Magda Goebbels

Magda Goebbels
The First Lady of Germany

This page was made by Angela Mesna, a senior English major at UCSB (link to author's page). I became interested in Magda and wanted to learn how a well-off and well-rounded woman could get involved in with the Nazi elite. The information about Magda was gathered from various internet sites as well as a Biography by Hans-Otto-Meissner (sources).

Magda Goebbels, was born Magda Ritschel born in 1901 into a family atmosphere that would help set her up for the rest of her life. Her father was a well cultured, and well-connected engineer. Her mother came from a more humble background in which she had worked as a chambermaid. The marriage between Magda's mother and father ended in divorce when Magda was three years old. Her mother remarried two years later to a Jewish man named Richard Friedlander. Friedlander became a second father to Magda. Her mother and stepfather moved near her father in Brussels where she spent time with and was raised by both fathers. This early childhood experience allowed Magda to learn to adjust to and manage two very different mentalities. Although she lived mainly with her mother and Jewish stepfather, she went to the Ursuline convent of Sacre Coeur, which was one of the strictest catholic schools in existence.

Magda married the multi-millionaire Gunther Quandt in 1921. Quandt proved to be too involved and rather anti-social, which went against Magda's sociability, and desire to use her skills at entertaining and social graces to advance his business. She was also taken aback by his intense jealousy and the imbalance between his tight penny-pinching and extravagant spending. Magda eventually grew to despise being married to Quandt and divorced him in 1929, but they remained on friendly terms.

Magda began courting again and was on the verge of marrying Mr. Hoover, nephew to President Hoover but was too occupied with her new freedom that she said she would never marry again. At this point in her life she came into the clutches of Nazi propaganda. Magda, who had never really been involved or interesting in politics, found herself in a massive Nazi meeting in the Sportpalast. She was captivated by the speaker and found herself fascinated by what she heard. Later she came to find that she was not fascinated by the words the man spoke, but by the man himself, the ever charismatic and enthusiastic speaker Josef Goebbels. Goebbels had a knack with connecting with his women listeners, and in this case the connection altered the woman's life irrevocably.

The magnetic speaker and his captivated listener were engaged in the summer of 1930. It is said that during her marriage to Goebbels she became so obsessed with him that she was in a state of complete self-surrender. Magda set up their household that soon became an entertaining place for many Nazi gatherings and personal meetings between Goebbels and Hitler himself. She also bore Goebbels seven children. Goebbels, despite all that Magda had given him, remained a womanizer and expected his wife to allow him to have extramarital affairs for the sake of his happiness. Not only did he sleep with other women, but also refused to help her step father who later perished in Auschwitz. After catching her husband in her own bed with one of his lovers she decided to file for divorce. The only way to divorce at that time was through Hitler. She went to Hitler and showed him all the discriminating evidence she had gathered against her husband. Hitler would not allow the couple to divorce and said that they must stay together and keep up appearances, especially for the sake of the reputation of the Third Reich. Magda agreed to this but observed that Goebbels was the "biggest scoundrel who has ever held the German people in thrall."

The ultimate blow that came to Magda and her family was in April of 1945 when the Nazi regime had been overrun and they had sought refuge with Hitler in one of his shelters. After the suicide of Hitler, and many other official, Magda poisoned her seven children and then herself. Josef Goebbels shot himself and appointed his servant to shoot him once more just to make sure. So, this is the end of the "First Lady of Germany". The woman that was well respected and known in Germany, the daughter of a decent family, found herself bound to the murderous Nazi regime. She was wholly captivated in the beginning by the propaganda and charismatic leaders and when she finally figured out what she had gotten into; it was too late to get out. Hitler would not let her go, and in the end, her children were sentenced to suffer for their mother's tragic misjudge of character. Magda is an example of a woman that followed Hitler's ideologies and paid the ultimate price.