenburg falpermann in northeast germany weeks after moving to the estate borman enrolled in various groups dedicated to anti-semitic and nationalist ideologies although it has been argued that this was a move designed to ally himself with the views of his employer hermann von troyenfels rather than a clear demonstration of his own convictions but borman was later remembered as a detested manager on the estate due to his rude disposition and coarse manner and one who sacrificed all else for productivity the economic situation in germany progressively worsened into the 1920s aided by estate owners like the troyen vals who hoarded grain to create artificial shortages in order to increase its value a tactic which enraged farmhands and the wider population alike discontent on the estate led borman and the trying fels to employ the now aimless frycourt members as farmhands the frycourt was a former paramilitary organization with close links to the national socialist movement and it was employing members of the group that allowed bormann to take a position of nominal command in the organization whose members soon gained a bad reputation for their drinking womanizing and distinct lack of work although bormann would later boast of his membership of the organization with other members of the nazi government through his work with the frey corps borman involved himself with a rival to hitler's national socialist german workers party or nsdap called the german people's freedom party which considered itself a more radical alternative although the party gained very limited support outside of northern germany in february 1923 a man named walter caddow joined the frey court detachment and department's command at goodhertzberg caddo was a school teacher and youth group leader for the same political party as bormann with a pulshar for stealing the money and possessions of his fellows he joined the detachment wearing a uniform adorned with false medals before long it was decided that kaddau should be removed although before he departed his parting shot was to steal thirty thousand marks from the estate bookkeeper borman responded by asking all shopkeepers to inform him if cadao ever returned supposedly to get him to work of his debts although this was seen as a spurious motive as the thirty thousand mark theft was relatively minor it is more likely that borman believed caddo to be a spy who had given up a german nationalist to the french occupying army in the rule the frey corps planned to take justice into their own hands and arranged a theme which was a sitting of an internal court for the trial of traitors this would often result in death sentences and backstreet assassinations that would later lead to a series of killings which became known as the theme murders in may 1923 cadao returned to parchin and the trap was sprung to capture him in order that he may be severely beaten as punishment and so kaddar was invited to attend a drinking session in a tavern with borman's fry core associates in the town where he became catatonically drunk not noticing that his sober drinking partners were rummaging through his pockets caddo was then led away from the tavern and put into a horse-drawn carriage whereupon he soon realized that he was being led away from the suburbs and into the dark countryside the man of the freight corps then beat him to death one of whom rudolph hurst the later commandant of auschwitz bludgeoned him with the maple branch the party then buried the body and returned to the good herzberg estate informing borman that kaddau had been killed an unexpected evolution of the initial plan simply to have caddo beaten and so borman quickly devised a plan to keep the murder a secret although one accomplice bernhard jurish informed the authorities of the murder after becoming convinced that he was to be informed upon leading the mecklenburg law enforcement authorities to open an investigation into the matter in june 1923 the case was eventually referred up to the state court in leipzig which led to borman's arrest as a suspect and his subsequent incarceration in schwerin prison even so bormann maintained a serene belief that he had done no wrong in his eyes a traitor had been killed and a threat removed from the freight corps and the wider state which was an outcome he believed was deserving of praise rather than punishment the result of the criminal investigation was the release of borman in september 1923 when it was demonstrated that he had merely coordinated a plan to have caddo beaten and not killed and so he returned to the good herzberg estate in high spirits and proclaimed that he had befuddled law enforcement authorities while serving a purpose essential to the peace but during the time of his internment at schwerin germany was undergoing great political strife with hamburg thuringia and saxony all likely candidates for communist-led coups the increased threat of leftist violence had forced the state to employ the services of the extreme right including organizations such as the freikorps which allowed them to remain empowered as armed groups in germany securing borman's position of authority in the group and in march 1924 borman stood trial alongside rudolph hearst for the murder of walter caddo and was given a light sentence of a single year's imprisonment the court going so far as to say that his intentions had been not wholly dishonorable borman spent a relatively insignificant year imprisoned in leipzig and was released in february 1925 returning to the estate at good herzberg however this lull and events was not to last as bormann fiercely disagreed with the owner of the estate hermann von troyenfels on the future of national socialism as try and falls believed in supporting the old northern national socialists or as boarman had a new infatuation adolf hitler and the nsdap in may 1925 these disagreements reached their peak and bormann left the good herzberg estate driving back to his mother's house in his new opel lab frosh sports car following this bormann did little between 1926 and 1927 dedicating most of his time to joining and working for the nsdap's paramilitary the stomab thailand or sa led by the bullish ernst rome in etheria detachment whilst working for the sa bormann made contact with hans ziegler a lone journalist who had developed a largely unheard of party newspaper the national socialist joining his one-man operation as a truck driver accountant and salesman and gaining employment on the fringes of the national socialist movement brought borman closer to the nsdap which he eventually joined in february 1927 with the membership number 60508 his experience working for their national socialist allowed borman to be promoted to the press office of the regional party administrator fritz zalkel in november 1927 formally inducting him into the party machine albeit in a lowly position and borman's skill and adeptness as an administrator were noticed and he was soon promoted to the head of the press office amongst soucal staff where he proved to be an effective manager even working to settle disputes between party offices however boarman was markedly less successful at his short-lived public speaking career which he undertook at the same time and was noted for his stutter and tendency for anger when echoed subsequently leading to his removal from party speaking lists and his banishment to the back rooms of the nsdap boarman made good use of his role as an administrator in soukel's office and was introduced to hitler as the genius behind the party's thuringia operation indeed hitler made many speeches in thoringia between 1927 and 1933 allowing borman to maintain relatively close contact with him at his staff being introduced to his future boss rudolf hess in the same period his minor reputation as an effective and dedicated worker had gained borman respect in certain circles of the party although he remained a small fish reliant on the status of others in his immediate proximity to gain influence clearly illustrated in 1928 when borman was asked to move from hitler's lunch table to make way for a more important guest prince christian of schaumburg lipper nonetheless 1928 was not an unhappy year for borman who having been noticed for his keen talent for bureaucracy had been personally appointed by hitler to a position in the sa's insurance office the fact that many of the personal insurance claims made by the sa were a consequence of self-provoked violence meant that few insurance claims were ever met by companies leading to a crisis over personal insurance provision for sa operatives boarman went to work on a plan for an internal sa insurance and relief fund which was personally approved by hitler in february 1930 who ordered that all party members pay 30 fennecs per month towards the fund and so with 390 000 members a significant cash flow was injected into the nsdap over which bormann gained responsibility and thus newfound power the new sa relief fund was made operational the same month and boarman was given sole power over who received funds for their insurance claims he also worked alongside hans frank who was later the governor general of the polish occupied territories to ensure that the fund was not subject to taxation a move which cemented his reputation amongst the party top brass as a shrewd administrator whilst furthering his career in the nsdap borman had fallen in love with gerda book the daughter of the influential nazi judge walter buch a close personal friend of hitler and at the time they met gerda was seemingly the physical opposite of poorman with shining eyes and pretty blonde hair she stood four inches taller than her future husband and countered his brutish manner with a warm innocent disposition for all their differences gerda was seemingly entranced by bormann and begged her father to have him over for dinner to which he reluctantly agreed viewing borman as a rude promiscuous bureaucrat and suited for their polite company in april 1929 after only a few months of courtship boarman asked gerda to marry him after falling behind her parents on a sunday walk a development which received a lukewarm welcome in the book household but nevertheless the wedding was arranged for september of 1929 and due to walter bush status was attended by adolf hitler as well as rudolf hess seven months later the couple had their first child who they named martin adolph bormann in honor of hitler and by march 1930 borman had been promoted to the staff of the sa a group which hitler intentionally kept few in number but despite his promotion borman held no rank or command and was considered by others to be somewhat of a paper pusher however the image encapsulated by borman was one which hitler was increasingly eager to project designed to give the impression that the nsdap was a party of elective government out of street fighting and revolution the wall street crash of october and november 1929 had ruined the german economy an event which hitler hoped to capitalize on in order to propel the nazis into government in what he termed a revolution at the ballot box and so the role and image of the sa was therefore to be reformed a task embraced by bormann with his creation of the sa affiliated national socialist automobile corps or nsak in april 1930 a carpool the rules of which demanded that all members of the nsdap submit their automobiles for party use as and when required hitler too submitted his mercedes compressor although only symbolically borman remained in sole command of the nsak for a brief time although the volume of work associated with the corps soon warranted a separate team headed by adolf hernlein a veteran of the november putch of 1923. borman was subsequently transferred to become the head of the relief fund he had designed between 1928 and 1930 and returned to a status of relative anonymity hitler's redesign of the nsdap into a party with the potential for election saw its first success in the reichstag elections of september 1930 in which the party won 107 seats or 18.3 of the national vote and whilst reform had led to political success it also faced a great deal of opposition from the revolutionary sa who threatened hitler with a coup led by pfeffer von solomon on hearing of the coup bormann informed hitler leading to salomon's dismissal and the appointment of ernst rome as the head of the sa under the supreme command of hitler himself the coup led to a wider reform of the nsdap structure with loyal bureaucrats like borman and hess rewarded for their faith with influential positions in the new hierarchy hitler met with his new band of officials in restaurants and cafes often speaking late into the night about his visions for germany and europe although bormann living a fair distance outside of munich was often unable to attend these late night conferences and instead had to rely on the patronage he received at hitler's lunchtime meetings which often took place at his favorite restaurant the austeria bavaria the first impression that borman made upon many of his colleagues was not a good one as they often noted with disdain the boarman was unrefined loutish and overbearing in his friendliness however what did undoubtedly impress the others was his capacity to work around the clock and he also gained a reputation for the brutality with which he treated his subordinates after the election of september 1930 hitler formed a new shadow cabinet in order to signify his commitment to making the nsdap an electable party although borman never made it onto the list remaining a somewhat anonymous administrator on the fringes of power but despite his failed attempts to become part of hitler's core team he was nonetheless an influential figure within the party a view evidently shared by the weimar government who dispatched secret police officers to search his home in 1931 although they returned with no evidence of illegal activity borman's role as a backroom administrator continued to win in power into the 1930s and by 1932 his office was handling over 3 million marks in the insurance fund alone a sum which he was willing to make available for all party activities hitler respected borman for his capacity to work and viewed him as an effective and honest aid a comfortable upon whom hitler could rely without fearing an ideological clash and in march 1932 hitler called borman into his study in the party's munich hq the brown house to inform him and others that he was trailing behind the incumbent paul von hindenburg in his attempt to become president of the weimar republic hitler had only invited yes men to be with him in this time of failure and left other bombastic ideologues such as joseph goebbels and ernst rome in berlin the next round of the presidential election was held a few days later on the 10th of april 1932 which saw hindenburg claim victory although hitler did win another 2 million votes but on the 31st of july 1932 new reichstag elections were held the nsdap winning 230 seats and 37.3 of the popular vote and although another election in november 1932 lost the party 34 of their seats they remained the largest political party in the legislature in the same election the communist party won 100 seats making the contest a two-horse race between the hammer and sickle and the swastika their success in the elections of 1932 drove the nsdap to form a new political central committee under the command of rudolf hess with borman transferring over in 1933 the party also enhanced its new image by moving its offices to berlin on the 17th of january 1933 and following the resignation of chancellor kurt schleicher on the 28th of january hitler went into talks with hindenburg emerging two days later at midday to proclaim that he was the new chancellor of germany party members who had aided the movement before 1933 like borman were held in high esteem and entitled to wear the gold party badge as a sign of their dedication an honor which would later help in their promotion within the party and march 1933 saw further reichstag elections and with the communist party banned the socialist party in a state of collapse and the nazis cemented into power no further elections were to be held in germany until after the end of world war ii the role of the essay was rapidly diminished after this final victory as few political opponents remained and borman knowing that his relief fund was soon to be cut back wrote to hess and asked if he required any aid in his office hess now deputy party leader and a woefully poor administrator was eager for the assistance of the party's preeminent bureaucrat and promoted borman to become the chief of staff in the hesse bureau a position which he formally took up on the third of july 1933. whilst this was an important promotion borman's power did not immediately increase as he was initially the only other staff member in the hesse bureau and did not gain command over his own team however hess himself was almost immediately sidelined once in office due to his lack of political talent being what hans frank termed a hopeless but dreamy weakling when borman arrived five months after hitler's victory he realized that the hess bureau also known as the amtess had effectively become a disputes office for those in power designed to shield hitler from the petty squabbles of his new cabinet they were in effect the guardians of the no man's land that protected the furious throne but regardless of its somewhat boring task the amp test provided great opportunities for power allowing borman and hess to play kingmaker amongst warring elites and promoting networking with officials from all across the party and state in september 1933 hess was given the formal title of deputy fuhrer and bowman the rank of reichsleiter the second highest rank possible in the nsdap which he shared with various other officials and in october 1933 hitler ordered that all party matters and requests be sent to the amtess before being distributed to their appropriate ministries including hitler's personal office in the reich chancellery a command which allowed bormann and hess complete discretion over all information at the highest echelons of power this order also allowed boarman to attend cabinet meetings albeit as an official without portfolio but it is the view of many historians that hess exercised little actual power in his capacity as the head of the amtas preferring to maintain his image as a party man of integrity this along with his increasing hypochondria and use of astrologers resulted in a lack of power and weakened reputation for hesse allowing borman almost total control of the office and its staff who considered him a tough but loyal boss even working to get his lawyer heinrich heim a promotion within the nsdap june 1934 saw growing concerns about an insurrection from the sa reach their peak with the knight of the long knives a purge led by guri and himmler against key members of the sa leading to the execution of ernst rome on the 1st of july 1934 and bowman increasingly taking the place of hesse as his department's representative worked alongside hitler to take off the names of those he wished to be killed once again borman was an accessory to murder the events of june and july confirmed the supremacy of the reich government over the state of germany and further centralized power to its offices including the ampes but reportedly borman did not believe the largely fabricated evidence that rome had intended to overthrow the reich government and remained unfazed but regardless of its validity the purge had empowered him and his office further and his suggested replacement for rome victor lutz was accepted by mid to late 1934 borman had been semi-co-opted to hitler's personal office with hess becoming progressively less interested in matters of state allowing borman greater access to the fuhrer as the de facto representative of the department indeed borman was now responsible for briefing hitler and used the opportunity to note down his thoughts and orders with the intention of winning greater favor with him as a reliable aide and during this time borman's diary reveals key signs of the closer relationship with hitler noting in early 1935 that he had ridden with him in his supercharged mercedes for the first time hess attempted to further centralize power in october 1934 when he requested that gao lighters or district party officials should communicate at all times with central government through the amtess a proposition which they rejected continuing to use their own channels but when bormann and hess complained of this to hitler in december 1934 he ordered that borman chair all meetings at which garliters were present borman willingly accepted and ordered his gow lighters to submit information on their activities to him on a monthly basis borman's power on the local stage grew alongside his influence at national level taking a massive upward swing when ailing president von hindenburg died on the 2nd of august 1934 giving hitler complete power over the reich's civil service command of which he placed in the hands of bormann and so wishing to demonstrate his new authority borman took a shot at hindenburg's former chief of staff otto meisner accusing him of being out of step with the nsdap of its values forcing meisner to profess his support and demonstrating the supremacy of the amtes over all levels of the civil service moreover borman used his new position to establish a civil service training call giving him discretion over all staff employed by the reich an important power which borman could use to win influence in staff bodies across all government departments borman also used party loyalty and values as his justification for banning the wearing of non-nsdap medals and the use of titles which were not recognized by the state a move which despite having a limited impact was key in building borman's intended image as a defender of the doctrine and integrity of the party this new position as a defender of the nsdap gave borman an excuse to keep extensive files on party members including those at the very height of power supposedly in order to prevent corruption but which also gave him great power over rivals in the contest for hitler's patronage from 1934 borman increasingly emerged as a party influencer and was treated with appropriate respect albeit begrudgingly with richard dary the reich minister for agriculture appointing borman to the agricultural ministry allowing him to sit on departmental boards another key player of whom borman was wary was himmler although he made an alliance with him in 1937 when he backed himmler's request to hand internal government surveillance powers to the ss they cemented their coalition by spending christmas of 1937 with one another by 1938 bormann had gained a monopoly over party doctrine and internal legal disputes appointing a large team of lawyers to his entourage ensuring that he was the final voice of authority on all party matters and hitler's trust in boarmen as an aide increased as the 1930s progressed and in 1935 he was given effective command of the hitler fund for german trade and industry formed supposedly to advance cultural programs and trade in germany although used as a personal horde for many of hitler's own projects affording access to several million reichsmarks this horde allowed borman to green light various projects desired by hitler such as setting up a fund for performances of hitler's favorite operators including the fledermaus and the merry widow in addition to purchasing homes for hitler in munich and decorating them with fine art in 1938 despite the reich ministry of finance expressing their concern borman would unconditionally provide hitler with the funds he needed and by 1945 it was estimated that 305 million reichsmarks from the fund had been spent on various projects ranging from purchasing property to renovating the city centre of augsburg in bavaria which alone cost 140 million marks indeed the fund was most famously used for the redevelopment of hitler's mountaintop retreat the oba salzburg on the austrian border which by 1936 had been expanded to four times its original size with 30 rooms and three stories presented by boarman to hitler on the 5th of july 1936 the project was hitler's pride and joy earning borman the right to build his own property on the same spot of land complemented with a complex road network leading to the fuhrer's residence boarman's ruthless purchasing of land and the scale of his construction program won him a local nickname the lord of oba salzburg and in september 1936 bormann started construction on a tea house at the very top of the oba salzburg which would later become a favorite location of hitler when he visited his retreat hitler increasingly favored the oba salzburg as a seat of government and borman as the head of the household was able to exercise discretion over whom was permitted to enter the premises giving him additional powers to safeguard the fuhrer's patronage moreover as his house was now located on the same plot boarman was able to stay up with hitler into the early hours of the morning as he ranted and listened to his operettas a role which advanced borman's relationship with the fuhrer and allowed him to translate hitler's ravings into orders furthering his position as a reliable aide life at the obersalzberg was intimate with borman accompanying hitler on his daily walks to the tea house and remaining with him late into the night a close proximity which earned boorman even greater favor with hitler this maneuvering soon paid off and in 1938 borman was given a promotion to the reich cabinet as one with important government duties as an adviser to the reich chancellor and the fuhrer and two days after his promotion borman accompanied hitler to vienna and this time hess was not invited the german annexation of austria was performed shortly afterward on the 12th of march 1938 borman accompanied hitler on his advance into austria and stood in his entourage as he performed his first speech as the new fuhrer of the state although his presence remained largely unpublicized as well as this bormann shadowed hitler closely for the remainder of 1938 and accompanied him to that year's nuremberg rally and to hitler's beloved wagner festival at beirut september 1938 saw neville chamberlain received at the berkoff in order to deal with the sedating crisis which eventually concluded with the munich agreement ceding the sudetenland to germany a move hailed by many as preventing world war the lord of ober salzberg had played host to one of the most significant meetings of pre-war german history this ever closer relationship with hitler empowered borman as he was able to invoke the name of hitler with unparalleled authority and thus was the case with robert lay the head of the german labour front when he attempted to limit the number of staff in the amtess with a complaint addressed to hitler which was read and responded to by bormann who informed lay that staffing numbers were the sole jurisdiction of the fuhrer few were inclined to argue against the professed will of hitler especially when cited by a man so close to him this was a source of immense power for bormann by october 1938 borman's office at the hesse bureau was formed of three main structures these were departments for drafting legislation resolving and administering party matters in all german states and for running the civil service this gave borman influence in all sectors of hitler's government indeed walter book borman's father-in-law stated at nuremberg that he believed bulman had gone mad with power and used any position of authority he gained to ruthlessly advance his status but during his assent to power many felt sorry for his wife gerda who martin bullied and belittled as borman would whistle to call over his wife as if she were a dog and would punish her severely for small indiscretions such as forgetting to iron his shirt gerder reportedly held a wholehearted belief in the nazi doctrine that female emancipation was a jewish phrase and remained submissive and loyal regardless of her husband's many extramarital affairs eventually coming to bear 10 children between 1930 and 1943 but although borman was a striked father and regularly beat his children he did appear to genuinely care for their well-being and often wrote together instructing her to remind their children not to accept rides from strangers boarman also used his children to get closer to hitler and delighted in showing them off to the fuhrer who delighted in their innocent chatter but with regard to his wider family bowman remained distant effectively severing all ties with his extended band of siblings and rarely talking to his mother whom he still blamed for replacing his father and as he gained power borman progressively reduced contact with his family replacing them with hitler and his entourage instead borman's first individual policy program was targeted at the church which he despised indeed while section 24 of the nazis 1920 program did cite a commitment to positive christianity many nazis remained opposed to the church and believed it to detract from the highly centralized power base which hitler wanted between 1937 and 1938 bormann turned his newly acquired firepower against the church and ran a highly publicized campaign investigating widespread corruption and pedophilia within the church and banning party members from joining the clergy he also used his close relationship with the fuhrer to pass a new mandate in 1938 which made hitler the godfather to every tenth child born to any one mother in the reich a proclamation passed with no prior consultation with hitler hitler's direct approval was no longer needed for his policies but bormann could introduce new programs purely on the basis that they fulfilled the fiora's general outlook using hitler's name as if it were his own and all boarman had to do was delicately mention the church at dinner provoke hitler into a rage and then discreetly write down all that he said the transcript of each tirade could be twisted to authorize any program he wished this advantage was used by bormann to sideline all opposition and when hans curled the reich church minister wrote an essay defending the church borman simply had it banned on hitler's authority with kell dying the following year in 1939 moreover bormann wholly embraced virulently anti-semitic views although reportedly more as a consequence of the nsdap's position as opposed to a particular personal ideology [Music] borman never mentioned membership of any anti-semitic organizations before he joined the national socialist movement and it was said at nuremberg that he gained a lot of his information about nazi racial pseudoscience from the newspapers however this was to be no barrier to his significant role in the implementation of anti-semitic policy in nazi germany with bormann playing a vital role in drafting signing and passing anti-semitic legislation and policy the 1935 nuremberg race laws which legally defined jewishness and removed citizenship and rights protection from jewish black and romany people owed much of its legal content to borman as did the order in august 1938 for all jewish men to adopt to the first name israel and women sarah furthermore it was bormann who planned and co-signed almost all anti-semitic legislation in the reich and was convicted at nuremberg in absentia for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions november 1938 saw the development of the crystal knocked pogrom or night of broken glass a retribution against jewish citizens throughout germany following the killing of diplomat ernst von roth by a 17 year old polish jew an event of which borman would have been aware in advance although no evidence links portman to its planning although on the evening of the 9th of november 1938 goebbels informed other top nazis of developing violence against the jews with shops and synagogues smashed up and burned and jews brutally attacked in over 91 cases leading to death but borman appeared unconcerned and waited until 2 56 a.m on the 10th of november to issue an order to his men stating that jewish businesses should not be burned citing concern for damaged goods rather than the danger posed to jewish families 1939 soon dawned the inaugural year of the second world war and in august of that year hitler finalized his plot to invade poland the code name for which was operation white gaining the support of the soviets on the 23rd of august with the signing of the molentov ribbon drop pact toward the end of july and into august hitler hosted secret planning conferences at the berkoff and also inside borman's house with borman noting in his diary on the 25th of august the german military mobilization was ongoing after which poland was invaded by the nazis on the 1st of september 1939 with britain and france declaring war on the third news received by bormann as he sat in the antechamber to hitler's office in the reichstag a few days later borman accompanied hitler to the eastern front in his armored train to provide assistance in liaising with government departments back in berlin and with hitler now playing general in poland borman was trusted with representing the fuhrer in german politics whilst he was posted to poland hitler's official chief of staff philip buller and his doctor carl brunt had begun a programme of mass murder against disabled citizens in what the nazis referred to as a euthanasia scheme this was a program which hitler had requested in august 1939 in order to rid the state of bad blood targeting those with disabilities and incurable illnesses including children and subjecting them to poisoned gas killing a total of three hundred thousand citizens throughout the reich and in another show of merciless megalomania borman had lobbied hard for command of the programme named action t4 but was eventually sidelined in favour of pooler and brandt by september 1939 the public had received word of the program and regional party bosses wrote to boarman asking how they should deal with a progressively more outraged population borman replied doggedly that the response was to be determined by bula as the program was within his jurisdiction realizing that the fallout would prove politically fatal to both bulla and brandt hitler was outraged and verbally ordered brandt to curtail the german element of the program in august 1941 which nonetheless continued outside of germany as part of the system of concentration camps known as action 14 f-13 and so boula as hitler's official secretary had fallen hard out of hitler's favor just as borman was reaching the apex of his power in poland which was already being terrorized by the nazis einsat group and killing squads borman saw a new avenue for power which he shifted into high gear when hitler announced his desire for a harsh struggle between nationalities in newly occupied territories in late 1939 bormann exercised his power to appoint regional party officials to new zones of influence and deliberately selected some of the most fanatical and brutal nazis to take command in poland ordering a new system of laws which included a total ban on sexual relations between germans and polls as well as a command that intelligent polls be killed and so borman's system of laws were passed although they did prove overly excessive on the ground and hans frank the nazi governor general of poland complained that the brutality of the laws remained intolerable for soldiers and citizens alike when the reich ministry of justice suggested in 1940 that poland be subjected to german law and therefore brought under its departmental jurisdiction borman refused arguing that hitler's desire for a harsh struggle would be impossible under german legislation an argument which he won it being announced in 1941 that poland would remain under its subjective laws once he had sidelined the ministry of justice borman suggested a new judicial system of trial and punishment for poland which included three man courts made up of an nsdap representative and two police officers as judge and jury restricted to delivering two sentences for those found guilty either internment in a concentration camp or hanging hitler supported bormann and requested the judicial authority in poland be exercised by party officials and not the ministry of justice and by 1941 bormann had secured his place as the executor of hitler's vision in the occupied territories of poland bormann was a vital aid to the development and implementation of anti-semitic and genocidal policy throughout these new territories closing loopholes in proposed legislation and developing new techniques to ensure that none could be overlooked by the nazi's murderous gaze he also instructed his regional officials to ensure that all enemies of the german people were immediately interned in concentration camps however an unexpected development was to occur on the 11th of may 1941 when two of hess's staff members arrived at the oba salzburg whitefaced they reported that the anglophile hesse had flown off in a messerschmitt 110 to england in an attempt to negotiate a peace deal with the allies hitler flew into a blind rage and expressed a wish that hess crashed into the north sea and drown borman and hitler weren't concerned about hess revealing state secrets as by 1941 he had become so sidelined that he knew little important information however they were fearful that the public response to this news would undermine the nazis authority and so hitler borman and goebbels promoted the story that hess had gone insane citing his own incoherent last letters and increasing reliance on astrologers and soothsayers as evidence which largely saved the government from a significant loss of support boarman instantly denounced his former boss as a traitor and effectively avoided all scrutiny over the matter being promoted three days later by hitler to the position of chief of the reich party chancellery and so the amtess was dissolved and borman's new office was renamed the reich party chancellery in may 1941. borman's first act in office was to obliterate hess from the state's collective memory and he employed the gestapo to remove all images and textual references to s as well as arresting those connected to him including his university lecturers whilst announcing a campaign against mesmerists and astrologers who had supposedly caused hesse's madness on may 29th borman was formally made a minister of the reich and circulated a memo informing all officials that he now worked directly under hitler and as such all orders from the party chancellory should be taken as if they were hitler's word and by june 1941 the invasion of the soviet union had been initiated and hitler was effectively locked away from all party officials leaving borman alone as the unchecked representative of the fuhrer to all non-military staff realizing the threat from borman's newfound power robert lay the head of the german labour front attempted to appeal to hitler proclaiming that his office had jurisdiction over the careers of party officers and not the party chancellery bormann combatted lay by simply refusing to pass any of his complaints onto hitler and eventually wrote back to inform him that hitler supported the party chancellery and had additionally ordered that lay turn over all of his data and intelligence to borman's office borman's monopoly over access to hitler had rendered lay impotent and demonstrated to all in government that he was the sole political voice of the fuhrer with no way of checking whether or not hitler had actually mandated what borman proclaimed the power of the reich party chancellery was advanced further in january 1942 when poorman passed a regulation which codified the role of his office formalizing his power over the civil service and demanding that all correspondents with hitler be sent through his office closing all unofficial backdoors to hitler which had developed since 1933 proclaiming bormann as the new dictator of the anti-room following the van says conference of january 1942 and which it was decided mass killing programmes should be performed in the east bourman ordered his officials to pursue this new policy with ruthless severity coded language designed to kick-start the most severe years of the holocaust the operations of which were predominantly handled by himmler and his ss in august 1942 bormann was able to further his campaign against the church when hitler mandated him with the authority to announce the view of the party on all religious matters and so borman announced massive levies on the church and ordered that if churches were unable to pay then their assets were to be seized leading to the dissolution of many monastic communities such as that at cluster neuberg in lower austria by mid-1942 hitler spent the majority of his time at his underground headquarters the wolfshanzer or wolf's lair at rastenberg in east prussia with borman in close attendance whilst there hitler would often remain in bed until late morning receive his military staff and then call a private conference with borman who would note down hitler's orders and relay them to berlin being called back to hitler's room for supper remaining with him well into the night sometimes until 4am a routine which afforded borman only a couple of hours sleep every night borman continued to use the reich's consolidated influence in poland to order the enslavement of the slavic peoples and on the 19th of august 1942 he mandated that they should work for us where we have no use for them we shall let them die and so the dictator of the anteroom had once again demonstrated his ruthlessness in the pursuit of power by late 1942 hitler had formed a new three-man team to take on his political role as the war in the east developed into a more serious long-term conflict and became more time consuming this new team the committee of three was headed by boarman and included general wilhelm keitel and hans lammers the head of the reich chancellery keitel was a soldier a new little of domestic politics and lammers was a cautious civil servant remaining under the control of borman's office leaving bormann as the de facto chief of this new cabinet goring said of borman at the nuremberg trials that he was privy to the most intimate to the fuhrer's affairs and had outmaneuvered all other opponents by 1943 to become hitler's most trusted associate indeed borman had control over all information which reached hitler and could deliver news in such a manner as to shape the fuhrer's opinion in his favor manipulating hitler to agree with his own world view acting as hitler's mouthpiece allowed borman to exercise the fiora's power even allowing him to demand that goebbels submit all advanced copies of his newspaper das reich to poorman's office for proofreading in 1943. this near universal power was formalized on the 12th of april 1943 when a memorandum signed by hitler proclaimed as my personal assistant m boarman will bear the title secretary of the fuhrer the title had not been awarded uncontested as goebbels and albert speer the reich minister for armaments had arranged to meet with hitler in march 1943 to suggest that goring gained greater power claiming that borman could not be trusted the meeting was going well until an aide interrupted to announce that nuremberg was being bombed by allied warplanes and guering's luftwaffe had failed to protect the reich and so hitler was too enraged to hear goebbels and spear defend him any longer leaving borman the only candidate for promotion borman struck back at goebbels in june when he wrote a smug note to the propaganda minister informing him that his speeches were substandard and that hitler was not to be bothered with incomplete drafts bowman was showcasing that he was at this point untouchable throughout this period of 1942-1943 hitler and his generals had experienced a turning tide the war was no longer going in germany's favor and the advance of the soviets and then the allies from the east and west brought the realization home that germany would not emerge victorious and as the fighting wore on the reich was posed with the ever greater threat of invasion made clearer following key losses on the eastern front such as the soviet relief of leningrad in january 1944 and the allied invasion of normandy on the 6th of june bormann had until this stage remained relatively impotent in military matters although he gained a new realm of influence when he suggested the formation of a civilian auxiliary military force designed to defend germany later called the volkster then the 20th of july 1944 saw the crisis brought to hitler's inner sanctum when colonel klaus von stauffenberg attempted to assassinate hitler by planting a bomb near his seat in the wolf hitler's eastern headquarters known as the wolfslayer boarman received intelligence that a colonel had been seen leaving the room immediately prior to the explosion and sent gestapo officers to investigate leading to stauffenberg's arrest and execution the next day this attack on hitler severely damaged the furious trust in the non-partisan wehrmacht and convinced him that his trusted party officials should take command and so he promoted himmler to the head of the replacement army borman issued an order on the same day of the attack to all regional officials that only the party should be obeyed and that all orders from the wehrmacht would be disregarded if contradictory later in july bormann managed to convince hitler to sign an order which mobilized all party members in a military capacity for the defense of the reich putting borman in command of his own army hitler subsequently giving a speech in which he effectively announced that the reich was entering a struggle for its survival he then ordered the gestapo and regional officers to arrest and execute all those suspected of being traitors to the reich this included many influential wehrmacht generals and borman indicted gunther von kluger and erwin rommel as enemies of the state leading to their suicides under pressure of execution in august and october 1944 respectively with the brass of the wehrmacht removed borman expanded his own army the volksdam to over a million troops in october although in reality it remained unimpressive formed of ill-trained civilians with few weapons in fact an army of idealists but regardless the tone of borman's letters from october 1944 show an arrogance flowing from his belief that he was a great general ranking alongside himmler and gerring by november 1944 gorman anticipated the loss of millions of civilians in the coming battle for germany and ordered a new emergency marriage scheme alongside a new program of forced adultery suggesting that each male could have two or three mistresses in order to increase population levels indeed he also anticipated the risk of increased air raids and had shelters constructed for his family and staff at the oba salzburg the dawn of 1945 saw the reich in a desperate condition with borman and his staff working 18 hours a day attempting to maintain control and order over a state which would cease to exist just a few months later february 1945 saw hitler approve borman's request to create a women's defense battalion and his order to have deserters hanged in the street as a deterrent to others and with the state in ever greater ruin borman isolated hitler more than ever banning many officials from meeting with hitler for months on end lest they worry him with bad news about the war and borman even banned heinrich hoffman hitler's court photographer by fabricating a doctor's report claiming that he had a dangerous and contagious disease with the advance of the allied and red armies the german population grew increasingly demoralized leading borman to order the most fanatical officials to take propaganda roles in order to inspire the population as 1945 progressed in a bid to maintain order among soldiers borman commanded that deserters be shot or hanged without delay and for fortifications to be installed around every german city from march 15 1945 by this time hitler and his entourage had moved into the underground bunker in berlin which would become hitler's final resting place in february the situation had become ever more desperate and borman ordered that cyanide capsules be distributed to the population for use in the event of an emergency whilst ordering his party officials to uphold frederick the great's maxim of win or die on the 15th of march hitler inspected troops stationed near the front line which was located not 60 miles from hitler's bunker and boarman reprimanded his regional officials for displays of pessimism whilst issuing them with false identity papers so that they could escape capture when the regime was inevitably defeated the 20th of april saw hitler's last birthday celebrations take place in berlin with borman writing bluntly in his diary that it was not exactly a birthday situation unfortunately borman had planned to move hitler to the over salzburg on his birthday as captured by the allies would be preferable to capture by the red army who surrounded berlin although by the end of the day hitler refused stating that he would rather die than failed to stand in berlin therefore whilst the majority of hitler's staff flew south borman and a skeleton staff remained with hitler in his bunker and on the 22nd of april hitler announced his resignation and proclaimed that guering should be the new leader of the reich although changed his mind a short time later however goring was erroneously informed that he had become the new leader and sent a telegram thanking hitler for his new appointment which led borman to accuse goring of treachery borman ordered gerring to step down from all positions he held and an hour later goring's resignation was sent through and on the 25th of april bormann wrote a note in his diary which said that goring had been expelled from the nsdap next to the sentence berlin surrounded which was underlined on the 28th of april borman received intelligence that himmler was attempting to negotiate peace with the allies prompting him to label himmler another traitor and the same night the commander of the german forces in the north ss general hermann begeline as an employee of himmler was executed with admiral carl donitz taking his place after being informed that soviet tanks were a few hundred meters south at the potsdamer platz hitler married ava braun on the afternoon of the 28th and appointed borman as party minister with goebbels taking the title of reich chancellor and donetsk president of the german reich two days later general kaitol telegrammed to say that nothing could be done by the reserve armies to defend berlin and hitler's head of security brigada fura wilhelm munker informed hitler that the bunker could not be held for more than three days hitler woke at noon and asked borman to relay his orders of promotion to donetsk before summoning his officials together and shaking their hands calling bormann my most faithful party comrade hitler then shot himself at 3 30 pm his body burned outside the bunker with 50 gallons of petrol with hitler dead the remnants of the nazi government attempted to arrange a ceasefire with the soviets who refused wishing to press home their advantage before the allies arrived in berlin it was then announced on german public radio that hitler had died fighting at the head of his army with the newly empowered donets ordering the arrest of borman and goebbels in order to centralize power to himself bormann put on his ss general's uniform talked hitler's will and political testament into his brass pocket are prepared to depart with various other political leaders goebbels and borman said their farewells on the 1st of may the former committing suicide at 8 30 pm under the cover of darkness the same night portman set off in the second of three groups and ran north to friedrichstrasse station by chance running into a german panzer column which was attacked the tank next to boarman was hit and exploded knocking him to the ground although coming too bourman saw cover in a shell hole he managed to escape in the confusion of the battle and ran onto the deserted railway tracks at the station tearing the insignia from his uniform running northwest to the berlin hopped benhoff station borman met russian troops who mistook him for one of the poorly equipped members of his volkstum and offered him cigarettes joking in broken german that hitler was kaput bowman hastily made off and ran onto the railway bridge spanning the spree river at invalidenstrasse before biting into his cyanide capsule and dying minutes later bowman was tried in absentia at nuremberg and convicted of conspiracy to wage a war of aggression war crimes and crimes against humanity and was sentenced to death by hanging indeed it was believed for many years that borman had fled to south america as attempts to recover his remains were unsuccessful in december 1972 a construction worker found borman's skeleton the glass from his cyanide capsule still in his jaw and in 1998 the body was formally identified as that of martin bormann after fragments of the skull were subjected to genetic testing borman skeleton was then cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea in 1999 martin borman remains one of the lesser known members of hitler's inner circle although he has received increasing attention from academia in recent years as the power structures of hitler's cabinet continue to be scrutinized bormann was the chief mechanic of a system responsible for mass murder and willingly aided in advancing the ability of the reich to capture in turn and kill perceived enemies of the state borman's undeniable lust for power was complemented by his immense capacity to work shrewd ability to play the bureaucratic game and willingness to abandon all else in the pursuit of influence what do you think of martin borman was he a mere opportunistic sycophant or was he a cold calculating and ruthless schemer whose total focus was the obtaining and maintenance of his own power at any cost please let us know in the comment section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching is the 30th of april 1945. the armies of the soviet union close in on the center of berlin adolf hitler fiera of the third reich commits suicide in the reich chancellor rebunker along with his wife ava braun his remaining supporters either flee or choose to follow their master into oblivion one of these men the most loyal of all of hitler's entourage decides with his wife that the post-nazi world is not worth living in the next day after poisoning his own children in their beds he commits suicide himself next to the grave of his beloved fuhrer his name joseph goebbels the master of propaganda [Music] the man known to history as paul joseph goebbels was born in the town of wright in western germany on the 29th of october 1897 he was born into a modest family and his background was quite unremarkable his father fritz gerbils worked in the local wic factory and eventually rose to become a foreman there his mother katharina maria aldenhausen was half dutch the daughter of a blacksmith katharina had a close connection with her son and she and joseph remained close throughout his life both joseph's parents were devoted roman catholics though later in his life goebbels had to persistently refute allegations they were partly jewish the family was solidly lower middle class enough that a family piano was purchased in 1909 a symbol of their upwardly mobile aspirations but fritz goebbels was earning just 4 000 marks annually and had no liquid assets consequently the young joseph did not come from any significant wealth and his early life was characterized by efforts to attain a greater financial and social position goebbels suffered from ill health as a child he had a club foot that he acquired in his early years following a bout of osteomyelitis a swelling of the bone marrow and he also had lung problems this left his leg deformed for the remainder of his life much of his later psychology was shaped by insecurities about his health problems and lack of athleticism this was compounded by his rejection for military service when he sought to enlist in the german army at the height of the first world war his later writings are suffused with statements that make it clear he was attempting throughout his life to compensate for his physical deformity through his literary and political ambitions the world in which joseph goebbels reached his teenage years and then young manhood in was one of turmoil in the summer of 1914 crisis enveloped europe when a regional diplomatic crisis in the balkans expanded to lead to a war involving all of europe's major powers on one side were arrayed britain france italy and russia with the united states joining these allied powers in 1917 on the other the german empire the austro-hungarian empire and the ottoman turkish empire formed an alliance known as the central powers as a native of western germany goebbels would have spent his early years watching german soldiers passing through on trains towards the western front in northeast france where the bulk of the fighting took place in horrific trench warfare between 1914 and 1918. consequently his spurning by the military in his formative years was a difficult experience for the young goebbels germany eventually lost the war in november 1918 and was forced into a highly punitive series of peace treaties the following year generally referred to under the umbrella terms of the treaty of versailles the german reich was stripped of a huge amount of its territory which was granted to other countries and made up much of the new country of poland formed to the east of germany after the war ended under the terms of the treaty of versailles germany was also forced to pay punitive monetary remuneration to france and britain for its alleged fault in causing the war furthermore germany was forced to reduce its army to a tiny contingent of men and was prohibited from re-militarizing the rhineland region of western germany the terms were negotiated by the government of the weimar republic which was formed in germany following the dissolution of the second german reich or empire named after the town in central germany where the new republic was formed early in 1919 in time weimar would become a derogatory term for those who had negotiated germany's humiliating surrender to the allied powers and the architects of the peace became known as the november criminals goebbel's life in the years that followed was highly formative for him for a while he considered entering the priesthood but his commitment to his parents catholicism cooled eventually he also spent periods of time at multiple universities at bonn munich wurtzberg and freiburg before eventually earning a phd in german philology from heidelberg university in 1921 at just 24 years of age he would later publish this work just one of 14 books he had written by 1940 following his time at heidelberg goebbels attempted to establish himself in the early 1920s variously as a journalist novelist and playwright but he was broadly unsuccessful in his endeavors somewhat like hitler who had aspired to become a watercolour artist in his early years goebbels had sought a career in the arts and literature through his writing but was frustrated in his efforts as this occurred he became increasingly disaffected in the course of 1923 and 1924. like many other young men who were disillusioned with life in post-war germany goebbels found himself drawn to a new political party in bavaria which had earned a reputation for controversy in a short period of time the national socialist german workers party or nazi party had been established in munich in 1920 its goals were the overturning of the humiliating terms of the treaty of versailles which had ended the war german rearmament and re-expansion of the german state into eastern europe from its earliest day the nazi party was also an extremely anti-semitic party and envisaged the total exclusion of the jewish community from german life it was led by a young austrian called adolf hitler under his leadership the nazis attempted a failed coup d'etat in munich on the 8th of november 1923. the bear hall putch as it became known was quickly snuffed out on the 9th of november by the regional authorities hitler and some of his closest associates were tried for treason in march 1924 and imprisoned the abortive revolt possibly drew goebbels to the nazis he had been moving increasingly in right-wing political circles throughout 1924. his radicalization at this time may also have been owing to the occupation of the rural area of western germany by french and belgium troops between january 1923 and august 1925 in response to germany defaulting on its wall reparations payments on the 22nd of october 1924 the goebbels family home in wright was searched by belgium police and the following day goebbels himself was interrogated by the occupation police it is hardly coincidental that two weeks later in november 1924 he wrote and published an article in a newspaper the volkischer frey height in which he called for hitler's early release from prison hitler was indeed released early on the 20th of december 1924 by which time goebbels had joined the nazi party beginning the association which would dominate the remainder of his life goebbel's role in the nazi party grew in the years that followed we know a great deal about his life from the mid-20s through gerbil's own writings starting in 1923 he kept a series of extensive diaries unbroken for 22 years down to his death in 1945. these diaries were taken to russia after the war and have only become fully available since 2008. stretching to 32 volumes in the modern print editions they provide a uniquely detailed insight into the life career and thoughts of one of the leading members of the nazi leadership they also provide what one of the foremost historians of nazi germany ian kershaw has deemed a vitally important source of insight into hitler's thinking and action particularly in his ascent to power in the 1920s and early 1930s the diaries give extensive details of goebbels career in the initial years of his membership of the nazi party in his early days he was under the patronage of gregor strasse a leading member of the party who led a branch of the nazis that leaned more towards socialism and anti-capitalism in opposition to hitler's right-wing faction and going to strasse's influence goebbels was appointed as a spokesman for the party in the rhineland region where he originally hailed from in 1924 his role as a propagandist for the party also began at this time as he was set to start work as a writer and editor for the party newspaper the volkswa bayabakta or the people's observer in these years of the mid-1920s goebbels found himself increasingly drawn into an internal struggle within the ngati regime over the ideological future of the party this was driven by a split between hitler who favored a hardline anti-semitic nationalist approach with only a limited emphasis on socialism and strassa goebbel's diaries revealed that he had sympathized with both sides he was drawn to the more socially grounded outlook of strasser but he increasingly favored hitler from late 1925 onwards having read hitler's anti-semitic biography mein kampf or my struggle which hitler had written while serving his prison sentence for the failed beer hall put in 1924 and the first volume of which was published in 1925 following multiple meetings with the charismatic hitler at a party conference held in bamberg in northern bavaria on the 14th of february 1926 goebbels became a committed adherent of the nazi leader it has been speculated that goebbels was an extreme narcissist had needed a figurehead or leader of some sort from whom he could gain affirmation and approval this would certainly explain the obsession he developed with gaining hitler's esteem in the mid-1920s an obsession which would characterize their relationship over the 20 years that followed goebbel's support for the leader boarded on zealotry and from this point forward goebbels began his long association as one of hitler's closest allies in recognition of his rising position within the party goebbels was appointed as gaul leiter or regional commander of berlin within the nazi party in august 1926 a position he would hold until his eventual death in 1945. in berlin in an effort to promote the party in the capital goebbels developed many of the propaganda strategies which became hallmarks of the nazis in the years ahead these involved using large posters of vibrant red and black ink often emblazoned with the swastika the nazi party symbol and with stark political messages these banners often featured at large torchlit party rallies filled with symbolism which became a staple of the party in the years that followed goebbels also founded a party newspaper called de angrith or the attack in the capital combining his propaganda strategy with violence and intimidation goebbels also had the nazi's uniformed paramilitary body the sa engage in attacks and violence in beer halls in berlin in the months that followed his appointment as a consequence of all this work goebbels won election to parliament in the reichstag elections held on the 20th of may 1928 his election was especially surprising as the nazis generally performed poorly in these elections particularly in the cities and their power base was largely confined to the munich region of bavaria and some parts of the countryside by 1928 the attitude of the new reichstag deputy towards parliamentary democracy was stark having stated we are entering the reichstag in order that we may arm ourselves with the weapons of democracy from its arsenal we shall become reichstag deputies in order that the weimar ideology should itself help us to destroy it goebbel's statements that the nazis could undermine the german republic from within parliament itself may have seemed fanciful given the party's election results in 1928 but all this began to change in 1929 after years of rapid economic growth in the 1920s the united states stock market began to overheat and collapse in the autumn of 1929. starting in september share prices began to fall culminating on the 25th of october with the largest one-day selling off of shares in us history what became known as black friday was the peak of the wall street crash it ushered in the great depression which would see economies all over the world impacted in the years ahead still suffering from its war debt and other political and economic problems germany was particularly susceptible to the problems created by the wall street crash and the great depression and in the years ahead as the german economy contracted and millions of germans lost either their jobs or their savings the nazi party with its message of resentment and xenophobia would grow in popularity the first major electoral boom occurred in 1930 an election was called in the spring for the 14th of september 1930 goebbels was central to the nazis electoral campaign shaping the party's message around opposition to the terms of the versailles treaty which had ended the first world war and the humiliating terms of which germany continued to suffer under thousands of meetings were held country-wide in the resulting election the nazis went from being a minor party which had actually lost support in the 1928 election to the second largest party in germany with nearly one in five voters supporting them this translated into 107 seats in the 577 seat reichstag only the centrist social democratic party won more seats taking 143 the social democratic party were consequently in a position to lead the government significantly the communist party of germany came in third in the election winning 77 seats as such the extremist parties won a great share of the vote in this election as the effects of the great depression hit home in germany the rise of the communists also allowed the nazis to depict themselves in the years ahead as a bulwark against a potential communist takeover of germany as one of the nazi's chief propagandists goebbels was central to efforts to exploit fears over a communist surge in the years ahead between 1930 and the next reichstag elections the berlin gow lighter was developing new methods of disseminating the nazi message he began experimenting with the new medium of silent films something which would play a central role in spreading the nazi's ideology and wartime propaganda in the 1930s and 1940s the radio was also exploited effectively by goebbels when hitler ran unsuccessfully for the office of german president in 1932 goebbels oversaw the broadcasting of regular radio messages detailing the fiora's almost daily plane journeys around germany to torchlit parades where he stirred up increasing support amongst protestants middle class business owners and women these were groups in german society who increasingly favored the nazis as the german banking system neared collapse in 1931 and efforts by the centrist administration in berlin to negotiate german debt relief with britain and france failed although hitler lost the 1932 presidential election to paul von hindenburg a german hero of the first world war the nazi leader buoyed by goebbels propaganda and election strategizing had nevertheless performed very well coming a close second to von hindenburg it was inevitable that this newfound support for the party would translate into greater electoral success when a new reichstag election took place new elections were imminent by 1932. in their efforts to ensure that both the nazis and the communists were kept out of government a coalition of centrist parties had been operating minority governments for months when the first election since 1930 was held on the 31st of july 1932 the nazis became the largest party in germany for the first time this was largely owing to socioeconomic circumstances the unemployment rate in germany had reached nearly 30 percent by 1932. people savings had been obliterated the banking system was on the verge of total collapse and the centrist governments had seemed incapable of arresting the situation despite successfully negotiating to have the majority of germany's war reparations debt cancelled by expertly manipulating popular resentment and anger at the prevailing economic conditions the nazi party won 230 seats in the july 1932 reichstag elections thus the nazis along with goebbels a major driving force behind their propaganda and election campaigns had ascended to become the dominant party in germany by the summer of 1932. nearly two out of every five voters had supported hitler and his party however they lacked a majority in parliament and negotiations with some of the more centrist parties to establish a coalition broke down in the autumn of 1932. consequently germans had to return to the polls in november 1932 for the second time that year the reichstag elections held on the 6th of november 1932 with the last three and fair elections held in germany prior to the establishment of the german third reich although the nazis lost votes they yet again emerged as the largest party winning 196 seats and one in three votes the elections of november 1932 continued the parliamentary stalemate yet a solution was in the making for several months an uneasy alliance but an alliance nonetheless had been developing between the nazi party and some centrist political forces along with the powerful industrial lobbyists who ran german business the latter were wary of the nazis but were prepared to countenance supporting hitler and the party goebbels had become the leading propagandist for if the nazis could prevent the right of the parties of the left in germany as such the industrialists and centrists agreed to do business with the nazis in 1932 in an effort to prevent the further rise of the communist party and their allies on the left of the political spectrum the specter of soviet russia where the communists had risen to power following the russian revolution of 1917 hung large over germany in 1932. inadvertently it would facilitate the rise of hitler and the destruction of the weimar republic following extensive negotiations a coalition of the nazis center parties and industrialists was finally concluded on the 30th of january 1933 hitler became chancellor of germany the head of the government and the nazis were given three of the 11 cabinet positions goebbels was frustrated not to receive one of these positions but he would not have to wait long to mark the event he oversaw a huge torchlit parade in berlin on the night of the 30th of january 1933 attended by approximately 60 000 supporters of the nazis it featured brigades of ss and sa members the paramilitary branches of the nazi party and would prefigure the military parades which would become ubiquitous in germany for the next 12 years of nazi rule the new government moved quickly to consolidate its power punitive measures to repress the communist party and other parties of the left were quickly implemented in february 1933 a fire at the reichstag on the 28th of february was then used as a pretext for passing emergency legislation which briefly gave the government additional powers and a snap reichstag election was called for the 5th of march voter intimidation and fraud was employed in the resulting campaign but the nazis were still only able to win 44 to the vote which translated into 288 seats in the reichstag this however was enough on the 23rd of march 1933 the nazis excluded the communists and others from the reichstag and intimidated several other parties in order to ensure that an enabling act was passed by an overwhelming majority through both houses of the parliament this enabling act decreed that the german chancellor and his government could effectively suspend the government and rule by decree over a period of four years the passage of it through the reichstag effectively spelled the end of the weimar republic and the establishment of single-party nazi rule in germany goebbels did not have to wait until the passage of the enabling act to acquire the ministerial position he had long sought on the 14th of march 1933 hitler appointed goebbels as head of the newly created reich ministry for public enlightenment and propaganda over the next 12 years and for the duration of the german third reich goebbels would enforce nazi ideology throughout germany and europe through his ministry gibbel's thoughts on propaganda and its uses was perhaps best expressed in a speech entitled the art of propaganda which he made before the political education seminar of the nazi party in berlin on the 9th of january here he stated propaganda shows that it is good if over a certain period of it can win over and fire up people for an idea if it fails to do so it is bad propaganda if propaganda wins the people it wanted to win it is presumably good and if not it was presumably bad no one can say that your propaganda is too crude or low or brutal or that it is not decent enough but those are not the relevant criteria its purpose is not to be decent or gentle or weak or modest it is to be successful thus goebbel's view was clear the end always justified the means when it came to state propaganda and any methods however crude or deceptive could be used if they furthered hitler's and the wider nazi party's ideological goals a sense of the scale of control which goebbels hoped to exercise over german life through his ministry can be glimpsed by examining the organizational structure of his department it was divided into multiple branches which variously dealt with broadcasting the national and foreign press films censorship the arts music and theater mass rallies race issues indoctrination of german youth and counter-offensives against anything which was deemed to be foreign or domestic propaganda directed against the nazi state over the next 12 years from its headquarters across from hitler's own offices in the reich chancellery goebbels would shape the ideology of the nazi party and the third reich goebbel's propaganda methods were immensely varied one of his first major acts was the massive repression of german art and culture writers and artists who were considered anti-german in their actions were silenced and their works destroyed or suppressed gobbles was also central to a series of mass book burnings which swept through germany shortly after the ascent to power of the nazis the foremost occurrence being on the 10th of may 1933 that evening german students in berlin oversaw the burning of over 25 000 books which were deemed ungerman these included works by karl marx eric maria remark albert einstein and sigmund freud goebbels was central to the events in berlin on the 10th of may and gave a speech before thousands of people in which he encouraged the crowd to reject the moral corruption which such books instilled suffusing his oration with the anti-semitism which was the trademark of the nazi party he stated at the event in berlin that the era of jewish intellectualism is at an end these events showed how far goebbels had drifted from his earlier life the phd student and would-be writer of 1921 had become the overseer of mass book burnings and cultural destruction unsurprisingly in the years ahead many prominent authors such as thomas mann began to leave germany goebbels continued in these years to mould german culture to the goals of nazi ideology using the reich chamber of culture which was established in september 1933 the arts were subordinated to the nazi cause for instance new films being produced in germany henceforward often had a nazi message sometimes a subtle one but one which aided the nazi cause much of this sought to portray hitler as the savior of europe against the threat of bolshevism and communism taking power in germany and elsewhere on the continent grebel's control over the german film industry became absolute in march 1937. when the german film industry was nationalized and came virtually entirely under his ministry's control around this time he stated his views on how cinema could be used as an art which expresses an attitude through its national socialist character and by taking up national socialist problems but should do so in a way that did not appear deliberate and remains in the background even more consequential was goebbel's exploitation and control over the national press and methods of communication germany had more papers than almost all other european countries under the weimar republic but under goebbels ministry the nazi party effectively took control over the major newspapers journalists were briefed by goebbels ministry and often had what they printed dictated to them by the party apparatus journalists who diverged from the nazi message were often intimidated or arrested his control of and exploitation of the new and emerging types of mass media was even more comprehensive under his leadership the ministry for public enlightenment and propaganda distributed millions of radios to germans this was the mass medium which goebbels preferred for indoctrination of the german people in the first year of fall nazi rule alone over 50 of hitler's speeches were broadcast on radio the emerging medium of film was also exploited in this way loudspeakers were set up in public places throughout germany so that state messages could be drilled into people in public places goebbels was also central to the organization of the huge nazi party rallies which were held throughout germany in the years ahead the most infamous example was the 1934 nazi party congress rallies at nuremberg the events of which were immortalized in the propaganda film of the same directed by lenny riefenstahl the triumph of the well which won many film awards around europe in the 1930s and has been called one of the most effective pieces of political propaganda ever made the effect over time of this constant affirmation of the nazi message was immense in their rise to power the nazis had never been able to attain the support of more than about a third to the german people in the last three reichstag elections in november 1933 the party had cleaned only one third of the votes however by the late 1930s in large part owing to goebbels propaganda work the nazis had become more popular countrywide and faith in hitler's leadership was immense as a result when the referendum was held on the 19th of august 1934 to appoint hitler officially as fiora or leader of germany with the combined offices of chancellor and president it was passed by an overwhelming majority of 88 percent in favor a result which was only partly fraudulent indicating the growing popularity of the nazis and in the months and years after their rise to power there is little doubt that goebbel's work as a propagandist was highly successful after the nazis seized power in the 1930s at the same time goebbel's own political power was growing in the 1930s he was generally disliked by his colleagues in government indeed an article in life magazine in 1938 noted that goebbels likes nobody is liked by nobody and runs the most efficient nazi department despite his aloofness towards most of his colleagues he was one of hitler's closest confidants when hitler decided to combine the offices of german chancellor and president of germany following the death of the president paul von hindenburg in august 1934 it was goebbels who made the announcement by radio to the german nation on the 2nd of august as well as this hitler had become close with goebbels family on the 19th of december 1931 goebbels had married magda ritchell they had numerous children in the 1930s and the family became referred to as the first family of the reich hitler having remained a bachelor without children other signs of goebbel's prominence in the regime followed for instance he was appointed as president of the organizing committee for the summer and winter olympics when they were held in berlin in 1936. a major role which put him center stage in germany for an international event goebbels was also involved in the growing persecution of germany's jewish population in the years following the nazi's ascent to power his anti-semitism was long-standing and was one of the reasons why he had been attracted to the nazi party at hitler in the 1920s yet there were also contradictions to goebbel's anti-semitism in his student years he had a close relationship with several jewish teachers for a time and he dated elsa yanka a jewish school teacher for several years in the early 1920s he even considered marrying her despite these contradictions in his attitudes towards german jewry goebbels quickly became one of the most enthusiastic persecutors of germany's jews following the nazi's ascent to power in 1933. in october of that year he was responsible for passing the reich press law through which all jewish editors were removed from working in german newspapers and other print outlets throughout these years there were repeated references in his diaries to efforts to dejuify german culture when a set of laws known as the nuremberg laws were passed on the 15th of september 1935 effectively prohibiting jews from holding german citizenship and from marrying germans goebbels had propaganda pieces published in outlets such as the newspaper destuma justifying the prohibitions and attacks on germany's jews its propaganda continued to feed the nazi state's growing anti-semitism in the years ahead as the first concentration camps were set up in germany to house political prisoners including many jews in early november 1938 goebbels was central to the worst anti-semitic pogrom in germany prior to the outbreak of the war on the 7th of november 1938 a jewish teenager herschel grinspan shot a german diplomat against von wrath at the german embassy in paris von wrath died two days later on the 9th of november later that evening goebbels gave a speech at a commemorative event marking the 15-year anniversary of the bear hall putch of 1923 in which he made it clear that spontaneous acts of violence and attacks on jews and their property would be tolerated by the government in response to von rath's death a later report stated that goebbel's speech had clearly been intended to indicate that while the nazi party and the government did not wish to be seen as perpetuating retaliations on the jewish community it was essentially stating that they should be organized and carried out on an unofficial basis what followed was an orgy of violence on the night of the 9th of november 1938 kristallnacht or the night of the broken glass as it has become known saw the nazi paramilitary forces and gangs of german citizens attacked jewish businesses homes and synagogues throughout germany approximately 100 jews were murdered in the hours of violence over 200 synagogues were ransacked or destroyed and as many as 7 000 jewish businesses had windows broken or worse damage inflicted perhaps as many as 30 000 jews were also detained on fabricated charges and confined to the new concentration camps which were proliferating around germany the psychological effects were even worse and jews thereafter in germany were aware that they were a people under perpetual attack in germany it is estimated that several hundred jews committed suicide in the days and weeks following the pogrom and many jewish families began to consider leaving germany however krystalnacht was a portent of worst to come while goebbels was one of the most ardent supporters and actors in germany's growing anti-semitic policies he was less enthusiastic about the nazi state's drift towards war in the late 1930s the nazis had long been committed to re-establishing german military power in contravention of the heavy restrictions placed on the size of the german army and air force under the terms of the versailles treaty from 1933 onwards hitler and the nazi leadership began expanding the german air force the luftwaffe and the german army the wehrmacht and on the 7th of march 1936 german troops were sent into the rhineland region of western germany which had been established as a demilitarized zone under the terms of versailles further aggression followed in the years ahead on the 12th of march 1938 germany annexed austria uniting the two german-speaking countries under nazi rule the angelus as it became known made clear germany's aggressive intentions in europe and the other european powers were increasingly fearful of war from early 1938 onwards however britain's prime minister neville chamberlain tried to pacify hitler through concessions in the months ahead particularly as the nazis began pressing acclaim to the sudetenland region of czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1938 on the 14th of september 1938 goebbels pushed an aggressive editorial in the volkischer pia bhakta promoting german claims to the region owing to the large number of ethnically german people living there eventually in early october 1938 germany was seeded the sedatin land in return for a guarantee that hitler would otherwise respect czechoslovakia's independence this was breached in early march 1939 as germany invaded czechoslovakia in the days ahead the country and neighboring hungary were variously either annexed by germany or formed into satellite vassal states thus by the spring of 1939 the nazis had established themselves as masters of all of central europe but britain and france were now clear that hitler and germany could not be pacified as a consequence when the germans invaded poland on the 1st of september 1939 britain and france declared war on germany two days later on the 3rd of september 1939 the second world war had commenced in its initial stages the war was a resounding success for germany poland was quickly overrun and divided up between germany and soviet russia in the autumn of 1939 with whom a non-aggression pact had been agreed despite the ideological differences between the fascists nazis and the communist russians the following april denmark and norway were invaded and quickly conquered then on the night of the 9th of may 1940 after months of military buildup in western germany the fair marked received orders to invade france through the low countries of the netherlands belgium and luxembourg over the next five weeks there followed a complete military collapse of france paris was captured on the 14th of june 1940 effectively ending the military campaign and on the 25th of june an armistice was signed as a preliminary to establishing a puppet government in france germany had effectively conquered western europe britain had only barely managed to pull its army out of mainland europe and back to britain in time undertaking a daring naval evacuation of over 300 000 troops from the port town of dunkirk in northern france between the 26th of may and the 4th of june consequently britain was able to continue in the war and germany would have to undertake a protracted effort to weaken its resolve through bombing campaigns in 1940 and 1941 the blitz as this campaign became known was ultimately unsuccessful despite these early successes goebbels was less enthusiastic about the prospects of war in 1939 than many of the other senior members of the nazi party at times he was entirely realistic for instance an entry in his diaries in april 1940 noted we must achieve victory in the course of this year otherwise the material superiority of the opposite side would become too strong a war of many years would also be difficult to maintain for psychological reasons nevertheless he was central to the war effort the reich ministry for public enlightenment and propaganda was effectively responsible for shaping the state's message about the war effort and what german citizens were told about what was happening in 1939 and 1940 from the start of the invasion of the low countries in france in may 1940 goebbels wrote and published editorials which were broadcast nationally on german radio and often published in newspapers for instance between may 1940 and spring of 1945 goebbels published 218 editorials in the newspaper he had found it that's right or the empire this was published weekly so goebbels writings glorifying the war effort and denouncing germany's enemies were rarely absent from any edition of the paper as the war progressed goebbels also increasingly exploited the medium of film to glorify the german war effort at home and abroad films of the german armies progressing through poland and france became staples of german life though these depictions of german valor would have to be increasingly doctored from late 1941 onwards as the german army began to suffer increasing setbacks and as it did goebbel's job increasingly became about managing the expectations of the german people what was needed from the spring of 1942 onwards was resolve in a war that would not be over soon and which was almost certainly doomed to end in german defeat goebbels was also central to the increasingly barbaric methods being used to persecute the jews of germany and occupied europe on the 30th of january 1939 hitler had delivered a speech in the reichstag which goebbels had been involved in writing in which it was declared that if europe was cast into war the jewish people would be held responsible by the nazi state and the annihilation of the jews of europe would be undertaken in the years ahead this threat was put into action following the conquest of poland a huge ghetto largely populated by poland's considerable jewish population was established in warsaw in october 1939. the following month polish jews were legally required to wear armbands or yellow stars to indicate they were jews this stipulation would eventually be imposed in germany by goebbels express orders in september 1941 and on the 20th of may 1940 a concentration camp was established in auschwitz in southern poland a place which would become the epicenter of the holocaust which followed in the years ahead however the most terrible moment in the nazi state persecution of the jewish people did not come until 1942 on the 20th of january 1942 at a conference advanced a berlin suburb it was effectively decided by the nazi party to begin exterminating the jews of ngati occupied europe the final solution as it became known resulted in the holocaust of approximately 6 million jews between 1942 and the end of the war in 1945. there is no doubting the significance of goebbel's role in the persecution of europe's jews the development of the final solution and the holocaust in general in a radio address he made on the 16th of november 1941 as a more extreme approach towards the jews was being developed within the nazi hierarchy goebbels made his views clear in an outlandish address he claimed that the jews were responsible for the war which now enveloped all of europe and much of the wider world the jews goebbels asserted were receiving a penalty that is certainly hard but more than deserved going on he stated that the jews must be removed from the german community for they endanger our national unity this is an elementary principle of racial national and social hygiene who cares about their difficulties there is no doubting that goebbels anti-semitism was extreme by the early 1940s this manifested itself further in the production of anti-semitic propaganda films during the war years such as the eternal jew a film made in 1940 in which jews were depicted as parasites who were undermining social and political order these efforts by goebbels to sway public opinion against the jews of germany and europe was largely responsible for creating an environment in which hundreds of thousands of people were at least partially complicit in the murder of millions of europe's jews in the years that followed moreover there is no doubt that he was entirely aware of what was occurring at auschwitz and the other extermination and labor camps of eastern and central europe having received the details of the vansi conference in early march 1942 goebbels noted in his diary that he assumed about 40 percent of the jews in these camps would be put to work producing armaments and other war material but in a chilling turner phrase he stated that the other sixty percent would almost certainly be liquidated there is no doubt that goebbels was one of the central architects of the sustained policy of anti-semitism in nazi germany and the holocaust itself indeed as the jews of berlin were being deported to the concentration camps from the capital in early summer of 1942 goebbels urged hitler to speed up this process he mused at this time that it might even be better to liquidate them in berlin itself as this would be more efficient than shipping them to the camps as the final solution was being developed german fortunes in the war were declining in the summer of 1941 hitler turned his attentions away from britain and western europe towards the east it was now time he believed to confront bolshevik russia and acquire laban's realm or living space for the german people in eastern europe on the 22nd of june 1941 operation barbarossa was initiated and an army of three million germans invaded russia in the weeks that followed the soviet empire in eastern europe crumbled as the poorly trained and equipped russian armies were devastated by the oncoming german forces by the autumn the soviet dictator joseph stalin was contemplating negotiating peace terms whereby the soviet state would cede much of eastern europe to the german third reich but at this point hitler's ambitions got the better of him and envisaging a total victory of a bolshevism he directed further drives towards the major russian cities of leningrad moscow and stalingrad this was to be the fatal moment for the third reich as the russian winter of 1941 sat in the german army's progress eastward slowed confronted by a russian army that suffered enormous casualties but which had a seemingly never-ending stream of manpower and improperly supplied with winter clothing and arms which could not withstand the russian winter the german wehrmacht began to experience significant setbacks on the eastern front goebbels became central to these events in many ways for instance on the 17th of december 1941 he was placed in charge of the drive in germany to collect winter clothing to be sent to the eastern front as a matter of urgency by the spring of 1942 a stalemate had set in on the fronts near leningrad moscow and stalingrad with the latter city experiencing one of the bloodiest and most catastrophic sieges in modern warfare more and more resources were pumped into stalingrad as the winter of 1942 need and the region became the crucible of war in which the confrontation between nazi germany and soviet russia would be decided when the siege eventually ended in victory for the soviets in early 1943 the result of the war was sealed the russians henceforth were now on the offensive and began the long inexorable campaign westwards towards berlin reconquering on their way all the lands of eastern and central europe that the nazis had occupied between 1939 and 1941. this reversal in fortunes for the third reich was further compounded in the years ahead as a southern front was first opened in italy when a combined british and american force invaded sicily on the 10th of july 1943 and then a western front was established when the western allies invaded france on d-day on the 6th of june 1944 goebbels took an ever more important role in the war effort from 1942 onwards as these escalating military reverses began recent research has highlighted how several members of the nazi leadership became increasingly incapacitated from 1942 by various illnesses and even drug addiction particularly so in the case of both hitler and the head of the luftwaffe the german air force hermann goering the latter of whom was heavily addicted to opiates as hitler sank into a miasma of delusion about german war prospects and needed ever greater amounts of painkillers to alleviate various ailments more and more of the day-to-day direction of government in berlin fell on goebbel's shoulders particularly as hitler was increasingly ensconced in a military bunker in poland goebbels was one of the most clear-sighted of the german leadership hitler was broadly delusional about the prospects of victory until late in the war but as early as 1942 goebbels was aware of the unlikelihood of victory now that the russian campaign had stalled in 1941 and the german army was unlikely to win the war on the eastern front this was made clearer in the winter of 1942 when the tide was turned in russia with german defeat at the battle of stalingrad as a consequence from the spring of 1943 goebbels began arguing for what he termed total war by which he meant that all of the state's resources would be employed to the maximum degree possible to fight the war at a meeting of the nazi faithful at the berlin sport palace a huge sports stadium in the capital on the 18th of february 1943 goebbels laid out his belief about what was needed in what has been deemed his most famous speech germans would have to live a spartan exhausting way of life henceforward goebbels asserted in his speech which was broadcast nationally on radio he argued that germans would have to work 14 or 16 hour days to keep up the war machine but this was necessary to keep europe from falling almost entirely under the control of bolshevik russia having stirred up the thousands of attendees who were selected for their nazi credentials he ended by asking the frenzied crowd do you want total war although hitler was won over by the idea of total war he would take until the 23rd of july 1944 before he officially appointed goebbels as reich plenipotentiary for the total war effort this was just three days after an attempted coup by senior members of the wehrmacht which had sought to assassinate hitler and then the war had failed shocked by the coup effort hitler committed himself to goebbels extreme plan for total war just days later with this new position goebbels was charged with overseeing the deployment of all parts of society to facilitate the army's efforts the position was a major confirmation of goebbel's seniority in the nazi leadership with the promotion essentially being an acknowledgment that goebbels had supplanted him in gearing as hitler's second in command of the nazi party and was now his ostensible successor should he die goebbels efforts to put his ideas on total war into effect in the weeks and months ahead met with mixed results he focused first on increasing the numbers of men entering the armed forces the numbers of the rank and file in the german fair marked had fallen drastically in 1942 and 1943 owing to huge casualties on the eastern front and with the opening of additional fronts by the allies in france and italy the german army was stretched extremely thin by 1944 to combat this goebbels increased the age limit to which german women were required to work in german factories producing war material of all kinds from 45 to 55 this had the benefit of freeing up many men who had been working in the factories for active service on the front yet in the end these measures were not effective the german state was simply too under-resourced and not possessed of sufficient manpower by 1944 and the additional men who were conscripted into the german army were simply replacing those who were dying or being captured on a daily basis as the russians advanced from the east and the americans and the british from the west and the south ultimately total war achieved little other than the further impoverishment of the german people and the conscription of old men and boys into the german army in the last desperate stages of the war in the winter of 1944 and the spring of 1945. yet goebbels never wavered the last of his 218 wartime editorials in dasreich called for resistance to the very end even as the soviet armies closed in on central berlin in january 1945 the soviet forces crossed into eastern germany and the americans and british simultaneously advanced into the rhineland in western germany following a bitter struggle in the ardennes forest of belgium and luxembourg in december 1944 and january 1945 german defeat was clearly just months away and hitler and the nazi leadership we're now hoping that a falling out might occur between the english-speaking allies and the russians which might work in germany's favor this never came and in the spring of 1945 the only question was whether the russians advancing from the east or the british and americans from the west would seize berlin despite these setbacks goebbels commitment to total war never wavered it was expressed most forcefully in the final weeks of the war in an article in das reich magazine published on the 22nd of april 1945 entitled resistance at any price here goebbels fanaticism and willingness to let everything in germany be destroyed in defense of the remnants of the reich is laid there the war has reached a stage at which only the full efforts of the nation and of each individual can save us the defense of our freedom no longer depends on the army fighting at the front each civilian each man and woman and boy and girl fight with unequaled fanaticism no village and no city may give in to the enemy perhaps it is his unwavering fanaticism and commitment to the nazi cause in the final days of the third reich which led hitler to appoint his propaganda minister as his successor when the fuhrer took the decision to end his life on the 30th of april 1945. goebbels few hours as head of the german state were a ghastly conclusion to his own life on the 1st of may a day after hitler's suicide he sent an offer for a ceasefire to general vasily chukov the head of the soviet army's assault on berlin when this was rejected he decided to follow his master's example later that day joseph and magda gerbals had their six children sedated with morphine before killing their children by force-feeding them cyanide once they had lost consciousness joseph and magda then headed upstairs where they committed suicide themselves in the garden of the reich chancellery thus died the mastermind of so much of the nazi party's ideology few individuals were as critical in shaping the third reich as joseph goebbels both prior to the party coming to power and as reich minister for public enlightenment and propaganda in the years ahead he shaped how the nazi message was presented to german citizens and the wider world the visual image we have of the nazi party is being visually dominated by huge parades with massive nazi banners in red and black is almost entirely owing to how goebbels choreographed and designed these events and the public view of the nazis from 1939 he was the decisive figure in deciding what information on the war effort was provided to german citizens and how it was presented he also pushed for an increasingly fanatical all-out war as plenipotentiary for total war moreover he was one of the central individuals in the evolution of the final solution and the holocaust of europe's jews as alice adherent of hitler's gobbles was perhaps the most clear-sighted of the nazi leadership about the prospects of german victory in the second world war and yet his fanatical adherence to the fuhrer and the tenets of national socialism led him to favor dragging europe to the brink of utter destruction given how close his ideology was to hitler's own it was perhaps unsurprising that the fuhrer appointed him as his successor in april 1945. what do you think of joseph goebbels was he merely a cog in hitler's government or was he a critical figure in the third reich who shaped nazi policy and how state propaganda was implemented in the 20th century please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching hello guys thank you so much for watching this video if you enjoy our work and would like to support the channel please visit our revamped patreon and buy me a coffee membership pages which contain rewards such as early access to our content merchandise discounts and audio versions of our videos along with much more than we give to our valued supporters if you have not yet signed up to help our cause we'd like to ask you to please consider doing so as we need to secure the channel by safeguarding it from possible demonetization and also invest in better equipment software and more people to help us 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Channel: The People Profiles

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Length: 308min 51sec (18531 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 23 2021