Umysł ideologiczny. Ideologia Josepha Goebbelsa w świetle jego Dzienników 1923–1945
The Ideological Mind. The Ideology of Joseph Goebbels in the Light of His Diaries 1923–1945

Summary/Abstract: This article is an analysis of the ideology of Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of the Third Reich, one of the creators of Nazi ideology and Adolf Hitler’s closest collaborator. The basis of the analysis is his Diaries, revealing a comprehensive picture of Goebbels’ ideological beliefs. For more than twenty years, Goebbels gave expression to his beliefs about the mechanisms determining the functioning of the social world, the nature of races, the necessity of shaping the German nation, ideological dictatorship, the role and content of propaganda, democracy, Hitler as saviour, the right to conquer other nations, the worldwide conspiracy of the Jews and the duty of the ‘final solution’. An exploration of the minister’s ideological dogmas, his historiosophical beliefs, his ideas about other states and nations, his dichotomous vision of the world as a field of inevitable conflicts for global hegemony and survival, and finally on his obsessive anti-Semitism will allow one to understand the causes and meaning of the construction of a totalitarian state, war, and the Holocaust. The article also reflects on the deforming influence of ideology on the interpretation of reality and facts.

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