He was the Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, or Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, officially.

Before the mid-20^th century, propaganda didn't really have a negative connotation. In part thanks to Nazi Germany, since then it has been associated with manipulating the public, but originally it just meant propagating ideas or agitating the public.

Hi, you may be interested in this previous thread

• When Joseph Goebbels becamse Minister of Propaganda, was his job title and description kept secret from the German public or was this widely known and accepted by the German people?

... and you may find these posts on the more general topic of "propaganda" in WWII interesting

• Did the Americans produce more propaganda in WWI than other countries? If so, why?

• In history, was propaganda, as we know it, ever openly referred to as propaganda by the authorities who released it?

All of these posts have been archived by now, so if you have follow-up questions for any of the users, just ask them here and tag their username to notify them