German Leadership

.. and burned the topless towers of Goebbelsdom ..

Unknown private author.

Lida Baarová, Czechooslovak actress, who conducted a two-year affair with Joseph Goebbels, Propaganda Minister of the Third Reich. Goebbels was a serious womanizer but, in most cases, his engagements were opportunistic and less than serious - on his side at least. The Baarová affair was different, proceeding by 1938 to a point that Magda Goebbels sought permission from Hitler to divorce Goebbels. Hitler - who had great regard for Magda (probably greater than his regard for Goebbels, at least personally) - intervened to save the Goebbels marriage, forcing Baarová to leave Germany and desist from relations with Goebbels. A side-effect was the removal of Karl Hanke, Goebbels' State Secretary (Junior Minister) from his post at the Propaganda Ministry; Hanke was a particular friend of Magda, and was rumored to have had an affair with her (in revenge, it was assumed, for the Goebbels-Baarová affair). Baarová went on to feature in a number of Czechoslovak and Italian movies prior to the end of the war, but was imprisoned and subjected to a difficult investigation as to her pro-Nazi activities by the new Czechoslovak authorities thereafter. Charges were eventually dropped due to lack of evidence. Beyond that, her future career did not prosper, although she did achieve a sort of "rehabilitation" after the fall of east European Communism. Karl Hanke went on the serve with distinction as a panzer commander with the 7th Paozer Division in France and, subsequently, served as a Gauleiter (following a falling-out with fellow Goebbels protégé, Divisional commander Erwin Rommel). He ended up as the fifth (and last) Reichfuhrer-SS and a recipient of the "Dead Heroes" German Order in his lifetime - a rare distinction. Hanke was killed when attempting to escape Czechoslovak captivity as the Third Reich disintegrated. Best regards, JR.+