As a result of his high final examination scores, Hermann Göring qualified for inclusion among the Selekta, a special honour for the top students in his class, which would indicate that he should do well in his military career. Of the 3,290 Selektaner who graduated between 1871 and 1918, ten rose to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall [field-marshal], including Göring, and over 800 became generals.⁴³ For the moment, he held the rank of Fähnrich, a sort of ‘third lieutenant’ (i.e., a rank below second lieutenant), and would have been eligible for a field posting and eventual promotion to the commissioned rank of Leutnant [second lieutenant]. But, as a Selektaner, he was allowed to remain at Gross Lichterfelde for post-graduate study, focused on military subjects for eight months, after which he was promoted to Leutnant⁴⁴ and was on his way to a promising career path. Heinrich Göring honoured his son’s achievement, according to biographer Gritzbach, by presenting Hermann with a purse of 1,000 Reichsmarks,⁴⁵ worth about £50 or $250 (U.S.) at the time.

Hermann was free to use the money as he wished and, as he was in great need of a vacation, he joined with some friends on a trip to Italy. While he learned about an officer’s privileges during his cadet training, Hermann was also taught to treat his enlisted subordinates decently and so he invited his father’s chauffeur, Sepp Rausch, to accompany him.⁴⁶ The group took in the best of Italian culture – including viewing works by Bellini, da Vinci, Raphael, Rubens, Titian and other famous art masters.

A Time of Change

Hermann’s time at the senior cadet academy passed quickly. After completing his commissioned officer’s examination and, in 1913, the Abitur examination [qualification to begin university studies,⁴⁷ if he desired], he was awarded his commission with a date of rank of 22 June 1912. But while he was finishing his studies and looking forward to his first duty assignment, the odd domestic situation at Veldenstein was coming to an end. In a last act of defiance, Heinrich Göring began to complain aloud about the liberties that Dr. von Epenstein had taken with his wife for the previous seventeen years. Long known as a wealthy bachelor who took his pleasure where he found it, Epenstein was taken aback at such a reaction from the man whose family he had subsidised very generously for so long. Moreover, at age sixty-two, the physician had fallen in love with a woman nearly forty years his junior and Fanny could not compete with the younger woman’s charms. By the time Leutnant Hermann Göring returned to Veldenstein, eager to show off his new uniform to his long-time hero, Epenstein had gone off with the vivacious Lilli von Schandrowitz,⁴⁸ whom he later married. He left a sum of money along with a note for Hermann, inviting the young officer to visit him at Mauterndorf.⁴⁹ By the following spring, the Göring family had moved out of Veldenstein and – now relying on Heinrich’s pension – settled into a modest and affordable apartment in Munich at Tengstrasse 38.⁵⁰

The family were in their new home only a few months when Heinrich Göring died on 7 December 1913 at age seventy-five. Hermann recalled: ‘His death was not unexpected as he suffered from diabetes for a few years … [He] never abided by his diet and drank wine and ate what he pleased right up to the end.’⁵¹ At the burial service in Munich’s Waldfriedhof cemetery, Hermann’s usually tough composure dissolved and he wept over the grave.⁵² It was only after Heinrich’s death that Hermann gained an appreciation of his father and his achievements. When later asked how his parents influenced his life, Hermann responded:

‘People who knew my parents and me often said that my mental abilities were from my father and my temperament and energy came from my mother. One explanation of their differences might be that my father was a northerner and my mother a southerner. The north German is very quiet and constructive. The south German is more lively and artistic … [My father] was strict and stern, but beloved by his subordinates. He was constantly planning and had a constructive, vital mind …I was more attached to my father for some reason. Mother was very good to the children, but I think I was out of the home so much [that] I lost contact with her.’⁵³

The Göring family’s southern influence must not have been lost entirely. Although he was born in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Hermann was registered as a Prussian citizen and, therefore, ineligible for admission to a unit of the Royal Bavarian Army. However, his attendance at the cadet institute in Karlsruhe, Baden’s capital, a decade earlier, gave him more of a military connection to Baden than to Prussia. Hence, he accepted a commission into an army unit of the Grand Duchy of Baden, which bordered Bavaria. On Tuesday, 20 January 1914 he reported for duty in the 4th Badisches Infanterie-Regiment ‘Prinz Wilhelm’ Nr. 112 garrisoned in Mülhausen⁵⁴ [now Mulhouse, France] in the Alsatian territory gained by Germany in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871.

The young Leutnant Göring’s fine record at Gross Lichterfelde made him a desirable asset to the regiment. In short order he was invited to visit the unit’s commander, Oberst [Colonel] von Olszewski,⁵⁵ who was curious enough to want to determine Göring’s social status and, more importantly, whether his financial status matched the intellectual resources of an officer of such promise. When his superior bluntly broached the subject, Göring later said he responded just as directly and with the requisite amount of politeness: ‘I have no private allowance, Herr Oberst. I have at my disposal, Herr Oberst, a small but for me quite adequate means.’ After that, he devoted a day of brief formal visits to his fellow officers and was just as candid with them. Some of them were heard to remark: ‘The new-comer is snappish.’⁵⁶ Göring was only a very junior officer, but, as was his way, he acted as if he were someone special.

Frontier duties at Mülhausen early in 1914 were mundane exercises, broken only by the sound of military aeroplanes taking off and landing at nearby Habsheim airfield. Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 112’s proximity to an early aviation facility may have inspired Göring to create a flight of fancy. Seeking to enhance and manipulate his image early in his career, he claimed that aviation activities were linked to his regimental duties. In the 1917 copy of his personal record form, which officers were required to maintain and update for promotion and other purposes, Göring wrote that, after arriving at Mülhausen: ‘Very quickly I reported to the Fliegertruppe [flying corps] and in July 1914 was notified I was on a list to receive training as a pilot. Frequently, I took advantage of my free time to take part in [new aircraft] acceptance flights at Habsheim airfield. My interest in aviation was already very prominent.’⁵⁷ None of Göring’s other official service records or career summaries mention this unlikely assignment and it is not included in any later biographies he approved. Spinning such a tale can only have been another case of Göring’s mind blurring what he wished for with what actually occurred.

It is an interesting coincidence that the young leutnant who became Göring’s best and lifelong friend, Bruno Loerzer, was transferred from Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 112 to the Militär-Fliegerschule [military flying school] at Habsheim six weeks before World War I began.⁵⁸ The two men met during Göring’s introductory visits with fellow regimental officers and struck up a friendship. Loerzer was the older of the two, having been born on 22 January 1891 in the Berlin suburb of Friedenau, where Göring lived after his father returned from his last diplomatic posting. Upon completing studies at the Königsstädtische Realgymnasium, a prestigious old secondary school in Berlin,⁵⁹ Loerzer took a more traditional route to obtaining his commission by qualifying as a Fahnenjunker⁶⁰ [officer candidate] at a regiment, in this case Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 112, and received his commission on 27 January 1913.⁶¹ Loerzer was introduced to flying when the early German civilian pilot Viktor Stöffler⁶² offered him an aerial ride in an Aviatik biplane above Habsheim and the Alsatian countryside on a nice spring day. That was all it took to motivate Loerzer to apply for transfer to the flying corps. His request was granted, and, on 15 July 1914,⁶³ he moved into officers’ quarters at the airfield. Perhaps Göring’s growing bond with his friend at Habsheim caused him to ‘draw’ Loerzer’s experiences into his own.

The War Begins

Unlike other, more comfortable garrison assignments within Germany, Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 112 patrolled the frontier area between Germany and France at a time of rising international tensions. The assassination of Erzherzog Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on 28 June 1914, added fuel to the fire. Consequently, Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 112 spent most of July at a troop practice ground in Heubeck, well within the Rhineland. The unit mobilised there on 1 August and returned to Alsace on a wartime footing.⁶⁴

Elements of France’s 14ème Division took advantage of Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 112’s absence from Mülhausen and occupied the city on 8 August. German forces returned swiftly and fought their way back reclaiming the city two days later. For most of the next seven weeks, Leutnant Hermann Göring was involved in the kind of heavy, close fighting he had dreamed about and hoped for.⁶⁵ He acquitted himself well, serving as a company commander during fighting at Mülhausen and in the foothills of the Vosges mountains.⁶⁶ While the regiment pushed westward toward Verdun, on 15 September, Göring was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class.⁶⁷ Later in the war, this would become quite common, with some 5,210,000 issued by war’s end,⁶⁸ but Göring’s award at that early point was considered a bravery honour of high distinction.⁶⁹

At 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 23 September, Göring’s regiment came under heavy fire from French forces trying to secure the railway line from Flirey to Bernecourt during the battle for Baccarat. Again, Göring tenaciously led his men into the fight and by 7:00 a.m., French forces were retreating.⁷⁰ The fighting was hardly over when Göring experienced excruciating pain in his knees. A medical examination showed he had not been wounded in the morning’s combat; it was determined that he could not walk as a result of the onset of severe rheumatoid arthritis. He had experienced bouts of arthritis when he was younger, but they were not as severe as this occurrence. First, he was sent to the Feldlazarett [field hospital] at Thiacourt and then to the larger Festungslazarett [fortress military hospital] in Metz-Montigny. Doctors there could not help him and the following day he was sent by train to the Klinisches Krankenhaus [clinical hospital] in Freiburg im Breisgau, a major city in southwestern Baden.

Throughout his travail Göring was given medication to ease his pain, but he must have sensed that his brief but distinguished infantry combat career could be coming to an end. Without fully functional legs, he could not lead a company of soldiers running across a battlefield and jumping over hurdles to engage the enemy at close quarters. At best, he could hope for a staff assignment at some command headquarters fairly close to the frontlines. At worst, he would be ‘invalided’ to a desk job back in Germany, the land he pledged to fight for and defend as a frontline soldier.

For the moment, Freiburg offered him only a course of treatment of undefined duration and a splendid view of the mountains of the southern Black Forest, rising above the picturesque Rhine river valley.