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Concept
Magda Goebbels
Summary
Johanna Maria Magdalena "Magda" Goebbels (née Ritschel; 11 November 1901 – 1 May 1945) was the wife of Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. A prominent member of the Nazi Party, she was a close ally, companion, and political supporter of Adolf Hitler. Some historians refer to her as the unofficial "first lady" of Nazi Germany, while others give that title to Emmy Göring.
With defeat imminent during the Battle of Berlin at the end of World War II in Europe, she and her husband murdered their six children before committing suicide in the Reich Chancellery gardens. Her eldest son, Harald Quandt, from a previous marriage, survived her.
Magda was born in 1901 in Berlin, Germany, to an unwed couple, Auguste Behrend and building contractor and engineer Oskar Ritschel. The couple were married later that year and divorced in either 1904 or 1905. Some sources claim their marriage took place before Magda's birth, although there is no evidence to support the occurrence of a prior wedding. When Magda was five, her mother sent her to Cologne to stay with her ex-husband. In 1908, her mother married Richard Friedländer, a wealthy Jewish merchant who lived in Brussels, and adopted Magda and gave her his surname. In Brussels, Magda was enrolled at the Ursuline Convent in Vilvoorde where she was remembered as "an active and intelligent little girl". Further contacts with Ritschel, a member of the Krefeld Masonic Lodge in Duisburg, suggest that Magda may have been introduced there to Buddhism.
In 2016, it was reported that Friedländer may have been Magda's biological father, as stated in his residency card, found in the Berlin archives by writer and historian Oliver Hilmes. Magda's adoption may have been required for her parents' delayed marriage, to update the girl's 'illegitimate child' status.
From 1908 until the outbreak of World War I, the family remained in Brussels. In 1914, all Germans were forced to leave Belgium as refugees to avoid repercussions from the Belgian people after the German invasion.
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