Joseph Goebbels’ secret sex life: Power, propaganda and hypocrisy
Guest writer Richard Bevan explores how Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels used power to pursue affairs that contradicted the regime’s strict family ideals.
Image: As the head of the propaganda, Goebbels was responsible for driving the Nazi Party's ideologies of the "perfect" family unit | Secret Sex Lives of Tyrants
Secret Sex Lives of Tyrants uncovers the private worlds of some of history’s most notorious dictators. The series examines the sexual power plays, obsessions and abuses that influenced rulers’ reigns - and sometimes the fate of nations. In this guest article, Richard Bevan, a screenwriter who has written for television, radio and stage, uncovers how Joesph Goebbels used his power within the Third Reich to begin numerous extramarital "affairs", behaving in a way that veered drastically from the Nazi ideology of a strong family unit.
Secret Sex Lives of Tyrants starts Monday 16 March at 10pm on Sky HISTORY.
Who was Joseph Goebbels?
Goebbels was the Nazi party’s head of propaganda that controlled all newspapers, radio, films and publishing in Germany from 1933 until his suicide in 1945. He dictated and orchestrated the dissemination of the myths of the Nazi Third Reich.
If Hitler was the “face” of the regime, Goebbels could be considered the “voice” and his virulent anti-Semitism and cruelty towards individuals, groups and entire peoples would be a driving and central force of the attempted exterminations of Jews, Roma, communists, homosexuals and the disabled across Germany and the conquered territories of Europe.
Goebbels, his wife Magda, and six children were acclaimed by the media (that he controlled) as “The First Family of the Reich.” They were the example of loyalty, fertility and fealty to which all Germany was to aspire.
Hypocritically, he also undertook numerous sexual “affairs” during the 14 years of his marriage.
What did he have to offer the fairer sex?
Goebbels was noted to have a “mesmerising” voice, but his dulcet tones would have to do some heavy lifting to draw attention away from a physique best described as thin and fragile, with a long, sallow face that appeared half forehead.
Nor did the elegantly attired Goebbels move like a panther. He was born with a congenital abnormality of his right foot that required a brace and caused him to limp.
And yet, while feeding the German people pseudo-science about blonde haired, blue eyed, pure Aryans, it was this bitter crow of a man who gained the reputation as a “Ladies Man” in the Nazi High Command. Granted, there was not a lot of competition for the intelligent and manipulative Goebbels amongst the sycophantic and dull Nazi leadership.
It is clear that whatever drove Goebbels “success” with women, it wasn’t his virility, or masculinity. It was his power. Power to attract, and power to coerce.
True Believers
Advertising works. Last year companies around the world spent a cumulative $1 trillion because it works. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they turned the entire German state and private media apparatus towards branding and glorifying the regime as powerful, effective and attractive.
Hitler himself was raised to the level of untouchable mythical leader status, whereas Goebbels was attainable, and would sometimes insist on being “touched.”
To grow up swimming in this propaganda, affecting every aspect of their lives, made for a steady stream of compliant young women, easily overwhelmed by the attentions of the Reich’s “Supermen”. Imagine their confusion when confronted by the reality of a deformed Goebbels, obese Goring or amphetamine sweaty Hitler in the flesh.
This propaganda extended worldwide and enticed American society ladies, English gentlewomen, and even royalty. That’s why judging a young aspiring singer, bedded by Goebbels, is problematic.
Coercive power is not romantic love
Goebbels’ unquestioned total power makes it difficult to characterise many of his sexual encounters as “affairs”. There are numerous, well documented liaisons in various contemporary reports and diaries from the time, but we are better placed now to acknowledge the vast power imbalance wielded so effectively by Goebbels to satisfy his needs.
90 years ago, Goebbels walked the back lots of the UFA studios (the German version of Hollywood production companies like Fox, Paramount etc.) looking for starlets to invite to “dinner.”
In the intervening decades, our understanding of predatory behaviour in media and politics has moved from our shameful amusement at stories of Marilyn Monroe’s “casting couch,” to Harvey Weinstein being sent to prison following countless allegations of rape and sexual abuse, and the ministers of a dozen governments scrubbing financier Jeffrey Epstein from their date books.
In the midst of 1930’s Nazi Germany, what agency could a young German actress have when confronted by a man who controlled all media in the country? How could she conceivably decline the attentions of a man, who could make both her and her family disappear?
Much like the Bond film trope of the evil villain having some sort of deformity, Goebbels limping towards an attractive radio presenter, actress, or aspiring singer must have sunk many a heart. To characterise what they endured as an “affair” does a disservice to extramarital sex.
In his diaries, Goebbels is confident that his seductions were because of his animal magnetism. Well… he would, wouldn’t he?
Lída Baarová
A Czechoslovakia actress considered by many to be comparable to Marlene Dietrich, Lída Baarová is the longest and one of the better-documented affairs. There is no doubt that having been banned from leaving Germany for Hollywood by the Nazis in the late 1930’s, she made the best of a bad situation and allowed herself to be pressured into a relationship with Goebbels. She certainly benefited initially from the liaison professionally, but unexpectedly, he formed an attachment to her and the affair continued for two years.
Baarová paid a heavy price for the affair. During the affair, her fiancé was side lined, her work was vilified by Goebbels’ enemies, and she was denounced in cinemas as “the minister’s whore” when she appeared on the screen.
To get out of the affair and fearing Goebbels’ wrath, she reportedly approached Hitler to intercede. After the affair ended, and she was free, things did not go well for Baarová. She was largely exiled back to Prague, and sent to film in Italy, while being monitored by the Gestapo to ensure she didn’t embarrass the regime. After the war, Baarová was treated as a collaborator with many refusing to work with her. Of course, she outlived Magda Goebbels by 55 years in the end, so it wasn’t all bad news.
Family values
Hitler believed in the family unit, racial purity, and loyalty myths that Goebbels had been tasked with pumping into German society for years. To that end, Goebbels was sent back to the family that he had set up as the symbolic “First Family of the Third Reich.” He had made this bed and both he and Magda were forced to reluctantly lay in it by Hitler. A bed that they shared until May 1st, 1945, when they murdered their children and committed suicide in a Berlin bunker.
Goebbels was a monster. It feels somehow insignificant to charge him with being a manipulative sexual predator when he was directly responsible for the deaths of millions. But his “success” with women was a core part of his self-image and the idea of perpetuating that delusion with a list of sexual conquests – enthusiastic, willing, pressured or extorted – is wrong. He used his power to satisfy his needs and his abuse of young women is just one more crime of the Nazi regime.
Secret Sex Lives of Tyrants starts Monday 16 March at 10pm on Sky HISTORY.
