Hermann Wilhelm Göring (also spelled Hermann Goering in English) (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946)
was a prominent and early member of the Nazi party, founder of the Gestapo, and one of the main architects of Nazi
Germany. He is often quoted from the Nuremberg Diary, a book containing interviews of top Nazi Officials during the
Nuremberg Trials, written by an intelligence officer and
psychologist, Gustave
Gilbert. Revisionists claim the most common quote is on the art of manufacturing consent: "Voice or no voice, the people can always
be brought to the bidding of the leaders." His most famous quote in both the German and English languages has been "No enemy
bomber can reach the Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Goering. You may call me Meyer."
Early Life
He was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria
to Heinrich Ernst Göring, a lawyer and colonial bureaucrat, and Franziska. Often apart from his parents, he was educated at a
school in Ansbach before attending cadet
schools at Karlsruhe and Lichterfelde.
In World War I he was commissioned in the infantry. He soon fell ill with
an unidentified disease and was hospitalized for some months. On his return he was deemed unfit for further service. He managed
to argue a post as flying observer with the nascent air force, joining a Field Air Detachment of the Fifth Army. In mid-1915 he
began his pilot training at Freiburg, and on completing the course he was posted to Jagdstaffel 5. He was soon shot down
and spent most of 1916 recovering from his injuries. On his return in November 1916 he joined Jagdstaffel 26, before being
given his first command. In 1917 he was awarded the Pour le
Mérite. On July 7, 1918, after the death
of Manfred von Richthofen, he was made commander of
Jagdgeschwader Freiherr von Richthofen (Geschwader 1). He finished the war as an "ace," with 22 confirmed kills.
In June 1917, after a lengthy dogfight, Göring shot down a novice Australian pilot named Frank Slee. The battle is recounted
flamboyantly in The Rise and Fall of Hermann Goering. Göring landed and met with the Australian, and presented Slee with
his Iron Cross. Years after, Slee gave Göring's Iron Cross to a friend, who later died on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.
He remained in flying after the war, worked briefly at Fokker, tried "barnstorming," and in 1920 he joined Svenska Lufttrafik. He was also listed on the officer rolls of the Reichswehr, the post-World War I peacetime army of Germany, and by 1933
had risen to the rank of Generalmajor. He was made a Generalleutnant in 1935 and then a General in the Luftwaffe
upon its founding later that year.
In Stockholm he met Karin von Kantzow (née Fock, 1888-1931), whom he later married. She died in 1931, and soon after he
married actress Emmy Sonnemann.
Political career
As early as 1922, Göring joined the Nazi Party and initially took over the
SA leadership as the Oberste SA-Führer. After stepping down as the SA Commander, he was appointed an SA-Gruppenführer (Lieutenant General) and held this rank on the SA rolls until
1945.
Having been a member of the Reichstag
since 1928, he became the parliament's president from 1932 to 1933, and was one
of the key figures in the process of Gleichschaltung that
established the Nazi dictatorship.
In its early years, he served as minister in various key positions at both the Reich level and in Prussia, being responsible for the economy as well as the build-up of the German military in
preparation for the war. Among others, he was appointed Reichsluftfahrtminister in 1935, head of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force). In 1939, he became the first Luftwaffe Field Marshall
(Generalfeldmarshal) and by a decree on June 29, 1941, Hitler appointed Göring
his formal successor and promoted him to the rank of Reichsmarshall, the highest military rank of the Greater German Reich.
Reichsmarshall was a special rank intended for Göring and which made him senior to all Army and Air Force Field Marshals.
The Reichstag Fire, according to the Nuremberg testimony of General Franz Halder, was the handiwork of Göring, not of 'Communist instigators.' "At a luncheon on the birthday of
Hitler in 1942..." Halder testifies, "[Göring said]...The only one who really knows about the Reichstag is I, because I set it on
fire!" "With that," said Halder, "he slapped his thigh with the flat of his hand."
Göring was known for his extravagant tastes and garish clothing. As the only major Nazi with a prominent World War I record, he was a key connection between the former corporal Hitler and
the traditional military elite. Göring, married to a Swedish baroness, exulted in
aristocratic trappings and built up a considerable estate, Karinhall, in Prussia
during the Nazi period. Handsome and athletic in his youth, a painful injury sustained during the Beer Hall Putsch left Göring dependent on narcotic pain killers and
contributed to his obesity.
World War II
Once World War II started, Göring became the driving force behind the
failed attempt to force Britain's surrender (or at least acquiescence) by air battle in the Battle of Britain. After that campaign he lost much of his influence in the Nazi hierarchy,
exacerbated by the Luftwaffe's failings in Russia and against the Allied bomber raids.
His reputation for extravagance made him particularly unpopular as ordinary Germans began to suffer deep privations.
Göring was the only WWII recipient of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, awarded to him by Hitler for his leadership of the Luftwaffe
during the conquest of France and the Low Countries. He avidly pursued getting more decorations, in marked contrast to Hitler,
who wore only what he earned in WWI.
Göring also sponsored a ground combat unit, the eponymous Hermann Göring Division, which fought on various fronts with mixed success.
Göring was also placed in charge of bringing into use the vast industrial resources captured during the war, particularly in
the USSR. This proved to be an almost total disaster and little of the
available potential was effectively harnessed for the service of the German military machine. However, Göring became notorious
among the Nazi elite for his pilfering of art and other valuables from occupied Europe.
Göring was the highest figure in the Nazi Hierarchy who had authorized on paper the 'final solution of the Jewish Question', when he issued a memo to SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich to
organize the practical details (which culminated in the Wannsee
Conference). It is almost certain however that Hitler issued a verbal order to Göring in the fall of 1941 to this effect.
In his political testament just before his own suicide, Hitler expelled Göring and
Heinrich Himmler from the party and from all offices of State for
disloyalty to him and negotiations with the enemy without his knowledge and against his wishes, and for illegally attempting to
seize power in the State for themselves. This referred to a telegram which Göring
sent from Berchtesgaden to Hitler in Berlin on April 23, 1945, in
which he offered to take command of the Reich as Hitler's designated successor. Hitler accused Göring of high treason, stripped him of all his offices, and had him placed under arrest by the SS on
April 25.
Capture and Trial
Göring surrendered to American troops on May 8/9, 1945 in Austria and was the highest ranking Nazi official brought before the Nuremberg Trials. Though he defended himself vigorously, he was sentenced
to death; the judgement stated that "his guilt is unique in its enormity". One of his last acts was to ask his brother Albert Göring to look after his wife and daughter. Defying the sentence imposed
by his captors, he committed suicide with a cyanide capsule the night before he was supposed to be hanged. Where
Göring obtained the cyanide, and how he had managed to hide it during his entire imprisonment at Nuremberg, remains a great
unknown of history. In the 1950s, Erich von dem Bach would
claim that he had given Göring the cyanide shortly before Göring's death; however, this claim is most often dismissed. Modern day
theories speculate that Göring had befriended a U.S. Army Lieutenant, stationed at the Nuremberg Trials, who had aided Göring in
obtaining cyanide which had most likely been hidden in Göring's personal effects confiscated by the Army. In 2005, a retired Army
private, Herbert Lee Stivers, claimed that he delivered "medicine" hidden inside a fountain pen to Göring from a German woman he
had met and flirted with. Stivers served in the US 1st
Infantry Division's 26th Regiment, who formed the honor guard for the Nuremberg Trials. Stivers claims to have been unaware of what the "medicine" he delivered actually was
until after Göring's death. After his suicide, Hermann Göring was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Isar river.
The following quotation is held to be oft-stated by Göring: "When I hear the word culture, I reach for my Browning". Whether he used this phrase often or not, he did not
originate it. The quote comes from German playwright Hanns Johst's play
Schlageter, "Wenn ich Kultur höre ... entsichere ich meinen Browning," "Whenever
I hear of culture... I release the safety-catch of my Browning!" (Act 1, Scene 1).
He also said, at the time of the Nuremburg trials, (although not in the courtroom) "......after all, it is the leaders of the
country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a
fascist dictatorship or a parliament or a communist dictatorship ... That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being
attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any
country."
Books about Göring
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