Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

ARYANS OF ALL NATIONS, UNITE 109In every respect they were on top of the world, and yet Goring requiredartificial exaltation. Life in the flying corps was perilous, thoughin many ways pleasant. The aviators were the coddled and netteddarlings of the Army, with frequent rest periods, the best of food, andevery possible consideration; the accomplishment of the individual wasmore conspicuous, less immersed in the squadron than twenty yearslater. Nerves suffered in this up and down between death andchampagne; some took to drugs. Goring became a morphine addict. Upto 1932 his vice never left him completely. Later he seems to haveovercome it; this rare feat of will characterizes the man.From these giddy heights there came a fall: the eleventh of November,1918. From the first this meant a bitter struggle for daily bread.After the peace, Germany was permitted no military, and very fewcommercial, planes. German aviators emigrated to near-by countries.Goring became a transport pilot in Denmark and Sweden, carryingpassengers and mail bags. One winter day he set out from Stockholmwith a single passenger, Count Eric von Rosen. They flew to Rosen'sestate of Rockelstadt, where they landed on a frozen pond in front of thecastle. Goring was hospitably received and Count Rosen's whole familyturned out to be friends of Germany. These Swedish aristocrats hadintermarried with North-German families; they had relatives who wereserving or had served as officers in the German Army. Goring's hostspoke with enthusiasm of Germany's future and even sang Germansongs to the accompaniment of the lute. Two large swastikas adornedthe hall. The lady of the house, it transpired, had a sister, Carin vonKantzow, nee Baroness Fock. She had an eight-year-old son, but wasunhappily married and spent most of her time with her relatives. Shewas beautiful and charming, but suffered from epilepsy. Carin vonKantzow soon dissolved her marriage and married the German transportpilot, Hermann Goring.His marriage brought Goring a certain amount of money. He returnedto Germany and enrolled as a student of economics in Munich. Up tothat time he had stood aside from politics and had taken no part in thevarious armed activities of the German counterrevolution. Now hebecame a National Socialist. The corporal