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Hermann Göring

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:0.00 USD Estimated At:8,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Hermann Göring

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Auction Date:2010 Jan 13 @ 10:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
Collection of four letters, all to Alwine Schulte-Vels, Göring's fiancée during the first World War, consisting of three ALSs, one TLS, and a handwritten telegram, written in either ink or purple pencil.

(1) ALS in German, signed “Hermann,” one page, lightly-lined both sides, 9 x 11.25, February 11, 1915. Written in purple pencil, the letter dates from Göring's years as a young flight lieutenant in World War I, written on the eve of the First Battle of Champagne, and expressing the 22-year-old officer's enthusiasm for the Luftwaffe. In part: "There's more powerful shooting today. Tomorrow we will fly across the Forest of Argonne, weather permitting…Greetings from Lörzer & Wedekind." He continues: "We have now made several flights with our new, big plane. It's splendid, but makes a hell of a noise. It rises to 1000 meters in 10 minutes, to 2000 meters in 25 minutes…One can make some use of something like that. What do you say about Hindenburg’s latest victories? Simply great. If only I, too, could be in the East.” At the same time, Göring writes some surprisingly intimate lines to his fiancée: “I have voluteered for the watch…to be alone and to be able to think of you better…I can dream of you so nicely here and think of the future…Are you busy at thinking of me, too?”

(2) An unsigned and undated ALS, one page, both sides. During his watch at the blockhouse, Göring pens a remarkable, apparently hurried, unsigned and undated self-portrait: "I'm not at all suited to be a homebody. My climbing tours were always the most dangerous of all. But am I not right, you're not afraid either and are my companion in everything. I do not wish to be an everyday person. Struggle has always been a condition of life for me, and it always will be, in nature or among men. I wish to stand out from the herd of common men; not I will follow them, but All shall follow me. Amen to that!"

Also included are three other pieces of correspondence, all untranslated consisting of an ALS, TLS, and telegram. Also included are several small photos of both Göring and Schulte-Vels. In very good condition, with scattered creases, soiling, stains, and folds.

Göring had joined the aviation corps in 1914. At first, the young aviator accompanied other pilots as a lookout, sketching the positions of the enemy batteries in the map, taking aerial photographs, and occasionally engaging in dogfights with his pistol. By the end of World War I, Göring had amassed 22 confirmed kills and become a decorated soldier, including the Iron Cross, the Zaehring Lion with swords, the Karl Friedrich Order, the House Order of Hohenzollern with swords, third class, and finally in May 1918 (despite not having the required 25 air victories) the coveted Pour le Mérite. This compilation adds some unique insight into his relationship with his fiancée and, as noted, the unbridled enthusiasm for air warfare that would later come to fruition as Luftwaffe commander.
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