illustrious performers, although she would remain in people’s
memories for her wit and presence rather than for any conven-
tional beauty. For three years Lieutenant Göring courted her,
and when she announced her intention of marrying the actor
Harry Liedtke, Göring swore revenge and threatened to strangle
Liedtke with his bare hands. Käthe’s photograph traveled in his
luggage long after, and in the subsequent sad years of Europe’s
nightmare this modern Joan of Arc would often turn to him,
intervening to rescue acquaintances from persecution.
In the summer of he flew on from Denmark to Swe-
den. At Malmstät he sold off his Fokker plane and joined the
embryonic Swedish airline Svenska Lufttrafik, whose joint owner
Karl Lignell preferred war veterans as pilots because of their vast
flying experience. A Swedish license to fly passenger planes,
dated August , , soon joined Göring’s prized possessions.
He had political ambitions even then. At the end of Sep-
tember the German legation in Stockholm reported to Berlin
that Lieutenant Hermann Göring was now describing himself as
a “candidate for the post of Reich president.”
A mere lieutenant was not enough for him, and he soon
learned that even a captain (Hauptmann) was worth more in
society. Writing from Stockholm on February , , he ap-
plied for demobilization from the army with the desired rank of
captain and permission to wear the air-corps uniform; if
granted this request, he said, he would forfeit his rights to any
pension and disability allowance. “It is absolutely essential for my
further station in life,” he explained, writing to his regiment
twelve days later, “that my request for discharge be processed as
rapidly as possible.” In a further letter on April , he again
offered to sacrifice his pension rights, explaining now that the
rank of captain would be “of particular advantage in my civilian
career.”