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January 12, 1893 - Hermann Göring

Few figures in the Nazi hierarchy combined institutional reach with personal ambition as effectively as Göring, who at various points held command over the Luftwaffe, the German economy's four-year plan, and the early apparatus of the Gestapo. His trajectory from decorated World War I aviator to the second most powerful man in the Third Reich illustrates how the Nazi state drew on existing military prestige and personal loyalty to consolidate power. He was among the principal defendants at Nuremberg, where he was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

From Wikipedia

Hermann Göring

Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; German: [ˈhɛʁman ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈɡøːʁɪŋ] ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, aviator, military commander, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which controlled Germany from 1933 to 1945. He also served as Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (Supreme Commander of the Air Force), a position he held until the final days of the regime.

He was born in Rosenheim, Bavaria. A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, Göring was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite. He served as the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG I), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine that persisted until the last year of his life.

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