= Very rare first edition. Cover lettering lacks a few flacks of white. Review from a modern English translation of this work in Publisher's Weekly: "This poorly written "novel" in diary form by Hitler's calculating and sinister propaganda minister is, not surprisingly, a compilation of vicious Nazi doctrine. First published in 1929, fouryears before the Nazis seized power in Germany, it was so widely read that it went through 17 editions and appears here in English for the first time. The story concerns a former soldier who finds his university studies hold little meaning in Weimar Germany, which is beset by economic hardship and revolutionary stirrings. Michael abandons his education to help rebuild Germany for the Volk, and his romantic desire to die for the cause becomes reality when he perishes in a coal mine where he works as a laborer. This book is filled with vituperations against Jews, intellectuals, liberals, utopias and Leninism. Its educational value for students of Nazism is debatable since it contains no introduction placing Goebbels or his times in its historical and social context." Joseph Goebbels, born in 1897, aspired to be an author, obtained a Ph.D from the University of Heidelberg in 1921. He joined the Nazi Party in 1924, After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry quickly gained and exerted controlling supervision over the news media, arts, and information in Germany. In 1943, Goebbels began to pressure Hitler to introduce measures that would produce "total war", including closing businesses not essential to the war effort, conscripting women into the labor force, and enlisting men in previously exempt occupations into the Wehrmacht. Hitler finally appointed him as Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War on 23 July 1944, whereby Goebbels undertook largely unsuccessful measures to increase the number of people available for armaments production and the Wehrmacht. As the war drew to a close and Nazi Germany faced defeat, his wife Magda and their children joined him in Berlin. They moved into Hitler’s bunker. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. In accordance with Hitler’s will, Goebbels succeeded him as Reichschancellor; he served one day in this post. The following day, Goebbels and his wife committed suicide, after poisoning their six children with cyanide.