Hermann Göring

Biography

Hermann Wilhelm Göring was born on 12^th January 1893, in Rosenheim, Bavaria. At the beginning of World War I he served in the Infantry Regiment No. 112. He volunteered for the air force and in 1915 he became a pilot and for his brave actions at the western front he was decorated with the highest German medal, the 'Pour le Merite'. Following the death of Baron Manfred von Richthofen in 1918 he became Squaron Leader. After the end of World War I Göring went to Sweden where he worked as a pilot for a Swedish air line. He later married and returned to Germany.

In 1921 Göring met Adolf Hitler for the first time and already one year later he became a leader of the Nazi party (NSDAP) and was appointed as the supreme commander of the Storm Troops (SA) by Hitler. On the 9^th November 1923 he was wounded, when taking part in the unsuccessful coupe d'état ("Marsch zur Feldherrn- halle") in Munich.

To avoid imprisonment he went into exile to Italy for four years. There he was given morphine to ease his pain, which made him addicted to drugs in the following years.

The political amnesty in 1927 enabled him to return to Germany and already one year later, he became an elected member of the German parliament (Reichstag). In 1932 he post of the president of that body.

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