Goering: The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader by Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel

(Frontline Books), 2011

442pp., £17.99, paper, ISBN 978-1-84832-600-2

A decorated First World War ‘ace', president of the Reichstag, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe and Hitler's designated successor, Herman Goering was one of most capable and sinister leading figures of the Third Reich. He played a major role in Hitler's rise to power helping to secure the support of generals, financiers and industrialists and as creator of the secret police, showed formidable energy in crushing all resistance.  He commanded the Luftwaffe, the mightiest air force the world had ever seen but with the failure of the Battle of Britain and the consequent cancellation of Operation Sea Lion, his influence over Nazi policy faltered.  As the Second World War ended, however, Goering was a bloated shadow of his former self, an increasingly discredited figure despised by Hitler and ridiculed by his former fellow henchmen. In this classic biography, Manvell and Fraenkel, who have previously collaborated on biographies of Goebbels and Himmler 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 scheming, ambition and casual brutality, are all explored in detail. The result is a readable and intimate portrayal of a dangerous and contradictory man and an insightful history of the rise and ultimate collapse of the Third Reich.