Hermann Göring lived for fifty-three years, ten months and nine days. For more than half that time his name became draped by infamy due to actions and crimes he committed during the Third Reich period of 1933-1945. After World War II ended, Göring was tried and sentenced to be executed for crimes against humanity, but cheated the hangman and died ignominiously by his own hand. All of that history is recounted in other books, many of which are listed in this book’s bibliography.
But Göring’s military activities in World War I have received very little coverage and have been overshadowed by his more horrific deeds during the Nazi régime. I became interested in his 1914-1918 military career in 1975, when I located and obtained copies of substantial research material on him from the U.S. Library of Congress and, later, from the U.S. Army Military History Institute. In more recent times, German archives – chiefly the Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv, the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg and the Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt – have been extremely helpful in providing copies of documentation that provide insight into Göring’s early military service.
The thought of writing a book about what Göring did in World War I occurred while I was researching my previous book, Black Fokker Leader: The First World War’s Last Airfighter Knight (London, 2009). The subject of that biography, the late Carl Degelow, related some of his unpleasant experiences with Göring to me and those comments gave rise to the questions: What events formed Göring’s early life and led him to a military career? What motivated him to behave in ways that were (or should have been) out of keeping with a man who once showed such promise as a professionally trained member of the German officer corps? And what drove him to the levels he achieved during World War I?
There were no simple answers and certainly none with the brevity needed for a book that focused on Carl Degelow’s experiences in World War I – without having it overshadowed by Göring’s larger-than-life personality and his varied exploits. With those and other lingering questions in mind, I felt that a study of Göring’s World War I activities – and some understanding of them – had to be my next project. This book is the result.
I am neither a psychologist nor a psychiatrist and I recognise the hazards of trying to delve into the mind of a person who died almost sixty-five years ago. Fortunately, during Göring’s post-World War II examination and interrogation by members of the U.S. Army, he and his actions were analysed by both a qualified psychologist and a psychiatrist. Their observations appear at appropriate points in the book.
Those analyses took place in 1945-1946 and, since then, behavioural science advancements have led to new diagnostic criteria to help quantify behaviour such as that evidenced by Hermann Göring. In no way does such quantification relieve Göring of responsibility for his actions; rather, it may offer insight into why he did what he did. Worth considering is what Dr. Elsa Ronningstam wrote in Identifying and Understanding the Narcissistic Personality (pp. 8-9) about a “Nobel Prize complex”, in which someone like Göring is ‘intellectually and artistically gifted …and guided either by an active fantasy of being the powerful one (destined) or by passive fantasy of being the special one (chosen). However, [these] achievements become overshadowed by [a] preoccupation with acclaim, an attitude of “all or nothing,” or “dreams of glory”, of attaining a position of extraordinary power or worldwide recognition …’
As you read this book, I invite you to consider Göring as exhibiting those signs, as well as what is now identified as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). A person affected by NPD, Ronningstam notes (Ibid., p. 72), would have ‘heightened self-confidence and self-worth, sense of invulnerability. Capacity for unusual risk taking and decision making, and to integrate unusual ideas, ideals and goals into real achievements or creative accomplishments.’
Also worthy of note, examples in the bibliography show two ways to spell his family name. This book uses ‘Göring’, with the umlauted ‘o’, which is the preferred family spelling. In English and other languages, the name is commonly transliterated as ‘Goering’, using ‘oe’ as the standard representation of ‘ö’. The meaning of the name and its evolution to the current form are covered in Chapter One.
The reader will also note throughout the text and in Appendix I that, as another part of the research process, I postulate which air units and even individual airmen most likely fought against each other. This educated inference is made possible due to the availability of many archival sources that provide evidence of such encounters. In recent years, this form of research has become more conclusive with the help of books such as The French Air Service War Chronology 1914-1918, The Jasta Pilots, The Sky Their Battlefield, and other valued standard reference texts published by Grub Street, which are included in this book’s bibliography. I am grateful to the authors of those books for their labours in compiling such works.
While researching and writing this book, I received help from many people and note with gratitude the kind efforts, encouragement and information provided by: Richard L. Baker, U.S. Army Military History Institute (PSD); Joachim Brauss, Kreisarchiv Neuwied; Tina Buttenberg, Stadtarchiv Rosenheim; Bonnie B. Coles, U.S. Library of Congress; Elke Conrads-Wirth, Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen; Jochen Dollwet, Stadtarchiv Wiesbaden; Achim Koch, Bundesarchiv Militärarchiv; Stephan Kühmayer, Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt); Oberstleutnant Harald Potempa, Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt; Jessy Randall, Colorado College Special Collections; and Dr. Wolfgang Mährle, Judith Bolsinger and Manfred Hennhöfer of the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg. Kimberly Farrington of the Elihu Burritt Library of Central Connecticut State University exemplifies the valued help I received from my alma mater.
Valued colleagues and friends who have helped in so many ways include: Trudy Baumann, Jan Bodenbender, Dr. Lance J. Bronnenkant, Russell Folsom, Ted Hamady, Friedrich-Johann von Krusenstiern, Paul S. Leaman, James F. Miller, Julian Putkowski, and James Streckfuss.
My sincere thanks also go to this cadre of friends : Ronny Bar for his excellent colour artwork portraying various aircraft flown by Hermann Göring, Judy and Karl Kilduff and my long-time friend and mentor David E. Smith for their helpful review of and comments on the manuscript, my cultural mentor Klaus Littwin for helping me understand German linguistic nuances and providing valuable assistance in locating important research sources, Dr. M. Geoffrey Miller for strengthening my research with his medical expertise, long-time friends Oberbürgermeister i.R. Prof.Dr.(h c) Franz J. Rothenbiller and his wife Christa for their valued help in deciphering significant documentary material, and Stewart K. Taylor for sharing his encyclopaedic knowledge of British Commonwealth flight operations. I also extend profound gratitude to my colleague and friend of many years Greg Van Wyngarden for offering many useful suggestions and for sharing his artistic and historical resources.
I am grateful for the friendship, interest and support of all of these very helpful people.
Peter Kilduff