Sportpalast Speech - Background

Background

Compared to the previous year, 1943 started with Germany suffering major military problems on all fronts. On 2 February the Battle of Stalingrad ended with the surrender of Field Marshal Paulus and the German 6th Army to the Soviets. At the Casablanca Conference, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill demanded Germany's unconditional surrender, and the Soviets, spurred by their victory, were beginning to retake territory, including Kursk (8 February), Rostov (14 February), and Kharkiv (16 February). In North Africa, the Afrika Korps under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was beginning to face setbacks, when German supply ships sailing to Tripoli were sunk by the Allies during January. The Western Desert Campaign had ended with British victory and the Axis were in Tunisia between two Allied forces—one advancing from Algeria and one from Libya. The fortunes of Germany's Axis allies were turning as well. Italy's military collapse had made the war in Africa a largely German operation, and in the Pacific, the Americans had just completed their months-long reconquest of Guadalcanal after the victories at Midway and the Coral Sea.

Adolf Hitler responded with the first measures that would lead to the all-out mobilization of Germany. On 2 February, 100,000 restaurants and clubs were closed throughout the country so that the civilian population could contribute more to the war. Millions of Germans listened to Goebbels on the radio as he delivered this speech about the "misfortune of the past weeks" and an "unvarnished picture of the situation." The audience reacted fanatically, causing an even bigger impact; they were selected by Goebbels to perform appropriately, showing one of his many skills as propaganda minister. Goebbels also wanted, by amassing such popular enthusiasm, to convince Hitler to give him greater powers in running the war economy.