Hermann Göring

Before the party

Göring was born in Bavaria. His father was a member of the colonial service in Africa.

Göring was somewhat obsessed with military and enjoyed wearing unifroms even when he was only 14 years old.

Goering found fame in World War One as a fighter ace. He won numerous awards for Goering found fame in World War One as a fighter ace. He won numerous awards for bravery and was the last commander of the legendary Richthofen Fighter Squadron. By bravery and was the last commander of the legendary Richthofen Fighter Squadron. By the end of the war, he could claim to have some degree of fame in Germany.the end of the war, he could claim to have some degree of fame in Germany.

After the war ended, he studied at Munich University between 1920 and 1921. Disillusioned with Weimar’s politicians and their supposed weakness, he joined the Nazi Party in October 1922. Goering was wounded in the Beer Hall Putsch.

He suffered from a lifelong addiction to morphine after being treated with the drug for his injuries.

The Crown Prince invested Göring with the Iron Cross, first class.

Göring was made commander of the famed "Flying Circus", Jagdgeschwader 1.

Göring remained in aviation after the war.

„Iron Knight“ after joining the party

After joining the NSDAP in 1922, Göring became a leader of the SA – the “stormtroopers”, a.k.a. “brownshirts”. Since then, he has also been an advisor and political deputy of Adolf Hitler himself. Göring’s political efforts eventually brought party to power in 1933.

Was the original establisher of the Gestapo and first concentration camps, later handed over to Himmler in 1934. Same year Göring leaded the “purge” against Rohm and the SA.

Given bigger power...

In 1936 he became in charge of implementation of the Four Year Plan and virtually became Germany’s economic dictator.

Into the war – Luftwaffe Leader

In 1938 Göring became the Field Marshall of the Luftwaffe (Wehrmacht Airforces), later on the 19th of June 1940 he was declared a Reichsmarschall (commander-in-chief) of Luftwaffe by Hitler. Hence, Göring became Adolf’s successor in this role.

Marshall Failure

Soon after the outbreak of the war, as a new leader of German airforce, Göring leaded his pilots into the gamble of the Battle of Britain. He decided to use mass night bombing of the enemy cities. This was his fatal tactical mistake, for the reason many RAF fighters, by the night-time, were refueled, repaired, rearmed and ready to take off right as the alarms sound. Göring also was a poor strategist, because he still believed dogfighting was no different from what was in World War I. This meant that the only way of fighting he taught his pilots was ramming enemy aircraft to die with blazing guns. Failure of the Luftwaffe in the Battle was never forgiven by Hitler.

By 1943, after failures of the Luftwaffe in Stalingrad and other battles over the Soviet Union, Göring became only a shadow of former self. He was blamed for most of Germany’s defeats by Hitler, stayed away from commanding and was haunted with flashbacks of his heroic past. There is no real proof of this, but some of the Nazis witnessed, that Göring either drank a lot, or took drugs.

Arrested, first by Nazis, then by Allies

In last days of war, May, 1945, Göring made his last mistake. He left for Bavaria, fleeing from advancing Russian army. By that time it was clear that Hitler’s bunker will be soon taken over by Soviets. Fuhrer declared, that he’d stay in Berlin until the end. Göring misinterpreted this and, confident of being Hitler’s successor, asked if he could take over as new Nazi leader of dying Germany. He was arrested immediately.

During Nuremberg trials Göring proved to be a strong speaker. He defended himself and other fellow Nazis with fury and strong words. He was the leader of the Defendants, sure of becoming a German martyr. Nevertheless, he failed to convince the judges and was sentenced to hanging. Göring was found dead on the day of execution in his cell. Turned out he poisoned himself with a capsule of cyanide he managed to hide.

Bibliography

“Holocaust Research Project” – “Hermann Göring. The Iron Knight.”

“Jewish Virtual Library” – “Hermann Goering”