Göring: Eine Karriere

by Guido Knopp, Friedrich Scherer, Gerlinde Preis

Zu Guido Knopps Begleitbüchern zu den von ihm verantworteten historischen ZDF-Dokumentationen muss man eigentlich nicht mehr viel sagen. In ihnen referieren Knopp und seine Mitarbeiter noch einmal in Text und Bild, was sie für ihre Sendungen akribisch recherchiert und wozu sie Wissenschaftler und -- wo möglich -- Zeitzeugen befragt haben. Jeder Film und jedes Buch aus der Knopp-Werkstatt folgt dem immer gleichen, vielfach erprobten Erfolgsrezept. Wer weiß, was man davon erwarten darf, wird nicht enttäuscht.

Für das Projekt Göring konnten die Autoren erstmals auf privates Filmmaterial des passionierten Schmalfilmers zurückgreifen, das als längst verschollen galt. Es zeigt den zweiten Mann in der Nazi-Hierarchie so, wie er sich selbst sah und wie er von der Öffentlichkeit gesehen werden wollte. Der Band zeichnet ein in manchem überraschendes, insgesamt differenziertes Bild von dem selbstverliebten Reichsfeldmarschall, der schon als Kind stunden- und tagelang traumversunken mit Armeen aus kleinen Zinnsoldaten berauschende Triumphe feierte, denen er mit Hilfe diverser Spiegel besondere Größe zu verleihen verstand. Eine Größe, die der prunk- (und später auch morphium-)süchtige "Reichsjägermeister" im wahren Leben für sich selbst zu reklamieren von Beginn an fest entschlossen war. Koste es, was es wolle!

Der Band führt uns an die Orte und Wegmarken, die Görings Leben die Richtung gaben: in die Himmel über den Schlachtfeldern des Ersten Weltkriegs, wo der junge und äußerst treffsichere Bomberpilot sich die ersten Sporen als Krieger verdiente (bevor er Jahre später unter Verletzung des Versailler Vertrags eine neue deutsche Luftwaffe aufbaute und sie seinem großen Förderer Adolf Hitler wie ein persönliches Geschenk überreichte), auf seinen legendär-pompösen Landsitz Carinhall, in den Nürnberger Gerichtssaal, in dem ihn das Kriegsverbrechertribunal zum Tode verurteilte und zuletzt auch in seine Zelle, wo er der Vollstreckung des Urteils mit einer Zyankalikapsel zuvorkam. Eine umfassende Bilanz. --Andreas Vierecke

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Guido 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.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Not 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.

[Zivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Mårten Fredriksson · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Maria Gustavsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Mimro · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Mårten Leufvenius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intressant skildring av relationerna i nazisternas toppskikt under framväxten och vägen till det oundvikliga slutet.

[Marc Hirt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gut lesbare Kurzbio über 235 Seiten. Braucht ein paar Vorkenntisse. Zum Vertiefen sollte man eine detailliertere Version kaufen/lesen