Joseph Goebbels

He was born to the accountant Friedrich Goebbels and his wife Marian (née Oldenhausen) in Rheydt (now Mönchengladbach) in a Catholic area in the Rhineland. Because of a club foot he was rejected when he volunteered for military service at the beginning of World War I. After earning a Ph.D from the University of Heidelberg in 1921, he worked as a journalist and wrote some literature. Joining the Nazi Party in 1924 (his later statement to have joined the party in 1922 belongs to his early lies), he initially opposed Hitler's leadership, but later changed sides to support him. His diary shows many instances of great admiration for Hitler.

He played a large role in helping the Nazis achieve and retain power by creating propaganda to present the Nazi ideology to the German people in a favourable light. He was also a committed anti-Semite, being involved with Kristallnacht in 1938, and later connected with the Nazi Final Solution, especially the deportation of Jews from Berlin.

On February 18, 1943, he delivered the Sportpalast speech, or Total War speech, a prominent speech to motivate the German people to continue the struggle when the tide of World War II was turning against Germany.

During the final stages of the war, before his suicide, Hitler appointed Goebbels Chancellor of Germany in his will (with Karl Dönitz as President—the Führer title was not granted in the will). His government, which lasted only a few hours, was not recognised by the Allied powers.
But, shortly after Hitler had committed suicide, Goebbels added these lines to the "Politic Testament" of his beloved "Führer":

Der Führer hat mir den Befehl gegeben, im Falle des Zusammenbruchs der Verteidigung der Reichshauptstadt Berlin zu verlassen und als führendes Mitglied an einer von ihm ernannten Regierung teilzunehmen. Zum erstenmal in meinem Leben muß ich mich kategorisch weigern, einem Befehl des Führers Folge zu leisten. Meine Frau und meine Kinder schließen sich dieser Weigerung an. Im anderen Falle würde ich mir selbst (...) für mein ganzes ferneres Leben als ein ehrloser Abtrünnling und gemeiner Schuft vorkommen, der mit der Achtung vor sich selbst auch die Achtung seines Volkes verlöre, die die Voraussetzung eines weiteren Dienstes meiner Person an der Zukunftsgestaltung der Deutschen Nation und des Deutschen Reiches bilden müßte.

The Führer has given orders for me to leave Berlin in case of a breakdown of defense of the Capital of the Reich and to participate as a leading member in a government appointed by him. For the first time in my life I must categorically refuse to obey a command of the Führer. My wife and my children agree with this refusal. In any other case I would feel myself (...) a dishonorable renegade and vile scoundrel for my entire further life, who would lose the esteem of himself along with the esteem of his people, both of which would have to form the requirement for further duty of my person in designing the future of the German Nation and the German Reich.