Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

Day 99, Monday 8 May 1933: Goebbels tells Germany's theatre directors what the "revolution" expects of the stage

Day 99 of 100

Goebbels tells Germany’s theatre directors what the “revolution” expects of the stage

In the evening Goebbels spoke to theatre directors and actors from across Germany at the Hotel Kaiserhof, with Göring present; the upheaval, he said, was not only political but reached into every area of public life. In Breslau the left-wing lawyer Ernst Eckstein was murdered in the Dürrgoy concentration camp, and in Halle booksellers gave their “word of honour” not to sell blacklisted authors. The Reich Sports Commissioner spoke on all German radio stations, a gas explosion wrecked a house in Zehlendorf, and Gandhi began a three-week fast.

A large corner hotel building with a long facade on a city square
The Hotel Kaiserhof on Wilhelmplatz in Berlin, where Goebbels addressed the theatre directors, photographed in 1931; the archive title also names the neighbouring Trinity Church. For context Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1982-1213-508 / CC-BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Politics and power

Government, terror and persecution

  1. Terror Breslau

    Ernst Eckstein murdered in Breslau-Dürrgoy

    Ernst Eckstein, born in 1897, a lawyer and in the mid-1920s chairman of the Breslau SPD, had been expelled from the party in 1931 for opposing its toleration of Brüning’s government and became a co-founder of the Socialist Workers’ Party (SAP). Arrested in the night after the Reichstag fire, he was murdered in the Breslau-Dürrgoy concentration camp.1

  2. Persecution Halle

    Halle’s booksellers pledge to stop selling banned authors

    In Halle the criminal police officer Reinhart von Eichborn, acting in the name of the nationalist student body, assembled the city’s booksellers and lending-library owners. In the presence of police officers and the police president, they gave their “word of honour” not to lend or sell any book by authors on the students’ index. Since 2 May students and detectives had been going through Halle’s bookshops and libraries collecting “subversive” books.2

  3. Government Berlin

    Göring reins in the Nazi “fighting leagues”

    Göring complained that the Nazi “Fighting League for German Culture” had founded a Reich centre for German theatre at the very moment the Prussian government issued its own theatre decree, and declared that the centre had nothing to do with municipal and state theatres. He also warned that unauthorised interference in businesses by the Fighting League of the Commercial Middle Class would no longer be tolerated.3

Everyday life

What else was happening in Germany

  1. Theatre evening, Berlin, Hotel Kaiserhof, Wilhelmplatz

    Goebbels addresses the theatre

    At a conference in the Hotel Kaiserhof, attended by Göring and by many well-known actors, Goebbels spoke to theatre directors from all over Germany about “the tasks of the German theatre”. The upheaval just completed, he said, was not merely political but extended to every area of public life. Göring followed, speaking sharply against interference in artistic work by over-zealous subordinates.4

  2. Sport evening

    The Sports Commissioner on the radio

    Hans von Tschammer und Osten, Reich Sports Commissioner, spoke on all German stations about his tasks and aims. Most gymnastic and sports federations, he said, wished to keep their own character; but from the Nazi standpoint sport was not about competition or records but the highest service to the fatherland, and no organisation could remain outside the new order.5

  3. Society morning, Berlin-Zehlendorf

    Gas explosion in Zehlendorf

    In the morning gas escaping from a pipe ignited in a private house in Zehlendorf. The blast pushed out the walls of the flat and shattered windows in the house and its neighbours; one person was killed and two were seriously injured.6

Elsewhere in the world

  • India

    Gandhi begins a three-week fast

    At midday Gandhi began a three-week fast in prison at Poona for the cause of the “untouchables” and was then released unconditionally by the Indian government, which feared he might not survive it in custody after sixteen months in prison.7

More pictures

Profile portrait of a thin-faced man with slicked-back dark hair, in a pinstriped suit
Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, in a 1933 press portrait from the Agence Rol. On 8 May 1933 he told the theatre directors at the Hotel Kaiserhof that the upheaval reached into every area of public life. For context Agence Rol. Agence photographique (commanditaire). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  1. Chronik der deutschen Sozialdemokratie, Band 2: Stichtag 8. Mai 1933 Franz Osterroth and Dieter Schuster; electronic edition, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Library
  2. Bücherverbrennungen am 10. Mai 1933: Nicht nur in Berlin Jan Schenck, Deutschland Archiv, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, section on Halle
  3. Dresdner Nachrichten, early edition, 9 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2, "Eine Warnung Görings an die Kampfbünde" (Berlin, 8 May)
  4. Hamburger Fremdenblatt, Reichsausgabe, 9 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2, Goebbels's speech to the theatre directors (Berlin, 8 May)
  5. Hamburgischer Correspondent, 9 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 2, "Dienst am deutschen Vaterland. Aufgaben und Ziele des Reichssportkommissars" (Berlin, 8 May)
  6. Biberacher Zeitung, 9 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 7, "Gasexplosion in Zehlendorf" (Berlin, 8 May)
  7. Kölnische Zeitung, morning edition, 9 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 1, "Gandhi freigelassen" (London, 8 May)

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