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"Aha!" boomed the bridegroom, twirling a diadem between big thumb and finger. "This I bought for my bride with what I now save on my bachelor tax!" Less than a year ago General Göring's friends were distressed because he insisted on praying twice daily at a sumptuous private shrine to his first wife. Last week the newlyweds drove off to his hunting lodge, where the whimsical Master of Huntsmen has an amazing "hunting coach" (see p. 23).
Why Göring? If General Eric Ludendorff had not broken with Adolf Hitler after the failure of their Beer Hall-Putsch in 1923, he might today be No. 2.
Göring, the hero-crowned War ace, began his political career as the best barnstorming attraction an Austrian house painter whose putsch has fizzled could command. Addicted to morphine, as were many great airmen at the close of the War, Göring has been "cured" in Sweden but he still has occasional extraordinary moments, and in certain kinds of politics a dash of madness is a dash of greatness.
Not No. 1 Hitler but No. 2 Göring is credited with such Nazi inspirations as burning down the Reichstag, blaming this on the Communists, using it as an excuse to scrap the Constitution (TIME, March 6, 1933) and a year later starting the shooting of prominent Nazis which was called "The Blood Purge."
Actually there were two purges, both begun the same night, with Göring's at Berlin generally believed to have started a few hours before Hitler's at Munich. This darkest Nazi page may never be clear. At his possible worst General Göring hoped that Pederast Ernst Roehm would have Hitler shot in Munich after which Göring and Roehm might have succeeded in butchering a slew of Reichswehr generals and other obstacles to Storm Troop supremacy.
As the purges turned out, Storm Troop Leader Roehm was Hitler's most prominent victim and General Kurt von Schleicher was Göring's. Botched was any possible Storm Troop coup against the Reichswehr which has been waxing ever since, while the Storm Troops wane.
Still the No. 2, still on outwardly friendly terms with the No. 1 and still Adolf Hitler's greatest rival, Hermann Wilhelm Göring has made less news than usual of late, devoting himself to building up Germany's new air force, putting away cherished memories of his adored first wife, falling in love all over again and finding his jittery nerves calmed with new happiness. Last week he announced that on April 20, Hitler's birthday, Emmy Göring would make her farewell appearance as Prussian State Actress in her favorite frogged-jacket role of Queen Louise in The Prince of Prussia.