Hermann Göring

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Göring, Hermann

Sammlung von 3 eigenh. Briefen mit U., 1 Telegramm und 1 Brief mit U. („Hermann Göring“ bzw. „Hermann“).
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Göring, Hermann, aviator and National Socialist politician (1893-1946). 3 ALS, 1 telegram, and 1 TLS. Includes original portrait photograph of Alwine Schulte-Vels (studio portrait, c. 105 x 48 mm, mounted on cardboard) and 2 portrait photographs of Göring (c. 65 x 50 mm) as a young officer, one in full height. I: [Blockhouse near Stenay], 11 Feb. 1915. 4to. 2 pp. With envelope. II: [Stenay, Blockhouse, between 11 and 18 Feb. 1915]. 4to. 1¼ pp. III: Stenay, 18 Feb. [19]15. 4to. 1 p. With envelope. IV: Essen, 11 March 1933. Oblong 8vo (telegram). 1 p. V: [Berlin], headquarters, 30 Nov. 1943. 1½ SS. on Göring's "Carinhall" stationery. With envelope. Autogr. letters include transcripts. All to Alwine Schulte-Vels, Göring's fiancée during the First World War. The earliest letters date from Göring's years as a young Flight Lieutenant in WWI, written on the eve of the First Battle of Champagne, and express the 22-year-old officer's enthusiasm for the Luftwaffe: "There's more powerful shooting today. Tomorrow we will fly across the Forest of Argonne, weather permitting [...] Greetings from Lörzer & Wedekind [...]" (Feb. 11). He continues: "We have now made several flights with our new, big plane. It's splendid, but makes a hell of a noise. It rises to 1000 meters in 10 minutes, to 2000 meters in 25 minutes [...] One can make some use of something like that. What do you say about Hindenburg's latest victories? Simply great. If only I, too, could be in the East [...]" (Feb. 18). At the same time, Göring writes some surprisingly intimate lines to his fiancée: "I have voluteered for the watch [...] to be alone and to be able to think of you better [...] I can dream of you so nicely here and think of the future [...] Are you busy at thinking of me, too?" (Feb. 11). During his watch at the blockhouse, Göring pens a remarkable, apparently hurried, unsigned and undated self-portrait: "I'm not at all suited to be a homebody. My climbing tours were always the most dangerous of all. But am I not right, you're not afraid either and are my companion in everything. I do not wish to be an everyday person. Struggle has always been a condition of life for me, and it always will be, in nature or among men. I wish to stand out from the herd of common men; not I will follow them, but All shall follow me. Amen to that!" - At the suggestion of his comrade-in-arms Bruno Loerzer (1891-1960), Göring had joined the aviation corps in October 1914, then a mere infantryman in sick bay with rheumatoid arthritis. At first, the 22-year-old accompanied Loerzer as a look-out, sketching the positions of the enemy batteries in the map and taking aerial photographs (cf. Zuerl, in. DBA II 458, 322) and even participating in dogfights with his pistol. He was later to appoint his old friend Loerzer (who, like himself, was a highly decorated ace at the end of the war) to the Reich Air Ministry. Göring's marriage with Alwine Schulte-Vels, however, was not to be: probably both their parents objected to the war marriage ("Unfortunately, I have little encouraging news from home regarding our matter", Feb. 18). As early as 1916, Göring proposed to Marianne Mauser (who turned him down), and his 1923 marriage with the Swedish Baroness Carin von Kantzow (née Fock) is well known. However, Göring and Schulte-Vels did not lose touch: In a 1933 telegram, not even two months after Hitler's seizing power, the dictator's paladin requests his former fiancée to call him in Mülheim an der Ruhr. And as late as November 1943, Göring, by now married for the second time, writes to Alwine in the bombed city of Koblenz: "I assure you I am much pained to hear that you and your family, too, have lost everything in the raids. Of course I will try to be of help [...] There are several houses and villas near the Dutch border, still in Holland, which I intend to clear of their Dutch residents and assign to victims of the raids. I could arrange a place for you there [...] For Christmas I will have a little package sent to you in my name, containing good things which are not readily available these days [...]". - Ms. letters written with copying pencil. Slight tears to folds, some damage to edges and envelopes. - Rare documents, important for a characterisation of the Nazi politician, which shed light on Göring's hitherto entirely undocumented relationship with Alwine Schulte-Vels, mostly pre-dating even his training as a fighter pilot.