

 

Getting Ready in Four Years

By the mid-thirties the authority of Hermann Göring was uni-
versally respected within the Reich. The gauleiters  Hitler’s
personal lieutenants throughout the Reich  and middle-
ranking party officials saw him as a force to be reckoned with 
as the “Man of Iron” (der Eiserne) upon whom their Führer re-
lied. The people called him “Hermann,” and were indifferent to
the murderous aura about him. His Falstaffian corpulence, his
gold braid, his stylish airs, enhanced his popularity. When the
Reich adopted the swastika as its official flag, General Göring
brought forth his own personal standard  what the British
embassy loftily termed “an heraldic salad” with only the tiniest
Nazi swastika visible in each corner, and the main field domi-
nated by the Prussian eagle with wings spread and his own Pour
le Mérite. The public loved it. “Out front,” ran one popular jin-
gle, “he’s tinsel and medals aclatter. At bottom he’s fatter and
fatter and fatter.”