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Sportpalast speech

January 31, 2023

The Sportpalast speech (German: Sportpalastrede) or Total War speech was a speech delivered by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large, carefully selected audience on 18 February 1943, as the tide of World War II was turning against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies. The speech is particularly notable as Goebbels almost mentions the Holocaust, when he begins saying "Ausrotten" (using the German word for extermination), but quickly changes it to Ausschaltung (i.e. exclusion). This was the same word Heinrich Himmler used on 18 December 1941, when he recorded the outcome of his discussion with Adolf Hitler on the Final Solution, wherein he wrote "als Partisanen auszurotten" ("exterminate them as partisans").

Nazi rally on 18 February 1943 at the Berlin Sportpalast; the sign says "Totaler Krieg – Kürzester Krieg" ("Total War – Shortest War").
Sportpalast speech
Joseph Goebbels's speech in the Sportpalast in 1943.
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It is considered the most famous of Joseph Goebbels's speeches.[1] The speech was the first public admission by the Nazi leadership that Germany faced serious dangers. Goebbels called for a total war (German: totalen Krieg) to secure victory over the Allies, and exhorted the German people to continue the war even though it would be long and difficult because—as he asserted—both Germany's survival and the survival of a non-Bolshevist Europe were at stake.

Background

 
The Eastern Front in February 1943

After the Axis defeat in late 1942 at the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt, a turning point of World War II in Europe occurred on 2 February 1943 as the Battle of Stalingrad ended with the surrender of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus and the German 6th Army to the Soviets.[2] At the Casablanca Conference in January, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had demanded Germany's unconditional surrender,[3] and the Soviets, encouraged by their victory, were beginning to retake territory, including Kursk (8 February), Rostov-on-Don (14 February), and Kharkiv (16 February). After the Axis defeats in Egypt and the subsequent loss of Tripoli (23 January, 1943), military setbacks shook Axis morale. In the Pacific, the Americans had just completed their months-long reconquest of Guadalcanal.

Adolf Hitler responded with the first measures that would lead to the all-out mobilization of Germany. Prior to the speech, the government closed restaurants, clubs, bars, theatres, and luxury stores throughout the country so that the civilian population could contribute more to the war.[4]

Setting and audience

The setting of the speech in the Sportpalast placed the audience behind and under a big banner bearing the all-capital words "TOTALER KRIEG – KÜRZESTER KRIEG" ("total war – shortest war") along with Nazi banners and Nazi swastikas, as seen in pictures and film of the event.

Although Goebbels claimed that the audience included people from "all classes and occupations" (including "soldiers, doctors, scientists, artists, engineers and architects, teachers, white collars"), the propagandist had carefully selected his listeners to react with appropriate fanaticism. Goebbels said to Albert Speer that it was the best-trained audience one could find in Germany. However, the enthusiastic and unified crowd response recorded in the written version is, at times, not fully supported by the recording.[1]

Details

Goebbels reiterated three themes in the speech:[5]

  1. If the Wehrmacht was not in a position to counter the danger from the Eastern front, the German Reich would fall to Bolshevism and the rest of Europe shortly afterwards.[5]
  2. The Wehrmacht, the German people and the Axis Powers alone had the strength to save Europe from this threat.[5]
  3. Danger was at hand, and Germany had to act quickly and decisively.[5]

In the speech, Goebbels elaborated at length what Nazi propaganda asserted was the threat posed by so-called International Jewry: "The goal of Bolshevism is Jewish world revolution. They want to bring chaos to the Reich and Europe, using the resulting hopelessness and desperation to establish their international, Bolshevist-concealed, capitalist tyranny." Rejecting the protests of enemy nations against the Reich's Jewish policies, he stated, to deafening chants from the audience, that Germany "intends to take the most radical measures, if necessary, in good time."[1]

While Goebbels referred to Soviet mobilization nationwide as "devilish", he explained that "we cannot overcome the Bolshevist danger unless we use equivalent, though not identical, methods [in a] total war". He then justified the austerity measures enacted, explaining them as temporary measures.[1]

Historically, the speech is important in that it marks the first admission by the Party leadership that they were facing problems, and launched the mobilization campaign that, arguably, prolonged the war, under the slogan: "And storm, break loose!" (Und Sturm, brich los!). Goebbels claimed that no German was thinking of any compromise and instead that "the entire nation is only thinking about a hard war".[1]

Goebbels attempted to counter reports in the Allied press that German civilians had lost faith in victory by asking the audience a number of questions at the end, such as:

Do you believe with the Führer and us in the final total victory of the German people? Are you and the German people willing to work, if the Führer orders, 10, 12 and if necessary 14 hours a day and to give everything for victory? Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?[1]

The recorded oral version of the speech differed in some ways from the written record. Especially significant is that in the oral (vs. written) record of the speech, Goebbels actually begins to mention the "extermination" of the Jews, rather than the less harsh terms used in the written version to describe the "solution", but catches himself in the middle of the word.[1]

Quotes

Original German English translation
Deutschland jedenfalls hat nicht die Absicht, sich dieser jüdischen Bedrohung zu beugen, sondern vielmehr die, ihr rechtzeitig, wenn nötig unter vollkommen und radikalster Ausr... -schaltung [Ausrottung / Ausschaltung] des Judentums entgegenzutreten. "Germany, in any case, has no intention of bowing to this Jewish threat, but rather one of confronting it in due time, if need be in terms of complete and most radical exterm... exclusion [lit. "cutoff"] of Judaism."
[…] […]
Ich frage euch: Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?! Wollt ihr ihn, wenn nötig, totaler und radikaler, als wir ihn uns heute überhaupt erst vorstellen können?! "I ask you: Do you want the total war?! Do you want it, if necessary, more total and radical than anything that we can yet today even conceive?!"
[…] […]
Nun, Volk, steh auf, und Sturm, brich los! "Now [emph.], people, rise up, and storm, break loose!"

The last line originated in the poem Männer und Buben (Men and Boys) by Carl Theodor Körner during the Napoleonic Wars. Körner's words had been quoted by Adolf Hitler in his 1920 speech "What We Want" delivered at Munich's Hofbräuhaus, but also by Goebbels himself in older speeches, including his 6 July 1932 campaign speech before the Nazis took power in Germany.[1]

Regarding the word Ausschaltung there is a slight pause when Goebbels say Aussr... .[6]Ausschaltung means elimination, which is fit in the context of the speech.[7]

Reception

Millions of Germans listened to Goebbels on the radio as he delivered this speech about the "misfortune of the past weeks" and an "unvarnished picture of the situation." By amassing such popular enthusiasm, Goebbels wanted to convince Hitler into giving him greater powers in running the war economy.[1] Hitler, however, was not yet ready to bring the economy to a total war footing over the objections of his ministers.[8] On 23 July 1944, Goebbels was finally appointed Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War, responsible for maximising the manpower for the Wehrmacht and the armaments industry at the expense of sectors of the economy not essential to the war effort.[9]

The speech also led to the spread of a late-war whisper joke, popular in Western Germany, especially the Ruhr:

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bytwerk, Randall (1998). "Goebbels' 1943 Speech on Total War". German Propaganda Archive. Calvin University. from the original on 3 March 2016.
  2. ^ P.M.H. Bell, Twelve Turning Points of the Second World War, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2011, pp. 95, 108.
  3. ^ "The Avalon Project: The Casablanca Conference: 1943". Yale Law School. from the original on 16 July 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
  4. ^ Kalshoven, Hedda (15 June 2014). Between Two Homelands: Letters across the Borders of Nazi Germany. University of Illinois Press. p. 185. ISBN 9780252096174. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d Balfour, Michael (1979). Propaganda in War 1939–1945: Organisation, Policies and Publics in Britain and Germany. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 322. ISBN 0-7100-0193-2.
  6. ^ Goebbels - Do you want Total War? | TOTALEN KRIEG |, YouTube User gmshadowtraders, retrieved 24 January 2022
  7. ^ "Goebbels' Total War speech - Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". collections.ushmm.org. Retrieved 24 January 2022.
  8. ^ Longerich 2015, p. 577.
  9. ^ Longerich 2015, p. 643.
  10. ^ Gamm 1993.

Bibliography

External links

January 31, 2023
sportpalast, speech, german, sportpalastrede, total, speech, speech, delivered, german, propaganda, minister, joseph, goebbels, berlin, sportpalast, large, carefully, selected, audience, february, 1943, tide, world, turning, against, nazi, germany, axis, allie. The Sportpalast speech German Sportpalastrede or Total War speech was a speech delivered by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large carefully selected audience on 18 February 1943 as the tide of World War II was turning against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies The speech is particularly notable as Goebbels almost mentions the Holocaust when he begins saying Ausrotten using the German word for extermination but quickly changes it to Ausschaltung i e exclusion This was the same word Heinrich Himmler used on 18 December 1941 when he recorded the outcome of his discussion with Adolf Hitler on the Final Solution wherein he wrote als Partisanen auszurotten exterminate them as partisans Nazi rally on 18 February 1943 at the Berlin Sportpalast the sign says Totaler Krieg Kurzester Krieg Total War Shortest War Sportpalast speech source source Joseph Goebbels s speech in the Sportpalast in 1943 Problems playing this file See media help It is considered the most famous of Joseph Goebbels s speeches 1 The speech was the first public admission by the Nazi leadership that Germany faced serious dangers Goebbels called for a total war German totalen Krieg to secure victory over the Allies and exhorted the German people to continue the war even though it would be long and difficult because as he asserted both Germany s survival and the survival of a non Bolshevist Europe were at stake Contents 1 Background 2 Setting and audience 3 Details 4 Quotes 5 Reception 6 References 6 1 Citations 6 2 Bibliography 7 External linksBackground Edit The Eastern Front in February 1943 After the Axis defeat in late 1942 at the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt a turning point of World War II in Europe occurred on 2 February 1943 as the Battle of Stalingrad ended with the surrender of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus and the German 6th Army to the Soviets 2 At the Casablanca Conference in January Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill had demanded Germany s unconditional surrender 3 and the Soviets encouraged by their victory were beginning to retake territory including Kursk 8 February Rostov on Don 14 February and Kharkiv 16 February After the Axis defeats in Egypt and the subsequent loss of Tripoli 23 January 1943 military setbacks shook Axis morale In the Pacific the Americans had just completed their months long reconquest of Guadalcanal Adolf Hitler responded with the first measures that would lead to the all out mobilization of Germany Prior to the speech the government closed restaurants clubs bars theatres and luxury stores throughout the country so that the civilian population could contribute more to the war 4 Setting and audience EditThe setting of the speech in the Sportpalast placed the audience behind and under a big banner bearing the all capital words TOTALER KRIEG KURZESTER KRIEG total war shortest war along with Nazi banners and Nazi swastikas as seen in pictures and film of the event Although Goebbels claimed that the audience included people from all classes and occupations including soldiers doctors scientists artists engineers and architects teachers white collars the propagandist had carefully selected his listeners to react with appropriate fanaticism Goebbels said to Albert Speer that it was the best trained audience one could find in Germany However the enthusiastic and unified crowd response recorded in the written version is at times not fully supported by the recording 1 Details EditGoebbels reiterated three themes in the speech 5 If the Wehrmacht was not in a position to counter the danger from the Eastern front the German Reich would fall to Bolshevism and the rest of Europe shortly afterwards 5 The Wehrmacht the German people and the Axis Powers alone had the strength to save Europe from this threat 5 Danger was at hand and Germany had to act quickly and decisively 5 In the speech Goebbels elaborated at length what Nazi propaganda asserted was the threat posed by so called International Jewry The goal of Bolshevism is Jewish world revolution They want to bring chaos to the Reich and Europe using the resulting hopelessness and desperation to establish their international Bolshevist concealed capitalist tyranny Rejecting the protests of enemy nations against the Reich s Jewish policies he stated to deafening chants from the audience that Germany intends to take the most radical measures if necessary in good time 1 While Goebbels referred to Soviet mobilization nationwide as devilish he explained that we cannot overcome the Bolshevist danger unless we use equivalent though not identical methods in a total war He then justified the austerity measures enacted explaining them as temporary measures 1 Historically the speech is important in that it marks the first admission by the Party leadership that they were facing problems and launched the mobilization campaign that arguably prolonged the war under the slogan And storm break loose Und Sturm brich los Goebbels claimed that no German was thinking of any compromise and instead that the entire nation is only thinking about a hard war 1 Goebbels attempted to counter reports in the Allied press that German civilians had lost faith in victory by asking the audience a number of questions at the end such as Do you believe with the Fuhrer and us in the final total victory of the German people Are you and the German people willing to work if the Fuhrer orders 10 12 and if necessary 14 hours a day and to give everything for victory Do you want total war If necessary do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today 1 The recorded oral version of the speech differed in some ways from the written record Especially significant is that in the oral vs written record of the speech Goebbels actually begins to mention the extermination of the Jews rather than the less harsh terms used in the written version to describe the solution but catches himself in the middle of the word 1 Quotes EditOriginal German English translationDeutschland jedenfalls hat nicht die Absicht sich dieser judischen Bedrohung zu beugen sondern vielmehr die ihr rechtzeitig wenn notig unter vollkommen und radikalster Ausr schaltung Ausrottung Ausschaltung des Judentums entgegenzutreten Germany in any case has no intention of bowing to this Jewish threat but rather one of confronting it in due time if need be in terms of complete and most radical exterm exclusion lit cutoff of Judaism Ich frage euch Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg Wollt ihr ihn wenn notig totaler und radikaler als wir ihn uns heute uberhaupt erst vorstellen konnen I ask you Do you want the total war Do you want it if necessary more total and radical than anything that we can yet today even conceive Nun Volk steh auf und Sturm brich los Now emph people rise up and storm break loose The last line originated in the poem Manner und Buben Men and Boys by Carl Theodor Korner during the Napoleonic Wars Korner s words had been quoted by Adolf Hitler in his 1920 speech What We Want delivered at Munich s Hofbrauhaus but also by Goebbels himself in older speeches including his 6 July 1932 campaign speech before the Nazis took power in Germany 1 Regarding the word Ausschaltung there is a slight pause when Goebbels say Aussr 6 Ausschaltung means elimination which is fit in the context of the speech 7 Reception EditMillions of Germans listened to Goebbels on the radio as he delivered this speech about the misfortune of the past weeks and an unvarnished picture of the situation By amassing such popular enthusiasm Goebbels wanted to convince Hitler into giving him greater powers in running the war economy 1 Hitler however was not yet ready to bring the economy to a total war footing over the objections of his ministers 8 On 23 July 1944 Goebbels was finally appointed Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War responsible for maximising the manpower for the Wehrmacht and the armaments industry at the expense of sectors of the economy not essential to the war effort 9 The speech also led to the spread of a late war whisper joke popular in Western Germany especially the Ruhr Lieber Tommy fliege weiter wir sind alle Bergarbeiter Fliege weiter nach Berlin da ham se alle Ja geschrien Dear Tommy fly further we re all mine workers here Fly further to Berlin there they ve all screamed Yes 10 References EditCitations Edit a b c d e f g h i Bytwerk Randall 1998 Goebbels 1943 Speech on Total War German Propaganda Archive Calvin University Archived from the original on 3 March 2016 P M H Bell Twelve Turning Points of the Second World War Yale University Press New Haven and London 2011 pp 95 108 The Avalon Project The Casablanca Conference 1943 Yale Law School Archived from the original on 16 July 2013 Retrieved 19 November 2013 Kalshoven Hedda 15 June 2014 Between Two Homelands Letters across the Borders of Nazi Germany University of Illinois Press p 185 ISBN 9780252096174 Retrieved 16 February 2018 a b c d Balfour Michael 1979 Propaganda in War 1939 1945 Organisation Policies and Publics in Britain and Germany Routledge amp Kegan Paul p 322 ISBN 0 7100 0193 2 Goebbels Do you want Total War TOTALEN KRIEG YouTube User gmshadowtraders retrieved 24 January 2022 Goebbels Total War speech Collections Search United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collections ushmm org Retrieved 24 January 2022 Longerich 2015 p 577 Longerich 2015 p 643 Gamm 1993 Bibliography Edit Herf Jeffrey 2005 The Jewish War Goebbels and the Antisemitic Campaigns of the Nazi Propaganda Ministry Holocaust and Genocide Studies 19 1 51 80 doi 10 1093 hgs dci003 Longerich Peter 2015 Goebbels A Biography New York Random House ISBN 978 1400067510 Gamm Hans Jochen 1993 1963 Der Flusterwitz im Dritten Reich Whispering Jokes in the Third Reich PDF in German Munich Zurich Piper ISBN 3 492 11417 2 External links EditEnglish translation at Calvin University Original speech in German on the Internet Archive Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Sportpalast speech amp oldid 1132450710, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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