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Göring, Hermann

Publié le 22/02/2012

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Göring, Hermann (1893–1946) Nazi Reichsmarschall (imperial marshal) and head of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring was born at Rosenheim, Bavaria, the son of a former cavalry officer who had also served as German consul-general in Haiti. Göring enrolled at the Karlsruhe Military Academy in 1905 then attended the main cadet school at Lichterfelde beginning in 1909. After graduating in 1912, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the 112th Infantry but soon transferred to the air service. When World War I began in 1914, Göring served with distinction as an officer-observer then trained and qualified as an officer-pilot in October 1915. Shot down before the end of the year, he was badly wounded and did not return to duty until 1916, when he resumed flying and compiled a superb record. He was promoted to squadron commander in May 1917, and, after the death of Germany's most celebrated air ace, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, he succeeded to command of Richthofen's squadron in July 1918 and led it with distinction, emerging himself as an air ace. Göring was demobilized after the November 11, 1918, armistice with the rank of captain and found immediate employment as a test pilot for the Dutch Fokker aircraft manufacturing firm and the Swedish Svenska Luftraflik. He left these positions in 1920 and, the following year, enrolled at Munich University. While in this city, Göring met Adolf Hitler and joined the fledgling Nazi Party (NSDAP). He was appointed to command the party's paramilitary Sturmabteilung (SA) and was a participant in the abortive Munich (Beer Hall) Putsch of November 9, 1923. Göring was seriously wounded in the melée that resulted from the collapse of the Putsch. Although arrested, he escaped and found refuge in Austria. He did not return to Germany until 1927 and, the following year, won election to the Reichstag as a Nazi. In 1932, with the Nazi Party dominant on the German political scene, Göring became Reichstag president. After Hitler was made chancellor of Germany in 1933, he appointed Göring Reichsminister, minister of the interior, Prussian prime minister, and air commissioner. Thus, Göring became the second most powerful man in German government. Göring quickly created a secret police force, the Gestapo, and ordered construction of the first concentration camps, intended to hold political dissidents and other political and social undesirables. The camps were turned over to Heinrich Himmler in April 1934, and, later that year, Göring was appointed master of the Reich Hunt and Forest Office. Remarkably, he proved to be an enlightened environmentalist, who created wildlife preserves and introduced game laws and forest-management reforms that are still in use in Germany today. Göring's interest in natural resources did not interfere with the continuation of his ruthless program of eliminating enemies and dissidents. At Hitler's behest, he played a major role in the violent purge of the SA during the "Night of the Long Knives" (June 30, 1934). Nor did he neglect the renewal of Germany as a military power. As Reichsminister for Air and commander of the Luftwaffe, Göring directed, in contravention of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the covert creation and organization of what would become, in many respects, the world's most advanced and powerful air force. In 1936, he also assumed the office of director of the four-year plan, with absolute authority in matters of the German economy. He undertook the reorganization of state-owned industries under the umbrella of the Hermann Göring Works during 1937–41. In 1939, Hitler formalized Göring's status as the second most powerful man in the Third Reich by designating him his successor and conferring on him the title of Reichsmarschall. The invasion of Poland elevated Göring to even greater stature, as his Luftwaffe proved itself to be a critically effective arm of Blitzkrieg. But Göring's reign as Hitler's favorite did not last long. Despite Germany's triumph in the Battle of France (May–June 1940), the Luftwaffe was unable to interdict the Dunkirk evacuation and prevent the salvation of Anglo-French forces (May 28–June 4, 1940). The fact is that Hitler's order halting the advance of Heinz Guderian's panzers was primarily responsible for the escape of the cornered British and French, but it is also true that if the air force had destroyed the Allied armies, the way would have been clear for Operation Sealion, the neverrealized invasion of Britain. The next failure was the Battle of Britain (August 1940–May 1941). Göring's original plan was to attack Royal Air Force (RAF) bases, destroying aircraft on the ground and thereby neutralizing the RAF as a fighting force. Instead, he acquiesced in Hitler's decision to bomb major cities. This strategy not only failed to break the British will to fight, it allowed the RAF an opportunity to mount a formidable defense against the Luftwaffe, which the RAF ultimately forced from British skies. This ended the threat of a German invasion, kept Britain in the war, and, in the long run, doomed Germany to defeat. Toward the end of 1942, Göring made another serious strategic blunder. As the Sixth German Army was reeling under the twin forces of the Russian winter and the relentless hammering of the Red Army at Stalingrad, Göring vowed to resupply the troops by air. Lacking sufficient numbers of transports and long-range escorts, however, the Luftwaffe failed miserably during November–December 1942, and the decimated Sixth German Army surrendered to the Soviets. With that, the war on the Soviet front, which had begun in unalloyed triumph, turned irreversibly against Germany. The failure on the eastern front destroyed Hitler's confidence in Göring, who then descended into outright corruption, embezzling government funds and looting the art treasures of conquered nations. He erected for himself a kind of palace, which he decorated with the spoils of war. As the military fortunes of Germany continued to disintegrate, Göring lived his life in increasing dissipation and became a morphine addict. (He had been introduced to the drug when it was used to treat the pain of the injuries suffered in the 1923 Putsch.) As Göring lost the faith of Hitler, so he lost that of the German people. Early in the war, Göring had joked that he would change his name to Meier (a common German name) if a single bomb ever fell on Germany. By 1944, with bombs raining upon German cities day and night, the people regularly referred to him by that most derisive epithet. For all practical purposes, Göring's power had come to an end. This fact was driven home to him in April 1945, when he volunteered to succeed Hitler, who was holed up in the Führerbunker beneath the streets of Berlin. In response to the offer, Hitler summarily stripped Göring of all his offices, then charged him with high treason. On Hitler's orders, Göring was placed under arrest and confined at Berchtesgaden, Hitler's mountain retreat, on April 23. When Berchtesgaden was overrun by American troops, Göring surrendered to them. He was charged with war crimes at the Nuremberg Tribunal. Found guilty, he was sentenced on October 1, 1946, to be hanged. Before the sentence could be carried out, however, he committed suicide by swallowing a capsule of cyanide he had secreted in his rectum.

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