It proved to be a most fortunate and far-sighted decision when the Institut fur Zeitgeschichte (Institute for Contemporary History) and the K.G. Saur Verlag (K. G. Saur Publishers) decided to prepare a new -- and above all complete -- edition of the handwritten diary entries, fragments of which had already been published in 1987. In particular, the diary entries that are published here for the first time provide fascinating and hitherto unknown insights into the psyche and character of the diarist, but even more so into the early history of the Nazi Party, into the political developments up to their assumption of power in 1933 and their subsequent brutal consolidation of that power. In contrast to the previous partial editions, the complete edition contains significant diary entries on numerous events of particular historical relevance. The edition of the handwritten diaries is based on the original notebooks written by Goebbels, which were taken to Russia and the USA by the Allied Powers, and a backup commissioned by Goebbels himself using an early form of glass microfiche discovered by the editor in Moscow in 1992, who brought duplicates to Munich.