Magda Goebbels: First Lady of The Third Reich

Johanna Maria Magdalena Goebbels, was born Ritschel, on 11 November, 1901 in Berlin. Her mother, Auguste Ritschel, was briefly wed to one Oskar Behrend, an obscure businessman, before divorcing him to marry rich Jewish financier, Richard Friedlander. Magda enthusiastically adopted her step-fathers name and was to use this name right up to her first meeting with Josef Goebbels, despite its obvious Jewish connections.

Her early life was a conventional one for someone of her class. She attended convent school and was considered bright despite only performing modestly academically.

But then she wasn’t expected to pursue a career but merely to marry early and well. This she did on 14 January, 1921, when she wed wealthy industrialist, Gunther Quandt. The marriage wasn’t a happy one but even so they had a son, Harald. He was to be the only one of her children to survive the war. Despite their disagreements and obvious incompatibility, Magda and Gunther remained on good terms following their divorce in 1929.

Now single again, Magda was considered to be a good catch. She was rich and well-connected but with no need to work and with no responsibility she was bored. Despite having never previously shown any interest in politics she was persuaded by a friend to attend a Nazi Party Rally. Out of a growing sense of ennui, she agreed. To her surprise she found herself mesmerised by the main speaker. The short, club-footed, somewhat camp, Gauleiter of Berlin, Josef Goebbels. She joined the Nazi Party soon after in September, 1930.

It wasn’t long after being introduced to Goebbels that she started going out with him. The fact that she was at the time dating the Jewish political activist Haim Arlosoroff, seemed to bother neither party. Magda was no paragon of Aryan virtue. Arlosoroff, in a fit of jealous rage, later tried to shoot Magda. He missed.

One happy family

Josef Goebbels, however, was not to be the great love of her life. She had fallen hopelessly in love with Adolf Hitler. But the Fuhrer was unavailable. Unable to marry Hitler, Goebbels was the next best thing. He provided her with access to Hitler, she provided him with money and social standing. It was not a marriage made in heaven and both parties had affairs. Indeed Josef Goebbels was a notorious womaniser. However, his affair with the Czech actress Lida Barova was an affair too far. Magda confronted Hitler and demanded from him that Goebbels grant her a divorce. If he did not she would go public and create a scandal. Hitler himself had been best man at their wedding and their apparently happy and fruitful marriage was portrayed as the model for family life in Nazi Germany. Magda was already considered to be the First Lady of the Third Reich. A divorce was out of the question. After much bickering, Hitler forced a reconciliation. The affair almost wrecked Goebbels career, as it was, his stock had fallen and as a result he was to spend the rest of his life trying to win back Hitler’s favour.