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He was born to the accountant Friedrich Goebbels and his wife Marian (née Oldenhausen) in Rheydt, a Catholic area in the Rhineland. Because of a club foot he was rejected when he volunteered for military service at the beginning of World War I. Joining the Nazi Party in 1922, he initially opposed Hitler's leadership, but later changed sides to support him. His diary shows many instances of great admiration for Hitler, which some would classify as devotion.
He played a large role in helping the Nazis achieve and retain power by creating propaganda to present the Nazi ideology to the German people in a favourable light. He was also a committed anti-SemiteAnti-Semitism alternatively antisemitism is hostility towards Jews. It ranges from ad hoc antagonism towards Jews on an individual level to the institutionalized prejudice and persecution once prevalent in European societies, of which the highly explicit, being involved with KristallnachtKristallnacht also known as Reichskristallnacht Pogromnacht and in English as The Night of Broken Glass was a massive nation-wide pogrom in Germany on the night of November 9, 1938 (including early hours of the following day). It was directed at Jewish ci in 1938, and later connected with the Nazi Final Solution, especially the deportation of Jews from BerlinBerlin [ bɛrˈliːn ] is the national capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,387,404 inhabitants (as of September 2004); down from 4. 5 million before World War II. Berlin is located on the rivers Spree and Havel in the northea.
During the final stages of the war, before his suicide, Hitler appointed Goebbels Chancellor of GermanyThe head of government in Germany has traditionally been called Kanzler ( Chancellor). The name of the office today is Bundeskanzler (Federal Chancellor); from 1871 to 1945, it was Reichskanzler (Imperial Chancellor). During the period of the Norddeutsche in his will (with Karl DönitzKarl Donitz ( September 16, 1891— December 24, 1980) was a naval leader in Nazi Germany during World War II. Despite never joining the Nazi Party, Donitz attained the high rank of Grand Admiral Grossadmiral and served as Commander in Chief of Submarines O as PresidentThe President of Germany (German: Bundesprasident is the head of state of Germany. The office today is largely ceremonial, and to prevent the problems that occurred with the Weimar Republic, the Basic Law carefully limits the President's power. Powers In - the FührerFuhrer (often written Fuehrer or Fuhrer in English when umlauts are not used; also written with the German definite article included, der Fuhrer meaning " leader" or " guide" in German, was a title granted by German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to himself by l title was not granted in the will). His government, which only ended up lasting a few hours, was not recognised by the Allied powers. But, shortly after Hitler had commited suicide, Goebbels added these lines to the "Politic Testament" of his beloved "Führer":
On May 1, 1945, Goebbels and his wife killed themselves with the help of SS bodyguards, as well as their six children whom they had given names starting with an 'H' from Hitler:
Like Hitler's final moments, the details of the death of the Goebbels family remain unclear. While it is assumed that they were all poisoned with cyanide, some contend that he shot his wife Magda Goebbels and himself afterwards; however, when their bodies were found by the Soviets, they were apparently too charred to discern whether this was true.