The Goebbels Experiment (2005) Biography Documentary (1h 48m)

Through archival footage and dramatic readings of his personal writings, the life of Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels, is examined.

By combining archived footage and excerpts from personal diaries brought dramatically to life by an actor Kenneth Branagh, the filmmakers manage to take viewers into the disquieted mind of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister who unleashed hate and chaos onto the world. Fueled by demons he could never master, which led to manic depression and restless thoughts, Goebbels is also shown to have a caring attitude toward his family, which only underscores the tragedy of his existence.

THE GOEBBELS EXPERIMENT lets the Nazi propaganda mastermind behind Hitler talk directly to you as actor Kenneth Branagh reads pages of the diary he kept without interruption from 1924 to 1945.

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) was a symbol of Germany’s Nazi regime and a twentieth-century icon of maniacal cruelty. His name has been synonymous with cynical, unscrupulous, and at times successful, propaganda. The life of Goebbels is far more complicated and disturbing than labels like "genius of spin" or "Reich Liar-General" would suggest. In their documentary, Lutz Hachmeister and Michael Kloft show for the first time how Goebbels continually "restaged" and reinvented himself – from his early days as a radical "popular socialist" to his tragic end.

The film lets Goebbels speak for himself through the diaries he kept, as never before seen historical footage from German archives traces the life of the second most powerful man of the Third Reich, detailing his initial attraction to the Nazi party and his adoration of Hitler. The result is a fascinating psycho-gram of a man who careened extravagantly between self-pity, wild extermination fantasies, and political excesses.

Director: Lutz Hachmeister

Lutz Hachmeister (born September 10, 1959 in Minden/Westphalia) is a German media historian, award-winning filmmaker and journalist. He particularly gained international attention for directing the 2005 film The Goebbels Experiment, co-produced by the BBC and the Canadian History channel, and featuring Kenneth Branagh as the narrator for the Goebbels Diaries.