Mammon in Malmö by Torquil Macleod

Author:Torquil Macleod
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Torquil MacLeod Books Ltd.
Published: 2021-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 29

‘Hermann Göring had a long connection with Sweden. As far as we know, he came here around 1919. The reason for that obviously fits in with the end of the First World War. His father was a diplomat who, on retiring, relied on the help of Hermann’s godfather, a Doctor Epenstein, a wealthy Jewish physician and businessman. His mother became Epenstein’s lover, which must have hurt the young boy, especially as his father was still alive. Hermann’s escape was joining the Prussian army. By the end of the war, he’d become a successful pilot, and ended up as commander of the Flying Circus, a successor to von Richthofen, the most famous flying ace of them all. Göring’s exploits made him popular among the public, though his arrogance didn’t go down well with his fellow flyers. When the armistice came, Göring, like many others in the German military, believed they had been stabbed in the back by the capitulating politicians. He blamed the Republicans, the Marxists and, of course, the Jews. He left Germany in disgust and went to Denmark as an aerial acrobat before moving over here. You’re right, Anita, he did spend time in Limhamn: he rented a room at Linnégatan 12 to be exact. He was now a commercial pilot, and one of his jobs was carrying mail between Limhamn and Warnemünde in Germany.’

‘Is that when he met his Swedish wife?’

‘Yes, she was the love of his life: Countess Carin von Kantzow. On a winter’s day in 1920, her brother-in-law, Count Eric von Rosen, wanted to return from Stockholm to his castle at Rockelstad. Snow had prevented the trains from running, so von Rosen went to the airport to find someone to fly him home. The only volunteer was a German who worked for a company called Swedish Air Traffic. This was Göring, the fearless ex-fighter pilot, who, despite the appalling weather, landed with his prestigious passenger at the Rockelstad jetty on the icebound Lake Båven. It was while the two men were thawing out in front of the fireplace in the Great Hall that Carin appeared. Göring immediately fell for her. The attraction was mutual. The only problem was that she was married to Count von Kantzow at the time. A scandalous affair started in Stockholm, though Carin was now separated from her husband. Eventually, she obtained a divorce and married Göring in 1923.

‘They moved to Munich, and it was there that he found a kindred spirit in Adolf Hitler, whose new National Socialist German Workers’ Party was rabblerousing in Bavaria. They formed a bond – Göring found Hitler articulated his frustrations with post-imperialist Germany, while Hitler was keen to use Göring’s wartime fame and aristocratic connections. Göring was given command of Hitler’s stormtroopers. Thugs, basically. It all went wrong when Hitler tried to seize power in Munich, and the result was the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. Hitler ended up in prison; Göring got severely wounded in the groin and fled into exile, eventually ending up back in Sweden.

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