still waters of the lake, the ranks of soldiers standing in motion-
less array, while Richard Wagner’s rich funeral music throbbed
and droned among the hazed conifers.
Göring had invited Carin’s relatives, along with hundreds
of diplomats and politicians, to witness this moving evidence of
how beholden he still was to her memory. To the blare of hunt-
ing horns and trumpets, and the answering bellows of
Hermann’s future trophies grazing in the forests, a dozen
strong men groaned and strained to manhandle the sarcopha-
gus down into the granite mausoleum. Afterward, Göring led
Hitler down the steps alone. Both men had known Carin well,
both were saddened that she had not lived to see the National
Socialists triumphant. Göring’s most intimate accomplices
Himmler and Körner looked on. With him these two men
were to become, in Darré’s compelling phrase, the “managers” of
the coming Night of the Long Knives.
June , : Göring’s dream comes true as his first
wife, Carin, is reburied in a stone crypt on the Carinhall
estate while a bareheaded Führer and the Reich’s top
dignitaries pay homage to her.