Joseph Goebbels

Paul Joseph Goebbels (often pronounced /ˈɡɜrbəlz/ in English, German: [ˈɡœbəls]; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German politician and the Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism. He was the chief architect of the Kristallnacht attack on the German Jews, which historians consider to be the beginning of the Final Solution, leading towards the genocide of the Holocaust.

Role in Downfall
In Downfall, Goebbels is portrayed as the "sidekick" to Hitler. Everything Hitler has said, Goebbels would agree with, and many times, he further elaborated on them. For example, in the Hitler is Informed Scene, Goebbel's words reinforced Hitler's suspicion about Göring's Verrat, and possibly influenced Hitler to rant and order his execution. In most scenes however, he simply sat or stood beside Hitler silently, acting like a prop. Goebbels has never been shown to disagree or object to Hitler openly. The only time he begged to differ was when he approached Traudl Junge, crying that he disobeyed Hitler's orders to leave Berlin. He was also one of the few male subordinates that Hitler never expressed any dissatisfaction towards.

Goebbels is extremely loyal to Hitler and the Nazi cause. In fact, he may be the most loyal of Hitler's subordinates, such that he had a hand in his children's deaths because he and his wife believed that "there was no future without the National Socialist regime".

After Hitler died, Joseph Goebbels became the new chancellor, and his first action was to rant at his generals (Goebbels rants scene) like Hitler. Unfortunately, he neither had the charisma nor aura that Hitler commanded, and none of the generals took him seriously. Krebs and company openly disobeyed his orders not to surrender by approaching the Soviets under a white flag by themselves. He also took his six children in the bunker during the events of Downfall, in which he eventually had them "taken care of" by injecting morphine and finishing them off with cyanide capsules, in response to the stories of brutality, rape and tea-bagging by the advancing Soviet troops. Shortly afterward, Goebbels and his wife went up to the garden of the Chancellery, where Goebbels shot Magda (as she wanted him to do), before shooting himself.

Goebbels' last orders were for the soldiers in the bunker to burn his body along with his wife's, just as Hitler's remains had been burned to ash so they couldn't be paraded around by the victorious Allies. Unfortunately for him, they'd already used up most of what little gasoline they had left. Thus while their corpses were horrifically burned, it was still clearly recognizable as Goebbels' (it helped that Goebbels had a metal leg).

Failing to cheat his fate, Goebbels' corpse was thus heavily photographed, and the pictures of his body (and the ones of his own children that he had killed) became one of the most powerful images symbolizing the end of the Third Reich.

In the Hitler Parodies
In the Downfall parody universe, he was known to be the resident walking "stick figure" of the bunker (in contrast to Göring, Bormann, Jodl and Grawitz's chubby appearance) as some of his associates would ridicule him for his skinny build. His rants attracted the attention of some Untergangers, who would use his fiery arguments to their advantage. Many Untergangers such as Hitler Rants Parodies have shown Goebbels to be a loyal ass-kisser, often to the point in which Hitler treats him like a close friend. However a few others such as Benad361 have shown Goebbels to be able to be strongly defiant of Dolfy's rule, to the extent that Benad361 has had him be the Deputy leader of the separatist faction fighting Hitler's regime in the 'Bunker Civil War'. Prior to this he shows him furiously ranting at Hitler and hurling insults before walking out. FuhrerFegelein has portrayed Goebbels as having very much a will of his own, to the extent that he will rant at Hitler over certain issues (such as running out of hair gel) and even going so far as to insult Hitler at the end of his rants. He even had Goebbels abuse Hitler with "You fuck!" Bossimias briefly showed Goebbels' autonomous thought and defiance when he portrayed him as being one of those complaining of Hitler's attachment to a picture of a cute pig in wellies and advocating destroying it (in the parody: "Günsche displays a picture to Hitler"). Sparx476 was perhaps the first to portray Goebbels' strong will and defiance when he had Goebbels ranting and complaining about Hitler to fellow bunker-inhabitants in his parody: "Hitler plans to bump off Dr. Goebbels". Goebbels is defiant to the extent that Hitler has him eliminated, and even Goebbels' wife Magda participates in the plot (which also involves Albert Speer).

Because of some situations he is shown to be a good ranter, and even to pose some competition with Hitler as the best ranter. He has a pencil which can make other people rant called the Pencil of Rantmageddon, which was created by FuhrerFegelein. He also has his Stare Of Silence (created by UberFührerParodies). When he stares at someone ranting, he/she stops ranting immediately and goes silent out of fear. It can also block the effects of superweapons like Hitler's Pencil of Doom by stopping the user from talking. He also has his Hand Clap of Doom (created by notoriousrob01) which has similar effects to Fegelein's Fist of Mass Destruction.

A recurring joke with Goebbels is his appearance. Some of the characters believe that he looks half-dead, which has been referenced a number of times. This has also earned him the nickname of "Skeletor". This is also mentioned when Hitler plays the FegelStation. When selecting the character Mr. Grimm, a skeleton character From Twisted Metal 2, Hitler exclaims "What the fuck is Goebbels doing in this game!?"

The second (and increasingly most popular) joke is in the Goebbels Rants Scene. At one point in the scene he sounds as if he is saying "giggity" in English twice. This has been frequently played on by Untergangers, some of whom have looped it for hilarious effect.

As of June 4, 2011 rollercoster3 has made a series called Ask Goebbels. So far it has been a big hit with over 330 views. [update]

In Soalric's Hitler Tries to Kill Fegelein, Goebbels revealed that he has had a lifelong dream of becoming a young children's author, much like Dr. Seuss or Margaret and H.A. Rey.

In Deltaforce62's Parodies, Mohnke and others called him Joseph or Joe rather than Skeletor.

His counterpart in the Mirror Parody Universe is Slebbeog Hpesoj, who is also Reltih's propaganda minister. Slebbeog, however, doesn't believe what he's saying as much as Goebbels.

Other Portrayals
A full list of portrayals of Joseph Goebbels can be found in his character page in the Internet Movie Database.

Trivia

 * Joseph Goebbels once demanded that Adolf Hitler be expelled from the Nazi Party.
 * This happened many years before Hitler's rise to power, when Goebbels was far more concerned with opposing capitalism than people of Jewish descent. Repeatedly urging the socialists and Nazis to unite against the capitalists, he was horrified by Hitler's antagonization of socialism as a "Jewish creation" and his assertion that the Soviet Union should be destroyed. At the time, Hitler was still jailed and had finished work on Mein Kampf. Goebbels demanded that the jailed Hitler "be expelled from the Nazi Party". However, after his release, Hitler granted Goebbels a private audience, offering to overlook Goebbels's previous support for socialism if he would accept Hitler's leadership. From this point on, Goebbels was completely loyal to Hitler.
 * Goebbels suffered from osteomyelitis which affects the bone marrow. As he developed this at the age of seven the disease affected his growth. He stood at just 5 ft 4 in (1.63 m) and had one leg shorter than the other. He had to wear a leg brace for most of his life and this caused him to be at the centre of ridicule throughout his schooldays, but whilst attending university in Heidelberg he told fellow students that he had been injured in battle despite the fact he had been turned down for military service.
 * Goebbels gave all his children names which began with the letter H (Hedwig, Heidrun, Helga, Helmut, Hildegard, Holdine). Some attributed this as his symbol of loyalty to Hitler.
 * Accidentally, his stepson's name, Harald Quandt, also starts with H (although he of course didn't name him).
 * Goebbels was one of the few certified intellectuals working in the upper echelons of the Nazi Party, which was actually vehemently anti-intellectual. Goebbels wrote his doctoral thesis on 19th century romantic drama. Even his enemies admitted that he was certainly a very intelligent man. The problem of course was that the Nazi Party he was attached was more fond of killing intellectuals than working for them, so he had a constant love-hate relationship with himself (combined with the fact that as a stunted rat-like man with a limp, he wasn't even close to the Aryan physical ideal). After completing his doctorate in 1921, Goebbels worked as a journalist.
 * Unlike Hitler's propaganda style of impassioned speeches that appeared to bare his soul, Goebbels' style was calculated and biting sarcasm. Also unlike Hitler, on multiple occasions Goebbels admitted that he didn't believe in his own propaganda. Hitler honestly believed that there was a vast global Jewish conspiracy out to destroy Germany. Goebbels knew there wasn't, but nonetheless he'd make vicious propaganda speeches to cynically manipulate the German people into a malleable state of hyper-paranoia, just to achieve his political goals.
 * Goebbels shares the same Zodiac sign as Hermann Fegelein; they are both Scorpio, which is something Goebbels isn't too happy about.
 * Goebbels' birthday is also one day earlier than Fegelein's.

List of appearances

 * Hitler Planning Scene
 * Hitler Congratulates the Hitler Youth Scene (cameo)
 * Original Bunker Scene (cameo)
 * (cameo) He dashes through the crowd, enters the restroom and stares at a mirror.
 * Mohnke talks to Goebbels scene
 * - He conducts the children's singing
 * Hitler talks about the Battle of Berlin
 * Hitler is informed scene
 * Hitler Eating Scene
 * Hitler Explains Scene
 * Weidling and Mohnke inform Hitler - He retorts Weidling's suggestions to Hitler.
 * Hitler wedding scene - Goebbels weeps in front of Traudl because he had not obeyed Hitler's order for him to leave Berlin but opted to stay.
 * Hitler and his generals receive telegram from Keitel (cameo)
 * Hitler's Farewell Scene (cameo)
 * Goebbels Rants Scene
 * Goebbels Children murder Scene - Last scene. He then shot Magda and himself.