B006OAL1QM EBOK by Heinrich Fraenkel, Roger Manvell

refers to preaching. “I want,” he says, “to be an apostle and a preacher.” The apostate who had lost his faith still needed the flamboyance of a belief. He was for the most part incapable of true emotion; his nature did not extend beyond mere emotionalism. Goebbels' only true feeling was for himself, and he was rapidly developing egomania.
    Without this understanding of Goebbels it is impossible to appreciate what happened when he finally met Hitler. At first he had followed the Strasser line in opposing the Munich school of Nazism and Hitler himself. For example, in September 1925 he writes: “In Munich some stinking trouble in the movement;” and in October: “Telegram from Munich. Am supposed to speak there. Kiss my arse! Letter to Strasser. Hitler not coming. He has been grousing about me. If he reproaches me on 25th October, I'm quitting. I can't bear this any longer. To give one's all, and nothing but reproaches from Hitler himself! … In Munich the bastards and intriguers are agitating. Bloody fools couldn't stand having a man with brains near them. Hence the struggle against Strasser and myself…” and so on, day after day, Goebbels always directly associating himself with the leadership in spite of his junior position in the district office.
    He was automatically opposed to Hitler because Hitler was, or appeared to be, against him. However, the famous public attack by Goebbels on Hitler at Hanover never in fact took place. It is merely one of the many legends associated with his name.
    During this crucial period in the development of the Nazi movement two conferences important in the history of the Party took place. 1 The first, convened by Strasser, was held in Hanover on 25th January 1926; Hitler was not present but sent Gottfried Feder as his representative. The main point at issue was Nazi policy in the referendum concerning the expropriation or otherwise of the property belonging to the former German royal houses. Strasser's strongly Socialist principles demanded expropriation; Hitler, representing the opportunist and essentially non-Socialist opinion of the Munich school, opposed this. Hitler was by now associating with Hohenzollem princes and members of certain aristocratic families prepared to bring a certain social distinction as well as money to the movement. At the Hanover conference, however, Strasser won hands down and an open revolt was staged against Hitler's attempt to dominate the Party because this faction liked to stress the ‘socialist’ aspect of National Socialism. It was on this occasion that Goebbels has always been alleged to have said: “In these circumstances I demand that the petty bourgeois Adolf Hitler be expelled from the National Socialist Party.” Had he done so, he would have boasted about it in his diary. In fact, he never said the words; they were spoken by Bernhardt Rust, who was nevertheless subsequently to become Nazi Minister for Education. Kaufmann, who was among those present, remembers this quite clearly. The con- ference, which was attended by some twenty to thirty Party representatives, took place in Rust's flat, and Goebbels was one of the most vituperative of the speakers for the appropriation of the royal property. But his principal aim, as Kaufmann recollects, was to achieve a personal success in the meeting. He was, after all, only voicing the view of the majority present. The conference was a very excited one lasting for several hours and Kaufmann claims that Gregor Strasser, who was in control of the discussion, rejected Rust's proposal about Hitler as out of order and exaggerated. Feder said nothing except that the outcome of the meeting spelled trouble.
    Goebbels recorded certain reactions to the conference, but not at any length. He claims to have orated about Russia and “our potential relations”. “I spoke for about an hour with everyone listening in breathless tension. Then they all agreed with me enthusiastically. We have won … Finish.