NOSTRADAMUS, ASTROLOGY AND THE BIBLE
substudY "WORLD WAR ii"
Information on dr. P.J. Goebbels
- T.W.M. van Berkel -

Nederlandse versie

Index WORLD WAR II

• The German source text of a.o. What will happen in the near future? (Berlin, 1940 [1939])
• Information on dr. h.c. Hans-Wolfgang Herwarth von Bittenfeld

Some facts about dr. P.J. Goebbels [1]

Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels was born on October 29, 1897, in Rheydt in the Ruhrgebiet, close to Mönchengladbach. His father was a book-keeper in a textile fabric. Goebbels was the third son in a family of five children and raised in a rigid catholic environment.
Because of an infection of the bone marrow of his right leg at the age of four, Goebbels became lame for the rest of his life.
In 1917, Goebbels finished his study at the Rheydt grammar-school with for that time the highest results ever. He applied at the front as a volunteer, but due to his handicap, he was not qualified for military service.
From 1917 he studied art history, germanistics and philosophy in various cities, e.g. Bonn, Freiburg, Heidelberg and Munich. The greater part of these studies were financed by the catholic Albertus Magnus union. In 1921, Goebbels promoted in germanistics at the Bonn university. His promotor was the Jewish professor Max vonWaldberg. In his dissertation, Goebbels discussed the romantic author Wilhem von Schütz. In the next years, also due to the economic circumstances, he could not find emply as a dramatist or a journalist. 
Goebbels considered the Weimar-Republic as a result of the war which Germany had lost in 1918. After the failure in 1919 of the Kapp-Putsch, he hoped that a German red army would restore order. He drifted back and forth between radical nationalistic ideas about decline and new social systems. Factors which influenced his final choice for national-socialism were the economic crisis with its hyperinflation, poverty and unemployment, and the occupation and separation from Germany in January 1923 of the Rhineland by Belgian and French troops. Goebbels got his anti-Semitic and racial ideas from books, notably those, written by Houston Stewart Chamberlain.[2]
In 1924, at a party congress in Weimar of the Nationalsozialistischen Freiheitsbewegung Großdeutschlands, Goebbels met with national-socialist circles. That year's August, in Mönchengladbach, he founded a local group of this movement, which was part of the in those days still forbidden NSDAP. In that month, he also became editor of the national-socialist weekly Völkische Freiheit. This marked his career as a political columnist. In the articles which he wrote for this weekly, he especially attacked Jewish publishers.
In 1925, Goebbels met Hitler for the first time. Notes in the Goebbels' diaries show his admiration for Hitler. That year, he became the private secretary of the national-socialist Gregor Strasser; in September, he became editor of the Nationalsozialistischen Briefe, the newspaper of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nordwest, founded by Gregor Strasser and his brother Otto. By joining the Strasser brothers, Goebbels joined the left wing of the NSDAP. For some time, he dissociated himself from Hitler, who he accused of accepting money from industrials and whose centralistic leadership he criticized. Goebbels advocated the moving of the heart of the NSDAP from Munich to North-Germany; he also wanted that Gregor Strasser would replace Hitler as a party leader and that Hitler would become its honorary president. 
On February 14, 1926, after a talk with Hitler, Goebbels turned his back upon Strasser and unconditionally accepted Hitler's leadership. Hitler appointed him to Gau-leader of Berlin-Brandenburg. In Berlin, he reorganized the Berlin branch of the NSDAP and brought her to power. In July 1927, Goebbels founded Der Angriff, his own propaganda newspaper, which from October 1930 would occur daily. For some months in the winter of 1930/31, he manoeuvred in his political course due to the SA-riots; but in 1931, he followed Hitler's course and in 1934, he was involved in the murder actions against the SA-leader Ernst Röhm and his adherents. 
In May 1928, for the first time in her existence, the NSDAP joined the Reichstag, with twelve representatives, among which Goebbels. In 1930, Goebbels was appointed to Reichspropagandaleiter of the NSDAP and began to organize mass meetings and to prepare the elections of September 1930, in which the number of NSDAP-representatives increased to 107. At that time, his aim was to bring the NSDAP to power by democratic means and next to waive democracy. In his propaganda, he presented the Berlin SA-leader Horst Wessel, who died in February 1930 because of a murder attempt the month before, most likely because of reasons of money, as a victim of communist agitators and therefore as someone who gave his life for the NSDAP. To a poem, written by Wessel, music was added. As a song, this poem became the anthem of the NSDAP.
On December 19, 1931, Goebbels married Magda Quandt-Behrend, born in Berlin on November 11, 1901, who in 1929 was divorced from the industrial Günther Quandt, in those years one of the most wealthy Germans. Hitler was one of the best man of this marriage, from which six children were born. Because of the fact that Hitler was not married, Magda became Germany's First Lady, a position which in 1935 was taken over by the wife of Hermann Göring, prominent member of the NSDAP and supreme commander of the German Luftwaffe. In national-socialist propaganda, the Goebbels family was presented, also by Goebbels himself, as a German model family with pure Aryan children. Both Goebbels and his wife did not bother that much about conjugal fidelity. In 1938 however, one of Goebbels' love affairs resulted in a severe marriage crisis, which was ended by Hitler in the sense that he did not agree to a divorce.

From the foundation of the NSDAP in 1925 until the rise in 1933 of a government, lead by Hitler, propaganda played a key role within the NSDAP. In 1933, as a result, a new ministry was created: the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (RMVP, Promi, on this website called: the Ministry of Propaganda). The ministry was seated at 8-9 Wilhelmstraße, Berlin, in the German administration centre.
Om March 13, 1933, Goebbels, who at first was not appointed as a minister, became appointed as minister of People's Enlightenment and Propanda because of his organizing in February 1933 of the parliamentary elections of March 1933 in which the NSDAP got the absolute majority. He became responsible for "the full task of the mental leading of the nation", as Hitler had formulated it in a decree in June 1933. Other ministries had to hand over some of their fields of work to the Ministry of Propaganda. From the Home Office, fields such as movies, press, radio and theatre were handed over; the Foreign Office handed over the organization of various forms of propaganda abroad.
One of the aspects of Goebbels' propaganda in the years after 1933 was the creation of the image of Hitler as an almost divine Führer. By doing so, he shaped his own impression of Hitler: a brilliant, almighty person who could save the Germans. In that way, Goebbels' propaganda was a real crusade. From a political and private point of view, Goebbels and Hitler were completely committed to each other. In important private matters such as his marriage, and in important political matters, Goebbels did not take any decision by himself, but first talked with Hitler. Hitler in his turn realized that he could not function without his minister of Propaganda. Eventually, Goebbels followed Hitler into death.
In his quality of president of the Reichskulturkammer, Goebbels exercised control over books, films, newspapers, radio, magazines and the cultural and public life in Germany. In 1933, he held a speech in Berlin at the Berliner action of burning books. In 1937, he ordered the confiscation of art which in his eyes was not in keeping with the national-socialist ideology. This could be Jewish art or modern art. Goebbels entitled this art as Entartete Kunst.
At the commemoration in Munich on November 9, 1938 of Hitler's 1923-Bierkellerputsch, Goebbels made an anti-Semitic speech, in which he held the Jews responsible for the attack on November 7, 1938, on Ernst Eduard vom Rath, the secretary of the German embassy in Paris. While referring to pogroms which in the days before took place in Magdeburg-Anhalt and Kurhessen, he implied that it was not up to the NSDAP to prepare or to hold anti-Semitic demonstrations, but that spontaneous riots were not supposed to be suppressed. For Gau-leaders and SA-leaders, this was the sign to set fire, all over Germany, on Jewish stores and synagogues and to violate Jewish cemeteries. In Germany, this so-called Reichskristallnacht (a name, associated with the firelight and sparks in the burning buildings) marked the beginning of the systematic persecution of the Jews. During the riots, which continued until November 13, 1939, tens of thousands of Jews were imprisoned in concentration camps. Later, most of them were released, but hundreds of Jews were murdered or died because of what happened during their arrest.[3]
Shortly after the German invasion on September 1, 1939, in Poland, the position of the Ministry of Propaganda regarding carrying propaganda abroad became undermined for some years in favour of the Foreign Office. By the end of November 1939, in spite of this, Goebbels made plans to use the Centuries for propaganda abroad.
In 1940, Goebbels founded the national-socialist weekly Das Reich, for which he wrote numerous articles about internal and external matters.
In 1941/42, Goebbels organized several actions in Berlin in order to get the city judenfrei.
On February 18, 1943, in the Berlin Sportpalast, after the German defeat at Stalingrad, Goebbels called upon the German nation for a total war. Hitler and his generals did not pay that much attention to it. When on July 20, 1944, count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg failed in his attempt on Hitler, it was Goebbels who quickly took measures in order to suppress revolutions. Hitler placed in in full power for total war. From that time, Goebbels' Ministry of Propaganda had a leading role in propaganda.
On April 29, 1945, together with Martin Bormann, Hitler's secretary, Goebbels was the best man of Hitler's marriage with Eva Braun. One day later, Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. In his testament, Hitler had appointed Goebbels to his successor. On May 1, 1945, Goebbels' wife had their six children killed, after which they themselves committed suicide.

Features of Goebbels' propaganda
In the fifteen years in which he was occupied with propaganda, Goebbels, according to Willi A. Boelcke, who in 1966 and 1967 published and annotated the minutes of the secret daily propaganda meetings in the Ministry of Propaganda in the period 1939-1943, unchained the violent sides of it and made them work in a way which was more horrible and terrifying than ever before. Goebbels' propaganda drenched Germany and reached far beyond her borders. Goebbels' propaganda showed the world its tremendous, destructing and suggestive powers.[4] 
Already in 1933, Goebbels argued that propaganda should be creative, a matter of productive imagination and that a true propagandist was like a true artist. The propaganda had to ensure the government of the support of her people. Goebbels abhorred the people; for him, the people were formed a way by which he could reach his aims. [5]
According to Boelcke, Goebbels' propaganda methods had a couple of features:[6] 

Simplification 
The art to present in the people's language the most primitive arguments; only the language of the people had the power to draw permission from the masses.

Continuous repeat
The incessant hammering in of theses, slogans and solutions until the most stupid people would understand. If lies were used (these lies had to be as credible as possible), they too were repeated continuously.

Taking advantage of emotions and avoiding rationalism
Propaganda has to take advantage of the instinctive and emotional which lives among a people, her feelings and desires. In no way, it should be attempted to gain intellectuals by means of rational arguments.

Manipulation of facts
Facts are presented with a semblance of objectivity. However, these facts are tendentious, coloured by choice and way of presenting. Unwelcome facts are ignored systematically.

Goebbels' mentality; his attitude towards the Centuries

The stories about the roots of national-socialism in occult ideas and traditions and the influence of occultists on prominent national-socialists are countless. Most of these stories are legends, in which facts are subordinated to suppositions, such as the story by Boris von Borresholm and Karena Niehoff about the way Goebbels became in touch with the Centuries.[7]
According to some biographies about Goebbels, he turned his back upon religion (he was raised as a Roman-Catholic) and became an atheist and a rationalist with dreams and desires, such as the dream about Großdeutschland. Boelcke noticed that there were contradictions in Goebbels' character such as paying his contribution to the Church despite his efforts to destroy religion and the rejection of capitalist plutocracy while he himself wanted to live like a millionaire.[8]
According to dr. Hans-Hermann Kritzinger, the author of the national-socialist brochure Der Seher von Salon (Berlin, 1941 [1940]), it was Magda Goebbels who, shortly after the German invasion in September 1939 in Poland, drew her husband's attention to correspondences with Kritzinger's discussion in Mysterien von Sonne und Seele - Psychische Studien zur Klärung der okkulten Probleme (Berlin, 1922 [1921]) of quatrain 03-57, who quoted Carl Loog's comment upon this quatrain in Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus (Pfullingen in Württemberg, 1921 [1920]).[9] Not one biography on Goebbels or his wife show that one of them or both were interested in occultism in general or notably the Centuries.
From a number of notes in the Goebbels diaries it can be derived that first he considered the Centuries to have predictional value, but soon he only used them from a propagandistic point of view in terms of taking advantage of superstition. In connection with the reading on November 21, 1939, of one or more Century-comments in which a crisis in 1939 for England was predicted, he wrote in his diary that in these days the Centuries were quite interesting for Germany and that he hoped that the bold comments would be correct, which would mean that England had nothing to laugh about. On November 22, 1939, he told Hitler that the Centuries, given the circumstances, were most astonishing. Hitler told that when he was young, a gipsy woman wanted to read his hand and then suddenly shrinked back, frightened. He thought that looking into the future was not something that was impossible, but considered it important that someone was ready to act when the circumstances asked him to. From that day on, Goebbels only wrote about the use of the Centuries for psychological warfare. On November 23, 1939, he had a conversation with Hans-Wolfgang Herwarth von Bittenfeld, a retired lieutenant-colonel who worked as an extraordinary chief of the department of Foreign Press in the Ministry of Propaganda. In that conversation, he ordered Herwarth von Bittenfeld to look at Nostradamus. In connection with this conversation, Goebbels noted in his diary that the world was filled with superstition, of which advantage should be taken in order to trip the adversary.[10] It is not clear if Goebbels or Hitler got the idea to use the Centuries for psychological warfare.
Goebbels considered the Centuries to be valuable because they could be explained in many ways, as Martin Henry Sommerfeldt wrote, spokesman of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and in that quality attending the secret daily propaganda meetings in the Ministry of Propaganda; they could be applied in a range of situations and could provoke rumours. According to Sommerfeldt, Goebbels said in a secret daily propaganda meeting that the use of the Centuries for propagandistic purposes was a trick which could be used many times.[11] In the secret daily propaganda meeting of July 22, 1940 for example, Goebbels said about the way in which Nostradamuspropaganda had to be carried out against England, that this had to be carried out preferably by radio and that first it should be explained what Nostradamus predicted correctly about past events, followed by those predictions which announced a destruction in 1940 of London.[12] 
Goebbels wanted to exploit as much as possible the supposed propagandistic value of the Centuries. In a conversation with Kritzinger on December 4, 1939 - the day on which Herwarth von Bittenfeld handed over the first draft of his Nostradamusbrochure - Goebbels ordered Kritzinger, as is supposed in the substudy "World War II", to look for a Nostradamus-expert who could study the Centuries from a propagandistic perspective. First, Kritzinger invited Carl Loog, who in Die Weissagungen des Nostradamus (Pfullingen in Württemberg, 1921 [1920]) linked the end of the time span of quatrain 03-57 to the year 1939 and who had written that in 1939, severe crises would occur in England and Poland, a comment which in 1939 was explained as the fulfillment of Nostradamus' prediction that the German army in September 1939 would invade Poland, which would mark the beginning of the downfall of England. Loog, an adversary of the use of the Centuries for political purposes, told Kritzinger he did not want to do such a job. Eventually, Kritzinger proposed to ask the Swiss astrologer/statistician Karl Ernst Krafft, at that time working at Amt VII - B1 of theReichssicherheitshauptamt as author of "columns", a mixture of economic and political comments and speculations, from time to time based upon planetary cycles. In January 1940, Krafft started to study the Centuries from a propagandistic point of view but he continued to work at Amt VII - B1 and was not transferred to the Ministry of Propaganda.[13]
In connection with January 8, 1940, Goebbels wrote in his diary that a group of experts was founded, which had to supply the necessary nostradamic materials. This date more or less coincides with the date on which Krafft began to study the Centuries in Amt VII-1B of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt.  
It looks as if Goebbels did not have high expectations about the propagandistic impact of his Nostradamuscampaigns. In an entry, connected with January 15, 1940, he wrote that in cooperation with with the Secret Service, nostradamic propaganda material was about to be smuggled into France and the neutral countries. This might help the cause to some extent.[14] 
According to an entry in his diary in connection with May 26, 1940, Goebbels was very satisfied when as a result of his Nostradamuscampaigns, people in France, referred to as the "Sixth Column", asked the French government to end the hopeless war against Germany.[15] In July 1940, he was satisfied when he could conclude that everywhere his Nostradamusbrochures turned out to be sensational.[16] Perhaps it was as a result of these successes that later in the war, in 1942, Goebbels considered to use "Nostradamus" once again in the propaganda, based upon occult material, and that in July 1944 he ordered to write a Nostradamusbrochure, meant for England.[17] In those days, he considered it not well-timed to force up the German morale by means of a Nostradamusbrochure, although he realized himself that a number of predictions in the Centuries could be applied to the circumstances in Germany.[18]

Goebbels' position in the winter of 1939/40

Entries in the Goebbels' diaries and the minutes of the secret daily propaganda meetings show that on November 22, 1939, Goebbels started to make plans to use the Centuries for propaganda. In the preceding months, his position as a minister got quite weakened and he almost had to resign. Further, a restraint was put on the activities of the Ministry of Propaganda.
Goebbels' love-affair in 1938 with the Czechoslovakian actress Lida Baarova reached the proportions of a state affair. Magda Goebbels turned to Hitler with the request that he would dissolve her marriage with Goebbels. Hitler however refused, and Goebbels fell out of favour. Reynhard Heydrich, head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, and Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS and one of the leaders of the NSDAP, people with who Goebbels already had strained relations, were waiting for his fall. He also got in conflict with Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German Secretary of State, about the question which ministry was allowed to carry on propaganda abroad. Von Ribbentrop urged Hitler to solve the matter. On September 8, 1939, Hitler issued a decision (Führer-Erlass) which meant that it was up to the Foreign Office to carry on propaganda abroad. In these days, the position of the Ministry of Propaganda was further weakened by the fact that due to the state of war it was not up to the Ministry of Propaganda to gather news, the ministry became dependant of what was gathered and communicated in military circuits.
On the other hand, the relation between Hitler and Goebbels slowly improved from November 1939. In the winter of 1939/40, Hitler gave Goebbels full power to organize the complete flyer-campaign, directed against France.[19] In the secret daily propaganda meeting of November 3, 1939, Goebbels said that Hitler had proposed to spread the Protocols of the Elder of Zion in France by means of flyers. This was a propagandistic writing in which a secret Jewish government was accused of trying to seize world power.[20] In the secret daily propaganda meeting of November 22, 1939, Goebbels ordered Leopold Gutterer, head in the Ministry of Propaganda of the Propaganda department, to make some proposals to incorporate "Nostradamus" in flyers, directed against France. Two days later, in the meeting of November 25, 1939, Gutterer was urged to produce such a Nostradamus-flyer as soon as possible.[21] Herwarth von Bittenfeld, who on November 23, 1939, was ordered by Goebbels to study Nostradamus, had to point his arrows on England. About Herwarth von Bittenfeld, Goebbels wrote in his diary that he hated England like no-one else; in the Century-comments which Goebbels read in the days before, the fall of England was announced.[22] 
From winter 1939/40 on, Goebbels strained after getting back the fields he had lost to the Foreign Office.[23] Considering Hitler's decision on September 8, 1939, that propaganda abroad was something for the Foreign Office, Goebbels exceeded his powers by ordering Herwarth von Bittenfeld to write a brochure which was meant to be spread in the neutral countries, also because in spring 1940 he used his own contacts to have the translations of these brochures spread. Echoes of this all seem to sound in an entry in the Goebbels' diaries in connection with July 12, 1940, in which he wrote that all abroad, his Nostradamusbrochure turned out to be sensational and that almost no-one knew that it originated from the Ministry of Propaganda, even the Foreign Office groped in the dark.[24]  
Another event, related to this conflict of competency, occurred at the end of May 1940. On May 6, 1940, dr. Werner Wilmanns, head of the Information IV department of the Foreign Office, invited Krafft for a conversation in order to see if he could write a propagandistic Nostradamusbrochure. A letter of Wilmanns, dated on May 27, 1940, to dr. Rahn, deputy chief of the Information department, showed that Krafft complained about the fact that Kritzinger, who according to Krafft was ordered by one dr. Seifert, working in the Ministry of Propaganda, to write a Nostradamusbrochure, tried to filch material from him. In his letter to Rahn, Wilmanns suggested to let this matter rest, since the Foreign Office was qualified to carry on propaganda abroad and since Wilmanns had no doubt about Krafft's qualities as a Century-scholar.[25] Apparently, Wilmanns thought that the attempt of the Ministry of Propaganda to produce and spread a Nostradamusbrochure was doomed to fail and that he considered it not worthwhile to make the Ministry of Propaganda clear that they were not supposed to carry on these kind of activities.

The Ministry of Propaganda versus the Foreign Office
Boelcke noticed that in the course of the war, the Ministry of Propaganda became more and more decisive, whereas the Foreign Office became less and less decisive. [26] To some extent, comparison between the German source text of Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s. and the production and spread of its translations with those of a similar project of the Foreign Office seems to illustrate this observation. In this paragraph, the Nostradamusbrochures which were part of the propaganda series Informations-Schriften, produced by the Foreign Office, are also discussed.

The Ministry of Propaganda: the brochure by Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s.

Op November 29, 1939, Goebbels ordered Herwarth von Bittenfeld to write a Nostradamusbrochure. The German army had finished their campaign in Poland; there were no fights on the European continent. In World War I, Herwarth von Bittenfeld did pioneer work in the propaganda field, something for which in 1941 an dr. h.c. degree was granted to him at the Münster university. At the time of the German invasion in Poland, Herwarth von Bittenfeld started to work for the Ministry of Propaganda, which he considered to be the embodiment of his ideas about propaganda in 1914/18. In the Ministry of Propaganda, he was extraordinary chief of the Foreign Press department.
On December 4, 1939, eleven days after the order, Herwarth von Bittenfeld had completed the first draft of this brochure. Goebbels was quite enthusiastic about it. During the writing of the final version, Herwarth von Bittenfeld was assisted by prof. dr. Karl Bömer, head in the Ministry of Propaganda of the Foreign Press department, and Gutterer. In the secret daily propaganda meeting of December 13, 1939, 20 days after his order to Herwarth von Bittenfeld, Goebbels told that the final text of the brochure was finished. An entry in the Goebbels' diaries in connecting with February 23, 1940, seems to show that one or more translations were finished and that abroad, printers and publishers had to be found.[27] Ths was the responsibility of dr. Ernst Brauweiler, head in the Ministry of Propaganda of the Abroad department. In connection with March 11, 1940, Goebbels wrote in his diary that Brauweiler not yet had taken initiatives, and that it now would be tried to look for printers and publishers in Sweden.[28] In the secret daily propaganda meeting of March 27, 1940, four months and four days after Goebbels' order to Herwarth von Bittenfeld, it was said that from that day on, the translations of the brochure by Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s. could be published in the "neutral countries". In the minutes of the secret daily propaganda meeting of April 24, 1940, it was written that the brochure was published in two countries (according to entries in the Goebbels' diaries in connection with April 24, 1940, these countries were Switzerland and the Netherlands) and that there would be taken care of further spread in a.o. Denmark. However, there are no hints that a Danish translation has taken place. Most probably, the English version was brought into circulation after Italy's participation in the war in July 1940, given the allusions in this version on the fact that Italy participated. A report of Brauweiler about the activities of the Abroad department in the period January-August 1940 shows that the total number of copies of all translations of the text by Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s. was 83.000. There were eight translated versions: A Croatian, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Rumanian, Serb and Swedish version. [29] 
In his speechDie deutsche Kriegspropaganda 1914-18 und heute im Spiegel eigenen Erlebens, held on the occasion of his dr. h.c. degree in philosophy at the Münster university on his birthday on May 23, 1941, Herwarth von Bittenfeld explained another aspect of the propaganda, carried on by the Ministry of Propaganda. In contrast with World War I, he said, propaganda was not carried on while following the army, but ahead of it in order to prepare the way so that the army would be able to give the final blow.[30] This was exactly the fortune of the Dutch and French versions of his Nostradamusbrochure. Shortly before the Westfeldzug on May 10, 1940, they were brought into circulation in Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Entries in the Goebbels diaries, the minutes of the secret daily propaganda meeting of May 26, 1940 and propagandistic articles, written in 1940 by dr. Theodor Fr. Böttiger and dr. E. Noelle, showed its demoralizing impact in France.[31]
Considering all this, it can be concluded that these brochures were brought into circulation in the time in which this was meant and that their impact was according to the expectations.
About the text, written by Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s., it can be noted that it was a series of fragments of three German non-national-socialist Century-comments, one French Century-comment and Kritzinger's Mysterien von Sonne und Seele. In the fragments, taken from the French Century-comment, written by dr. De Fontbrune, England's decline was announced, be it in another context and another era than presented by Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s., who presented these fragments as well as the fragments, taken from the German Century-comments, in the light of the gigantic struggle between England and Germany, a struggle which end more or less was predicted by Nostradamus. In contrast with Krafft, whose brochure will be discussed in the next paragraph, they did not re-interpret quatrains, neither did they pervert them.

The Foreign Office: the brochure by Krafft

In the beginning af May 1940, the Foreign Office contacted the Swiss astrologer/statistician Karl Ernst Krafft, working as a translator at the Deutsche Nachrichtenbüro in Berlin, to see if he could write the text of a Nostradamusbrochure with which the people in neutral countries and countries, hostile to Germany, could be influenced. In April 1940, the Reichssicherheitshauptamt heavily had censored a brochure which Krafft was writing at their order and publication was delayed for a long time. In the brochure which Krafft could write for the Foreign Office, he could incorporate material from the brochure he wrote for the Reichssicherheitshauptamt.  
On May 27, 1940, the conversations between Krafft and the Foreign Office resultet in an agreement. On May 28, 1940, the day on which Belgium capitulated, Krafft started to write his brochure. In France, the campaigns were still in full swing. Dr. Werner Wilmanns, his client, head of the Information IV department of the Foreign Office, expected that it would take about one week for Krafft to write the text. It turned out to be one month; apparently because Krafft and/or Wilmanns awaited the developments in France. Krafft translated a number of quatrains from a propagandistic point of view and came to interpretations from which he concluded, given his own convictions, that Nostradamus had predicted the course of the war. Between June 22, 1940, the date on which France and Germany signed the armistice in Compiègne, and the end of June 1940, i.e. one month after the order, the first draft of Krafft's brochure, entitled Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas, was finished. For comparison: it took Herwarth von Bittenfeld eleven days to finish his first draft. 
The first draft of Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas was submitted to professor Friedrich Berber, head of the Deutschen Institut für Außenpolitische Forschung. On July 23,1940, almost two months after Krafft was ordered to write his brochure, Berber came with additional suggestions. Krafft did not incorporate them. According to Krafft's widow, heavy discussions between Krafft and Wilmanns took place prior to the completion of the final version. Her information turned out not to be reliable, for example: she dated the contacts between Krafft and Wilmanns in autumn 1940, while they dated from May 1940. Whatever this might be, on August 20, 1940, the final version was ready to be translated, almost three months after Krafft being ordered to write. For comparison: within three weeks after the order to write a Nostradamusbrochure, the final version of the text, written by Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s., was ready for translation.
Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas was translated into Danish, Hungarian, Portuguese, Rumanian and Spanish; Krafft himself made a French translation, which he finished in late autumn 1940, about five months after his order. The total number of circulation of the translations is unknown. The Reichskommissariat für die besetzten niederländische Gebiete considered a Dutch translation as superfluous because the brochure Hoe zal deze oorlog eindigen? was already circulating in the Netherlands, reasons for the Foreign Office to try to find out from what authority this brochure originated. However, the occupying authorities in France and Rumania had no such objections, although a French and a Rumanian version of the text, written by Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s., circulated in these countries also. The Foreign Office considered a Flemish translation, but as far as known, such a translation was never published. The German source text has been edited for the purpose of release in Switzerland, but as far as known, no such release happened.
All translations of Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas were published in 1941; Krafft's French translation was printed in April 1941, almost one year after the order. For comparison: about four months went by from the order to Herwarth von Bittenfeld and the publication of the translations of his brochure. 
In retrospect, the delay of about one year must have had a negative impact on the propagandistic power of the translations of Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas. In the summer of 1940, Krafft presented the war as a war, which would reach her final phase at the western front in terms of a German victory over England. The circumstances in 1941 were quite different. The German battle against England was at a low ebb and in June 1941, a two-front war began because of the invasion of the German army in the Soviet-Union, something to which Krafft had made not even the slightest allusion. The contents of the translations of Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas did not match with the phase of the war in which they were published.[32] 
In the case of these Nostradamusbrochures, the differences between the Ministry of Propaganda and the Foreign Office seem to be caused by the length of the communication lines, discussions about the contents and perhaps also because Goebbels clearly set terms for finishing etc., watched closely how things proceeded and took measures when necessary. The final result was that the brochure, made by the Ministry of Propaganda, was published at the appropriate moment and therefore was a bull's eye, whereas the brochure of the Foreign Office was published far too late and therefore, and probably also because of the course of the war, was outdated at the time it was published.

The Foreign Office: Nostradamusbrochures in the series Informations-Schriften
On July 23, 1940, professor Friedrich Berber, head of the Deutschen Institut für Außenpolitische Forschung, who checked the contents of the first draft of Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas, wrote to dr. Rahn, deputy chief of the Information department of the Foreign Office, that the Deutsche Informationsstelle, a department of the Foreign Office, would produce a small Nostradamusbrochure in the propaganda series Informations-Schriften, which notably was spread among war prisoners in German camps. In this brochure, entitled Die Prophezeiungen des Nostradamus, material was copied from Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas and Hoe zal deze oorlog eindigen?. The German and French versions of this brochure were published in 1940 and were quite actual, given the fact that the most recent event, discussed in this brochure, was the capitulation of Paris on June 14, 1940. The Dutch version was published in 1941. The brochure Der Seher von Salon, written by Kritzinger, which contents also can be traced back to the summer of 1940, was also published in 1941.[33]

Means of campaign of the Ministry of Propaganda
The means with which the Ministry of Propaganda carried on Nostradamuscampaigns, are discussed in the Goebbels' diaries, the minutes of the secret daily propaganda meetings and in literature which contains descriptions of Nostradamuscampaigns by the Ministry of Propaganda.

Brochures
Frequently, the Goebbels' diaries and the minutes of the secret daily propaganda meetings contain references to a "Nostradamusbrochure". In the substudy "World War II", it is supposed that these references deal with the text which Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s. wrote in November-December 1939 by order of Goebbels and their translations, published from the end of March 1940.
The brochure Voorspellingen die uitgekomen zijn... (A. de Tombre, Arnhem, NL, 1941) is the Dutch translation of a national-socialist text, written and/or finished between June 1941 and December 1941 by dr. Alexander Centgraf, who after the war wrote Century-comments, using the pseudonym dr. N. Alexander Centurio, and incorporated material which he wrote during the war. Probably, Centgraf wrote this text for anticommunist propaganda campaigns of the Antikomintern, following the invasion on June 22, 1941, of the German army in the Soviet-Union. The Antikomintern was founded in 1933 by dr. Eberhart Taubert, working at the Ministry of Propaganda, and the Ministry of Propaganda supported it in many ways. Due to the non-agression pact in August 1939 between Germany and the Soviet-Union, known as the Molotov - Von Ribbentrop pact, the activities of the Antikomintern were put to an end, until the German invasion in the Soviet-Union. It is not known whether or not Centgraf's text has been translated in other languages than only Dutch.[34]
Notes by Sommerfeldt, dealing with a secret daily propaganda meeting in most likely mid-December f1939, show that a text circulated in the Ministry of Propaganda, which contained at least 33 quatrains, named Zenturien.[35] It is not known if this text ever has been published.
In connection with July 25, 1944, Goebbels wrote in his diary that a new Nostradamusbrochure was written, meant for England.[36] Perhaps this is the brochure Nostradamus and England, to which Centgraf has referred in the 1960-edition of Nostradamus - Der Prophet der Weltgeschichte.[37]

Chain letters
According to the Sommerfeldt notes, Goebbels proposed to spread propaganda, based upon a certain quatrain, by means of a handwritten or typewritten chain letter.[38]
In connection with December 13, 1939, Goebbels wrote in his diary that Taubert brilliantly made some chain letters, based upon "Nostradamus".[39]

Flyers
In the secret daily propaganda meeting of November 22, 1939, Gutterer was ordered to make proposals about a Nostradamusflyer, directed against France. On November 25, 1939, he was urged to do this as quickly as possible.[40] It is not known what this flyer looked like and if it ever was brought into circulation.

Radio
According to the Sommerfeldt notes, Goebbels proposed to broadcast propaganda, based upon a certain quatrain, in France.[41] An entry in the Goebbels' diaries regarding May 25, 1940, and the minutes of the secret daily propaganda meeting of May 26, 1940, show that in those days propagandistic broadcastings took place in France, which contained propaganda, based upon Nostradamus.[42] 
Broadcastings in England which contained propaganda, based upon Nostradamus, which was directed against England, are discussed in a.o. the secret daily propaganda meetings of July 22, 1940 and September 10, 1940.[43] 

Facts and fiction about Goebbels, Krafft and the Ministry of Propaganda

The last theme in this article is the relation between Goebbels, Krafft and the Ministry of Propaganda, a theme about which numerous contradictory stories circulate.
In my opinion, the British researcher Ellic Howe disposed of the most reliable facts regarding the involvement and activities of Krafft in Nostradamus-campaigns. Howe has interviewed two people who had known Krafft personally: prof. dr. Hans-Hermann Kritzinger, who proposed Goebbels to contact Krafft, and Georg Lucht, who assisted Krafft in the period January-April 1940, when Krafft in Amt VII - B1 of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt began with the writing of a brochure, which in autumn 1940 was added as a supplement to a photocopy of a 1568-B.Rigaud-edition of the Centuries which was brought into circulation outside the bookstores in a number of 299 copies. Lucht told Howe that Krafft never met Goebbels.
Howe's conversations with Kritzinger and Lucht, further research by Howe on the life and work of Krafft and additional research by Ulrich Maichle and the author of this article showed the following timetable:

May 1937
Krafft, living in Switzerland, marries Anna Theresia van de Koppel. A couple of months later, they move from Switzerland tu Urberg in the German Black Forest.

October 1939
Krafft begins to work at Amt VII - B1 of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt; he writes economic and political comments and speculations, from time to time based upon planetary cycles. 

November 1939
Krafft is arrested, suspected of being involved in the attempt on Hitler on November 9, 1939, in the Munich Bürgerbraukeller; one of his writings, mentioned above, contained the remark that Hitler's life would be in danger in the days between November 7 and November 10, 1939, and that an attempt by means of explosives could take place. From Freiburg, Krafft is transported to Berlin to be interrogated by the Sicherheitsdienst, who releases him because they have no evidence. 

December 1939
On the proposal of Kritzinger, Krafft is summoned to Berlin in order to find out if he could write propaganda, based upon the Centuries. 

January 1940
Krafft and his wife move from Urberg in the German Black Forest to Berlin; Krafft begins to study the Centuries for Amt VII - B1. 

February 1940
Because of the contents of his correspondence with Viorel Virgil Tilea, the Rumanian ambassador in London, Krafft gets in conflict with his superiors in Amt VII - B1.

March 1940
Because of the contents of his Nostradamusbrochure, Krafft gets in conflict with his superiors in Amt VII - B1; they consider his brochure too radical from a military and political point of view. 

April 1940
Krafft finds a job as a translator at the Deutsche Nachrichtenbüro.

May 1940
Krafft is approached by Wilmanns to write a Nostradamusbrochure for the Foreign Office. It takes Krafft about one month to write the first draft. He writes this brochure in German. Later in 1940, he himself translates his text into French. By October-November 1940, this translation is finished.

End 1940
Krafft shows Lucht some drafts of brochures for the Ministry of Propaganda (on his own request, Lucht was transferred to another office in March 1940 and was no longer involved in Nostradamuscampaigns).

June 1941
Krafft is arrested during the Aktion-Heß, a raid among astrologers and occultists in Germany as a reaction to the flight on May 10, 1941, of Rudolf Heß, Hitler's deputy, to England. Until his death on January 8, 1945 in the Buchenwald concentration camp, where he arrived on November 27, 1944, Krafft spent his life in prison in various locations in Berlin.

Underneath, brief summaries are presented of a number of discussions about Goebbels, Krafft and the Ministry of Propaganda, and comparisons with the time table, published in this article. In some cases, the source of the discussions could be traced. 

De Meern, the Netherlands, December 6, 2007
T.W.M. van Berkel
actualized on March 17, 2008

Notes

1. Concerning biographical data of Joseph and Magda Goebbels, the following sources have been consulted:
   - Fröhlich, dr. E.: Joseph Goebbels and Magda Goebbels, in: Biographisches Lexikon zum Dritten Reich (Frankfurt am Main, 1999, p.149-153);
   - Fröhlich, dr. E.: Goebbels glaubte, was er sagte; Die Ruhr-Besetzung prägte Goebbels and Goebbels war ein Geisteskrieger;; interviews with dr. Elke Fröhlich at the occasion of 60 Jahre Kriegsende (Westdeutsche Rundfunk, March 8, 2005);
   - Zeman, Z.A.B.: De propaganda van de nazi's (Hilversum, 1966 [1964]);
   - de.wikipedia.org. [text]
2. In Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Munich, 1899), Chamberlain (1855-1927), a German scientist from British origin, argued that western society was drenched with the influence of the "Teutonic people" (Germans, Celts, Slaves), the crème de la crème of what he called the "Aryan race". In his eyes, the Aryan race was a superior race. According to Chamberlain, the destruction of the Roman Empire by German tribes had prevented the western society from Semitic supremacy. [text]
3. Prof. dr. Meier Schwarz and Karin Lange: Die "Kristallnacht"-Lüge. [text]
4. Boelcke-1966, p.11. [text]
5. Boelcke-1966, p.14-15 and p.24. [text]
6. Boelcke-1989 (1967), p.15-16. [text]
7. Van Berkel: Dr. Goebbels nach Aufzeichnungen aus seiner Umgebung (B. von Borresholm, K. Niehoff, Berlin, 1949). [text]
8. Boelcke-1966, p.24-25.[text]
9. - Howe, p.220; 
   - Van Berkel: The 1939-fortune of Mysterien von Sonne und Seele. [text]
10. - Fröhlich, p.208; 
    - Van Berkel: The German source text of a.o. Hoe zal deze oorlog eindigen? (Berlin, 1940 [1939]). [text]
11. - Sommerfeldt, p.56-57; 
    - Van Berkel: Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt (M.H. Sommerfeldt, Frankfurt am Main, 1952). [text]
12. Boelcke-1966, p.434. [text]
13. Howe, p.231-233. [text]
14. Fröhlich, p.272. [text]
15. Richter, p.136. [text]
16. Richter, p.218. [text]
17. Maichle: Die Nostradamus-Propaganda der Nazis 1939-1942. [text]
18. Maichle: Die Nostradamus-Propaganda der Nazis 1939-1942. [text]
19. Boelcke-1966, p.34-35. [text]
20. Boelcke-1966, p.217. [text]
21. Boelcke-1966, p.230 and 232. [text]
22. - Fröhlich, p.208; 
    - Van Berkel: The German source text of a.o. Hoe zal deze oorlog eindigen? (Berlin, 1940 [1939]) [text]
23. Boelcke-1966, p.31. [text]
24. Richter, p.218. It was only in December 1940 that it became clear to the Foreign Office that Hoe zal deze oorlog eindigen?, the Dutch translation of the text by Herwarth von Bittenfeld c.s., published in April 1940 by W.J. Ort in The Hague, NL, originated from the Ministry of Propaganda. [text]
25. Wilmanns to Rahn, May 27, 1940, in: Maichle: Die Nostradamus-Propaganda der Nazis 1939-1942. [text]
26. Boelcke-1966, p.35. [text]
27. Fröhlich, p.320. [text]
28. Fröhlich, p.344. [text]
29. Van Berkel: Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas (K.E. Krafft, Berlin, 1940). [tekst]
30. Herwarth von Bittenfeld-1941, p.15-16. [text]
31. - Richter, p.136;
    - Boelcke-1966, p.365;
    - Van Berkel: Die Kolonne des Nostradamus (dr. Th.Fr. Böttiger, Berlin; 1940);
    - Van Berkel: Die Prophezeiungen des Nostradamus (dr. E. Noelle, Berlin, 1940). [text]
32. Van Berkel: Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas (K.E. Krafft, Berlin, 1940). [text]
33. Van Berkel:
    - Die Prophezeiungen des Nostradamus (Informations-Schriften #18, Berlin, 1940);
    - Der Seher von Salon (Informations-Schriften #38, Berlin, 1941). [text]
34. - Maichle: Die Nostradamus-Propaganda der Nazis 1939-1942; 
    - Van Berkel: Voorspellingen die uitgekomen zijn... (A. de Tombre, Arnhem, 1941). [text]
35. - Sommerfeldt, p.56-57; 
    - Van Berkel: Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt (M.H. Sommerfeldt, Frankfurt am Main, 1952). [text]
36. Maichle: Die Nostradamus-Propaganda der Nazis 1939-1942. [text]
37. Howe, p.321-322. [text]
38. Sommerfeldt, p.57. [text]
39. Fröhlich, p.230. [text]
40. Boelcke-1966, p.230 and 232. [text]
41. Sommerfeldt, p.57. [text]
42. Richter, p.134; Boelcke-1966, p.365. [text]
43. Boelcke-1966, p.434 and 498. [text]
44. - Von Borresholm / Niehoff, p.146-149; 
    - Van Berkel: Dr. Goebbels nach Aufzeichnungen aus seiner Umgebung (Von Borresholm/Niehoff, Berlin, 1949). [text]
45. Centurio-1953, p.128. [text]
46. Howe, p.322. [tekst]
47. Centurio-1977 (1966), p.216. [text]
48. Van Berkel: Mysterie 14-18: De Eerste Wereldoorlog onverklaard (R. Heijster, The Hague, 2000 [1999]). [text]
49. Drude-1963, p.331-335. [text]
50. In this article, the online version of Zodiac and Swastika - Astrologer to Himmler's court has been studied, the English translation of Tierkreis und Hakenkreuz, oorspronkelijk originally published in London in 1973 (http://www.skyscript.co.uk/wulffF.html). [text]
51. Van Berkel:
    - Information on the Informations-Schriften (Berlin, 1940-1941);
    - Die Prophezeiungen des Nostradamus (Informations-Schriften #18, Berlin, 1940);
    - Nostradamus sieht die Zukunft Europas (K.E. Krafft, Berlin, 1940). [text]
52. See Randi's entry on Krafft in www.randi.org. In 1990 he published his findings in The mask of Nostradamus (New York). [text]
53. Hofstede, p.172. [text]
54. See http://www.bm-lyon.fr/expo/virtuelles/nostradamus/g+.htm [text]
55. Van Berkel: Comment Nostradamus a-t-il entrevu l'avenir de l'Europe? (K.E. Krafft, Brussels, 1941 [1940]). [text]
56. Van Berkel:
    - Nostradamus or the future foretold (J. Laver, London, 1942); 
    - Nostradamus prophezeit den Kriegsverlauf (L. de Wohl e.a., London, 1943). [text]