The authorship of a cynical winged phrase is often attributed to the German Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. We checked whether it is true.

It should be noted that the mass mention of Joseph Goebbels as the author of this quote is characteristic of the post -Soviet space. It was attributed to the chief Nazi propagandist and editors of the encyclopedia "1000+ brief biographical data", and writers Victor Pelevin and Julian Semenov (minimum twice), and the culturologist Mikhail Epstein, and the last Minister of Culture of the USSR Nikolai Gubenko. Among the examples in the West is a historian David Stark And the philosopher The glory of the Zhezhek.

In general, in the West, the author of aphorism is no less often called another major figure of the Third Reich - German Goering. There are also options with Henry Himmler. The popularity of the phrase is indicated by the fact that it has been used for many decades as a template for similar statements.

One of the first references of Joseph Goebbels in connection with this expression dates from June 13, 1946. Then the representative of the USSR under the UN Security Council Andrei Gromyko Specked The content that Germanic Nazis invest in the concept of “culture”, and cited as an example of the word of the Reich Minister. On Goebbels Referred And another Soviet figure Andrei Upat in the information ballot of the Soviet embassy in the United States, issued in 1943.

Nevertheless, in accessible archives-in Russian, English or German-there are no mention of any specific cases when this or similar phrase would be uttered by someone from the above German figures.

Mikhail Weller, in his lecture, “Russian Classics as Apocrypha”, read at the University of Turin in 1990, attributes The authorship of the phrase to the head of the Hitler Youth Baldurus von Shirah. According to Weller, von Shirah put these words into the character’s mouth of one of his plays. However, Weller is mistaken, and that's why.

In 1933, the German poet, playwright and National Socialist Hans Yost on the occasion of the Nazis arrived at power "Barrier". Judging by the plot, this is exactly the play that Weller is talking about. Her main character is the young German, executed by the French in 1923 for sabotage. In one of the episodes of the play, he talks with a student of Timann, who states: “Wenn Ich Kultur Höre ... Entsichere ich Meinen Browning” (“When I hear the word culture, I remove my browsing from the fuse”). Despite the fact that the protagonist the barrier is shocked by the interlocutor’s warlike mood, after the premiere of the play, this statement gained popularity in the national socialist environment. In particular, it was used by the same Baldur von Shirah in his speech dating from 1938. The Americans saw this vivid episode, accompanied by the removal of the most real pistol, thanks to the propaganda documentary of Frank Kapra “Prelude to the War” of 1942:

The film does not indicate which Nazi pronounces these words from the rostrum. This could give rise to various versions. It should be noted that the word “browning” (the name of the trademark) in those years was a synonym for any pistol, therefore it is not surprising that in some versions of the phrase the word “revolver” appeared.

Thus, the real author of the phrase about the word “culture” and weapons is the German playwright and National Socialist Hans Yost, and none of the major figures of Nazism (Goebbels, Goring, Himmler) was noticed in its citation.