Barbara Goette

Barbara Goette
Born	(1908-07-26)26 July 1908 Germany
Died	23 October 1997(1997-10-23) (aged 89) Australia
Nationality	German, British and Australian
Education	mathematics, physics and philosophy
Alma mater	Freiburg University Kiel
Occupation	Academic
Spouse	J.P. Leidig
Children	2 sons

Barbara Goette (26 July 1908 – 23 October 1997) was an academic who lived in Germany and then Australia. She was the private secretary of Ludwig Roselius from 1935 to 1943 who created the Böttcherstraße, Café HAG and financed Focke-Wulf.

Life and career

Barbara matriculated in Kassel in 1928 and began studying mathematics, physics and philosophy at Freiburg University and then Kiel where she took her state examinations in 1934/35. She met Dr Ludwig Roselius through the marriage of her brother to his youngest daughter and he suggested she work for the concern. Barbara became his companion, carer, confidante and collaborator.

On 18/9/1936 during a meeting in Berlin, the RLM recommended reconstruction of Focke-Wulf with 50% going to the Reich (state) and 50% to a large electronics concern.

A short time later the Roselius concern became majority shareholder with 46% and Lorenz (ITT) secured 27.8%. The aircraft company was reconstituted as Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau GmbH. Barbara was instrumental in assisting with this and the Böttcherstrasse was reclassified as 'degenerate art'. Ludwig survived, the FW 200c Grenzmark was numbered D-2600 (Barbara was born on the 26th), safeguarding her legacy in 1939.

After Dr Roselius died in May 1943, and being cheated out of $50 million, she lectured in English at the Humboldt Hochschule in Berlin until the premises were demolished during a bombing raid. In 1944 she started studying for her Ph.D. in philosophy at Kiel where she met Dr J.P. Leidig and they married in February 1945. Shortly after the war she acted as an interpreter for the military police in Gunzenhausen, Bavaria.

In 1950 the family settled in Adelaide, Australia. Dr Leidig died in 1957 and Barbara was left with two sons. She never remarried and taught mathematics at Woodlands for 23 years. One year she had 4 out of the top 10 students in South Australia in her class and she received a congratulatory phone call from the Adelaide University Mathematics Department. She also worked as mathematics teacher until she was 81 at the Muirden College matriculation centre.

A comprehensive posthumous interview by the Australian Our Time Channel 44 program (episode 188) on the life of Barbara Goette went Australia wide in 2015 and is available for viewing as referenced below.

Writings and Publications

While still employed by the Roselius concern, Barbara wrote many articles on Dr Roselius including, 'Ludwig Roselius creates the Böttcherstraße' and 'Politics and Propaganda'. These were to be published by the Angelsachsen-Verlag in better times to come. An unpublished essay 'Ludwig the Philosopher' appears in the book that her son Ludwig wrote with Kevin Lower as researcher and Karen Collins as main editor. This book is a biography dealing mainly with Barbara's life in Germany during the Third Reich. Mounting evidence that a massive dose of digitalis was injected by Hitler's henchmen into Ludwig Roselius on 15/5/1943 in the Hotel Kaiserhof (Berlin). On 26/5/1944 Barbara travelled to Bad Eilsen to meet with Focke-Wulf aircraft designer and engineer Professor Kurt Tank in order to obtain his written contribution for a memorial publication on the life of Ludwig Roselius. Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler saw her English books at Mittersill Castle in Austria and the Gestapo launched an investigation in August 44. Barbara conducted extensive WWII correspondence with Senator Alfred Faust and in 1998 the Bremen State Archives purchased 80 original items from Ludwig Leidig in Australia for a substantial sum. Mitzi Bergel was Barbara's best friend in Australia and every year Barbara hosted a Christmas party in North Adelaide attended by mostly Jewish friends. In 1944 Barbara risked her life by writing exactly the things that had infuriated Hitler in 1936 when he had attacked Dr Roselius and the Böttcherstrasse at the September Nuremberg Party Rally. This ten page essay was approved in September 1944 and was finally published by the Bremen Yearbook in 1951 and is included in the reference section. The controversial aspects were

• The Paula Becker-Modersohn museum which was the first museum in the world dedicated to a female artist and labelled 'degenerate art' by the Nazis.
• The 'Tree of Life' by Bernhard Hoetger depicting a Nordic sacrifice.
• Hoetger's architecture again 'degenerate'.

It was late 1935 when the SS newspaper 'Das Schwarze Korps' launched a vitriolic attack on Ludwig Roselius' Böttcherstrasse.

Movie

In a film version, based on the biographical book Bombshell (ISBN 9781625163462), Jewess Barbara Götte and her boss Ludwig Roselius hatch out a plot to blow up Hitler's Focke-Wulf Fw 200 while he was flying back to Germany from Smolensk in early 1943. The bomb fails to ignite and the Gestapo suspect that Roselius is involved. On the evening of 15/5/1943 in the Hotel Kaiserhof (Berlin) there is a violent confrontation between Hitler and Roselius - Barbara later returns from a ball to find Roselius dead. Alternatively, the Fuhrer prefers Barbara to Eva Braun, falls in love with her and Barbara turns him away from death & destruction thereby saving millions of lives. Screenplay competition results as at 12th May 2021: NY Tri-State Int Film Festival; Selected (Feb 21): UK FF - London; Finalist (Nov 21): Los Angeles Film & Script Fest.; Award (Oct 20): Big Apple FF & Screenplay Comp.; Semi F (Oct 20): North Europe Int. FF; Selected (Feb 21): Screen Power FF ; Honourable Mention (Sept 20): Bucharest Film Awards; Finalist (Jan 21): NY Movie Awards; Selected (Sept 20): Flickers' Rhode Island Int. FF; Semi F (July 20): Evolution! Mallorca Int. FF; Semi F (Sept 20): Feel The Reel Int. FF; Award (July 20): 25th Annual Fade In Awards Drama Comp.; Semi F (July 20): Filmmatic Drama Screenplay Awards; Selected (June 20). Screenplay Regd. WGA East 17th Feb 2021; I341514.