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A year after the 1926 amnesty Göring returned to Munich, without his wife, who had no money left to accompany him. During the next year he reorganized the Storm Troops. In 1928 he was elected to the Reichstag as one of the first twelve Nazi delegates. In 1930 there were 107 Nazis in the Reichstag, and Göring was their leader.
In October 1931 Karin was dying in Stockholm and Göring was at her bedside. A telegram came from Hitler saying that President von Hindenburg had consented to see him and asking Göring to go with him. When Göring arrived in Berlin he received word of Karin's death. Two years later, when Hitler was Chancellor and Göring was Prime Minister of Prussia, he held a State burial for her at Karinhall. Hitler walked beside the widower.
Göring's Machine. Since his Storm Troops cleaned up all opposition to the Nazis and consolidated their power in —933, Göring has renounced the habits of the street fighter for those of politician, administrator and statesman. He is the only one of Hitler's early supporters who has grown in ability as well as power. Although he holds no diplomatic position, he has been close to Hitler in matters of foreign policy, and Ribbentrop's current influence may not last beyond Germany's need of Russia to fight England. Göring expects to fight the Russians some day. Before war began, his idea of what Germany's foreign policy should be was straightforward: Germany should rule Europe and let Britannia rule the waves. This still sounds good to lots of prominent Britons.
It is as boss of the Four-Year Plan that Göring has best shown his administrative ability. He ordered that Germany be made self-sufficient and let his subordinates figure out how. He has put the ablest men obtainable into his Economics Ministry, lets them work out plans which he either accepts or discards. For a while he used Dr. Schacht as idea man, then replaced him with the scarcely more radical Dr. Walther Funk. To replace Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht as international salesman of German economy was more difficult, but Göring found his man in the persuasive Dr. Karl Clodius, who was in Bucharest trying to talk more oil and foodstuffs out of the Rumanians.
Another of Göring's men last week got a boost in power and prestige. Hitler named Major General Dr. Fritz Todt (rhymes with butt) Minister for Arms & Munitions, gave him the immediate job of speeding up production of armaments.
A World War I flier and post-war engineer, affable, able Dr. Todt planned the German system of superhighways, designed most of the Westwall fortifications. In his new post he holds practically all the strings of German industry and technique, will answer only to Göring and his Führer.