In the original dustsheet. Binding the same as the dustsheet.

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Where should Goering be placed in the Third Reich hierarchy? Like Rommel and Guderian, was he a master military tactician, or a slave to his master’s dictates? Like Goebbels and Himmler was he an able administrator, or a lethargic glory-seeker? This biography of Hermann Goering details his life, including his education, career, marriage, social life, wartime role, capture and trial. It presents facts and opinions about his place in the Third Reich hierarchy, assessing his military tactics, administrative skills, and decline from power. It reassesses the impact he had on the formation of Reich policy and doctrine, reflects his heroism as a World War I flying ace, and his failure to keep the Luftwaffe in the skies in 1941, and documents his decline to a figurehead bereft of power.

Review: I am from the post war generation and hadn’t previously known exactly what role Goering had played during WWII. To my knowledge he held a senior position as head of the Luftwaffe, but of course – he was also Hitler’s deputy. In fact he was one of the only senior individuals that was in a position to influence Hitler’s decision making … The author suggests that, on a few occasions Goering wanted to stand up to Hitler but somehow couldn’t… As well as including incites into Goering’s personal life, there were also

some interesting facts concerning how the course of the war may have changed had the German air warfare strategy been different … Above all, I found this historical account to be very readable.

                                                         Göring on trial, c. 1946

Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, Göring was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite (“The Blue Max”). He was the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG I), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine which persisted until the last year of his life. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Göring was named as minister without portfolio in the new government. One of his first acts as a cabinet minister was to oversee the creation of the Gestapo, which he ceded to Heinrich Himmler in 1934.

  Longest serving and last officeholder, President of the Reichstag, Hermann Göring

Following the establishment of the Nazi state, Göring amassed power and political capital to become the second most powerful man in Germany. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (air force), a position he held until the final days of the regime. Upon being named Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan in 1936, Göring was entrusted with the task of mobilizing all sectors of the economy for war, an assignment which brought numerous government agencies under his control. In September 1939, Hitler gave a speech to the Reichstag designating him as his successor. After the Fall of France in 1940, he was bestowed the specially created rank of Reichsmarschall, which gave him seniority over all officers in Germany’s armed forces.

                                     Göring with Hitler and Albert Speer, 10 August 1943

By 1941, Göring was at the peak of his power and influence. As the Second World War progressed, Göring’s standing with Hitler and with the German public declined after the Luftwaffe proved incapable of preventing the Allied bombing of Germany’s cities and resupplying Axis forces in Stalingrad. Around that time, Göring increasingly withdrew from military and political affairs to devote his attention to collecting property and artwork, much of which was stolen from Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Informed on 22 April 1945 that Hitler intended to commit suicide, Göring sent a telegram to Hitler requesting his permission to assume leadership of the Reich. Considering his request an act of treason, Hitler removed Göring from all his positions, expelled him from the party, and ordered his arrest. After the war, Göring was convicted of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. He was sentenced to death by hanging but committed suicide by ingesting cyanide the night before the sentence was to be carried out.