There were, of course, some critics. There was the Protes-
tant Vicar Schulze of Beiersdorf, who publicly scoffed at “this
dandy” having his wedding solemnized by the “parson in chief”
Müller. Foolishly, as it turned out, Göring had the vicar prose-
cuted. The defense called Martin Niemöller, who testified that
Göring himself had called Müller the “parson in chief” in De-
cember , and found it hard to take him seriously; scorning
Christian beliefs, moreover, Göring had told Niemöller, “This
two-thousand-year-old superstition about Jesus of Nazareth
it’s going to have to go!” Göring abandoned the case against the
vicar and decided to go for Niemöller instead.
His wedding to Emmy aroused a few snide remarks. Joseph
Goebbels totted up the cost of the nuptials and brooded over
evidence that she was “other than true Aryan.” But Hermann
demanded absolute respect for her and required that she be ad-
dressed as Hohe Frau (My Lady). He insisted on “ruthless
prosecution” of every libel on her person. Justice Minister Franz
Gürtner warned assize judges in a September circular that
enemies of the state were systematically spreading “spiteful re-
marks about the prime minister’s wife and untrue allegations
about her non-Aryan origin and a previous marriage to a non-
Aryan.” Talking with Frick, minister of the interior, and Gürt-
ner on November , Göring complained that one offender had
got off with a five-month prison sentence. “In my view,” he
grumbled, “five years would have been more appropriate.”
It does seem that he was covering something. Years later he
confided to Milch that Emmy’s past was not entirely flawless,
and he mentioned certain photographs. The official genealogical
brochure on Hermann Göring published in would reveal
Carin’s first marriage and divorce, but make no mention what-
ever of Emmy’s. Salacious stories continued to circulate, not all
of them untrue. “Since the abortive putsch in when he