Hermann Göring… the name is most synonymous with Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. He was the third leader of the SA (Sturmabteilung), a wounded participant of the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich, a member of the Reichstag (later its 16th president), Minister President of Prussia, creator of the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo), commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, Reichsminister of Forestry and Hunting, Reich Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, Reichsminister of Economics, Chairman of the Ministerial Council for Reich Defense, Reichsminister of Aviation, Marshal of the Reich (Reichsmarschall), the immediate successor to the Führer, Der Eiserne (The Iron Man), Der Dicke (The Fat One), the drug addict, the art collector… the portfolio and list of aliases go on and on.
But Hermann Göring had other distinctions. He was a ruthless politician, an anti-Semite, and a key figure responsible for the failings of the Luftwaffe over the skies of Great Britain and Stalingrad. He became persona non grata as the Second World War was coming to a close in Europe. And Hermann Göring was the prize catch in the Allied search for war criminals… the star defendant in the Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46.
However on October 15, 1946, with his sentence of death only hours away from fulfillment, Hermann Göring cheated the hangman! Dead at the age of fifty-three from a vial of cyanide hidden in his mouth, the number-two man of the Nazi hierarchy vainly chose his fate.
For all his crimes, Göring was not a lifelong National Socialist. In his early years, the future Reichsmarschall was a soldier, fighter pilot, and commander during the Great War. Even in defeat, he was hailed as a hero.
But it was the rhetoric and passion of an obscure Austrian corporal in November 1922 that would forever change his image… and his life…
CHILDHOOD
Hermann Wilhelm Göring was born on January 12, 1893 at the Marienbad Sanatorium in Rosenheim, Bavaria. His father, Heinrich Ernst Göring (a former cavalry officer) had been the first Governor-General of German South West Africa (modern-day Namibia)… and was serving as consul general of Haiti. Young Hermann was the fourth of five children by Heinrich’s second wife, Franziska Tiefenbrunn, a Bavarian peasant. At that time, the Göring family’s sole source of income was Heinrich’s pension.
But the family’s fortunes changed… thanks to Hermann’s godfather, Hermann Epenstein, a wealthy Jewish physician and businessman Heinrich had met in Africa. Epenstein first provided the Göring family with a home in Berlin-Friedenau, then a small castle called Veldenstein near Nuremberg. Göring’s mother Franziska soon became Epenstein’s mistress… and remained so for nearly fifteen years. Through service and donations to the Crown, Epenstein was ennobled with the title of Ritter (Knight).
Interested in a career as a soldier from a very early age, Göring enjoyed playing with toy soldiers and dressing up in a Boer uniform his father had given him. He was sent to boarding school at the age of eleven, where the food was poor and discipline was harsh. The young Göring sold a violin to pay for his train ticket home, and then took to his bed feigning illness… until Hermann was told he would not have to return.
Göring continued to enjoy war games, pretending to lay siege to the castle Veldenstein and studying Teutonic legends and sagas. He became a mountain climber, scaling peaks in Germany, at the Mont Blanc massif, and in the Austrian Alps. At sixteen, Göring was sent to a military academy at Berlin Lichterfelde, from which he graduated with distinction
THE SOLDIER
In 1912, Göring joined the Prince Wilhelm Regiment (a.k.a. the Fourth Baden Infantry Regiment Number 112) of the Prussian Army. The next year, his mother had a falling-out with Ritter von Epenstein. The family was forced to leave Veldenstein and moved to Munich. Göring’s father Heinrich died shortly afterwards.
When World War I began in August 1914, Leutnant Hermann Göring was a battalion adjutant stationed with his regiment at Mülhausen, a garrison town less than two kilometers from the French frontier. He saw action in the Battle of the Frontiers and was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class on September 15, 1914.
But Göring’s days as a front line soldier were numbered when he developed rheumatism in his knees due to the damp conditions of trench warfare. During recovery in hospital, his close friend Bruno Loerzer persuaded Göring to join him in the skies!
THE AVIATOR
Göring then requested to join what became known by October 1916 as the Luftstreitkräfte (“air combat forces”) of the German Army. Although his application was turned down, Göring transferred anyway… albeit informally! He was discovered and sentenced to three weeks’ confinement to barracks, but the sentence was never carried out. By the time it was supposed to be imposed, Göring’s association with Loerzer had been made official, and the former managed to enlist as an air observer.
The tandem of Göring and Loerzer was assigned to Feldflieger Abteilung 25 (FFA 25) in the Crown Prince’s German Fifth Army. They flew reconnaissance and bombing missions, targeting among other things the fortifications of Verdun. The Crown Prince promptly decorated both men with the Iron Cross, First Class in March 1915.
Finally, between June and September of that year, Göring received his pilot training in Freiburg. He was then assigned to Jagdstaffel 5. In November 1916, Göring was seriously wounded in the hip during a dogfight, and he took nearly a year to recover. Göring was then transferred to Jagdstaffel 26 (commanded by Loerzer) in mid-February 1917.
However, Göring again spent the next weeks in a military hospital, this time suffering from tonsillitis. In May 1917, he was assigned to command Jagdstaffel 27. Serving with Jastas 5, 26, and 27, he continued to earn victories. In addition to his Iron Crosses, Göring received the Zähringer Lion with swords, the Friedrich Order, the House Order of Hohenzollern with swords (Third Class), and finally the coveted Pour le Mérite in May 1918.
According to Hermann Dahlmann, who knew both men, Göring had Loerzer lobby for the “Blue Max”. By mid-June 1918, he had scored twenty-two victories… but a thorough post-war examination of Allied loss records showed the following:
1. Only two of his awarded victories were doubtful.
2. Three were possible.
3. Seventeen were certain, or highly likely.
On June 6, 1918, following the death of Wilhelm Reinhard (successor to the Red Baron, Manfred von Richthofen), Hermann Göring was made commander of the “Flying Circus”, Jagdgeschwader 1. However, his arrogance made him unpopular with the men of his squadron.
CAPTAIN IN EXILE
In the last days of the war, Göring was repeatedly ordered to withdraw his squadron, first to Tellancourt airdrome, then to Darmstadt. At one point, he was ordered to surrender the aircraft to the Allies… and refused. Many of his pilots intentionally crash-landed their planes to keep them from falling into enemy hands.
From the air, Göring saw many battlefields of the Western Front… including the Vosges and Lorraine in 1915, Verdun and the Somme in 1916, Arras and Flanders in 1917 and the regions between the Marne, Oise and Aisne Rivers in 1918. After the November armistice, the fighter wing was disbanded, and Göring was released from the German Army with the rank of captain.
Like many other German veterans, Göring was a proponent of the stab-in-the-back myth (Dolchstoßlegende). It was believed that the German Army had not lost the war. Instead, it was betrayed by the civilian leadership: Marxists, Jews, and parliamentary politicians who had overthrown the German monarchy.
Göring remained in aviation after the war. He tried barnstorming and briefly worked at Fokker. After spending most of 1919 living in Denmark, Göring moved to Sweden and joined the fledgling air company, Svensk Lufttrafik.
Göring was often hired for private flights as well. During the winter of 1920–1921, he was hired by Count Eric von Rosen to fly him from Stockholm to Rockelstad Castle, at the lake Båven in Sörmland. Upon arrival, Göring was invited to spend the night.
A SERIES OF FIRSTS
Eric von Rosen had been using a swastika as a personal owner’s mark. He originally saw the symbol on runestones in Gotland while at school. Knowing that the symbol signified good luck for the Vikings, von Rosen utilized the symbol and had it carved into all his luggage before going on an expedition to South America in 1901.
Göring had first noted seeing the swastika during his stay in Sweden and at von Rosens’ castle (forged into a metal piece at the fireplace). Little did he know that he would see more of the ancient symbol in the years to come…
It was also at Rockelstad where Göring first met his future first wife, von Rosen’s sister-in-law, Baroness Carin von Kantzow (née Freiin von Fock). Five years older than Göring and estranged from her husband of ten years, Carin had an eight-year-old son named Thomas.
The young German pilot was immediately infatuated and asked Carin to meet him in Stockholm. They arranged a visit at the home of her parents and spent much time together through 1921, when Göring left for Munich to study political science at the university. Soon, Carin obtained a divorce, followed Göring to Munich, and married him on January 3, 1923.
Their first home together was a hunting lodge at Hochkreuth in the Bavarian Alps, near Bayrischzell, about fifty miles from Munich. Later on, they moved to Obermenzing, a suburb of Munich.
But by the time he was married, Hermann Göring had already found the new influence in his life: an unknown soldier turned politician who headed the National Socialist German Workers Party. His name was Adolf Hitler…