one of Germany’s best officer-cadet schools, at Karlsruhe. He
flourished like a failing plant newly placed in a window. He wore
a crisp uniform, and when he visited the Graf sisters and his
own sister Paula, who were attending finishing school nearby, he
clicked his heels, presented their headmistress with flowers, and
invited the girls to a local pastry shop, where he found he had
no funds to pay.
In Hermann Göring progressed to the military acad-
emy at Gross Lichterfelde, outside Berlin. It was Germany’s
West Point. He luxuriated in the social life of the Prussian offi-
cer, imagined his manly breast already ornamented with medals,
and willingly submitted to the disciplinary straitjacket that was
the price for what he coveted power over the destinies of oth-
ers.
He sailed easily through his finals in March . Although
at loggerheads with the civilian teacher of academic subjects, he
had got on famously with the military instructors and scored
points (or so he later claimed), one hundred more than needed
Hermann Göring with his mother (far left) and sis-
ters Paula and Olga at Bad Tölz.