Hermann Göring

Göring, Hermann Wilhelm (1893-1946), German field marshal, commander in chief of the German air force, and the second most powerful leader of Nazi Germany.

Göring, whose last name was also spelled Goering, was born on January 12, 1893, in Rosenheim, Bavaria, and educated at the cadet college in Karlsruhe and the officers' school at Lichterfelde, near Berlin. During World War I he served in the German air force, and in 1918, upon the death of his squadron leader, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, he became squadron leader. Göring met Adolf Hitler in 1921 and a year later became a leader of the National Socialist (Nazi) party. He was wounded in the unsuccessful Munich beer-hall Putsch of 1923, and morphine given to ease his pain from the wound made him a permanent drug addict. After an exile in nearby countries for four years, he was elected a member of the Reichstag, the German parliament, in 1928 and became president of that body in 1932.

Göring was skeptical and averse to the path of war. He believed Germany was not prepared to embark on a new conflict and, in particular, he believed that Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe, whose leadership was entrusted to his own hands, wasn't yet prepared to beat the RAF. However, once World War II started, Göring was determined to win at any cost.

Initially, decisive German victories followed quickly one after the other, Göring's modern Luftwaffe destroyed the Polish Air Force within two days and after the invasion of France, Hitler awarded Göring the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross for his successful leadership. Göring's political and military careers were at their peak.

The Luftwaffe's failure to gain control of the skies during the Battle of Britain marked Hitler's first defeat and put a stain on Göring's reputation. After that campaign he lost much of his influence in the Nazi hierarchy and faded briefly from the military scene, enjoying the pleasures of life as a wealthy and powerful man. His reputation for extravagance made him particularly unpopular as ordinary Germans began to suffer deprivation.

If Göring was skeptical about war on the western front, he was absolutely certain that a new campaign against Russia was doomed to be disastrous. After trying, completely in vain, to convince Hitler to give up operation Barbarossa, he embraced the campaign against Russia as a chance to redeem credit from the disastrous British attack. As he had foreseen, the war against the Soviet Union turned out to be Germany's most ignominious defeat. Göring's contribution, as the head of the Luftwaffe, did not match his outlandish promises, and, as a result, negatively affected his relationship with Hitler.

Göring also sponsored a ground combat unit, the eponymous Hermann Göring Division, an elite unit which fought on various fronts with success. His other units on the eastern front were not so successful. At the Oder front, he had 2 Fallschirmjäger (airborne) divisions, which were partially composed of Luftwaffe's officers without any ground combat experience. He's known to have said in one of the Hassleben's planning meetings: "When my both airborne divisions attack, the entire Red Army can be thrown to hell". When the Red Army attacked, Göring's German 9th Parachute Division collapsed first.

He was also Commander-in-Chief of Forschungsamt ("FA"), the Nazi underground monitoring services for telephone and radio communications. This was connected to SS, SD and Abwehr intelligence services.

Göring was also placed in charge of exploiting the vast industrial resources captured during the war, particularly in the Soviet Union. This proved to be an almost total disaster and little of the available potential was effectively harnessed for the service of the German military machine. However, Göring was notorious for his role as one of the Nazi plunderers of art and other valuables from occupied Europe.

Göring was the highest figure in the Nazi Hierarchy who had authorized on paper the "final solution of the Jewish Question", when he issued a memo to SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich to organize the practical details, (which culminated in the Wannsee Conference). He wrote, "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question." It is almost certain however that Hitler issued a verbal order to Göring in late 1941 to this effect.

Near the end of the war, as the Red Army closed in around the German capital on April 23, 1945, Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden to Berlin in which he proposed to assume leadership of the Reich as Hitler's designated successor. Hitler considered this disloyalty and high treason, especially because Göring mentioned a time limit after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated. Hitler had Göring placed under arrest by Bernhard Frank on April 25 and in his political testament Hitler dismissed Göring from all his sundry offices and expelled him from the party Two days before ending his own life Hitler sent orders to Frank to execute Göring, his wife and their young daughter (Hitler's own goddaughter). A combination of Göring's considerable charm, Frank's confusion and terror at the last days of the war and perhaps common decency where the death of an innocent German child was concerned led to Frank's rejection of the order. Instead the Görings and their captors moved together, with little formality and no semblance of a captives and captors relationship, to the same Schloß Mauterndorf where Göring had spent much of his childhood and which he had inherited (along with Burg Veldenstein) from his godfather's widow upon her death in 1937. (Göring had arranged for preferential treatment for the woman after his rise to power, a consideration that guaranteed her immunity from the confiscation and arrest that may have been her fate as the widow of a wealthy Jew.)

Ironically, during World War II, Herman Göring's nephew, Capt. Werner G. Goering, piloted B-17 Flying Fortresses on 48 bombing missions against occupied Europe. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, the young Göring spoke fluent German. After an extensive background check, he was assigned to the 303rd Bombardment Group -- Hell's Angeles -- of the 8th Air Force, based at Molesworth, England. This fact was kept secret by the Army Air Force during the time that young Göring flew missions against Nazi Germany. However, the AAF still assigned him a "uniquely qualified" co-pilot -- First Lt. Jack P. Rencher. Rencher was given orders to shoot him if he ever tried to land in Germany. According to Rencher, however, the only time young Göring wasn't eager to rain destruction on Nazi Germany was when he had to bomb Cologne, where his grandmother lived. "He was neat, clean, a sharp dresser and in every sense military minded," Rencher said. "While I served with him he and I got along well together and I believe made an excellent team. I know of no one I would rather serve as copilot with."

Göring surrendered to U.S. forces in 1945 and was tried, with other German war leaders, by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. Found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death by hanging, he poisoned himself on October 15, 1946, hours before his scheduled execution.

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