Hermann Goring?s Model Train Layout

[Ceptic]

He would have enjoyed the GWR Kings and Castles passing through Goring anyway...

 Vot ??...Dis iz Goring  ???...Vot are you bombing ? Herr Reichsmarshall ??

Dis Goring hast niet de turd rail !,  Vot ver you tinkin' ? Herr Reichsmarshall ??

 

Ooh Kaaay......I zee you hev got yur Luger out.....It iz now time I fetch my helmut,... is it not ?

[bluebottle]

It happens sometimes that men capable of great evil are also capable of charming the naïve and unwary. Peter Ustinov, in his autobiography “Dear Me”, describes a WW2 session of viewing film sent back from the front line in Europe, this being part of his work in making training and propaganda films:

“One day, without any warning, Hermann Goering appeared on our screen. There had been no mention of his capture … he was, to our astonishment, surrounded by American officers who were posing with him for pictures, smiling, patting his back in friendly fashion, demanding autographs … “ Very nervous at first, Goering became relaxed and playful: “We looked at each other in petrified amazement ...”

Later that day, General Eisenhower saw the film and “in an uncharacteristic rage sent every recognizable officer home".

The next time Ustinov saw Goering, “he was having his belt forcibly and unceremoniously removed by a US top sergeant, the pain on his face in contrast with his earlier delight.” Ustinov felt a little sorry for him then, but later had to sit through film of the entry of British troops into Belsen ...

 

[trisonic]

Yeah, he was a real bastard with a smiling face.

 

Best, Pete.

[OnTheBranchline]

Yeah, he was a real bastard with a smiling face.

 

Best, Pete.

 

I think that can be said for a lot of 'successful' people in life.

[gordon s]

That must be a record. Four years for a new reply!.....

[BoD]

........... and then two come along at once.

[sp1]

........... and then two come along at once.

A bit like buses on bridges.......

[DavidB-AU]

Back on topic...

 

Here's an undated picture of Carinhall. Could that be a garden railway under construction?

http://i.imgur.com/oZAkEI1.gif

 

Cheers

David

[TT3]

Well i do think this about Göring, despite his faults he was a true railway modeller, after all he had a fab country house, estate, and where does he build his railway, in the attic or later the basement.

 

 

[Coppercap]

Well i do think this about Göring, despite his faults he was a true railway modeller, after all he had a fab country house, estate, and where does he build his railway, in the attic or later the basement.

I shouldn't think for one moment that any of it, be it house, estate or model railway, was his own work...

[The Johnster]

He is often described by those who met and knew him as charming, convivial, a good host, generous and good humoured.  I still think he'd have been improved with a good baseball batting, though.

[bluebottle]

Well i do think this about Göring, despite his faults he was a true railway modeller, after all he had a fab country house, estate, and where does he build his railway, in the attic or later the basement.

 

I shouldn't think for one moment that any of it, be it house, estate or model railway, was his own work...

 

Judging by the obesity of the man as shown in photos of the time, he'd have a helluva job getting under the baseboard to solder up the wiring.

[pete_mcfarlane]

Judging by the obesity of the man as shown in photos of the time, he'd have a helluva job getting under the baseboard to solder up the wiring.

He apparently tried to get in to the cockpit of a fighter aircraft for a photo op, and failed.... 

 

On the subject of the Goring family, it's worth having a read about his brother Albert.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_G%C3%B6ring

[Poggy1165]

He was a brave fighter pilot in WW1, but injuries led to him taking drugs to reduce the pain, and he became an addict. He was, apparently, charming and just before the war a man the British seem to have thought they could do business with if Hitler stepped down.

 

However, he was in truth an unmitigated ****. Which goes to show that human beings are complex, and that even charming war heroes can be evil underneath it all.

[bertiedog]

Göring had a favourite restaurant in Munich, owed by a Jewish family, who found he `protected` them from the actions suffered by others purely because he liked the food. If queried as to his status the owner referred the Gestapo etc to Göring, whose mention ensured release,.....complete double standards by Göring,

[Reorte]

He was a brave fighter pilot in WW1, but injuries led to him taking drugs to reduce the pain, and he became an addict. He was, apparently, charming and just before the war a man the British seem to have thought they could do business with if Hitler stepped down.

 

However, he was in truth an unmitigated ****. Which goes to show that human beings are complex, and that even charming war heroes can be evil underneath it all.

The disturbing thing is that both may well have been genuine aspects of his personality. We like to think that any signs of decent behaviour by such people are just an act, that they can't genuinely live alongside the truly vile, but as you say human beings are complex.

[jjb1970]

Goering was an interesting character. Ruthless, unscrupulous, vain, indolent, slothful, courageous, intelligent, charming, evil and much more, he is one of those characters of history whose hands were drenched in blood yet who managed to be regarded as thoroughly good company. As has been pointed out, many of his negative aspects (although not his ruthlesness and willingness to participate in heinous crimes) can be ascribed to his opiate addiction. He was a very intelligent man, and in his moments of lucidity he was frequently more perspicacious than any of the other senior Nazi’s with the exception of Speer. There were very good reasons why in the 1930’s many foreign parties saw him as the member of the Nazi hierarchy most amenable to pragmatism. His leadership of the Luftwaffe was very helpful to the Allied cause as many of the reasons for Allied victory in the air originated in pre-war German planning and after war started Goering (along with some other senior Luftwaffe officers) was way out of his depth yet for all that some of his interventions during the Battle of Britain were far from stupid. Goering appreciated that the German bombers needed close escorts and that his fighters needed to be allowed to operate freely to shoot down RAF fighters. His big failure (and one shared by the other Luftwaffe officers) was to fail to follow the argument to its logical confusion that they just didn’t have the necessary fighter resources to provide close escorts, top cover and operate free sweeps. His role in the consolidation of Nazi power as Prussian interior minister and the establishment of concentration camps, the gestapo etc is often under estimated as in the early years of the Nazi regime he played a key role in establishing their grip on power.

[Allegheny1600]

Göring had a favourite restaurant in Munich, owed by a Jewish family, who found he `protected` them from the actions suffered by others purely because he liked the food. If queried as to his status the owner referred the Gestapo etc to Göring, whose mention ensured release,.....complete double standards by Göring,

One might even point out the double standards on both sides and subsequently.

Look at Hugo Boss, the company not the man - they provided many of the 'snazzy' uniforms so beloved of the reenactment brigade and yet, now are a well established fashion brand, ironically followed it seems, quite happily by many of today's trendy youth of all religious persuasions.

I well remember a film about the Isreali occupation of one of its neighbours and one of the main characters asking "How come we're the Nazis now?"

Certainly, the Nazis were not unique in their pursuit of evil.

[Guius]

Yes, dual standards applied, some Nazis proved to be just too damn useful to put on trail, one thinks of Wernher von Braun et al.

 

Guy

[Coldgunner]

I find Albert Speer to be one of the more interesting characters (along with Werner Von Braun). I get the impression there was some complicity, maybe to see a particular project through at whatever cost. Double standards indeed. The below is taken from Wiki...

 

"... in the closing stages of the war [speer] was one of the few men who had the courage to tell Hitler that the war was lost and to take steps to prevent the senseless destruction of production facilities, both in occupied territories and in Germany. He carried out his opposition to Hitler's scorched earth programme ... by deliberately sabotaging it at considerable personal risk" - Wiki

 

 

I think what we can learn from this, is that even the most pleasant, entertaining person can be a monster.

[sn]

I seem to remember that the discovery of this layout at his home was featured in a scene in Band of Brothers.

[APOLLO]

 

Brit15

[Guius]

Albert Speer has become known as the 'Good Nazi' mainly, in my opinion, for his admission of responsibility, he certainly managed to talk the rope from around his neck at Nuremberg in '45/'46. I would recommend his book 'Inside the Third Reich'

 

Guy

[PatB]

A while ago I read The Nuremburg Diaries, an account by the psychologist charged with the mental wellbeing of the Nuremburg Trial accused. The range of personalities was quite interesting in a chilling sort of way. Goring came across as being quite childlike in many ways or, at least, in modern parlance, as being of limited emotional maturity. Other subjects, for example, some of the fighting generals, appeared to be hard and ruthless men but not what I would regard as inherently evil or monstrous. A couple of the architects of the extermination programs, though, frankly made my skin crawl.

 

On a more general note, in my experience I've found that very dangerous people are often the best, most entertainingly affable and most generous company. Right up until the moment when they're not, of course .

[DavidB-AU]

On a more general note, in my experience I've found that very dangerous people are often the best, most entertainingly affable and most generous company. Right up until the moment when they're not, of course .

Sounds like every politician I've ever met.

 

Cheers

David