for his collection.
His lust for precious stones and metals was notorious, and
he had begun to adorn himself liberally with jewel-encrusted
artifacts. Darré once witnessed him preparing to receive a Balkan
minister. The valet brought in a cushion on which twelve rings
were arrayed four red, four blue, four green. “Today,” the
great man mused, “I am displeased. So we shall wear a deeper
hue. But we also desire to show that we are not beyond hope. So
we shall wear the green.”
His private staff turned a blind eye on these eccentricities,
but not those whom he affronted. Schacht would regale friends
with the image of Göring in thigh-length boots, leather jerkin,
and billowing white sleeves, with a Robin Hood hat and a man-
sized spear. “His greed was boundless,” he testified, “his lust for
jewelry, gold, and silver plate unimaginable.” One lady invited
to tea found him wearing a toga and jewel-studded sandals,
while his fingers were heavy with rings and precious stones, and
his lips seemed to have been rouged.
The palace at No. a Leipziger Platz in Berlin was a dra-
matic example of his extravagance. He had purchased from
former Crown Prince Wilhelm a large, valuable rug and had to
order one of the rooms enlarged to fit it. As this work pro-
gressed, he decided on still more modifications until the final bill
came to seven hundred thousand Reichsmarks (in addition to
the renovation). The Prussian minister of finance, Johannes
Popitz, approved without demur not for nothing had Göring
ordered the Finance Ministry alone preserved after the laws
unifying the rest of the Reich. The building was later destroyed,
but the architect’s plans have survived and show the palace to be
a rambling edifice with drinking and smoking rooms, several
suites of kitchens, and a den for his pet lions at mezzanine level,
while circular dining rooms, conservatories, drawing rooms,