Magda Goebbels

by Anja Klabunde

During the past twenty years, innumerable books about the Third Reich have been published, but little attention has been paid to the women who lived alongside the Nazi leaders. Magda Goebbels (1901-1945) is arguably the most contradictory and the most intriguing among them. What made a beautiful and intelligent woman go from being deeply in love with the ardent Zionist leader Victor Chaim Arlosoroff to marrying Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda and a ferocious anti-Semite? Indeed, in the eyes of many people she was the 'First Lady' of the Reich, owing to Hitler's lifelong attachment to her. How could the devoted mother of six, the poster-child of family values during the Third Reich, turn into Medea and poison these six children? Anja Klabunde's thoroughly researched and remarkable biography for the first time brings together these stunning facts.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, World War II

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Homicidal Muffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a bit hard to put down. Magda was as cold and empty as they get. She felt entitled to a certain type of lifestyle even though she didn’t come from an educated or wealthy family. She constantly leached off other’s power and wealth and was so desperate to obtain it she ended up entering into a relationship with a sociopath, who was the epitome of cruel and manipulating. Giving up her world as she knew it for Gobbels was quickly repaid by him entertaining an endless stream of young women, finally falling in love with one of them and wanting to divorce Magda. In order to not lose her social and financial status Magda ran to her close understanding friend Adolf Hitler and at his insistence Gobbels remained unhappily with Magda. Only in the very end did they re-establish their twisted relationship, held together by their pending doom and death.
Magda willingly betrayed her family and friends without batting an eye, so much so that after murdering her 6 children she sat down to a few games of solitaire. Why someone in their entourage didn’t take the children to safety will forever go unexplained but for weeks friends and even Hitler himself tried to talk her out of her plan, even offering several ways of safe passage for all of them. She still declined stating “SHE” was loyal to Hitler and Germany. I had hoped to find some sort of understanding of this woman, some redeeming quality that I’m told ever person has, alas I found nothing that would explain her selfishness, cruelty, manipulation and complete disregard for human life. I understand now I found nothing because nothing existed in this woman.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography of Magda Goebbels follows her from the age of about five to her death in the last days of the European Theatre of WWII, although the bulk of the book focuses on her life until the beginning of the War. It traces Frau Goebbels' life through her relationships with men - her stepfather, father, first boyfriend, first husband, and then Goebbels, her second husband - and to a lesser extent her eldest stepson, eldest son, and her probable lover.

This was a fascinating book. I'd previously had no idea about Magda Goebbels' Jewish connections - in fact, when I picked up the book I thought it sounded utterly ludicrous.

I don't agree with all Klabunde's conclusions about Frau Goebbels, and the framing of pretty much her whole life through men irked me. The other thing I found frustrating was the rapidity with which the narrative passed through the war years. I'm sure there was more that could have been said, even given the lack of sources due to the deaths of most of the main players. I also would have loved some information about her eldest son Harald's life post-war, and further proof that women like Emmy Goering (of whom I'd never heard) lived "unmolested" in West Germany post war despite her equally direct association with the Reich. In fact, my main point of difference with Klabunde is that she seems so certain that no harm would have come to the children of Magda and Joseph Goebbels had they not been killed by their parents in the bunker at the end of the war. I'm not nearly so confident.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

How does a woman who was brought up by a Jewish Stepfather,who was in a relationship with a Zionist leader and supported his cause end up married to a racist firebrand and a worshipper of Adolf Hitler?
I'm not sure this book exactly explains Magda Goebbels beyond she was a cold and for the most part emotionless woman,It is however a decent read that unfortunately seems very rushed at the end,the last 6 years of her life (World War Two) is covered in a paltry 40 pages and for that I deducted a star.

I still think Magda Goebbels: The First Lady Of The Third Reich is the better book on the subject.

[Ernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a new English translation of the Goebbels diaries in three volumes so I sought out this much briefer biography of his wife Magda which is largely dependent on the diaries of Goebbels and her mother. For years I have been both horrified and intrigued by her murder of her six children in Hitler’s bunker as the Nazi regime of destruction ended. The use of poison disguised in hot chocolate at bedtime did not deceive the eldest daughter aged 13, according to the books written by Hitler’s secretary and chauffeur who were also there in the bunker at the last.
The terrible irony of her life story began when Magda, born out of wedlock lived her early life with a loving and caring step father who was a Jew and was brought up knowledgeable about Jewish culture such that her first serious relationship was with a Zionist who later was famous for his diplomatic efforts to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. She was fortunate that her biological father also continued to care for, and financially support her throughout her life. Born in Belgium, speaking French and attending Catholic convent schools and a Swiss finishing school, she had a facility for learning languages. When the physically mature and beautiful seventeen year old on a train journey caught the eye of a 34 year old, wealthy businessman, Gunther Quandt courted and married her. They had a son, her only child to survive the war because he was in a British prisoner of war camp.
Magda soon became well known in Berlin as a beautiful and sophisticated hostess. After Goebbel’s triumph at the 1930 elections with his rhetoric, Frau Quandt went to Nazi headquarters, offered her services and ten days later became the secretary to the deputy Gauleiter, Joseph Goebbels who soon became enchanted with her. At a holiday together in July 1931, Goebbels wrote in his diary about his anxieties: ‘Several battles over our happiness with Magda. In her former life she was very frivolous and fancy free…Our fate hangs on a silken thread. Pray God that her fate does not destroy us both’. Could this be a reference to her Jewish past such as her boyfriend and her membership of the Zionist youth group? What if Hitler found out? At the same time, Goebbels speaks and writes with anti-semitic violent rants. Nevertheless, Magda divorces Quandt, they marry and begin their celebrity lives. She becomes close to Hitler who is equally enchanted with her and was a witness for the wedding. The Jewish name of the step-father which she had been given, disappeared from the records.
Incredibly in 1933, she sent a message to her Zionist former lover, Chaim (Victor) Alosoroff warning him to leave as soon as possible and stating that she feared for her own life. Alosoroff, now virtually the foreign minister for the Zionists in Palestine had made the dangerous error of travelling to Berlin in May 1933. This was after the book burning led by Goebbels and Magda’s triumph, charming Mussolini in Rome. He barely escaped, saved only by his British passport, issued in Jerusalem.
The biographer Klabunde, continues to ponder the enigma of Magda. As the second lady of the Reich, after the wife of Goering, her accomodation with the Holocaust policies and actions of the Nazis is written as a kind of symbol of the how the majority of the German people behaved. Known as the Mother of the Reich and mother to six children with Goebbels, she wrote to her son from the bunker. “ We have now spent six days in the Fuhrerbunker, Papa, your six little brothers and sisters and I, to give our National Socialist life its only possible conclusion…They are too good for the life that will come when we have gone, and a merciful God will understand me if I give them their release myself.’ Seduced by power and privilege? She writes like a fanatic who has abandoned all morality and humanity but one who convinces herself that she is showing a saintly maternal devotion. Read this book and wonder about the alchemy that mixed human love and hate together like that.

[Lisa Kiely · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book although I did think there might have been abit more of Magdas life it went off at several tangents of various other peoples life’s

[Kristi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to read this biography of Magda Goebbels rather than the one written by Hans Otto Meisner who is regarded as a "less than objective" historian. As Kirkus Review states of the earlier biography: " The author of this bathos-and-bombast is the son of Otto Meissner, head of Hitler's chancellory, who knew the parties concerned and now sets out--with the aid of Magda's one-time sister-in-law--to demonstrate that she was a political innocent in thrall to the demonic Joseph." Agenda, perhaps? Bias, perhaps? *** I was hoping that this book might be scholarly and neutral in its analysis of the life of the "First lady of the Reich". What do I find instead?? Most of the book that deals with the personal life of Magda uses Meissner as the major source. It contains long "quotations" of Magda's that were hearsay from a friend and unless said friend was recording the conversation, cannot be believed. The chronology is not even logical regarding the family - a portion has a comment about her children long before the youngest who is mentioned was even born..... Alas this is no historical biography to be trusted in many of the aspects that cannot be known unless Magda kept a personal diary ( none has been found ). Goebbels, however did. As to the facts that can be determined without regard to second hand information, I did find the book interesting at times. Nine tenths of the content occurs before the war even starts. Did Magda do nothing public in her role as "first lady"? If so, it is not recorded in this book. Alas, this is full of hysteria ( emotional as well as in the form of the psychological diagnosis of conversion reactions ) and reads more like a soap opera than history. Very disappointed. Kristi & Abby Tabby

[Carol Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the most revealing book I have read about individuals involved at the top echelon of the Reich. At the end of the book it is explained why Magda G. took her own life (understandable) and her childrens' lives (not so understandable). It had a slow start but definitely flowed after that.

This is definitely a worthwhile read for anyone wondering how a middle class girl, with ties to a man who was involved with the settlement of Israel, could get caught up with mania and greed.

[Ta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but it's more of a love diary than a biography. Magda presented by Anja Klabunde is a woman interested in love affairs and fashion only. But she must have been something more than that - otherwise she wouldn't be Hitler's favorite, would she? In this book you can't really feel the evil, which must have surrounded her and come from her. And her whole life is described as if it was determined by her first Jewish boyfriend.

[Elizabeth]

Reading in bits and pieces and choosing what's interesting to me. Will pick up and put down over time. Some parts are absolutely fascinating and gripping, others are overly embellished of make you feel like the author could have summed up background using fewer words, so you wouldn't have to dig for the gems. There are gems here. I wrote more abut book in my general comments.

[Luke Devenish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even in someone who succumbed to the most vicious self-delusion there is heartbreak and humanity to be found. This biog proved it - a little breathlessly in places, I'll concede - but I won't stick the knife in for it. Not when I was so held from cover to cover.

[Matilde · Rating 4 out of 5]

A different point of view, a woman of the third reich.
I couldn't stop reading, I was curious to know the woman who thought death was the only way left for her and her children. Although there should be more about Magda, this book was a good read.

[Gary Power · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very interesting look at the poster frau for the third Reich. She had realtionships with an industrialist and a zionist before Goebbels. Full of intrigue.

[Heather G · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating look at a complicated woman. Kept me engaged the whole time and I learned so much!

[Susannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an entertaining book this is good, but as a work of serious history not so much. I think this book illustrates why not much is written about the wives of Nazis because there are not many reliable sources which don’t just end up telling the story through their husbands. That is part of the issue here, there is very little which Magda wrote herself so the author has to use some dubious sources like interviews with people who knew her given years after the events but where whole conversations are relayed verbatim which is not believable as being accurate and the diaries of Joseph Goebbles and the ‘memoirs’ of Albert Speer which are an exercise in lies. This book ends up being pretty much a list of Magda’s boyfriends and husbands.

Also, some parts read like a non fiction novel in that the author makes lots of assumptions about how Magda must have been feeling at certain times and tries to get insider her mind which is not possible. It also tried very hard to find reasons for her nazism and goes down the road of psychology and this is all made up and trying to answer questions that we can’t know.

[Nikki Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s amazing how little I know about this infamous Nazi. Why she started out with Jewish friends and a Jewish lover; nearly helping the Zionist movement and then slowly turning into one of the most notorious Nazi wives; ultimately committing suicide, for the cause, taking her children with her. I’m glad I read this book to understand her more and the more I read the book the less I could relate, and or understand her…. That’s what the full Nazi brainwashing power through propaganda (of her husband) could do to you or to anyone in that era….. it was also interesting to understand her side of the story about how her husband was a blatant womanizer, but how she also stuck in her role as “”the mother of the third Reich “

[Katie L · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book as a basis for a biographical essay on the influences and attachments in Magda’s life that I wrote for class! Fascinating, although I had issues with a couple passages that muddled accuracy in the name of narrative.

[Evalitera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liest sich sehr interessant.
Man erfährt viel über die Nazigrössen und zum Schluss ist es besonders mörderisch.

[Sam Rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed learning more about how, why and what happened in Germany regarding the wars. Interesting to read about this lady and the part she and her husband played in it.

[Stefanie Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Magda Goebbels, the wife of Joseph Goebbels, was a very interesting character. She is certainly the most interesting out of the Nazi wives. She was known as the First Lady of the Reich, and it was amazing to learn about her past...especially the past in which she was in love with a leader of the Zionist movement. I never knew a lot about her until I read this book, and I was very pleased with the amount of information that it included.

[The Reading Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quand l'amour du pouvoir pervertit tout. Triste personnage.

[Babar Hussain]

goood