The Early Influences of Hermann Wilhelm Göring
An Examination of His Life and Education Prior to World War I
Aug 23, 2009
Born on January 12, 1893, Hermann Wilhelm Göring received his name for a family friend, Hermann von Epenstein, and for Kaiser Wilhelm. Göring’s father, Heinrich Ernst, was fifty-three years old when Hermann was born, his mother, Franziszka (Fanny) was twenty-seven.
Young Hermann’s early life was unusual in that his father was still active in the Civil Service at the time of his birth, so the family moved often before Heinrich retired. This led to Hermann’s weaning at the age of three months, so that his mother could accompany his father and older siblings to Haiti. Hermann was in foster care with family friends for the next three years.
When his parents returned to greet him and take him home, according to his older sister Olga, Hermann beat his mother on the face and screamed. He ignored his father entirely.
Göring's Youth and Primary School Years
There was another unusual element to Hermann’s childhood home life during those formative years: the very open affair between his mother and his half-Jewish godfather, Sir Hermann von Epenstein, which lasted fifteen years.
Once Heinrich retired, his meager pension could not support his family the way he wished. Von Epenstein stepped in and had the Görings move in with him, first at his castle Mauterndorf, and later at his castle Veldenstein. He was dashing, in his way, and descriptions of him (aside from Görings’s own memories) make it clear that he was the boy’s idol.
Hermann von Epenstein as Göring's Role Model
All of the Göring children were expected to call von Epenstein ‘Pate’ ('Godfather'), and he spent a great deal of time and money dressing the part of the Medieval nobleman, and decking out his castles and staff in the same manner. He spoke loudly and arrogantly, some would recall. He often wore bright colors and lavish jewelry, and had a fondness for pomp and circumstance – all traits that his favorite godson would one display in his own right.
Indeed, many years later, when von Epenstein finally married and then passed away, Hermann would inherit both castles, Veldenstein and Mauterndorf, in spite of his several siblings…the youngest of whom was very likely von Epenstein’s own son by Hermann’s mother. Nevertheless, Hermann remained von Epenstein’s favorite.
Göring's Military School Education
After various school expulsions, Hermann’s father and godfather finally decided to pull strings (both men were in the cavalry during Bismarck’s wars) and eventually won the boy entrance into the esteemed Karlsruhe military academy, a highly regarded Prussian school, and then Lichterfelde, a Prussian military training college. It was in this atmosphere that Hermann finally started to mature and find himself.
He immediately took to the rigid, disciplined atmosphere. Lichterfelde, supposedly, was so strict that soldiers who emerged in the morning with any uniform flaws might be expected to stand perfectly still and endure a button sewn into the flesh of their chests. Any flinching or crying out during this punishment might draw attention even more brutal.
The Death of Göring's Father
After fifteen years of sitting by while his wife openly had an affair with von Epenstein, Heinrich Göring was angry to discover that von Epenstein had suddenly left Fanny by the wayside to chase after a young girl forty years younger than he was. The gist of Heinrich’s argument was that he and Fanny were not going to stand by while von Epenstein made a fool of himself over a much younger woman. They were leaving the castle.
Seeing his chance to spring marriage on the young woman, von Epenstein promptly threw the Görings out, much to Hermann’s shock. He had only recently been boasting of ‘our castle’ to his fellow soldiers…and now his family was homeless. Worse still, after his heart condition worsened from the stress of the situation and his years of drinking, Heinrich Göring took to his bed and died, shortly after arriving in their small rented home in Munich.
Hermann, who had never known his father very well, suddenly seemed very aware of the lost time and relationship with his father who, in his prime, had been a fine, decent, upstanding man. Heinrich Göring governed colonial territories of Germany, which had large black populations, because of his fair-minded approach to those of different races.
Although von Epenstein had a strong effect on Göring, Göring also told others later that he felt an awful rush of guilt upon his father's death. He realized that all the time spent with von Epenstein had kept him from establishing a real relationship with Heinrich, and now it was too late.
Bibliography:
Irving, David. Goring: A Biography. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1989.
Moseley, Leonard. The Reich Marshal: A Biography of Hermann Goring. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1974.
Overy, Richard. Goering. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003.
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