Engaging and forthright biography of Hitler's deputy Fascinating insight into his dramatic fall from grace Takes the reader inside Hitler's inner circle Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, President of the Reichstag, Prime Minister of Prussia and Hitler's designated successor, Herman Goering was one of most capable - and sinister - leading figures of the Third Reich. After fighting with distinction in WWI, he found himself disillusioned by the turbulent and bewildering post-war world of a defeated Germany and turned to the extreme Right, enthused by promises of a new life and a new path to glory. He was to play a major role in smoothing Hitler's road to power through helping to secure the support of financiers, industrialists and generals, and as creator of the secret police he showed formidable energy in terrorising and crushing all resistance. Later, as Commander of the Luftwaffe he led the mightiest air force the world had ever seen. As WWII drew to a close, however, Goering had sunk into lethargy and a world of illusions. A bloated shadow of his former self, he became an increasingly discredited figure, despised by Hitler and ridiculed by his former fellow henchmen.
In the end he was barely saved from assassination at the hands of the SS by the arrival of American troops. In this classic biography, available for the first time in paperback, Manvell and Fraenkel have drawn on interviews with members of Goering's family, his former associates, his enemies and his servants. His extravagant lifestyle and tastes, his unusual habits and uniforms, his cunning, ambition and casual brutality, are all explored in dramatic detail. The result is a thorough and intimate portrayal of this dangerous and contradictory man and an insightful history of the rise and ultimate collapse of the Third Reich.