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Joseph Goebbels Research Paper

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5. The First World War and Anka Stalherm: Joseph Goebbels was seventeen when World War One started. He desperately wanted to sign-up for the German Army but was rejected for health reasons due to his physical disability. He was rejected because they considered his height (he was under five feet tall) and his clubfoot as disabilities ("Joseph Goebbels." People of the Holocaust). “Throughout his life, Goebbels suffered from what he regarded as the stigma of being unable to serve his country in time of war. He was always conscious of his deformity and physical inadequacy”. Because he could not serve as a soldier, he decided to focus on his studies and enrolled at the University of Bonn in 1917 (Snyder, Louis L). Two months later, he was called …show more content…

The German Revolution: The Social Democratic Party leader, Philipp Scheidemann, declared a republic in Berlin on November 9th, 1918. On November 11th,1918 the German government signed the Armistice: Goebbels and many Germans were shocked by both pieces of news. Goebbels and Anka Stalherm then began to argue about politics because he was worried about the plight of the workers while Anka Stalherm remained true to her upper-class origins which almost lead to the end of their relationship (Goebbels). In October 1920, Joseph Goebbels incurred a large debt and could no longer afford to pay his university fees and as a result, he decided to commit suicide and even drew up a will: this eventually lead to the breakup of his relationship with Anka. When his father heard about the will, he quickly told him he would borrow the money so that he could finish off his university studies. When Goebbels heard this news, he withdrew his threat ("Life Before Hitler”). The following year Joseph Goebbels was offered a spot to study for a Ph.D. at Heidelberg University. He was working on his doctorate under Professor Max von Waldberg. In November 1921 he received his doctoral diploma and later wrote in his journal that he had felt very proud when Professor Waldberg called him "Herr Doktor" for the first time

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