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Göring: Eine Karriere
Hitlers Paladin: populär, hörig, größenwahnsinnig. Seit langem die erste große Göring-Biografie.
Er war der zweitmächtigste Nazi-Führer, zeitweilig beliebter als Hitler selbst; er war leutselig und brutal. Fast alle Gewaltaktionen sind mit seinem Namen verbunden: Hermann Göring ebnete Adolf Hitler den Weg zur Macht, verkörperte das joviale Gesicht der NS-Diktatur und verfiel dem Wahn absoluter Herrschaft. Guido Knopp stieß bei den Recherchen zu seinem Göring-Porträt auf unbekanntes Material – Filmaufnahmen aus Görings Privatbesitz, die seit Kriegsende als verschollen galten, bisher unzugängliches Archivmaterial und persönliche Notizen von Hitlers designiertem Nachfolger.
Knopp legt die schillernde Biografie des Mannes frei, der als hochdekorierter Fliegerheld des Ersten Weltkrieges 1922 in die NSDAP eintrat, zeitweise die SA befehligte und seinem Führer bis zur Selbstverleugnung diente. Göring stellte die Weichen für Terrorherrschaft, Holocaust und Großmachtpolitik. Doch Drogensucht schwächte schließlich seinen Einfluss ebenso wie die Ablehnung von Hitlers Kriegskurs, der Göring um seinen Reichtum, seine Schlösser, seine Kunstwerke fürchten ließ. Der „Reichsmarschall des Großdeutschen Reiches“ zog sich angesichts der Niederlagen seiner Luftwaffe in ein bombastisch-bizarres Privatleben zurück. Nur seine ungebrochene Beliebtheit selbst angesichts von Kriegselend und sinkender Moral schützte ihn. Als Hauptangeklagter in den Nürnberger Prozessen zeigte er weder Einsicht noch Reue. Dem Tod durch den Strang entzog er sich durch Zyankali.
Guido Knopp enthüllt die vielen Gesichter des Hermann Göring und entwirft das Psychogramm von Hitlers Paladin, der trotz Terror, Machtwahn und hemmungslosem Luxus bis zum Ende der beliebteste NS-Führer blieb.
Er war der zweitmächtigste Nazi-Führer, zeitweilig beliebter als Hitler selbst; er war leutselig und brutal. Fast alle Gewaltaktionen sind mit seinem Namen verbunden: Hermann Göring ebnete Adolf Hitler den Weg zur Macht, verkörperte das joviale Gesicht der NS-Diktatur und verfiel dem Wahn absoluter Herrschaft. Guido Knopp stieß bei den Recherchen zu seinem Göring-Porträt auf unbekanntes Material – Filmaufnahmen aus Görings Privatbesitz, die seit Kriegsende als verschollen galten, bisher unzugängliches Archivmaterial und persönliche Notizen von Hitlers designiertem Nachfolger.
Knopp legt die schillernde Biografie des Mannes frei, der als hochdekorierter Fliegerheld des Ersten Weltkrieges 1922 in die NSDAP eintrat, zeitweise die SA befehligte und seinem Führer bis zur Selbstverleugnung diente. Göring stellte die Weichen für Terrorherrschaft, Holocaust und Großmachtpolitik. Doch Drogensucht schwächte schließlich seinen Einfluss ebenso wie die Ablehnung von Hitlers Kriegskurs, der Göring um seinen Reichtum, seine Schlösser, seine Kunstwerke fürchten ließ. Der „Reichsmarschall des Großdeutschen Reiches“ zog sich angesichts der Niederlagen seiner Luftwaffe in ein bombastisch-bizarres Privatleben zurück. Nur seine ungebrochene Beliebtheit selbst angesichts von Kriegselend und sinkender Moral schützte ihn. Als Hauptangeklagter in den Nürnberger Prozessen zeigte er weder Einsicht noch Reue. Dem Tod durch den Strang entzog er sich durch Zyankali.
Guido Knopp enthüllt die vielen Gesichter des Hermann Göring und entwirft das Psychogramm von Hitlers Paladin, der trotz Terror, Machtwahn und hemmungslosem Luxus bis zum Ende der beliebteste NS-Führer blieb.
- GenresNonfictionBiography
424 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
2 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Guido Knopp
116 books31 followersGuido Knopp is a German journalist and author. He is well known in Germany, mainly because he has produced a great number of TV documentaries, predominantly about the Nazi era, but also about other topics, such as Stalinism.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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February 6, 2021Not exactly a bad book, but perhaps a bit pointless and of little value unless you have never read a book or part of a book, about the third Reich before.
On the other hand if you have never read a basic introductory book on the Nazis and the Third Reich before and you prefer nothing too gruesome and you don't mind Göring being mentioned a touch more often than he would be in a book that did not claim to be his biography then this might be perfect for you.
If on the other hand you actually wanted to read a biography about Göring then this is probably not the book for you. Despite its length I did not feel there was much more here than in the chapter on Göring in Fest's Faces of the Third Reich. I think it was new to me that Göring was addicted first to Morphine and then Codeine (the first as a consequence of injuries sustained during the Bier Hall Putsch, the latter presumably to get him off the morphine) Knopp suggests the morphine consumption was at a sufficiently low level for him to be successfully able to father a single child, I'm no expert in human fertility, but one child to me suggests that he might also just have got lucky.
That Art was looted on his behalf is mentioned by there's not detail on the pictures or what he even did with it all, there's a tiny mention on the financial gratuities that several companies were doubtless extremely happy to give to him entirely of their own free will and with no thought of receiving any benefit for their commercial or personal interests. We are told that he weighed 140 kilos at the end of 1933, but then his weight isn't mentioned until the end of the book when he is down to mere 100 kilos and rapidly loosing weigh on the so far un-trademarked 'imprisoned by the American's military diet'.
Göring emerges as an embodiment of the concept of 'too big to fail'. His relatively successful pre-war years where followed by an increasingly unsuccessful WWII, but by then it seems he had been so highly honoured and embedded in the regime as the number two Nazi that it was not possible to remove him without damaging the reputation of the Nazi regime itself.
It's interesting how lightly the book passes over issues specifically about Göring, for example the extent of his personal involvement in running the Luftwaffe, or doing the schmoozing to win upper class support and donors for the Party in the late 1920s, in favour of padding out an in any case brief book, with just generic history.
On the other hand if you have never read a basic introductory book on the Nazis and the Third Reich before and you prefer nothing too gruesome and you don't mind Göring being mentioned a touch more often than he would be in a book that did not claim to be his biography then this might be perfect for you.
If on the other hand you actually wanted to read a biography about Göring then this is probably not the book for you. Despite its length I did not feel there was much more here than in the chapter on Göring in Fest's Faces of the Third Reich. I think it was new to me that Göring was addicted first to Morphine and then Codeine (the first as a consequence of injuries sustained during the Bier Hall Putsch, the latter presumably to get him off the morphine) Knopp suggests the morphine consumption was at a sufficiently low level for him to be successfully able to father a single child, I'm no expert in human fertility, but one child to me suggests that he might also just have got lucky.
That Art was looted on his behalf is mentioned by there's not detail on the pictures or what he even did with it all, there's a tiny mention on the financial gratuities that several companies were doubtless extremely happy to give to him entirely of their own free will and with no thought of receiving any benefit for their commercial or personal interests. We are told that he weighed 140 kilos at the end of 1933, but then his weight isn't mentioned until the end of the book when he is down to mere 100 kilos and rapidly loosing weigh on the so far un-trademarked 'imprisoned by the American's military diet'.
Göring emerges as an embodiment of the concept of 'too big to fail'. His relatively successful pre-war years where followed by an increasingly unsuccessful WWII, but by then it seems he had been so highly honoured and embedded in the regime as the number two Nazi that it was not possible to remove him without damaging the reputation of the Nazi regime itself.
It's interesting how lightly the book passes over issues specifically about Göring, for example the extent of his personal involvement in running the Luftwaffe, or doing the schmoozing to win upper class support and donors for the Party in the late 1920s, in favour of padding out an in any case brief book, with just generic history.
February 5, 2012
I read the Hebrew translation of this book.
It is amazing to learn how incompetent the Nazi leadership could get.
How the Nazis got their reputation as efficient is perhaps a credit to their propaganda machine.
While it was nice to read a history book that is not too long, I found this book to be a bit to simplified. There is so much back story to many of the events that is just missing.
There are too little actual examples, we're told that Goering went there and made an ass of himself. How he took a holiday during a critical moment. But I'd like to hear what he actually did do.
By the end of the book when Goering is being tried in Nirenberg I got the feeling that he didn't actually do anything but show up once in a while and blow some hot air.
He did much more than that and it's hard to grasp that from this book.
It is amazing to learn how incompetent the Nazi leadership could get.
How the Nazis got their reputation as efficient is perhaps a credit to their propaganda machine.
While it was nice to read a history book that is not too long, I found this book to be a bit to simplified. There is so much back story to many of the events that is just missing.
There are too little actual examples, we're told that Goering went there and made an ass of himself. How he took a holiday during a critical moment. But I'd like to hear what he actually did do.
By the end of the book when Goering is being tried in Nirenberg I got the feeling that he didn't actually do anything but show up once in a while and blow some hot air.
He did much more than that and it's hard to grasp that from this book.
April 15, 2022
Ljudbok.
Ganska intressant bok om en mycket märklig och maktgalen man som var den Hitler hade sig närmast. Göring, en man vars galenskap, storhetsvansinne och överskattade självbild förefaller som en grym och samtidigt komisk figur i nazi-Tyskland.
Historien om hur han tillskansar sig så mycket han kan, skyller sina misslyckanden på andra och verkar ha levt i en annan verklighet är på ett sätt fascinerande. Att han mitt under brinnande världskrig tar lång jaktsemester är också något som man förvånas av.
Helt ok bok men tråkig uppläsare.
Ganska intressant bok om en mycket märklig och maktgalen man som var den Hitler hade sig närmast. Göring, en man vars galenskap, storhetsvansinne och överskattade självbild förefaller som en grym och samtidigt komisk figur i nazi-Tyskland.
Historien om hur han tillskansar sig så mycket han kan, skyller sina misslyckanden på andra och verkar ha levt i en annan verklighet är på ett sätt fascinerande. Att han mitt under brinnande världskrig tar lång jaktsemester är också något som man förvånas av.
Helt ok bok men tråkig uppläsare.
November 25, 2023
I don't remember much of this book... Maybe because I read 4 biographical books on Hermann Göring in a few months. I haven't been disappointed by any of them, though, which makes me say that it's worth reading if you're interested in WWII. Especially if you're a Swede and want a perspective on WWII history. It's worth reading if you want to dig deeper into Nazi Germany and it's government, for sure.
February 26, 2020
Important, though, not to ridicule a person who played a major role in the most cruel activities in modern western history, or to make him out to be a pathetic, and drug addicted, clown. He was a responsible, reasoning, and devilish, actor.
January 7, 2024
Intressant skildring av relationerna i nazisternas toppskikt under framväxten och vägen till det oundvikliga slutet.
February 21, 2024
Gut lesbare Kurzbio über 235 Seiten. Braucht ein paar Vorkenntisse. Zum Vertiefen sollte man eine detailliertere Version kaufen/lesen
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews