The man known to history as Hermann Wilhelm
Goering was born at the Marienbad sanatorium on the 12th of January 1893. Goering was born in the town of Rosenheim,
in the Kingdom of Bavaria to Heinrich Ernst Goering and Franziska Tiefenbrunn. Goering’s father Heinrich had already been
married once and had five children, he would marry Tiefenbrunn at the age of 45 in London
having been sent there by Otto von Bismarck on assignment, to study the British method
of colonial administration. Before studying British colonial administration
methods, he served as a cavalry officer in the Bavarian Army and following his studies,
he was reassigned to the oversight of German territories in Southwest Africa. Heinrich’s time as Minister-Resident for
Southwest Africa would be relatively short, as he would soon be appointed the ambassador
of Haiti. Hermann Goering’s mother, Franziska Tiefenbrunn
had given birth to three other children, Karl, Olga, and Paula before Hermann and when Goering
was born, his mother returned to Haiti without him, leaving him in Früth, Bavaria with a
family friend. For the next three years, Goering would live
with the Gauf family, holding much resentment for his mother for leaving him behind. When they finally reunited in 1896 and she
tried to give him a hug, Goering ran at his mother trying to punch her for leaving him
for so long. The family then moved to Berlin and lived
in Fregestrasse, in the Friedenau suburb and from a very early age, Goering wanted to become
an officer in the German military, like his father. The family dynamic shifted dramatically during
Goering’s childhood, as his father’s friend, Dr. Hermann Epenstein, who was Hermann’s
Godparent, spoiled the Goering children. When Dr. Epenstein returned to Germany, he
bought the castle Mauterndorf in Austria, not far from the Bavarian border. He would also buy a second, smaller castle
called Veldenstein near the city of Nuremberg. Goering would come to see Veldenstein become
the family’s seat of nobility, yet this was only possible due to his affluent godfather. Dr. Epenstein was also friendly with Franziska,
and she would become Epenstein’s mistress, humiliating her frail husband. When Epenstein visited, he would be given
the finest bedroom, with Franziska’s bedroom not far away, while Heinrich was placed on
the ground floor, and was forbidden from entering that part of the castle. He would take little to no part in raising
Goering, as Dr. Epenstein took over the care of the children. Dr. Epenstein was a Christian, as he had been
baptized as a child, yet his family’s roots were Jewish. He would often write to the Goering’s about
directing their children’s lives, in areas such as education, marriage, and investments. While Goering’s father was obsessed with
his past glory, his godfather embodied true power, yet Goering resented the relationship
between Epenstein and his mother. He was spoiled as a child, and received little
discipline, stating he was “Daddy’s darling”. He was a difficult pupil and left his first
school in Fruth in 1900 and in 1904 he was sent to boarding school in Ansbach which he
hated, so much so that he spent his last change on a ticket home, whilst making sure to cut
all the stringed instruments before leaving. His parents insisted he go back to school,
but he stubbornly resisted, he was unable to cope with the restrictions placed upon
him at Ansbach, and he believed his defiance towards authority figures was a sign of natural
heroism. His father said historical greatness “ran
through their blood”, and this saying would inspire Goering towards a grand vision. In 1905, it was agreed upon by his father
and Epenstein to send him to the Cadet School at Karlsruhe in Baden. Ironically, the two did not anticipate Goering’s
positive response to the idea of attending the academy, as he thought it was finally
a school fit for a hero. By 1909, he enrolled into a military training
college at Lichterfelde, near Berlin. He enjoyed the daily regime of military life
and also his solitary nights spent alone. He left Lichterfelde with the highest distinction
available at the academy and by March of 1912, he had joined the Prinz Wilhelm Regiment. He would be part of the 112th Infantry regiment,
stationed at Mülhouse, and by 1913, Goering would become a commissioned officer. It would be only a year later, that the tenuous
friendship with Epenstein would end in 1913, forcing the family from Veldenstein. As a result, Heinrich moved the family to
Berlin, and shortly afterwards, passed away. Though the loss of his father was devastating,
Goering settled into life at Mülhouse and became friends with Lieutenant Bruno Loerzer. Mülhouse was a border garrison town in German
Alsace, with no more than a mile separating Germany and France. Meanwhile, in Sarajevo the Austro-Hungarian
heir apparent to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been assassinated by Gavrilo
Princip, a member of Young Bosnia in 1914. This assassination resulted in the July Crisis,
which saw the diplomatic relationship of European countries deteriorate. When war was declared, Lieutenant Goering
and his men were ordered to retreat behind the Rhine to take up a better defensive position
and the French quickly took the town. One of Goering’s first missions would be
to provide a scouting report of the French position in Mülhouse, although Goering, eager
in the heat of the moment, pushed the French out of the town. He captured four French dragoon horses and
returned to base with his war prizes. On the following day, Goering and his platoon
entered the town on bicycles and engaged the French troops in a skirmish, sending them
into a panic. Goering’s success led him to concoct a plan
to capture General Paul Pau, but a nervous rifleman gave away their position when he
misfired his gun. With their position compromised, the platoon
returned back to base empty handed, leaving Goering bitter about the lost opportunity
to gain instant fame. Goering became an experienced and reliable
junior officer but would be unexpectedly struck down with rheumatism. He was sent to a hospital in Freiburg to recover,
and kept in touch with Loerzer, who had entered into an air training school. Goering applied for a transfer to the training
school but was denied. Despite the official denial, Goering took
the matter into his own hands by arranging his own transfer to be trained as an aviator. Goering would be court-martialed for his actions,
but was never punished, as he was attached to the 25th Field Air Detachment of Crown
Prince Friedrich Wilhelm’s Fifth Army. The two friends carried out reconnaissance
missions, which required photographing and drawing the enemy’s entrenchment and gun
placements. The two became legends, as Goering drew the
chain of forts surrounding Verdun, and shot at enemies with a pistol when Loerzer flew
low enough. The pair would be awarded the first-class
Iron Cross for their bravery. Flying reconnaissance took up much of Goering’s
spring in 1915, and he eventually learned Morse code, enabling him to send messages
down to the base whilst in the sky. The first Morse code message he sent was quote:
“You can stop firing; you won’t hit the bloody target anyhow!”. When the French Air Force commenced a raid
on the Crown Prince’s headquarters during the visit of Crown Princess Cecilie, Goering
and Loerzer responded by badly damaging a French plane with a pistol before dropping
a small bomb on a French aerodrome, as a result of this raid, Goering decided to carry an
improvised machine gun when flying, becoming the first German airman to bring a machine
gun with him into aerial combat. Once aviation technology had improved, Goering
decided he wanted to pilot his own plane rather than being relegated to being just an observer. Goering and Loerzer both attended senior meetings
despite their low rank, but their experience in the air proved too valuable for them to
be left out. At this time, he caught the attention of Crown
Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and returned to Freiburg to gain his wings. He never crashed a plane during his training
and in October of 1915, he gained the title of Jagdflieger, also known as a “pursuit
fighter”. Following the award of his new title, Goering
and Loerzer joined the Jagdstaffel 5, the newest fighter group, which was formed to
fight on the western front. Goering saw aerial combat in November, when
he engaged the new British aircraft, a Handley-Page, this was a large aircraft for the time, supporting
a crew of two, the pilot along with one other person, who would observe, repair, and shoot
at enemy aircraft, although Goering’s Aviatik was more nimble than the Handley-Page, which
allowed him to out maneuver and take its gunner out of action. Goering was attacked by a squad of Sopwith
fighters and his engine and fuel tank were hit, he sustained an injury himself and began
to lose consciousness until the sound of machine gun fire brought him out of his state of shock,
allowing him to pull his throttle up from the nose dive his plane was in. He crash landed in the cemetery of a church
next to a field hospital, where he was pulled from the wreckage and operated on for a critical
wound to his hip, which if not operated on, would have caused him to bleed out. In total, sixty bullet holes were found in
the fuselage of his Aviatik. Goering’s wounds left him out of action
for over a year, but it was during this time that the art of air combat was rapidly developing. This new form of warfare was greatly romanticized
as a deadly duel, in which the ace with the best wit would win the day. In the meantime, Loerzer was appointed as
commandant to Field Squadron 26, based in Mülhouse, where Goering would join him in
1916. Goering’s reputation as a fighter pilot
had spread, and he received the Zaehring Lion with swords, the Karl Friedrich Order along
with the Hohenzollern Medal with swords, third class. In May of 1917, he was put in charge of the
27th air squadron, which flew out of the same airfield as the 26th squadron near Flanders. Goering and Loerzer’s squadrons would combine
to create a new unit called the Jagdgeschwader, commanded by Manfred von Richthofen, also
known as The Red Baron. In 1918, Germany launched an offensive against
the Triple Entente on the western front, but by April, Richthofen was killed in action,
leading to Goering’s rapid rise up the ranks. In May, Goering was preparing to take off
when his adjutant stopped him, informing him he had been awarded the Pour Le Mérite, the
highest honor that could be given to an individual for continual bravery on the battlefield. Richthofen was soon replaced by Captain Reinhardt
in May, but he was killed shortly after crashing an experimental plane Goering had recently
flown himself. On the 7th of July, Goering was selected to
command the Jagdgeschwader, and in a ceremony, he was given the Richthofen emblem, a walking
stick which had been passed down by the previous commanders. Goering would keep this walking stick with
him till the day he died. As the end of the war approached, the orders
the soldiers received became increasingly confusing and hypocritical, for example, on
the 10th of November, he received instructions telling him to surrender their planes to the
American forces whilst another order told him to evacuate all of their equipment to
Darmstadt and then on the 11th of November, the official news of the armistice reached
the troops, along with the order to halt the evacuations, but Goering refused. He instead told his fighters to fly to Darmstadt,
although some would surrender to the French at Strasbourg, as intended, others mistook
Goering’s instructions and flew to Mannheim, where soldiers and worker’s councils had
revolted and confiscated the pilots’ firearms. Word reached Goering and without hesitation,
he and the rest of his squadron flew to Mannheim. Goering threatened he would shoot the airdrome
if the weapons were not released, and the revolutionaries obliged. The squadron flew to Darmstadt, where Goering
ordered them to crash land their planes so they would not fall into the hands of the
enemy. Goering would be honorably discharged from
the German Air Force with the rank of Captain in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg and
it was here that he discovered that he was a gifted orator, and his men would often cheer
him on, as he raged against the German people for their betrayal of the army, who had sacrificed
so much to protect them. Goering lived a nomadic life after his resignation
from the army and would spend some time in Denmark. In 1920, Goering was asked by Count Eric von
Rosen, a renowned explorer, to fly him to his estate on Lake Baven. The weather was horrendous and by the time
they landed on the frozen lake, it was too late for Goering to return. Count Rosen offered Goering to stay the night
in the castle, where he would meet Count Rosen’s wife’s sister Baroness Carin von Kantzow. Goering quickly fell in love with the woman
during the night, as the group sang songs. Carin was five years older than Goering and
was married with an eight-year-old son, but she was estranged from her Swedish husband
and was looking for the love and affection Goering was offering. By the end of Goering’s stay, they had arranged
to meet Carin’s parents at their home in Sweden. Carin’s father was Baron Karl von Frick,
an officer in the Swedish army, while her mother was Baroness Huldini Beamish-Fock,
who was an Englishwoman whose family had lived in Ireland. Carin’s sister, Fanny, was married to Count
Richard von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, who was an officer in the German army, but had been
killed in The Great War. The loss of her brother-in-law made her sympathetic
towards Germany, and also towards Goering, yet the prospect of divorce as well as Goering’s
unemployed status made the match unlikely and so, Goering returned to Berlin in 1921
to enroll in a university to study political science at the age of 28. Meanwhile, Carin convinced her husband to
divorce her and he even gave her a sum of money which would allow her to marry Goering. The couple married in Munich on the 3rd of
February 1922 and moved to Hochkreuth in the Bavarian Alps, roughly 50 miles from Munich. The couple were avid nationalists and it did
not take long for them to become involved in politics. Goering met Hitler in 1922 and soon became
active in the party. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party,
NSDAP, or Nazi Party, was based in Munich, as the Bavarian government was ineffective
at handling radical political parties. The core of the party lay in the Sturmabteilung,
which was composed of working class and ex-military men, who guarded party meetings, whilst also
instigating fights with other political parties. In fact, the NSDAP were a welcomed political
party, as they frequently attacked the Communist party who were not welcomed at all since being
ousted from power. As a result of Goering’s interest in the
party and his prior military experience, Hitler offered Goering a position in the NSDAP as
the leader of the Sturmabteilung. Goering set out two goals as leader, he said
quote: “At first it was important to weld the SA into a stable organization, to discipline
it, and to make of it a completely reliable unit which had to carry out the orders which
I or Adolf Hitler should give it. . . I strive from the beginning to bring into
the SA those members of the party who were young and idealistic enough to devote their
free time and their entire energies to it . . . In the second place, I tried to find
recruits among laborers.” Goering’s exploits from The Great War made
him an ideal candidate to run the SA, as he was held in high regard by counter-revolutionaries,
as well as nationalists, wishing to smash the Communist party. Later in life, Hitler would praise Goering,
whilst also dismissing the later work of Ernst Röhm when he said quote: “He is the only
one of its heads that ran the SA properly. I gave him a disheveled rabble. In a short time, he had organized a division
of eleven thousand men.” The two formed an unlikely duo, as Goering
was a highly decorated officer, receiving orders from Hitler, who was low born and never
achieved a rank higher than a Meldegänger or officer’s runner. It was at this time that the Goerings moved
to a new home in the suburb of Obermenzing in the city of Munich. It was modestly furnished and their home became
the meeting place for the NSDAP. During one of these meetings, Goering would
meet Rudolf Hess, a Great War pilot, Alfred Rosenberg, a self-proclaimed philosopher and
Captain Ernst Röhm, an active military member with connections to weapons depots. These men were needed to formulate the rise
of the NSDAP and were exactly who Goering was comfortable being around. Both Goering and Röhm’s relationship with
Hitler were similar, as Hitler found a way to leverage the best traits out of his leaders
whilst also keeping the unruly aspects in line, furthermore Röhm’s active status
in the Bavarian military allowed for easy recruitment into the SA and whilst Röhm viewed
Goering more as a rival than as an ally, his own memoirs never outright declared his disdain
for the man, after all, Goering was useful, as he was more even tempered and unwilling
to make rash decisions, unlike Röhm, who was given the title of Chief of Staff of the
SA, however it was Goering who was truly in charge. Röhm would not be given command of the SA
until 1930. Yet throughout 1923, Goering strenuously organized
and drilled the SA in the woods outside of Munich and maintained a hesitant relationship
with the state government. Violence erupted between the Communists and
Nazis on the 1st of May 1923, a rallying day for Communist members, and as a result of
the 1st of May incident, Goering and the others were forced to rethink their strategy to grow
the NSDAP. It would not be long before Hitler and Goering
were both begging General von Lossow to join them, as Gustav Stresemann had become Chancellor
and had enacted Martial law, noticing the increased political unrest. In part, this declaration was made because
of the Black Reichswehr, under the direction of Major Buchrucker, who now threatened the
government. The Black Reichswehr was a secret organization
within the Reichswehr which was associated with the secret society known as Feme, an
organization marked by extreme violence, even worse than the street violence perpetrated
by the Nazis and the Communists. Stresemann’s objection towards passive resistance
to the French occupation of the Ruhr deeply infuriated many Germans, especially the Nazi
party. Goering attempted one last time to convince
General von Lossow to break his agreement to stay in line with Berlin, in order to join
them in the coup to unseat Stresemann and his government. This would not come to fruition, leaving Hitler
and Goering without an ally, however a prime opportunity would come along which prompted
the need to act. Gustav von Kahr, the new State Commissioner
of Bavaria, Colonel Hans Ritten von Seisser, the Premier of Bavaria, and General von Lossow
had announced a meeting on the 8th of November 1923 at the Bürgerbräukeller beer hall,
where they were going to give a speech to three thousand people. It was believed by Hitler that Kahr’s intention
behind announcing the meeting, was to declare Bavarian Independence. If this was true, an egotistical Hitler could
not let him steal the glory of revolution. Goering was stressed during the ordeal, as
his mother had just passed, Carin had pneumonia; and all the while he was trying to gather
the storm troopers for the Revolution. Hitler stormed the beer hall and jumped on
the table and fired a shot in the air, shouting “The National Revolution has begun.” Hitler motioned with his gun to the ministers
to leave the room and Goering was able to read the reaction of the crowd. He took the podium and shouted “There is
nothing to fear. We are your friends. You’ve no reason to grumble—you’ve got
your beer!”. Meanwhile, Hitler and the ministers, unwillingly,
formed the new government, believing General Ludendorff was going to be involved, despite
even him not knowing of his involvement. Ludendorff soon arrived and was irate at not
being consulted over the plan. Yet there was a problem, as Hitler had to
leave in order to settle a street fight between the SA and Bavarian soldiers, leaving Ludendorff
in charge of the ministers. The ministers left and abandoned the plot. Kahr quietly moved the states government to
Regensburg, printed pamphlets denouncing their allegiance to the Nazi party, and ensured
the military was not aligned to the Nazi’s. Meanwhile, Goering finally found time to telephone
Carin to tell her not to worry, that he may not come home that night. Even during the coup, his main thought was
with Carin. The situation continued to deteriorate, as
Hitler and Goering did not act as quickly as Röhm had, who had taken over the military
headquarters in Munich. As the morning came, Ludendorff proposed the
group march to the center of Munich, believing the army and police would not fire on them
because of his reputation. By eleven in the morning, Ludendorff led the
column of Nazi’s towards the center of Munich. The column of three thousand had to cross
the Ludwig bridge, in order to reach the inner city of Munich, but armed policemen were blocking
their path. Goering approached alone, informing the officers
that they held hostages, and if they were to use force against the Nazi’s, the hostages
and those who resisted would be shot. The police stood down and allowed the column
to advance, but they had their weapons confiscated as a precaution. Repetition in this paragraph
The group continued through Zweibrückenstrasse, heading towards the War Ministry where Röhm
was being besieged, but in order to get there, they had to pass through the small street
of Residenzstrasse, which was blocked by armed police. The Nazis shouted at the police to surrender,
but shots were fired and the Nazis scattered. Goering was shot in the groin and was bleeding
heavily from his injury. He was taken by stormtroopers into the house
of a furniture dealer named Ballin, and his wife Ilse, who ironically were Jewish, and
Ilse dressed the wound as best she could. Once night had fallen, Goering was sent to
Professor von Ach to treat his injuries. Carin arrived to learn that General von Lossow
had issued a warrant for Goering’s arrest and Goering begged her to help him escape
from Bavaria. Goering’s condition was serious and so he
could not easily be moved, but Carin did receive help from friends in the town of Garmisch
to smuggle him there. Goering’s recovery was slow, as his wounds
became reinfected, leaving him bitter about the situation and before long, Goering’s
presence in Garmisch became well known, and he was arrested and placed under guard at
a hospital. The crowd sympathized with Goering, and mass
demonstrations occurred outside in support and with Carin’s persistence and support
from the police, Goering was smuggled out of Germany and into Austria where he would
be operated on, in a hospital in Innsbruck. Following the surgery, Goering would suffer
with high fevers and excruciating pain, which he would be given morphine for twice a day. As a result of this, Goering would fight morphine
addiction for the rest of his life. Goering spent a considerable amount of time
in exile, prohibited from returning to Germany by Hitler, who refused to let him stand trial
for the failed putsch. His first assignment would be in February
of 1924, when he was to speak at a nationalist convention in Innsbruck. Goering soon took a leadership role for the
Nazi party in Vienna and worked closely with Austrian Nazi Walter Riehl. He stayed at the Tiroler Hof with Carin and
was barely able to pay for their stay, with most of their possessions impounded by the
Bavarian authorities. At the end of the trial in April, Ludendorff
was acquitted, while Hitler was found guilty along, with the other Nazi leadership including
Goering, who was found guilty in absentia. Goering filed for amnesty but never received
it. The results of the trial should have ended
the Nazi party, but instead it resulted in a resurgence, seeing the Nazis earn a seat
in the Reichstag. The Goerings left Austria and travelled through
Italy before stopping in Rome. They would be given an audience with Benito
Mussolini, where they talked at length about the failed Beer Hall Putsch. Following their short stay in Italy, the couple
moved into a flat in Odengarten, Sweden, to take care of Carin’s mother, but Carin’s
own health soon started to decline as she started having epileptic seizures and as she
suffered more from the epileptic episodes, Goering’s health also deteriorated, with
his morphine addiction. In 1927, Paul von Hindenburg was elected President
and issued a general political amnesty, which included Goering, who eagerly returned to
his homeland. Goering worked hard to regain his wealth and
connect with Hitler for employment and political purposes. Goering’s former position as the leader
of the SA was currently occupied by Frank von Pfeffer, a wealthy aristocrat who Hitler
could not afford to dismiss due to his economic advantages. The Nazi Party was fiscally weak and needed
strong economic backers to succeed, and Goering’s vulnerable financial status did not help them. Despite this, Goering was accepted back into
the Nazi Party and sent to Berlin to work on accumulating wealth. It was at this time that Goering’s connection
to the airline industry paid off, as his friend, Erhard Milch, senior executive of Lufthansa,
got him a job, working as a business representative with the Bavarian Moto Works company. By the winter, Goering had successfully petitioned
Hitler that he should be one of the representatives for the Nazi party in the upcoming Reichstag
election. He proved to Hitler he could stand a chance,
as he stood against Otto and Gregor Strasser, the brothers who had earlier broken away from
the Nazi movement, due to their leftist ideology, being driven out eventually by Hitler’s
cult personality. In fact, Goering’s position as a representative
suited the Nazi party, as Goering was able to banter with the elite of society, while
Hitler was terrible at small talk and felt uncomfortable in the company of intellectuals. In the election, the Nazi’s performed poorly,
but Goebbels and Goering both took seats in the Reichstag. Hitler and Goebbels were less than pleased,
but Goering was ecstatic, as it renewed his family’s depleted wealth and allowed them
to move into a modern flat with five rooms at 7 Badenschestrasse. As a Reichstag deputy, he sat on the Communications
committee, which also oversaw the aviation section. He lobbied to increase funding for the airline
industry, which was exclusively held by his friends at Lufthansa, because it was a quote:
“great patriotic task”, which needed fulfillment. In part, this was also a ploy to build up
Germany’s military air defense. The push by Goering to finance these industrial
giants, also worked as a way to bribe the industrialist to side with the Nazi party. Following the victory in the Reichstag, the
Goering family lost Carin’s mother on the 25th of September 1931. Carin was barely well enough to attend the
funeral in Stockholm and Goering returned to Berlin to oversee political matters, but
on the 17th of October, Carin who had been ill with tuberculosis, died of heart failure. Goering was devastated at the loss, and he
returned to Berlin after the funeral, as he believed it was the only way he could get
over her death. After months of political upheaval, and multiple
chancellors resigning from office, Hitler ascended to the Chancellorship on the 30th
of January 1933. The press was ecstatic over the victory of
the Nazi party, and they took to the streets in celebration. Goering held three positions in Hitler’s
cabinet, Minister without Portfolio, Minister of the Interior for Prussia, and Reich Commissioner
of Aviation. As a Minister without Portfolio, he acted
as an ambassador, with the ability to speak on behalf of Nazi Germany. While the Minister of the Interior for Prussia
was technically under former Chancellor von Papen’s supervision, it gave him authority
of the police in the largest and most important German state. Meanwhile, as the Reich Commissioner of Aviation,
he had the honor to develop the Air Force of the Reich. He also maintained his role as president of
the Reichstag, until the Nazis dissolved the Reichstag on the 5th of March 1933. It would also be in early March that the concentration
camps would be founded, although Goering held a different opinion on them compared to the
other Nazi leaders, as he felt their role should be one of re-education for those who
suffered from “political delinquency”. Much of the early history of the camps centers
around the intense rivalry between Goering, Himmler and Röhm. As a result of this rivalry, Goering created
a secret police force which would patrol Prussia. They would eventually become known as the
Geheime Staatspolizei, or Gestapo. Himmler soon became the police chief of Bavaria
and in an effort to keep power away from Himmler, Goering moved the Gestapo on the 26th of April
from the Prussian administration to their own headquarters. Hitler wished to unify the police forces and
gave the Gestapo to Himmler on the 20th of April 1934, the rivalry with Röhm was also
growing at this time, as he was attempting to replace the Reichswehr with the SA, a move
which threatened both Hitler and Goering. As an act of defiance, Röhm helped establish
nearly 50 concentration camps by the end of 1933, in despite of Goering’s so called,
approved, concentration camps. The SS out of their own defiance founded Dachau
Concentration Camp in the Spring of 1933 and fired upon Goering’s men when they tried
to investigate the unauthorized concentration camp. Hitler forced Himmler to close the camp, yet
Goering was outclassed as he lost control of the police to Himmler. Röhm was becoming more bold with his demands,
and as a result, Goering allied with Himmler to try to eliminate him. They needed time before they could move on
Röhm but Goering’s health was starting to fail. Goering had grown fat as a result of inconsistent
eating schedules and overindulgence when entertaining guests. His preferred foods included sandwiches and
beer, along with his favorite which was cake. Goering’s sleeping habits weren’t much
better, as he would stay up late watching films privately, going to bed at 2 or 3 am
and requesting to be woken up at 6:30 although Goering hardly needed to be wakened, since
he suffered from insomnia. In May of 1933, Hitler appointed Goering,
Reich Master of the Hunt and Master of the German Forest. Goering loved the countryside, and quickly
invoked laws to protect wildlife such as elk, bison, boars, swans, and birds of prey. He restricted the number of hunters allowed,
and outlawed poaching, hunting on horseback, or the use of traps. It was also due to this love of the forest
that he purchased prime real estate in the Schorfheide, a vast area near the Baltic Sea
and Polish border. He would build Carinhall in Schorfheide near
a lake called Wackersee and it would be here, where he would create a sanctuary for both
wildlife and himself. It would be a great achievement for Goering,
as he designed every aspect of the house, quote: “down to the door handles”. Just before Himmler took control of the Gestapo
away from Goering, Robert Diels came to him with a new tool he had acquired abroad, which
could be used to listen in on telephone calls. Goering turned it over to his agents and instructed
his research staff officers to start monitoring nearly all high-ranking Nazi officials on
Goering’s list. Goering received a wave of information, including
jokes about him, but he seemed to enjoy them and laugh about it. His most important wiretapping came between
General Werner von Blomberg, Minister of Defense and head of the Reichswehr, Röhm, and Gruppenfuehrer
Karl Ernst. There were frequent conversations held by
von Blomberg over concerns surrounding Röhm usurping control of the army, and his fears
were backed by Röhm and Ernst’s own exchanges. It also confirmed Goering’s suspicions of
Röhm’s hatred for him, as Röhm was heard calling him, “the pig Goering” and “Herr
Reaktion” or Mr. Reaction. Goering and Himmler’s opportunity would
come when Röhm proposed a joint conference between the SA, SS, and Reichswehr. This led to growing resentment of Röhm, and
if Hitler would not stop him, then the army would not support him. The SA was called to Bad Weissee for a leadership
conference, and it was here that the trap would be sprung. Hitler and other top Nazi officials raided
the Hanselbauer Hotel on the 30th of June 1934 and arrested Röhm and other SA leaders. Goering was in Berlin, raiding the SA headquarters
where he meticulously went room to room, pointing at individuals ordering their arrest. The Night of the Long Knives as it would be
known, was an act of political suppression against inner party members, along with outsiders,
in an act to settle political disagreements. The following year, on the 10th of April 1935
Goering would ask Emmy Sonnemann, an actress he had been dating since 1932, to marry him. It was to be a grand event, with great pomp
and circumstance, the streets decorated for the event. Soldiers lined the streets leading to the
cathedral and all traffic was stopped for the procession. Hitler would serve as the best man for Goering
at the wedding. There is a possibility also, that the wedding
occurred at the behest of Hitler, as he believed there were too many eligible men among the
high-ranking Nazi members. Emmy would be crowned as “First Lady of
the Third Reich” by Hitler, and the couple retreated to Carin Hall with a small entourage. Goering slipped away and spent an hour at
Carin’s tomb in the mausoleum. The next morning, Goering and Emmy left for
Wiesbaden and then went on to Yugoslavia for their honeymoon. Goering was promoted to Reichsmarschall on
the 4th of February 1938, following Hitler’s dismissal of six generals for anti-Nazi views,
and his promotion of himself as commander in chief of German armed forces. In March, Austria was invaded and incorporated
into the Nazi Reich under the eyes of Goering. Following their annexation, the Austrian Nazi
party wanted Goering to increase propaganda against the Jewish population. Goering was reluctant, as he enjoyed Jewish
composers and painters, yet believed they were guilty of profiteering and scheming,
leading to the defeat of Germany in World War One. In private conversations with Emmy, he would
say quote: “the Jews were just like any other people, but a bit smarter” which he
would often say with a grin, he would also say that they had good and bad people. He felt squeamish when Goebbels and Himmler
talked about the extermination of the Jews and would often excuse himself. The Goerings had their first and only child,
Edda, on the 2nd of June 1938, and Hitler would act as the newborn’s godfather. In the following year, on the 1st of September
1939, German troops invaded Poland, and Goering would ascend to the pinnacle of his power. Hitler had selected Goering to be his heir
should anything ever happen to him. As the war progressed, Goering started to
argue with Hitler over strategic decisions. Goering wanted to start the air assault on
Britain, while Hitler wanted to hold them for the attack on France. Hitler instead set his eyes on the Nordic
countries, although Goering had personally guaranteed Sweden’s neutrality, despite
Hitler’s own wishes to invade Sweden for their iron ore. Goering was able to broker a treaty, in which
Sweden would remain independent and in return, give the Nazis the iron ore they needed. Following the defeat of the British at Dunkirk,
Goering requested an immediate attack on the British. He believed the disoriented state of the British
military would allow for even the most ill-conceived plan to succeed. Hitler refused, believing Britain would surrender
in the next few weeks, unlike Goering, who knew they would only surrender once the final
blow had been dealt. The good weather turned terrible, which prohibiting
them from flying because Goering wanted the most accurate bombing raids to destroy ports,
factories, and airfields. When the Luftwaffe was finally unleashed,
they met heavy resistance from the RAF. The Luftwaffe lost nearly 1500 planes, as
they underestimated the advancement in British radar and code decryption. This would be the beginning of a yearlong
campaign of bombing England which became known as The Blitz. On the 9th of August 1940, Goering and Hitler
had an argument over their next military moves. Hitler wished to attack the Soviet Union as
a preventative measure. Goering pulled Hitler up on his hypocrisy,
as Hitler had stated in his biography Mein Kampf, he would never involve the German people
in a two-front war, similar to The Great War. Hitler was outraged over Goering’s dismissal
of his plan, and even more so that Goering ignored him to continue arguing his point. Hitler had become obsessed with attacking
the Soviet Union, and Goering pleaded with Hitler to look at Napoleon’s failure to
conquer Russia, as comparable to the British, he argued that the Russians would not broker
peace. In 1941, Goering became involved with his
most infamous interest, his love of art. Goering had long planned the Hermann Goering
Museum, an art gallery which he planned to open in 1953. He loved Renaissance and Dutch paintings,
as he was well versed in the two. He had four stately homes that needed to be
filled, and he enjoyed staring at paintings for hours. Goering had multiple staff members who helped
him acquire the art, he even told them not to worry about the race of the individual
selling the art and instead focus only on the art. When further anti-Jewish laws were enacted,
Goering used his power to assist Jewish art dealers into Switzerland to avoid prosecution. Goering also worked closely with directors
of national institutes such as the Louvre, to build special bunkers to protect the art
from bombing raids. Whilst Goering did protect collections, he
plundered others, having trains full of art shipped back to Germany to be displayed in
public museums or private collections. It was an impressive collection, with superb
record keeping by Andreas Hosfer and his assistant Gisela Limberger. The two created a detailed ledger which included
photographs of every piece of art, when it was bought and sold, along with the specific
detail of what had been restored. All money made from the sale of art would
be directed towards the construction of the Hermann Goering Museum. On the 31st of July 1941, Göring ordered
Himmler’s right hand man Reinhard Heydrich to quote make "necessary preparations" for
a "total solution of the Jewish question". It was this command that would the following
year in January 1942 culminate in Heydrich calling the infamous Wannsee conference, in
which he laid out the details by which millions of Jews across Europe would be exterminated
in purpose-built death camps. Although Goring had little involvement in
the day to day operations of the final solution, he did give the order for the S.S to begin
operations to liquidate the Jews and it was this order more than anything else that would
result in both Goring death sentence in the Nuremberg trials and cement his reputation
as being amongst the primary instigators of the Holocaust. By the end of 1941 and into 1942, it was becoming
clear that the Russian campaign would not be over quickly. The troops, supplies, logistics, and technology
needed to defeat Russia was outpacing the Nazis’ ability to produce them. Goering was still in charge of labor, currency,
and rationing, but this changed on the 21st of March 1942 when he announced Fritz Sauckel
would take over the duties of assigning the use of labor. While Goering was still to be consulted on
the matters, he effectively removed his hands from the cruelty and extermination of the
Jewish people, which was to begin in Eastern Europe. Sauckel filled the factories with slave labor
and ordered they be worked to death. Hitler and Goering’s relationship became
more strained as the war went on, the Allies increasingly became unopposed as the number
of planes protecting German cities diminished. Hitler ordered an all-out assault on England
by the Luftwaffe, a feat which was both impossible and suicidal, and Goering was distraught over
it. Hitler would neither accept Goering’s advice
or take his resignation, Goering was stuck. As the Third Reich was disintegrating, Goering
withdrew himself from the decision-making process, and he wasn’t present during the
D-Day invasion. His last ounce of gravitas was used to release
his nephew who had been arrested following the failed Operation Valkyrie. He was suspected of being part of the coup,
but there was no evidence to prove it. As the Red Army advanced in 1945, they were
closing in on Carin Hall. Goering had the art removed and a demolition
team rig the house to explode. As Germany collapsed, Goering and Emmy escaped
into Bavaria, where US First Lieutenant Jerome N. Shapiro found him stuck in a traffic jam
and brought him into American custody. He remarked how the Goerings where happy to
be found by the Americans, as if they were escaping a bad dream. Goering was taken to the Seventh Army interrogation
center in Augsburg and it was here were he talked freely to the Americans. In the reports, they noted quote: “Goering
is by no means the comical figure he has been depicted so many times in the newspaper reports. He is neither stupid nor a fool…but generally
cool and calculating. He is certainly not a man to be underrated. Although he tried to soft-pedal many of the
most outrageous crimes committed by Germany, he said enough to show that he is as much
responsible for the policies within Germany. Goering is at all times an actor who does
not disappoint his audience….” Goering painted a vivid, startling, and proven
authentic account of life in Nazi Germany which had alluded the allies for so long. He told the allies he was unable to save all
of the art, and some had fallen into the Russians’ hands. Goering helped the allies recover all the
art they could, beside the ones that had fallen into the hands of the Russians in Berlin. Goering was moved to a small suite in the
Palace Hotel at Mondorf in Luxembourg. This would serve as the jail for many high-ranking
Nazis such as Joachim von Ribbentrop, Admiral Karl Doenitz, Albert Speer, and Hjalmar Schacht. It could be said there was some irony, as
Dr. Robert M Kempner was to prosecute the Nuremberg trials, and he was once the youngest
prosecuting counsel in the Prussian Police department when Goering fired him in 1933. Leading up to the trial, Goering was detoxed
from the morphine and lost significant weight. There were unannounced room inspections to
ensure there was no contraband and before the trial, Dr. Kemper indicted Goering with
all four counts: crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity and conspiracy
to plan and commit all three. In a response to the upcoming trial, he said
quote: “it’s just a cut and dried political affair, and I’m prepared for the consequences. I have no doubt that the press will play a
bigger part in the decision than the judges. And I’m sure that the Russian and French
judges, at least, already have their instructions. I can answer for anything I’ve done and
I can’t answer for anything I haven’t done. But the victors are the judges….” The trial at Nuremberg would see the remaining
Nazi leadership turn on one another, mainly Albert Speer and Goering. Goering tried to keep the other Nazis in line,
but Speer won out in the end. Colonel Andrus successfully found a way to
lessen Goering’s influence by separating the lunch groups into specific categories
to minimize Goering’s authority, and it worked. The judges found Goering guilty on all four
counts and sentenced him to death. Goering was to be hung, but he requested to
be executed by firing squad as it was a soldier’s death. His request was denied and the security of
the prison was tightened to prevent the war criminals from cheating the hangman’s noose. In the final days of the war, all Nazi leaders
carried poison with them in case they were captured, yet medicines were heavily monitored
by the guards, preventing the possibility of poison pills being slipped to the defendants. The executions were set for 2 am on the 16th
of October 1946, and the next series of events is where the mystery begins. The prison chaplain, Captain Henry Gerecke
saw Goering in his cell in the evening before his execution and noted his depressed state. When Captain Gerecke left, Lieutenant John
West came for his nightly inspection and found no contraband. West stated Goering was very happy and talked
at length to him during the search. At 9:30 pm, Dr. Pfleucker and Lieutenant Arthur
McLinden visited to give Goering his nightly pill and left three minutes later, when Private
First-Class Gordon Bingham came for guard duty. At 10:30, Private First-Class Harold Johnson
took over for Bingham. Johnson noticed Goering’s body was stiff
and not moving around 10:44 pm and by the time the senior guard officers reached Goering’s
cell, he was dead from cyanide poisoning. Goering wrote two farewell letters, the first
rebuts the claims of the trial, while the second was an affectionate letter to Emmy. He claimed to have always had a vial of cyanide
and he even wrote a letter to Colonel Andrus bragging about having one. In his place, Ribbentrop would be the first
to be executed, with the executions only lasting an hour and fifteen minutes. Their bodies would be placed into caskets
and taken to a crematorium. The building had been heavily guarded in case
of civil disturbance and once the bodies were verified and cremated, they were driven to
the countryside and dumped into a gutter. Hermann Goring remains one of the more complex
and fascinating members of Hitlers’ inner circle, his record as a fighter ace in the
first world war, along with his drug addiction, love of the arts and the finer things in life
undoubtedly make him a compelling figure at first glance. However, he was also, greedy, selfish and
ruthless, as time and again, he schemed against his enemies in the Nazi regime, used his power
to enrich himself and at all times placed his on interests above those of the Nazi Party
and even his country. Furthermore, his place as being one of the
instigators of the Final Solution has ensured that no matter how charismatic or brave he
may have been early in his life, he was in the end corrupted by power, becoming just
another mass murderer addicted to excess. What do you think of Hermann Goering? Do you think he could have mustered the strength
to stand up to Hitler, or was he doomed to cowardice? Please let us know in the comment section
below and in the meantime thank you very much for watching!
