Joseph Goebbels' name

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Halfdan S.
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Re: Joseph Goebbels' name

#16

Post by Halfdan S. » 27 Apr 2021, 21:18

I believe I read this somewhere, can't recall ever having read that it was in honor of his infant son, which to me seems ever stranger than changing a name because it sounded too jewish. Fact is people changed jewish and slavic sounding names for names sounding more germanic.

George L Gregory
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Re: Joseph Goebbels' name

#17

Post by George L Gregory » 27 Apr 2021, 21:32

Halfdan S. wrote:
27 Apr 2021, 21:18
I believe I read this somewhere, can't recall ever having read that it was in honor of his infant son, which to me seems ever stranger than changing a name because it sounded too jewish. Fact is people changed jewish and slavic sounding names for names sounding more germanic.
Granted, but not in the case of Stroop. He changed his first name "due to an ideological setting" in memory of his deceased son.

German Wikipedia uses the reference Ernst Klee, Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich. Wer war was vor und nach 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0, p. 609.


Halfdan S.
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Re: Joseph Goebbels' name

#18

Post by Halfdan S. » 27 Apr 2021, 22:45

Schulz/Zinke: Die General der Waffen-SS und der Polizei, Band 5, p. 555-556:
"... genehmigt ihm "aufgrund weltanschaulicher Einstellung" die Änderung seines Vornamens Josef in den "germanisch klingenderen" Namen Jürgen zu Ehren seines verstorbenen Sohnes."

The Note points at Moczarski, p. 77 and 121 f.:
"Mein Vorname Joseph wurde mir unerträglich. Er widersprach allem Nordischen. Dieser Meinung waren auch meiner Kameraden von der SS ... Darum habe ich ganz schnell den Namenswechsel von Joseph zu Jürgen beantragt."

Without translating the lot, Stroop apparently didn't like his Name because it didn't sound nordic enough, neither did his pals in the SS - so he changed it to something more "germanic".

Sounds a bit bizarre to take a deceased sons name ... makes me think of one of the German Diplomats, can't remember which one at moment, but he changed his first Name, when his older brother died - I believe it had something to do with the elder son always carrying a certain name. But all this is getting a bit astray from the topic of this thread.

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Cantankerous
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Re: Joseph Goebbels' name

#19

Post by Cantankerous » 22 Jun 2021, 22:58

Halfdan S. wrote:
27 Apr 2021, 21:18
I believe I read this somewhere, can't recall ever having read that it was in honor of his infant son, which to me seems ever stranger than changing a name because it sounded too jewish. Fact is people changed jewish and slavic sounding names for names sounding more germanic.
Then why didn't Joseph Goebbels ask that he change his first name from Joseph back to Paul just because Joseph is a Jewish first name (like Joshua, Isaac, Noah, Rebecca, Samuel, and Abraham)?

ManfredV
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Re: Joseph Goebbels' name

#20

Post by ManfredV » 29 Jun 2021, 20:43

Joseph was a common name in Germany. It was given by catholics and Paul Joseph Goebbels came from a catholic family. So why change?

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Re: Joseph Goebbels' name

#21

Post by Br. James » 03 Jul 2021, 21:37

I have always wondered about the choices Joseph Goebbels made in the spelling of both of his names. It would seem that "Josef" is the more usual German spelling, much more so than "Joseph;" and why didn't he use the traditional umlaut and spell his last name "Göbbels?" Also 'too German?' Were these expressions in spelling his attempt to make himself appear to be 'modern' and not stuck in old-fashioned styles and traditions?

Br. James

George L Gregory
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Re: Joseph Goebbels' name

#22

Post by George L Gregory » 05 Jul 2021, 13:35

Br. James wrote:
03 Jul 2021, 21:37
I have always wondered about the choices Joseph Goebbels made in the spelling of both of his names. It would seem that "Josef" is the more usual German spelling, much more so than "Joseph;" and why didn't he use the traditional umlaut and spell his last name "Göbbels?" Also 'too German?' Were these expressions in spelling his attempt to make himself appear to be 'modern' and not stuck in old-fashioned styles and traditions?

Br. James
Hi James,
Goebbels spells his first name Josef. In his maturer years he was to adopt the more normal spelling Joseph.
Heinrich Fraenkel, Roger Manvell, Doctor Goebbels: His Life and Death, page 299.
A surviving poster for one of Goebbels' speeches in May 1926 is revealing: it was produced by the Party in Breslau, and announces a ‘protest meeting’, at which the ‘famous pioneer’ of the Rhineland and the Ruhr will speak on ‘the road to power for workers of the hand and brain’. Goebbels’ name is incorrectly spelt as ‘Göbbels’.
Toby Thacker, Joseph Goebbels: Life and Death, page 80.

According to David Irving, Goebbels name was spelt as “Göbbels” on his birth certificate.

Br. James
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Re: Joseph Goebbels' name

#23

Post by Br. James » 05 Jul 2021, 15:18

Thanks for adding this scholarship, George, which appears to verify that the spelling of Goebbels' family name was his choice and not that of his parents. I continue to wonder about the spelling of "Joseph"...as well as why these choices were originally made!

Br. James

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