General Goring

Blond, barrel-chested Hermann Wilhelm Goring, Premier of Prussia, Prussian Minister of the Interior, President of the Reichstag, Reich Minister of Aviation, has a multitude of gaudy self-designed uniforms differing from those of other Nazis. Last week, to set off the doeskin military cloak that has attracted much attention of late, he acquired a new pair of trousers, blazing with the broad scarlet stripes of an honorary General of Infantry.

In those quiet corners where Germans dare talk about politics at all, Premier Goring's trousers were the sensation of the week. The military rank of Nazi Goring, second most powerful man in Germany, was until last week just what it had been at the end of the War, Captain. His promotion, jumping him six full steps, came not from Adolf Hitler but from the President, old Field Marshal von Hindenburg (who took 27 years to advance the same distance). Cautious Germans, secretly fearing the Nazi experiment, have long consoled themselves with the thought that the Reichswehr was not yet completely Nazified, that it was entirely loyal to the old Field Marshal. Only twice before, to Chancellors Bismarck and Bethmann-Hollweg, has such military honor come to any German holding a civilian office. Flaunted before the German people, Hermann Goring's new trousers were a symbol of the Army's belief in Hitlerism.

Having made his gesture, Old Paul saw to it that General Goring would still have military superiors. There are three living German Field Marshals: von Hindenburg, von Mackensen, and former Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. All three share the same private opinion of Adolf Hitler. At the same time that General Goring got his trousers the Chief of the Reichswehr, General Werner von Blomberg, was moved up from General to Colonel General, Germany's highest peacetime rank.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.