Göring, Reichsmarschall Hermann (1893–1946),C-in-C of the Luftwaffe who was also, from 1939 until April 1945, Hitler's chosen successor.
The son of a former governor of German South-West Africa, Göring was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria. A regular infantry officer, he started flying in October 1914, won Germany's highest decoration, the Pour le Mérite, and ended the war as commander of the famous Richthofen Squadron. He joined the Nazi Party in 1922 and became commander of Hitler's bodyguard. Wounded during the beer hall putsch of November 1923, he became addicted to the morphine he was given to ease his pain, and for several years drifted in and out of mental institutions.
In May 1928 he became a Nazi Reichstag deputy and was elected its president in August 1932. When Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933, he was immediately appointed minister of the interior for Prussia, becoming president of Prussia that April. From this power base he quickly established the Nazi system of repression, founding an auxiliary police force (
Hilfspolizei); the first two
concentration camps, Oranienburg and Papenburg, for political opponents; the state secret police, soon to be known by the acronym
Gestapo; and his own intelligence agency (see
Germany, 7).
In January 1933 he was also appointed Reich commissioner for aviation (Reich minister of aviation from May 1933). With
Milch,
Kesselring, and others, and in defiance of the
Versailles settlement, he began building the Luftwaffe whose C-in-C he officially became in March 1935. Though incompetent where economics were concerned, he became Hitler's special commissioner for the four-year economic plan in 1936 and in the following year replaced
Schacht as minister of economic affairs ( November 1937– February 1938). He also acted as Hitler's roving ambassador and troubleshooter, and in 1938 was promoted field marshal. Remembering those early years, Hitler later said of him that he was ‘ice cold in times of crisis,’ and added: ‘I've always said that when it comes to the crunch he's a man of steel—unscrupulous’, while the foreign minister,
Neurath, told the British ambassador: ‘Göring is regarded as the real Fascist in the Hitler party.’
By 1939 the Luftwaffe was the world's strongest air force. When Warsaw refused to surrender during the
Polish campaign of September– October 1939 Göring bombed it into submission, and Hitler awarded him the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross (see
decorations), the only person ever to receive it. In the spring of 1940 the Luftwaffe also excelled in the
Norwegian campaign and during the fighting which led to the
fall of France in June 1940.
In July 1940, when he was promoted Reichsmarschall, Göring was at the height of his powers. As the war progressed his prestige and influence gradually declined, though his popularity with the German public, who regarded him with bemused affection, surprisingly did not. However, his plan to destroy RAF Fighter Command was unsuccessful (see
Adlertag); the Luftwaffe lost the
battle of Britain; proved incapable of supplying the Sixth German Army when it was cut off at
Stalingrad; and failed to prevent the Allied
strategic air offensive, or to retaliate effectively. Perhaps more importantly he made serious errors of judgement—he was adamant, for example, that the entrance of the USA into the war would have little effect—and his incompetent handling of the country's war economy steadily isolated him from the centre of power and more and more alienated those who had to implement his directives. His energy, so unflagging before the war, came only in sporadic bursts, and he took increasing refuge in his narcotic addiction, in the fantasy world of his various luxurious homes, or in travelling aboard his lavishly equipped private train. In this he shuttled from one European city to another, acquiring the art treasures (see
loot) which so obsessed him, or visiting the Führer's headquarters where he fawned on Hitler and was treated with increasing, if covert, contempt by Hitler's cronies, and with exasperation and fury by Hitler himself. Though Hitler, who could be quite sentimental, retained a degree of faith in his old comrade, Göring was steadily eclipsed by his rivals for power and became progressively hemmed in by the multiplying intrigues against him.
In April 1945 Hitler gave him command in the south of Germany and on 23 April Göring, not unreasonably under the circumstances, suggested he assume power as Hitler was trapped in the capital. However, Hitler reacted furiously. He had Göring arrested and named
Dönitz his successor as head of state. In the hands of the
SS until 6 May, Göring managed to give himself up to the Americans the next day and was eventually arraigned at the
Nuremberg trials. Weaned from his drugs and much thinner, he defended himself vigorously. But in July 1941 he had signed the decree that had empowered
Reinhard Heydrich to ‘make all necessary preparations…for the overall solution of the Jewish problem’ (see
Final Solution), and this alone was sufficient for him to be sentenced to death. He escaped execution by taking cyanide from a phial which he had somehow managed to conceal or which had been smuggled in to him.
Göring's corruptness and megalomania were exacerbated by his morphine addiction. Suborned by riches and power, his personality degenerated into a physical and mental grossness that became as legendary as his magpie obsession for collecting works of art, his elaborate uniforms, and his grotesque, bejewelled appearance.
Bibliography
Irving, D. , Göring (London, 1989).
Overy, R. , Goering: ‘The Iron Man’ (London, 1984).
