Page "Joseph Goebbels" Paragraph 23

Goebbels ' words and actions made little impact on the political loyalties of Berlin.

At the 1928 Reichstag elections, the Nazis polled less than 2 % of the vote in Berlin compared with 33 % for the Social Democrats and 25 % for the Communists.

At this election Goebbels was one of the 10 Nazis elected to the Reichstag, which brought him a salary of 750 Reichsmarks a month and immunity from prosecution.

Even when the impact of the Great Depression led to an enormous surge in support for the Nazis across Germany, Berlin resisted the party ’ s appeal more than any other part of Germany: at its peak in 1932, the Nazi Party polled 28 % in Berlin to the combined left ’ s 55 %.

But his outstanding talents, and the obvious fact that he stood high in Hitler ’ s regard, earned Goebbels the grudging respect of the anti-intellectual brawlers of the Nazi movement, who called him " our little doctor " with a mixture of affection and amusement.

By 1928, still aged only 31, he was acknowledged to be one of the inner circle of Nazi leaders.

" The S. A. would have let itself be hacked to bits for him ," wrote Horst Wessel in 1929.