Michael: A Novel (1987) By Joseph Goebbels
 
Joseph Goebbels wrote this novel in 1923, at age 26, two years after he’d taken his Ph.D in literature. The book was originally--and rather appropriately, as things turned out--called “Michael: Pages From a German Destiny,” but the subtitle may have caused some queasy moments for the publishers of this first English edition, who have left it off. Variously rejected by German publishers before the author had made a name for himself in politics, it finally came out in Germany in 1929 and by 1945 had gone through 17 printings. Though the author’s position as Hitler’s propaganda minister certainly didn’t hurt his sales figures, he never got around to composing a sequel. That was perhaps his only known act of mercy, considering the literary quality of this early effort--less a novel than a romantic, rhapsodic and rather sophomoric paean to National Socialist revolution.
 
Joseph Goebbels, born in 1897, aspired to be an author, obtained a Ph.D from the University of Heidelberg in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924, After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted controlling supervision over the news media, arts, and information in Germany. In 1943, Goebbels began to pressure Hitler to introduce measures that would produce "total war", including closing businesses not essential to the war effort, conscripting women into the labor force, and enlisting men in previously exempt occupations into the Wehrmacht. Hitler finally appointed him as Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War on 23 July 1944, whereby Goebbels undertook largely unsuccessful measures to increase the number of people available for armaments production and the Wehrmacht.
 
As the war drew to a close and Nazi Germany faced defeat, his wife, Magda, and their children joined him in Berlin. They moved into Hitler’s bunker. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. Following Hitler’s will, Goebbels succeeded him as Reichschancellor; he served one day in this post. The following day, Goebbels and his wife committed suicide, after poisoning their six children with cyanide.
 
Rare First English Translation and translated by Joachim Neugroschel
 
Soft Cover 
131 Pages 
In Good Condition