Nazi-Germany’s Biggest War Criminal: Hermann Göring
Successor and deputy to Adolf Hitler
Hermann Göring, also known as “Der Dicke” because of his stocky build, was a notorious Nazi leader.
During the First World War, he was a celebrated fighter pilot. When the Nazis came to power, Göring became Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe. In 1939, Adolf Hitler appointed him as his successor and deputy. During the Second World War, Göring became one of the greatest war criminals in Nazi Germany.
The youth of Hermann Goering
Hermann Wilhelm Göring was born on January 12, 1893, in the Marienbad sanatorium, near the town of Rosenheim in the south of Germany.¹
His father, Ernst Heinrich Göring (1838–1913), was a lawyer, governor, and diplomat who worked for a long time in the German overseas colonies. He was stationed for a long time in Namibia (then called German Southwest Africa). His mother’s name was Franziska Göring-Tiefenbrunn (1859–1923).
Hermann spent his first three years in a foster family (a certain Graf family) in Fürth, Germany. His father was working in Haiti at the time, and his mother went with her husband. So as a baby and toddler, Göring practically grew up without his parents.
