Hermann Göring
(January 12, 1893 - October 15, 1946)
Early Life to Beginning of WWI
- Born January 12, 1893 in Rosenheim, Upper Bavaria
- Hermann Wilhelm Göring (named after family friend)
- Fourth of five children
- Parents were Heinrich Ernst (d. 1913) and Franziska (Fanny) (d. August 1923) Göring
- Only a couple of months old, mother weaned him and left him for three years with a surrogate family
- 1904 sent to boarding school at Ansbach, Franconia
- Attended the cadet institutes at Karlsruhe and then to the military college at Lichterfelde
- Given a commission in the Prinz Wilhelm Regiment No. 112
World War I
- Participated in infantry when World War I began
- Became ill with rheumatic fever
- October 1914 became flying observer
- Received Iron Cross, First Class
- June 1915 began course to become a pilot
- October 1915 posted to Jagdstaffel 5
- Hit by bullet in thigh
- Summer 1916 sent home on convalescent leave
- Formally asked Marianne Mauser's father for his approval of marriage - allowed to get secretly engaged
- November 3, 1916 reported back for duty; attached to Jagdstaffel 26
- Made commander of a new squadron - Jagdstaffel 27
- 1917 awarded the Ordre Pour le Merite
- July 7, 1918 appointed Kommandeur of Jagdgeschwader Freiherr von Richthofen No. 1 (the Red Baron's squadron - the "Flying Circus")
- Disobeyed orders to disarm the squadron's planes and fly them to the French headquarters at Strasbourg; instead, he sent five planes to France and ordered the rest flown to Darmstadt, Germany and destroyed
End of WWI to 1933
- Worked at Fokker Aircraft Works for two years
- Became a stunt pilot and then a commercial pilot for Svenska Lufttraffik in Sweden
- Met Carin von Kantzow (nee von Fock) while she was married to Captain Nils von Kantzow (Carin also had a son, Thomas, from this marriage)
- 1922 enrolled in the university at Munich
- Fall of 1922 heard Hitler speak
- 1922 joined NSDAP
- Immediately after oath of allegiance to Hitler (December 1922), Hitler appointed him commander of the SA
- February 3, 1923 married Carin von Kantzow (she had finally become divorced from her husband)
- August 1923, mother died
- November 1923 participated in the Beer Hall Putsch, injured in groin and hip, fled to Austria; became addicted to the morphine that he was given to alleviate the pain from his injuries
- September 1925 admitted to the Langbro Asylum in Sweden (he says here he kicked his morphine addiction)
- 1926 returned to Germany after amnesty
- 1928 elected to Reichstag
- 1930 reelected to Reichstag
- October 17, 1931 Carin (wife) died of tuberculosis
- 1932 became President of the Reichstag
1933 to the End
- Held many posts including: Reich Minister without Portfolio, Prussian Minister President, Reich Commissioner for Air, and Prussian Minister of the Interior
- Some believe he was involved with the Reichstag Fire on February 27, 1933
- March 1, 1935 named Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (commander in chief of the Air Force)
- April 10, 1935 married Emmy Sonnemann (1893-1973)
- Appointed by Hitler as Plenipotentiary for the Implementation of the Four-Year Plan
- September 1, 1939 Hitler appointed him his first successor
- June 19, 1940 was made Reichsmarschall (Reich marshal)
- Began to lose favor with Hitler during the Battle of Britain because of the decreased effectiveness of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force)
- May 9, 1945 captured by U.S. troops
- Tried at the Nuremberg Trials
- Found guilty on all four counts: conspiracy to commit crimes alleged in other counts, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity
- October 15, 1946, two hours before his scheduled execution, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule he smuggled into prison.
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Portrait of Hermann Göring. |
Quotes
I am what I have always been: the last Renaissance man, if I may be allowed to say so.
I joined the party because I was a revolutionary, not because of any ideological nonsense.
Pompous and on the verge of ridiculous, he was a mixture of condottiere and sybarite. He was as vain, cunning and brutal as any other follower of Hitler, and yet he was more popular than any of them and for a time actually more popular than Hitler himself.
