can dream, and he served both his country—
and his state—with equal distinction.
See also
Lee, Robert E.
Bibliography
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Fire: John B. Gordon and the 6th Alabama at Seven
Pines.”Civil War62 (June 1997): 14–23.GÖRING, HERMANN
Göring, Hermann
(January 12, 1893–October 15, 1946)
German Marshal
P
ompous and portly, Göring was an in-
fluential Nazi leader during Germany’s
rush toward rearmament, as well as a
close confidant of Adolf Hitler. But as head
of the feared Luftwaffe, he committed several
strategic mistakes that ultimately hastened
the downfall of the Third Reich.
Hermann Wilhelm Göring was born in
Rosenheim, Bavaria, on January 12, 1893, the
son of the German consul-general to Haiti. As
a youth he attended the Karlsruhe Military
Academy in 1905 and then the Cadet School
at Lichterfelde in 1909, graduating with hon-
ors. In 1912, Göring was commissioned an in-
fantry lieutenant, but the onset of severe
arthritis resulted in his transfer to the air ser-
vice prior to World War I. As a fighter pilot, he
was shot down and severely wounded in 1916,
but he recovered and rose to squadron com-
mander the following year. The high point of
Göring’s military career occurred in July 1918,
when he succeeded to head the late Baron
von Richthofen’s Flying Circus. In this capac-
ity he flew an all-white Fokker D.VII and was
credited with 22 aerial victories. For his skill
and bravery in combat he received the Pour le
Merite, imperial Germany’s highest decora-
tion.
After the war ended in 1918, Göring mi-
grated to Sweden, where he served as a test
pilot for the Fokker Aircraft Company. Three
years later he returned to Germany and en-
rolled at the University of Munich, where he
first encountered a sullen war veteran named
Adolf Hitler. Like many former soldiers,
Göring resented Germany’s mistreatment by
the victorious Allies, and he joined Hitler’s
Nazi Party (nationalist socialist) as an expres-
sion of rage. A large, imposing figure, Göring
quickly gained control of the paramilitary
wing of the party, the Brownshirts (Stur-
mabteilung), who were thugs employed for
street fighting. He thus figured prominently in
the failed 1923 beer-hall putsch against the
Bavarian government and was severely
wounded. Göring then fled to Austria to recu-