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Hermann Göring

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Reichsmarschall

Hermann Göring
Göring
16th President of the Reichstag
In office
30 August 1932 – 23 April 1945
President
Chancellor
Preceded byPaul Löbe
Succeeded by
Minister President of Prussia
In office
10 April 1933 – 23 April 1945
Governor
Preceded byFranz von Papen
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Reichsstatthalter of Prussia
Acting
In office
25 April 1933[1] – 23 April 1945
Prime MinisterHimself
Preceded byAdolf Hitler
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe
In office
1 March 1935 – 24 April 1945
FührerAdolf Hitler
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byRobert Ritter von Greim
Additional positions
Reichsminister of Forestry
In office
July 1934 – 23 April 1945
President
ChancellorAdolf Hitler
Reich Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan[2]
In office
18 October 1936[2] – 23 April 1945
LeaderAdolf Hitler as Führer
Reichsminister of Economics
In office
26 November 1937 – 15 January 1938
ChancellorAdolf Hitler
Preceded byHjalmar Schacht
Succeeded byWalther Funk
Chairman of the Ministerial Council for Reich Defense[3]
In office
30 August 1939[3] – 23 April 1945
LeaderAdolf Hitler as Führer
Reichsminister of Aviation
In office
27 April 1933 – 23 April 1945
President
ChancellorAdolf Hitler
Oberste SA-Führer
In office
February 1923 – November 1923
Preceded byHans Ulrich Klintzsch
Succeeded byFranz Pfeffer von Salomon
Personal details
Born
Hermann Wilhelm Göring

(1893-01-12)12 January 1893
Rosenheim, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died15 October 1946(1946-10-15) (aged 53)
Nuremberg, Bavaria, Allied-occupied Germany
Cause of deathSuicide
Political partyNazi Party (NSDAP; 1922–1945)
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1923; died 1931)​
​
​
(m. 1935)​
ChildrenEdda Göring
Parents
RelativesAlbert Göring (brother)
ResidenceCarinhall
Occupation
  • Aviator
  • Politician
  • Art collector
CabinetHitler Cabinet
Signature
Military service
Allegiance
Branch/service
Years of service
  • 1912–1918
  • 1923–1945
Rank
CommandsJagdgeschwader 1
Battles/wars
Awards

Hermann Wilhelm Göring (12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German war criminal, politician, and military leader in Nazi Germany. He was one of the most powerful leaders of the Nazi Party (NSDAP).[4]

Göring was responsible for creating the Nazi concentration camps. He also created the Gestapo (the Nazi secret police), which he handed over to SS chief Heinrich Himmler. In 1941, he gave Reinhard Heydrich the order to arrange the Final Solution to kill millions of Jews.[5][4]

Göring was one of the 25 people charged at the Nuremberg Trials. He was found guilty, and hours before his execution, he killed himself in Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany.[6]

Early life

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Hermann Göring in 1907

Birth and infancy

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Göring was born in Rosenheim, Upper Bavaria, Bavaria, Germany on 12 January 1893. His parents were Ernst Heinrich Göring and Franziska Göring (born Franziska Tiefenbrunn).

Hermann Göring had two brothers, Albert and Karl Ernst, and two sisters, Olga Therese Sophie and Paula Elisabeth Rosa.[7]

Göring's father was a judge. In 1885 the German chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, made Ernst Göring the first Reichskommissar (Governor-General) of South West Africa (which is now Namibia).[8]

When Göring was born, his father was serving as consul general in Haiti.[9] His mother came home to give birth to Hermann and stayed for six weeks. Then she left the six-week-old baby with a friend in Bavaria.[9] Neither of Hermann Göring's parents saw him until they returned to Germany three years later.[9]

Childhood and adolescence

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Starting in 1901, Hermann Göring lived with a man named Hermann Epenstein, a wealthy doctor and businessman whose father was Jewish. Göring's father had met Epenstein in Africa. The Görings lived in his house, and later in one of his mansions.[10] Epenstein and Göring's mother began an affair, which they continued for 15 years.[11] Epenstein became Göring's godfather.[12]

Göring attended the grammar schools in Fürth and Ansbach. In the games he played as a child, the story was always about war.[13]

In 1905, he went to a military school in Karlsruhe. He got his Abitur, and an officer exam, in 1912. He was assigned to the Bavarian Prinz Wilhelm Regiment (112th Infantry) in Mulhouse.[14]

In the First World War

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When the First World War started, Göring was a Lieutenant. He had served in the infantry. In 1915, because of his rheumatism, he had to go to a hospital.[15] His friend, Bruno Loerzer, got him to join the air force.

In France, he flew as an observer, a person who looked for targets and enemy planes. In 1915, he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class for his work.[16]

In 1916, he was trained to fly a plane. On 14 March of that year, he shot down his first bomber. The following year, he became the leader of the 27th Flying Group.[16]

In 1918, after he shot down his 19th enemy plane, Göring was awarded the highest air force award in Germany: the Pour le Mérite (also called "The Blue Max").[15] After the death of Manfred von Richthofen, a German fighter pilot, he became the leader of the flying group "The Red Baron".[16]

In the Weimar Republic

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Between 1919 and 1921, Göring worked as a stunt pilot in Scandinavia. In November 1922, he met Adolf Hitler and later became a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP).[16]

In 1923 he married Carin von Kantzow in Stockholm, Sweden on 3 February 1923.[17]

Also in 1923, while leading the SA (Oberste SA-Führer), Göring participated in the Beer Hall Putsch with Hitler and was wounded. Afterward he went to Austria, but continued to have chronic pain from his injury. A doctor prescribed morphine, but Göring became dependent on it.[18]

Between 1925 and 1926, he was treated twice at the Långbro mental hospital in Sweden.[19] He came back to Germany in 1927.[20]

In 1928, he became a member of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic.[21][unreliable source?] He remained a member until the end of the Second World War.[16]

In 1932, the NSDAP became the most powerful party of the Reichstag. Göring then became speaker of the Reichstag.[22]

During the Third Reich

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Hermann Göring (left) and Adolf Hitler (right) in 1939
Detention report and mugshots of Hermann Göring

Between 1932 and 1945, he was President of the German Reichstag and also a minister of the Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. In the Second World War, he was the Commander-in-Chief of the German air force.[22]

1932-1939

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Göring became President of the German Reichstag in 1932. The following year, Hitler became chancellor of the Weimar Republic. He made Göring a minister of the Reich without a specific area of responsibility. This meant that Göring did not lead any particular ministry.

In April 1933, he was made minister president of Prussia. Then, on 30 August 1933, Paul von Hindenburg made Göring a General.[16]

Between 1934 and 1935 he became minister of several agencies. His wife had died in 1931, and in 1935 he married Emmy Sonnemann in Berlin.[23]

In 1936, he sent the German Condor Legion to Spain to help Francisco Franco.

After the Kristallnacht in 1938, he was in charge of removing Jewish businessmen from the German economic system.[24]

During Second World War, his biggest defeat was the loss of the air battle against Great Britain.[25] He worked closely with Hitler, who said in 1939 that if he died, he wanted Göring to take his place. [26]

1940-1945

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In 1940, Hitler made Göring Reichsmarschall (Marshal of the Empire)[27] The following year, Göring ordered Heydrich to make a plan for the Holocaust.[28]

In 1942, he gave Fritz Sauckel the order to use the Russian population for industry-work.[29]

On 20 April 1945, he left Hitler's birthday party and went to Berchtesgaden. He told Hitler that he had very important things to do in south Germany.[30] From Berchtesgaden, Göring sent a telegram to Hitler in Berlin. In the telegram Göring asked about taking over the affairs of state.[16]

Demotion

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Towards the end of the war, after the telegram, Göring started to talk with the Allies. Hitler found out. On 29 April 1945, in the last days of the war, Hitler ordered Göring's arrest. He also removed Göring from all of his leadership positions and kicked him out of the Nazi Party.

On 8 May 1945, Nazi Germany officially surrendered and World War II ended in Europe. The next day, Göring surrendered to the Americans in Bavaria.[31]

After the war

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The Nuremberg Trials

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The Nuremberg Trials started on 20 November 1945. [32] On 18 March 1946, Göring was questioned by the Allies.[33] After this, he was imprisoned in Nuremberg.

Göring was the highest-ranking Nazi official tried at Nuremberg.[4] He was tried for four crimes:[34]

  1. Crimes against peace
  2. War crimes
  3. Crimes against humanity
  4. Conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity

He was found guilty on all four charges, and on 1 October 1946 he was sentenced to death by hanging.[34]

Death

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One day before his execution, Göring committed suicide by taking a tablet of cyanide.[34] Historians do not know how Göring got the cyanide or how long he hid it. One story claims he got the cyanide from an American soldier who was in love with a German woman.[35][36]

At the Nuremberg trials, Göring said:[37]

Of course the people don't want war. But after all it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. 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 greater danger."

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References

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  1. ↑ Kershaw 2008, p. 284.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Evans 2005, p. 358.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression 1946, pp. 100–101.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The Holocaust Encyclopedia. "Hermann Göring". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
  5. ↑ "Preparations for the Final Solution begin | July 31, 1941". HISTORY. Retrieved 2023-09-13.
  6. ↑ "Hermann Göring". thirdreich.net. Archived from the original on 9 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  7. ↑ Erich Brandenburg (1995). Die Nachkommen Karls Des Grossen (in German). Neustadt/Aisch: Degener. ISBN 3768651029.
  8. ↑ Block, Maxine; Trow, E. Mary (1971). Current Biography: Who's News and Why 1941. New York: H.W. Wilson. pp. 327–330.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Manvell, Roger; Fraenkel, Heinrich (2011). Goering: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader. London: Skyhorse. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-1-61608-109-6.
  10. ↑ Freitag, Christian H.; Enzensberger, Hans Magnus (2015). Ebling, Hermann (ed.). Ritter, Reichsmarschall & Revoluzzer: aus der Geschichte eines Berliner Landhauses (in German) (1. Aufl ed.). Berlin: Ed. Friedenauer Brücke. ISBN 978-3-9816130-2-5.
  11. ↑ Arno Gruen (2002). Der Fremde in uns (in German). Munich: dtv. p. 164.
  12. ↑ Wunderlich, Dieter (2002). Göring und Goebbels: Eine Doppelbiografie (in German). Regensburg: Graz: F. Pustet; Styria. p. 12. ISBN 978-3-7917-1787-6.
  13. ↑ Arno Gruen (2002). Der Fremde in uns (in German). Munich: dtv. p. 168.
  14. ↑ Zentner, Christian. The Second World War. A lexicon (in German). Vienna. p. 212.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Manvell, Roger; Fraenkel, Heinrich (2011-01-01). Goering: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader. Skyhorse Publishing Inc. pp. 28, 29. ISBN 978-1-61608-109-6.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 "Görings biography in table form" (in German). Archived from the original on 2009-02-28. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
  17. ↑ "Biography of Carin Göring". findagrave.com. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
  18. ↑ Mosley 1974, p. 102.
  19. ↑ Mosley 1974, p. 103.
  20. ↑ Mosley 1974, p. 105.
  21. ↑ "A biography of Hermann Göring". Jewish virtual Library. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Goering, Hermann (Goring)" (PDF). Yad Vashem: The World Holocaust Remembrance Center.
  23. ↑ Mosley 1974, pp. 200–202.
  24. ↑ Mosley 1974, pp. 219–220.
  25. ↑ Mosley 1974, pp. 257–260.
  26. ↑ Mosley 1974, pp. 239.
  27. ↑ Mosley 1974, pp. 255.
  28. ↑ "IMT – Hearing of Hermann Göring by Robert H. Jackson". Towiah Friedmann. Archived from the original on 2010-02-02. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
  29. ↑ Mosley 1974, pp. 288–289.
  30. ↑ Misch, Rochus (2008). Der letzte Zeuge (in German). Zurich and Munich. p. 195f.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  31. ↑ Mosley 1974, pp. 313–320.
  32. ↑ Harris 2006, p. 106.
  33. ↑ "Brockhaus". Bibliographisches Institut & F. A. Brockhaus AG (in German). 2007.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 34.2 "Verdicts of the IMT | Memorium Nuremberg Trials". Memorium Nurnberger Prozesse Museen der Stadt Nurnberg [Memorial Nuremberg Trials Museums of the City of Nuremberg]. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
  35. ↑ "The soldier, his sweetheart and the suicide of Hermann Goering - Europe, World - The Independent". The Independent. 8 February 2005. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
  36. ↑ "Guard 'gave Goering suicide pill'". BBC News. 8 February 2005. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
  37. ↑ Gilbert, Gustave (1947). "Nuremberg Diary: Interview with Hermann Goering". Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2024-10-02.

Bibliography

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Other websites

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