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.
Liens utiles
- Hermann Göring - Geschichte.
- Goering o u Göring Hermann, 1893-1946, né à Rosenheim, officier et homme politique allemand.
- Hermann Göring (seconde guerre mondiale).
- Göring, Hermann
- Göring, Hermann