Hermann Göring

One of the most prominent of the Nazis in Adolf Hitler's cabinet, Hermann Göring (rendered often in English as Goering) was a World War I fighter pilot, an early member of the Nazi Party, minister in the government of Nazi Germany, and a often bloated, decadent war criminal who decided to kill himself before he could be hung after his trial at Nuremberg after World War II.

If you need to portray a high-ranking fascist with a preference for being portly, greedy, and often neck deep in doing evil things while being unwilling to take responsibility for them, this man is going to be the reference for almost any fiction writer.

• Ace Pilot: Legitimately so during World War I.
  • Later examination of his claimed kill counts was mostly verified by the Allies, who only doubted two kills, but found the rest (nearly twenty in total) quite credible on the basis of evidence.
• Bad Boss: Zig-Zagged. He saved his adjutant Erhard Milch from a Gestapo investigation into his background despite being half-Jewish. It didn't stop him from later demoting Milch when he got heat for the failures of the Luftwaffe, but he didn't sell him out to the Gestapo in the process.
• Bling of War: Rather addicted to wearing a lot of fancy medals and having fancy uniforms. Contrast to Hitler, who only wore a simple brown uniform with the Iron Crosses he won in WWI, and his Nazi Party badge.
• The Caligula: Hermann Goering had shades of this trope. Tended to be inflexible, mercurial, and exceedingly petty even at the best of times. He also literally was known for wearing togas and acting like an emperor in private.
• The Charmer: Prior to WW2, he was one of the few Nazis regarded as amiable and the Only Sane Man to foreigners because he was good at this trope.
• The Corrupter: He got his subordinate Ernst Udet hooked on drugs. This later led to Udet committing suicide.
• Courtroom Antic: Famously managed to enrage the American prosecutor at Nuremberg with constant passive-aggressive cooperation that included condescending if helpful cooperation and trying to drown the court in irrelevant information.
• Cyanide Pill: He avoided the death penalty at Nuremberg by choosing to die on his own terms via one of these, which he carefully hid until the day before he was to die.
• Drugs Are Bad: Got super addicted to morphine after recovering from injuries from the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. He got so high off it the withdrawal was torture. He had to be voluntarily committed to an asylum more than once to dry out, and even then he suffered relapses and withdrawal symptoms for the rest of his life.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He was an ardent Nazi, but covered for his anti-Nazi brother Albert despite Albert doing whatever he could to save Jews.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Goering did have some actual scruples, amazingly enough.
  • He was an avid hunter but also founded many laws to ensure the safety and maintenance of forests and their animals. The laws were so humane they were kept essentially unmodified even long after WW2.
  • Unlike many other Nazis, his home life was relatively free of philandering and he was devoted to his wives (both of them, the memory of the first even long after she passed) and his children.
  • There is evidence he did not want war in 1939 (for reasons of not believing Germany prepared enough, not morality), with him even trying abortive if rather weak attempts at it. It was a failure from the start, but there is enough credible evidence he did try for it in some capacity. This did not stop him from prosecuting war when it became inevitable, though.
• Fat Bastard: He was healthy at several points in his life, but eating well was a habit he found hard to break and porked up hard. He was unfavorably viewed even by many Nazis for this, especially during WW2.
  • Ironically, he found fat jokes, even about himself, amusing.
  • He tried to keep his favorite restaurant open at all costs during WW2 despite this being a flagrant display of Conspicuous Consumption, which the Nazis wanted to avoid for PR reasons. He finally lost the battle when Hitler finally signed off effectively closing it 24/7.
• Friend to All Living Things: Despite being an avid hunter, he was also very serious about laws preventing animal cruelty.
• The Hedonist: Enjoyed eating and living well. Splurged on fancy art, and jewels, and did lots of drugs too. Contrast to Joseph Goebbels, who was also well off, but was far more austere and restrained in his tastes as well as a teetotaler.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Claimed if a single bomb hit the Ruhr in WW2, he could be called Meier and he'd eat a hat. Cue people later called him Meier and asked how the hat tasted.
• Only Sane Man: To a relative degree compared to other high-level Nazis. He was an anti-Semite but was largely more about his own comfort and prestige than a rabid true believer. This didn't prevent him from joining in their atrocities, but he was to a very large extent motivated by the prestige and crass lucre he could gain.
• The Stoner: He was prone to this. He already had a morphine addiction through no fault of his own, ^[1], but he did fall down the rabbit hole of other drugs like methamphetamines too.

Anime and Manga

• Space Battleship Yamato 2199 has two characters who derive aspects of their persona from Hermann Göring. Hermann Zoellick is more directly inspired, down to half the name and being in a similar position, though he was The Starscream and thus does not survive to the end. The other character is Gremdt Goer, who shares the other half of the name of his inspiration and is portrayed as the incompetent Hermann Göring who was considered after his failure to subdue Britain. In comparison to Zoellick, he does differ from Goering in one key respect, he remains loyal to the Hitler counterpart Abdelt Dessler to the end.