title: President of India

text: Whenever the office becomes vacant, the new president is chosen by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both houses of parliament (MPs), the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies (Vidhan Sabha) of all States and the elected members of the legislative assemblies (MLAs) of union territories with legislatures, i.e., National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir and Puducherry. The election process of the president is a more extensive process than of the prime minister who is also elected indirectly (elected by the members of the majority party (or union) in the Lok Sabha). Whereas President being the constitutional head with duties to protect, defend and preserve the constitution and rule of law in a constitutional democracy with constitutional supremacy, is elected in an extensive manner by the members of Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and state legislative assemblies in a secret ballot procedure.


title: President of India

text: The nomination of a candidate for election to the office of the president must be subscribed by at least 50 electors as proposers and 50 electors as seconders. Each candidate has to make a security deposit of in the Reserve Bank of India. The security deposit is liable to be forfeited in case the candidate fails to secure one-sixth of the votes polled.


title: President of India

text: The election is held in accordance with the system of proportional representation (PR) by means of the instant-runoff voting (IRV) method. The voting takes place by a secret ballot system. The manner of election of President is provided by of the constitution.


title: President of India

text: Each elector casts a different number of votes. The general principle is that the total number of votes cast by Members of parliament equals the total number of votes cast by State Legislators. Also, legislators from larger states cast more votes than those from smaller states. Finally, the number of legislators in state matters; if a state has few legislators, then each legislator has more votes; if a state has many legislators, then each legislator has fewer votes.


title: President of India

text: The actual calculation for votes cast by a particular state is calculated by dividing the state's population by 1000, which is divided again by the number of legislators from the State voting in the electoral college. This number is the number of votes per legislator in a given state. Every elected member of the parliament enjoys the same number of votes, which may be obtained by dividing the total number of votes assigned to the members of legislative assemblies by the total number of elected representatives of the parliament.


title: President of India

text: Although Indian presidential elections involve actual voting by MPs and MLAs, they tend to vote for the candidate supported by their respective parties.


title: President of India

text: The president is required to make and subscribe in the presence of the Chief Justice of India—or in their absence, the senior-most judge of the supreme court—an oath or affirmation to protect, preserve and defend the constitution as follows:


title: President of India

text: The president of India used to receive per month per the Second Schedule of the constitution. This amount was increased to in 1998. On 11 September 2008, the Government of India increased the salary of the president to . This amount was further increased to in the 2018 Union budget of India. However, almost everything that the president does or wants to do is taken care of by an annual budget that the Government allots for their upkeep. Rashtrapati Bhavan, the president's official residence, is the largest Presidential palace in the world. The Rashtrapati Nilayam at Bolarum, Hyderabad and Retreat Building at Chharabra, Shimla are the official Retreat Residences of the president of India. The official state car of the president is a custom-built heavily armored Mercedes Benz S600 (W221) Pullman Guard.


title: President of India

text: The former presidents and widows and widowers of presidents are eligible for pension, furnished accommodation, security, various allowances, etc.


title: President of India

text: The Supreme Court shall inquire and decide regarding all "doubts" and "disputes" arising out of or in connection with the election of a president per of the constitution. The Supreme Court can remove the president for the electoral malpractices or upon being not eligible to be a member of the Lok Sabha under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Subject to Article 71 (3), parliament made applicable rules/procedure to petition the supreme court for resolving the "disputes" only that arise during the election process of the president but not the "doubts" that arise from their unconstitutional actions/deeds or changing Indian citizenship during the tenure of the president which may violate the requisite election qualifications.


title: President of India

text: The president may also be removed before the expiry of the term through impeachment for violating the Constitution of India by the Parliament of India. The process may start in either of the two houses of the parliament. The house initiates the process by levelling the charges against the president. The charges are contained in a notice that has to be signed by at least one-quarter of the total members of that house. The notice is sent up to the president and 14 days later, it is taken up for consideration.


title: President of India

text: A resolution to impeach the president has to be passed by a two-thirds majority of the total number of members of the originating house. It is then sent to the other house. The other house investigates the charges that have been made. During this process, the president has the right to defend himself through an authorised counsel. If the second house also approves the charges made by the special majority again, the president stands impeached and is deemed to have vacated their office from the date when such a resolution stands passed. No president has faced impeachment proceedings so the above provisions have never been used.


title: President of India

text: Under of the constitution, though the president cannot be summoned for questioning except on their voluntary willingness to testify in the court in support of their controversial deeds, the unconstitutional decisions taken by the president would be declared invalid by the courts. The case would be decided by the courts based on the facts furnished by the Union government for the president's role. As clarified by the supreme court in the case "Rameshwar Prasad & Others vs Union of India & An Other" on 24 January 2006; though the president cannot be prosecuted and imprisoned during their term of office, they can be prosecuted after he/she steps down from the post for any guilt committed during the term of the presidency as declared earlier by the courts. No president has resigned on impropriety to continue in office for declaring and nullifying their unconstitutional decisions by the courts till now. No criminal case at least on the grounds of disrespecting constitution is lodged till now against former presidents to punish them for their unconstitutional acts; though many decisions taken during the term of a president have been declared by the supreme court as unconstitutional, "mala fides", void, "ultra vires", etc.


title: President of India

text: of the Indian constitution says that the Vice-President of India will have to discharge the duties, if the office falls vacant due to any reason other than the expiry of the term. The vice-president reverts to their office when a new president is elected and enters office. When the president is unable to act because of absence, illness or any other cause, the vice-president discharges the president's functions until the president resumes the duties.


title: President of India

text: A vice-president who acts as or discharges the functions of the president has all the powers and immunities of the president and is entitled to the same emoluments as the president. When a vice-president discharges the duties of the president, he/she does not function as the Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.


title: President of India

text: The Indian parliament has enacted the law—"The President (Discharge of Functions) Act, 1969" — for the discharge of the functions of the president when vacancies occur in the offices of the president and the vice-president simultaneously, owing to removal, death, resignation of the incumbent or otherwise. In such an eventuality, the chief justice—or in their absence, the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court of India available—discharges the functions of the president until a newly elected president enters upon their office or a newly elected vice-president begins to act as president under Article 65 of the constitution, whichever is the earlier. For example, in 1969, when President Zakir Husain died in Office, Vice-President V. V. Giri served as the acting president of India. However, later, V.V Giri resigned from both posts (Acting President of India and Vice-President of India) as he became a candidate in the 1969 presidential election in India. In this event, the then Chief Justice of India, Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah served as the acting president of India until the next president was elected.


title: President of India

text: The president's role as defender of the constitution and the powers as Head of State, especially in relation to those exercised by the prime minister as leader of the government, have changed over time. In particular, Presidents have made a number of interventions into government and lawmaking, which have established and challenged some conventions concerning presidential intervention.


title: President of India

text: In 1979, Prime Minister Charan Singh, did not enjoy a parliamentary majority. He responded to this by simply not advising the president to summon parliament. Since then, presidents have been more diligent in directing incoming Prime Ministers to convene parliament and prove their majority within reasonable deadlines (2 to 3 weeks). In the interim period, the Prime Ministers are generally restrained from making policy decisions.


title: President of India

text: Since the 1990s, Parliamentary elections have generally not resulted in a single party or group of parties having a distinct majority, until the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when BJP received a clear majority. In such cases, presidents have used their discretion and directed Prime Ministerial aspirants to establish their credentials before being invited to form the government. Typically, the aspirants have been asked to produce letters from various party leaders, with the signatures of all the MPs who are pledging support to their candidature. This is in addition to the requirement that a prime minister proves he has the support of the Lok Sabha (by a vote on the floor of the house) within weeks of being sworn into office.


title: President of India

text: Since the Indian constitution does not provide any time limit within which the president is to declare their assent or refusal, the president could exercise a "pocket veto" by not taking any action for an indefinite time. The veto was used in 1986 by President Zail Singh over the Postal Bill. The president did not give assent to the bill, arguing that its scope was too sweeping and would give the government arbitrary powers to intercept postal communications indiscriminately.


title: President of India

text: In the late 1990s, President K. R. Narayanan introduced a modicum of transparency and openness in the functioning of the President. This was by means of Rashtrapati Bhavan Communiqués explaining, to the nation, the thinking that led to the various decisions he took while exercising their discretionary powers.


title: President of India

text: The constitution gives the president the power to return a bill unsigned but it circumscribes the power to send it back only once for reconsideration. If the parliament sends back the bill with or without changes, the president is obliged to sign it. In mid-2006, President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam sent back a controversial bill regarding the exclusion of certain offices from the scope of 'offices of profit', the holding of which would disqualify a person from being a member of parliament. The combined opposition, the NDA, hailed the move. The UPA chose to send the bill back to the president without any changes and, after 17 days, Kalam gave his assent on 18 August 2006.


title: President of India

text: Arunachal Pradesh governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa, who was earlier appointed by the ruling party at the centre, was sacked by President Pranab Mukherjee after the Supreme Court struck down his unconstitutional acts.


title: Scandinavia

text: Scandinavia ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, "Scandinavia" most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also refer more narrowly to the Scandinavian Peninsula (which excludes Denmark but includes part of Finland), or more broadly to include all of Finland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands.


title: Scandinavia

text: The geography of the region is varied, from the Norwegian fjords in the west and Scandinavian mountains covering parts of Norway and Sweden, to the low and flat areas of Denmark in the south, as well as archipelagos and lakes in the east. Most of the population in the region live in the more temperate southern regions, with the northern parts having long, cold, winters.


title: Scandinavia

text: The region became notable during the Viking Age, when Scandinavian peoples participated in large scale raiding, conquest, colonization and trading mostly throughout Europe. They also used their longships for exploration, becoming the first Europeans to reach North America. These exploits saw the establishment of the North Sea Empire which comprised large parts of Scandinavia and Great Britain, though it was relatively short-lived. Scandinavia was eventually Christianized, and the coming centuries saw various unions of Scandinavian nations, most notably the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which lasted for over 100 years until the Swedish king Gustav I led Sweden to independence. It also saw numerous wars between the nations, which shaped the modern borders. The most recent union was the union between Sweden and Norway, which ended in 1905.


title: Scandinavia

text: In modern times the region has prospered, with the economies of the countries being amongst the strongest in Europe. Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland all maintain welfare systems considered to be generous, with the economic and social policies of the countries being dubbed the "Nordic model".


title: Scandinavia

text: The geography of Scandinavia is extremely varied. Notable are the Norwegian fjords, the Scandinavian Mountains covering much of Norway and parts of Sweden, the flat, low areas in Denmark and the archipelagos of Finland, Norway and Sweden. Finland and Sweden have many lakes and moraines, legacies of the ice age, which ended about ten millennia ago.


title: Scandinavia

text: The southern regions of Scandinavia, which are also the most populous regions, have a temperate climate. Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle, but has relatively mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream. Many of the Scandinavian mountains have an alpine tundra climate.


title: Scandinavia

text: The climate varies from north to south and from west to east: a marine west coast climate () typical of western Europe dominates in Denmark, southernmost part of Sweden and along the west coast of Norway reaching north to 65°N, with orographic lift giving more mm/year precipitation (<5000 mm) in some areas in western Norway. The central part – from Oslo to Stockholm – has a humid continental climate (Dfb), which gradually gives way to subarctic climate (Dfc) further north and cool marine west coast climate (Cfc) along the northwestern coast. A small area along the northern coast east of the North Cape has tundra climate (Et) as a result of a lack of summer warmth. The Scandinavian Mountains block the mild and moist air coming from the southwest, thus northern Sweden and the Finnmarksvidda plateau in Norway receive little precipitation and have cold winters. Large areas in the Scandinavian mountains have alpine tundra climate.


title: Scandinavia

text: The warmest temperature ever recorded in Scandinavia is 38.0 °C in Målilla (Sweden). The coldest temperature ever recorded is −52.6 °C in , Arjeplog (Sweden). The coldest month was February 1985 in Vittangi (Sweden) with a mean of −27.2 °C.


title: Scandinavia

text: Southwesterly winds further warmed by foehn wind can give warm temperatures in narrow Norwegian fjords in winter. Tafjord has recorded 17.9 °C in January and Sunndal 18.9 °C in February.


title: Scandinavia

text: The term "Scandinavia" in local usage covers the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The majority national languages of these three belong to the Scandinavian dialect continuum, and are mutually intelligible North Germanic languages.


title: Scandinavia

text: The words "Scandinavia" and "Scania" ("Skåne", the southernmost province of Sweden) are both thought to go back to the Proto-Germanic compound (the "ð" represented in Latin by or ), which appears later in Old English as and in Old Norse as . The earliest identified source for the name "Scandinavia" is Pliny the Elder's "Natural History", dated to the first century AD.


title: Scandinavia

text: Various references to the region can also be found in Pytheas, Pomponius Mela, Tacitus, Ptolemy, Procopius and Jordanes, usually in the form of "Scandza". It is believed that the name used by Pliny may be of West Germanic origin, originally denoting Scania. According to some scholars, the Germanic stem can be reconstructed as and meaning "danger" or "damage". The second segment of the name has been reconstructed as , meaning "land on the water" or "island". The name "Scandinavia" would then mean "dangerous island", which is considered to refer to the treacherous sandbanks surrounding Scania. Skanör in Scania, with its long Falsterbo reef, has the same stem () combined with -, which means "sandbanks".


title: Scandinavia

text: Alternatively, "Sca(n)dinavia" and , along with the Old Norse goddess name , may be related to Proto-Germanic (meaning "shadow"). John McKinnell comments that this etymology suggests that the goddess Skaði may have once been a personification of the geographical region of Scandinavia or associated with the underworld.


title: Scandinavia

text: Another possibility is that all or part of the segments of the name came from the pre-Germanic Mesolithic people inhabiting the region. In modernity, Scandinavia is a peninsula, but between approximately 10,300 and 9,500 years ago the southern part of Scandinavia was an island separated from the northern peninsula, with water exiting the Baltic Sea through the area where Stockholm is now located.


title: Scandinavia

text: The Latin names in Pliny's text gave rise to different forms in medieval Germanic texts. In Jordanes' history of the Goths (AD 551), the form is the name used for their original home, separated by sea from the land of Europe (chapter 1, 4). Where Jordanes meant to locate this quasi-legendary island is still a hotly debated issue, both in scholarly discussions and in the nationalistic discourse of various European countries. The form as the original home of the Langobards appears in Paul the Deacon' "Historia Langobardorum", but in other versions of "Historia Langobardorum" appear the forms , , and . Frankish sources used and Aethelweard, an Anglo-Saxon historian, used . In "Beowulf", the forms and are used while the Alfredian translation of Orosius and Wulfstan's travel accounts used the Old English .


title: Scandinavia

text: The earliest Sámi joik texts written down refer to the world as in Northern Sámi) and in Skolt Sámi, meaning "Skaði's island". Svennung considers the Sámi name to have been introduced as a loanword from the North Germanic languages; "Skaði" is the giant (jötunn) stepmother of Freyr and Freyja in Norse mythology. It has been suggested that Skaði to some extent is modeled on a Sámi woman. The name for Skade's father Þjazi is known in Sámi as , "the waterman"; and her son with Odin, Sæmingr, can be interpreted as a descendant of , the Sámi population. Older joik texts give evidence of the old Sámi belief about living on an island and state that the wolf is known as , meaning "the strong one on the island". The Sámi place name means "the island's threshold" and "Suoločielgi" means "the island's back".


title: Scandinavia

text: In recent substrate studies, Sámi linguists have examined the initial cluster - in words used in the Sámi languages and concluded that - is a phonotactic structure of alien origin.


title: Scandinavia

text: Although the term "Scandinavia" used by Pliny the Elder probably originated in the ancient Germanic languages, the modern form "Scandinavia" does not descend directly from the ancient Germanic term. Rather the word was brought into use in Europe by scholars borrowing the term from ancient sources like Pliny, and was used vaguely for Scania and the southern region of the peninsula.


title: Scandinavia

text: The term was popularised by the linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement, which asserted the common heritage and cultural unity of the Scandinavian countries and rose to prominence in the 1830s. The popular usage of the term in Sweden, Denmark and Norway as a unifying concept became established in the nineteenth century through poems such as Hans Christian Andersen's "I am a Scandinavian" of 1839. After a visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism. In a letter describing the poem to a friend, he wrote: "All at once I understood how related the Swedes, the Danes and the Norwegians are, and with this feeling I wrote the poem immediately after my return: 'We are one people, we are called Scandinavians!'".


title: Scandinavia

text: The influence of Scandinavism as a Scandinavist political movement peaked in the middle of the nineteenth century, between the First Schleswig War (1848–1850) and the Second Schleswig War (1864).


title: Scandinavia

text: The Swedish king also proposed a unification of Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a single united kingdom. The background for the proposal was the tumultuous events during the Napoleonic Wars in the beginning of the century. This war resulted in Finland (formerly the eastern third of Sweden) becoming the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 and Norway ("de jure" in union with Denmark since 1387, although "de facto" treated as a province) becoming independent in 1814, but thereafter swiftly forced to accept a personal union with Sweden. The dependent territories Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, historically part of Norway, remained with Denmark in accordance with the Treaty of Kiel. Sweden and Norway were thus united under the Swedish monarch, but Finland's inclusion in the Russian Empire excluded any possibility for a political union between Finland and any of the other Nordic countries.


title: Scandinavia

text: The end of the Scandinavian political movement came when Denmark was denied the military support promised from Sweden and Norway to annex the (Danish) Duchy of Schleswig, which together with the (German) Duchy of Holstein had been in personal union with Denmark. The Second war of Schleswig followed in 1864, a brief but disastrous war between Denmark and Prussia (supported by Austria). Schleswig-Holstein was conquered by Prussia and after Prussia's success in the Franco-Prussian War a Prussian-led German Empire was created and a new power-balance of the Baltic Sea countries was established. The Scandinavian Monetary Union, established in 1873, lasted until World War I.


title: Scandinavia

text: The term "Scandinavia" (sometimes specified in English as "Continental Scandinavia" or "mainland Scandinavia") is ordinarily used locally for Denmark, Norway and Sweden as a subset of the Nordic countries (known in Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish as ; , , ).


title: Scandinavia

text: However, in English usage, the term "Scandinavia" is sometimes used as a synonym or near-synonym for what are known locally as "Nordic countries".


title: Scandinavia

text: Usage in English is different from usage in the Scandinavian languages themselves (which use "Scandinavia" in the narrow meaning), and by the fact that the question of whether a country belongs to Scandinavia is politicised, people from the Nordic world beyond Norway, Denmark and Sweden may be offended at being either included in or excluded from the category of "Scandinavia".


title: Scandinavia

text: "Nordic countries" is used unambiguously for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, including their associated territories Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands.


title: Scandinavia

text: A large part of modern-day Finland was part of Sweden for more than four centuries (see: Finland under Swedish rule), thus to much of the world associating Finland with Scandinavia. But the creation of a Finnish identity is unique in the region in that it was formed in relation to two different imperial models, the Swedish and the Russian.


title: Scandinavia

text: There is also the geological term "Fennoscandia" (sometimes "Fennoscandinavia"), which in technical use refers to the Fennoscandian Shield (or "Baltic Shield"), that is the Scandinavian Peninsula (Norway and Sweden), Finland and Karelia (excluding Denmark and other parts of the wider Nordic world). The terms "Fennoscandia" and "Fennoscandinavia" are sometimes used in a broader, political sense to refer to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.


title: Scandinavia

text: The term "Scandinavian" may be used with two principal meanings, in an ethnic or cultural sense and as a modern and more inclusive demonym.


title: Scandinavia

text: In the ethnic or cultural sense the term "Scandinavian" traditionally refers to speakers of Scandinavian languages, who are mainly descendants of the peoples historically known as Norsemen, but also to some extent of immigrants and others who have been assimilated into that culture and language. In this sense the term refers primarily to native Danes, Norwegians and Swedes as well as descendants of Scandinavian settlers such as the Icelanders and the Faroese. The term is also used in this ethnic sense, to refer to the modern descendants of the Norse, in studies of linguistics and culture.


title: Scandinavia

text: Additionally the term Scandinavian is used demonymically to refer to all modern inhabitants or citizens of Scandinavian countries. Within Scandinavia the demonymic term primarily refers to inhabitants or citizens of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In English usage inhabitants or citizens of Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Finland are sometimes included as well. English general dictionaries often define the noun "Scandinavian" demonymically as meaning any inhabitant of Scandinavia (which might be narrowly conceived or broadly conceived). There is a certain ambiguity and political contestation as to which peoples should be referred to as Scandinavian in this broader sense. Sámi people who live in Norway and Sweden are generally included as Scandinavians in the demonymic sense; the Sámi of Finland may be included in English usage, but usually not in local usage; the Sámi of Russia are not included. However, the use of the term "Scandinavian" with reference to the Sámi is complicated by the historical attempts by Scandinavian majority peoples and governments in Norway and Sweden to assimilate the Sámi people into the Scandinavian culture and languages, making the inclusion of the Sámi as "Scandinavians" controversial among many Sámi. Modern Sámi politicians and organizations often stress the status of the Sámi as a people separate from and equal to the Scandinavians, with their own language and culture, and are apprehensive about being included as "Scandinavians" in light of earlier Scandinavian assimilation policies.


title: Scandinavia

text: Two language groups have coexisted on the Scandinavian Peninsula since prehistory—the North Germanic languages (Scandinavian languages) and the Sámi languages.


title: Scandinavia

text: The majority of the population of Scandinavia (including Iceland and the Faroe Islands) today derive their language from several North Germanic tribes who once inhabited the southern part of Scandinavia and spoke a Germanic language that evolved into Old Norse and from Old Norse into Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese, and Icelandic. The Danish, Norwegian and Swedish languages form a dialect continuum and are known as the Scandinavian languages—all of which are considered mutually intelligible with one another. Faroese and Icelandic, sometimes referred to as insular Scandinavian languages, are intelligible in continental Scandinavian languages only to a limited extent.


title: Scandinavia

text: Finland is mainly populated by speakers of Finnish, with a minority of approximately 5% of Swedish speakers. However, Finnish is also spoken as a recognized minority language in Sweden, including in distinctive varieties sometimes known as Meänkieli. Finnish is distantly related to the Sámi languages, but these are entirely different in origin to the Scandinavian languages.


title: Scandinavia

text: German (in Denmark), Yiddish and Romani are recognized minority languages in parts of Scandinavia. More recent migrations has added even more languages. Apart from the Sámi languages and the languages of minority groups speaking a variant of the majority language of a neighboring state, the following minority languages in Scandinavia are protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Yiddish, Romani Chib/Romanes and Scandoromani.


title: Scandinavia

text: The North Germanic languages of Scandinavia are traditionally divided into an East Scandinavian branch (Danish and Swedish) and a West Scandinavian branch (Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese), but because of changes appearing in the languages since 1600 the East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian branches are now usually reconfigured into Insular Scandinavian (/) featuring Icelandic and Faroese and Continental Scandinavian (), comprising Danish, Norwegian and Swedish.


title: Scandinavia

text: The modern division is based on the degree of mutual comprehensibility between the languages in the two branches. The populations of the Scandinavian countries, with common Scandinavian roots in language, can—at least with some training—understand each other's standard languages as they appear in print and are heard on radio and television.


title: Scandinavia

text: The reason Danish, Swedish and the two official written versions of Norwegian ("Nynorsk" and "Bokmål") are traditionally viewed as different languages, rather than dialects of one common language, is that each is a well-established standard language in its respective country.


title: Scandinavia

text: Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have since medieval times been influenced to varying degrees by Middle Low German and standard German. That influence was due not only to proximity, but also to the rule of Denmark—and later Denmark-Norway—over the German-speaking region of Holstein, and to Sweden's close trade with the Hanseatic League.


title: Scandinavia

text: Norwegians are accustomed to variation and may perceive Danish and Swedish only as slightly more distant dialects. This is because they have two official written standards, in addition to the habit of strongly holding on to local dialects. The people of Stockholm, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Scandinavian languages. In the Faroe Islands and Iceland, learning Danish is mandatory. This causes Faroese people as well as Icelandic people to become bilingual in two very distinct North Germanic languages, making it relatively easy for them to understand the other two Mainland Scandinavian languages.


title: Scandinavia

text: Although Iceland was under the political control of Denmark until a much later date (1918), very little influence and borrowing from Danish has occurred in the Icelandic language. Icelandic remained the preferred language among the ruling classes in Iceland. Danish was not used for official communications, most of the royal officials were of Icelandic descent and the language of the church and law courts remained Icelandic.


title: Scandinavia

text: The Scandinavian languages are (as a language family) unrelated to Finnish, Estonian and the Sámi languages, which as Uralic languages are distantly related to Hungarian. Owing to the close proximity, there is still a great deal of borrowing from the Swedish and Norwegian languages in Finnish and the Sámi languages. The long history of linguistic influence of Swedish on Finnish is also due to the fact that Finnish, the language of the majority in Finland, was treated as a minority language while Finland was part of Sweden. Finnish-speakers had to learn Swedish in order to advance to higher positions. Swedish spoken in today's Finland includes a lot of words that are borrowed from Finnish, whereas the written language remains closer to that of Sweden.


title: Scandinavia

text: Finland is officially bilingual, with Finnish and Swedish having mostly the same status at national level. Finland's majority population are Finns, whose mother tongue is either Finnish (approximately 95%), Swedish or both. The Swedish-speakers live mainly on the coastline starting from approximately the city of Porvoo (Sw: Borgå) (in the Gulf of Finland) up to the city of Kokkola (Sw: Karleby) (in the Bay of Bothnia). The Swedish-speaking population is spread out in pockets in this coastal stretch. The coastal province of Ostrobothnia has a Swedish-speaking majority, whereas plenty of areas on this coastline are nearly unilingually Finnish, like the region of Satakunta. Åland, an autonomous province of Finland situated in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, are entirely Swedish-speaking. Children are taught the other official language at school: for Swedish-speakers this is Finnish (usually from the 3rd grade), while for Finnish-speakers it is Swedish (usually from the 3rd, 5th or 7th grade).


title: Scandinavia

text: Finnish speakers constitute a language minority in Sweden and Norway. Meänkieli and Kven are Finnish dialects spoken in Swedish Lapland and Norwegian Lapland.


title: Scandinavia

text: The Sámi languages are indigenous minority languages in Scandinavia. They belong to their own branch of the Uralic language family and are unrelated to the North Germanic languages other than by limited grammatical (particularly lexical) characteristics resulting from prolonged contact. Sámi is divided into several languages or dialects. Consonant gradation is a feature in both Finnish and northern Sámi dialects, but it is not present in southern Sámi, which is considered to have a different language history. According to the Sámi Information Centre of the Sámi Parliament of Sweden, southern Sámi may have originated in an earlier migration from the south into the Scandinavian Peninsula.


title: Scandinavia

text: A key ancient description of Scandinavia was provided by Pliny the Elder, though his mentions of and surrounding areas are not always easy to decipher. Writing in the capacity of a Roman admiral, he introduces the northern region by declaring to his Roman readers that there are 23 islands "Romanis armis cognitae" ("known to Roman arms") in this area. According to Pliny, the "clarissima" ("most famous") of the region's islands is , of unknown size. There live the "Hilleviones". The belief that Scandinavia was an island became widespread among classical authors during the first century and dominated descriptions of Scandinavia in classical texts during the centuries that followed.


title: Scandinavia

text: Pliny begins his description of the route to by referring to the mountain of Saevo (), the Codanus Bay ("Codanus sinus") and the Cimbrian promontory. The geographical features have been identified in various ways. By some scholars, is thought to be the mountainous Norwegian coast at the entrance to Skagerrak and the Cimbrian peninsula is thought to be Skagen, the north tip of Jutland, Denmark. As described, and can also be the same place.


title: Scandinavia

text: Pliny mentions Scandinavia one more time: in Book VIII he says that the animal called (given in the accusative, , which is not Latin) was born on the island of Scandinavia. The animal grazes, has a big upper lip and some mythical attributes.


title: Scandinavia

text: The name , later used as a synonym for , also appears in Pliny's "Naturalis Historia" ("Natural History"), but is used for a group of Northern European islands which he locates north of Britannia. thus does not appear to be denoting the island Scadinavia in Pliny's text. The idea that may have been one of the islands was instead introduced by Ptolemy (c. 90 – c. 168 AD), a mathematician, geographer and astrologer of Roman Egypt. He used the name for the biggest, most easterly of the three islands, which according to him were all located east of Jutland.


title: Scandinavia

text: The Viking age in Scandinavia lasted from approximately 793–1066 AD and saw Scandinavians participate in large scale raiding, colonization, conquest and trading throughout Europe and beyond. The period saw a big expansion of Scandinavian-conquered territory and of exploration. Utilizing their advanced longships, they reached as far as North America, being the first Europeans to do so. During this time Scandinavians were drawn to wealthy towns, monasteries and petty kingdoms overseas in places such as the British Isles, Ireland, the Baltic coast and Normandy, all of which made profitable targets for raids. Scandinavians, primarily from modern day Sweden, known as Varangians also ventured east into what is now Russia raiding along river trade routes. During this period unification also took place between different Scandinavian kingdoms culminating in the peak of the North Sea Empire which included large parts of Scandinavia and Great Britain.


title: Scandinavia

text: This expansion and conquest led to the formation of several kingdoms, earldoms and settlements throughout Europe such as the Kingdom of the Isles, Earldom of Orkney, Scandinavian York, Danelaw, Kingdom of Dublin, the Duchy of Normandy and the Kievan Rus'. The Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland were also settled by the Scandinavians during this time. The Normans, Rus' people, Faroe Islanders, Icelanders and Norse-Gaels all emerged from these Scandinavian expansions.


title: Scandinavia

text: During a period of Christianization and state formation in the 10th–13th centuries, numerous Germanic petty kingdoms and chiefdoms were unified into three kingdoms:


title: Scandinavia

text: According to historian Sverre Bagge, the divisions into three Scandinavian kingdoms (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) makes sense geographically, as forests, mountains, and uninhabited land divided them from one another. Control of Norway was enabled through seapower, whereas control of the great lakes in Sweden enabled control of the kingdom, and control of Jutland was sufficient to control Denmark. The most contested area was the coastline from Oslo to Öresund, where the three kingdoms met.


title: Scandinavia

text: The three Scandinavian kingdoms joined in 1397 in the Kalmar Union under Queen Margaret I of Denmark. Sweden left the union in 1523 under King Gustav I of Sweden. In the aftermath of Sweden's secession from the Kalmar Union, civil war broke out in Denmark and Norway—the Protestant Reformation followed. When things had settled, the Norwegian privy council was abolished—it assembled for the last time in 1537. A personal union, entered into by the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway in 1536, lasted until 1814. Three sovereign successor states have subsequently emerged from this unequal union: Denmark, Norway and Iceland.


title: Scandinavia

text: The borders between the three countries got the shape they have had since in the middle of the seventeenth century: In the 1645 Treaty of Brömsebro, Denmark–Norway ceded the Norwegian provinces of Jämtland, Härjedalen and Idre and Särna, as well as the Baltic Sea islands of Gotland and Ösel (in Estonia) to Sweden. The Treaty of Roskilde, signed in 1658, forced Denmark–Norway to cede the Danish provinces Scania, Blekinge, Halland, Bornholm and the Norwegian provinces of Båhuslen and Trøndelag to Sweden. The 1660 Treaty of Copenhagen forced Sweden to return Bornholm and Trøndelag to Denmark–Norway, and to give up its recent claims to the island Funen.


title: Scandinavia

text: In the east, Finland was a fully incorporated part of Sweden from medieval times until the Napoleonic wars, when it was ceded to Russia. Despite many wars over the years since the formation of the three kingdoms, Scandinavia has been politically and culturally close.


title: Scandinavia

text: Denmark–Norway as a historiographical name refers to the former political union consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The corresponding adjective and demonym is Dano-Norwegian. During Danish rule, Norway kept its separate laws, coinage and army as well as some institutions such as a royal chancellor. Norway's old royal line had died out with the death of Olav IV in 1387, but Norway's remaining a hereditary kingdom became an important factor for the Oldenburg dynasty of Denmark–Norway in its struggles to win elections as kings of Denmark.


title: Scandinavia

text: The Treaty of Kiel (14 January 1814) formally dissolved the Dano-Norwegian union and ceded the territory of Norway proper to the King of Sweden, but Denmark retained Norway's overseas possessions. However, widespread Norwegian resistance to the prospect of a union with Sweden induced the governor of Norway, crown prince Christian Frederick (later Christian VIII of Denmark), to call a constituent assembly at Eidsvoll in April 1814. The assembly drew up a liberal constitution and elected Christian Frederick to the throne of Norway. Following a Swedish invasion during the summer, the peace conditions of the Convention of Moss (14 August 1814) specified that king Christian Frederik had to resign, but Norway would keep its independence and its constitution within a personal union with Sweden. Christian Frederik formally abdicated on 10 August 1814 and returned to Denmark. The Norwegian parliament Storting elected king Charles XIII of Sweden as king of Norway on 4 November.


title: Scandinavia

text: The Storting dissolved the union between Sweden and Norway in 1905, after which the Norwegians elected Prince Charles of Denmark as king of Norway: he reigned as Haakon VII.


title: Scandinavia

text: The economies of the countries of Scandinavia are amongst the strongest in Europe. There is a generous welfare system in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.


title: Scandinavia

text: Various promotional agencies of the Nordic countries in the United States (such as The American-Scandinavian Foundation, established in 1910 by the Danish American industrialist Niels Poulsen) serve to promote market and tourism interests in the region. Today, the five Nordic heads of state act as the organization's patrons and according to the official statement by the organization its mission is "to promote the Nordic region as a whole while increasing the visibility of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in New York City and the United States". The official tourist boards of Scandinavia sometimes cooperate under one umbrella, such as the Scandinavian Tourist Board. The cooperation was introduced for the Asian market in 1986, when the Swedish national tourist board joined the Danish national tourist board to coordinate intergovernmental promotion of the two countries. Norway's government entered one year later. All five Nordic governments participate in the joint promotional efforts in the United States through the Scandinavian Tourist Board of North America.


title: Barry Keoghan

text: Barry Keoghan ( ; born 18 October 1992) is an Irish actor. He is known for his roles on stage and screen, appearing in independent films and blockbuster films. In 2020, he was listed at number 27 on "The Irish Times" list of Ireland's greatest film actors.


title: Barry Keoghan

text: His early film roles include "'71" (2014), "Mammal" (2016), and "Trespass Against Us" (2016). He received acclaim in 2017 for his roles in Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" (2017), and Yorgos Lanthimos's "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" (2017), receiving a Independent Spirit Award nomination for the latter. He continued acting in "American Animals" (2018), "Calm with Horses" (2019), receiving a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination, and "The Green Knight" (2021). In 2021, he appeared as Druig in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Eternals". In 2022 he appeared in Martin McDonagh's "The Banshees of Inisherin" for which he received a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.


title: Barry Keoghan

text: He's also known for his television roles including the RTÉ drama "Love/Hate" (2013) and the HBO limited series "Chernobyl" (2019). Keoghan is an ambassador for Dior and Barretstown.


title: Barry Keoghan

text: Keoghan grew up in Summerhill, Dublin, Ireland. Alongside his brother Eric, he spent seven years in foster care, in 13 different foster homes.


title: Barry Keoghan

text: As a child, Keoghan appeared in school plays in the O'Connell School on Dublin's North Richmond Street, but was banned for "messing about". He cites he got his film education from sneaking into films with pals at Cineworld, Parnell Street, from which he eventually got barred. He started his acting career in 2011. He answered an advertisement for "Between the Canals" after seeing a casting notice in a Sheriff Street shop window, and portrayed Aido in a small role in the film, which was released in 2011. He then studied acting at The Factory, a local Dublin school. He remembers "not even having €2.20 to get the bus to The Factory" at the time. The same year, at the age of 18, he appeared in "Fair City".


title: Barry Keoghan

text: In 2013, Keoghan appeared as Wayne on "Love/Hate". The role earned Keoghan recognition in Ireland, and he went on to feature in "'71" in 2014 and "Mammal" and "Trespass Against Us" in 2016.


title: Barry Keoghan

text: Keoghan appeared in two films in 2017. He featured as George Mills in "Dunkirk" and starred as Martin Lang in "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" alongside Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman. He won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in "The Killing of a Sacred Deer". The following year, he appeared in "Black '47" as Hobson, an English soldier stationed in Ireland during the Great Famine. He also starred in "American Animals" the same year. He portrayed Spencer Reinhart in the film, based on a real-life robbery of rare books from a university library. In 2018, "The Hollywood Reporter" described Keoghan as "the next big thing" for his film work in the previous three years, and in 2019 he was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.


title: Barry Keoghan

text: He appears in the 2019 mini-series "Chernobyl". He starred in an episode of "Living With Lucy" in September 2019. That same month, "Calm With Horses" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In July 2018, Keoghan was cast as lead character Yorick Brown in the pilot of "", but exited the main series production in February 2020. Keoghan played Druig in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film "Eternals" in November 2021. He also appeared in "The Green Knight".


title: Barry Keoghan

text: Keoghan appeared in Matt Reeves' film "The Batman" (2022) credited as "Unseen Arkham Prisoner", though Reeves himself later confirmed that Keoghan was the Joker. On March 24, 2022, three weeks after the film's release, Warner Bros. released a deleted scene featuring Keoghan's Joker and Robert Pattinson's Batman.


title: Barry Keoghan

text: From 2017 to 2020 Keoghan was in a relationship with Killarney native Shona Guerin, whom he had met on Good Friday in a Killarney pub in which she was working. The pair appeared on Livin' with Lucy together in 2019 in which Lucy Kennedy stayed with them in their Los Angeles home. In September 2021 Keoghan began dating Alyson Kierans (a dentist whose father is from County Cavan). A few months later, on Ireland's Mother's Day, 27 March 2022, he announced that the couple were expecting a child together. The birth of their son, Brando, was announced on 8 August 2022.


title: Barry Keoghan

text: In March 2022, Keoghan was announced as the new ambassador for the Barretstown children's charity, and helped open the charity's new Aladina Studio funded by the Spanish Aladina Foundation.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Philip John Clapp (born March 11, 1971), best known professionally as Johnny Knoxville, is an American stunt performer, professional wrestler, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known as a co-creator and star of the MTV reality stunt show "Jackass", which aired for three seasons from 2000 to 2001. A year later, Knoxville and his co-stars returned for the in the "Jackass" film series, with a second and third installment being released in 2006 and 2010, respectively. "" (2013), the first film in the series with a storyline, saw him star as his "Jackass" character Irving Zisman. "Jackass Forever" was released in 2022, it is said to be his final installment of the Jackass franchise.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville has had acting roles in films such as "Men in Black II" (2002), "A Dirty Shame" and "Walking Tall" (both 2004), "The Dukes of Hazzard", "The Ringer", and a cameo role as a sleazy corporate president of a skateboard company in "Lords of Dogtown" (all 2005), "The Last Stand" (2013), "Skiptrace" (2016), and the television series "Reboot" (2022). He also voiced Leonardo in "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (2014).


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville was born Philip John Clapp ("P.J.") in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Philip (19352018), was a tire and car salesman, and his mother, Lemoyne Clapp ( Houck; 19382017), taught Sunday school. He has two older sisters.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville credits a copy of Jack Kerouac's "On the Road", given to him by his cousin, singer-songwriter Roger Alan Wade, with giving him the acting bug.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville attended South-Doyle High School in Knoxville. While in high school, he played on the baseball team where he was named All-Knoxville Interscholastic League Honorable Mention and played in the Knoxville Area All Star game as a pitcher. After graduating in 1989, he moved to California to become an actor. In the beginning, Knoxville appeared mostly in commercials and made several minor appearances as an extra.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: When the "big break" he sought eluded him, he decided to create his own opportunities by writing and pitching article ideas to various magazines. An idea to test self-defense equipment on himself captured the interest of Jeff Tremaine's skateboarding magazine "Big Brother", and the stunts were filmed and included in "Big Brother" "Number Two" video.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville is responsible for many of the ideas in "Jackass", and is often seen as the de facto leader of the crew. The show is directed by Jeff Tremaine, who produced a pilot that used footage from "Big Brother" and Bam Margera's "CKY" videos.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: With help from Tremaine's friend, film director Spike Jonze, they pitched a series to various networks. A deal was made with MTV and "Jackass" was born.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville also participated in the Gumball 3000 for "Jackass" along with co-stars Steve-O, Chris Pontius, "Jackass" director Jeff Tremaine, and cinematographer Dimitry Elyashkevich. Prior to "Jackass" premiering on MTV, Knoxville and company turned down an offer to perform their stunts for "Saturday Night Live" on a weekly basis, though Knoxville later hosted a 2005 episode of the show.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville has been in several feature films, most notably starring opposite Seann William Scott in Jay Chandrasekhar's adaptation of "The Dukes of Hazzard". He starred in "", "Jackass Number Two", "Jackass 2.5", "Jackass 3D" (which marked the 10th anniversary of the franchise), "Jackass 3.5", "Jackass Forever", and "Jackass 4.5". He played a two-headed alien in the 2002 film "Men in Black II". Knoxville also worked with John Waters in "A Dirty Shame" in 2004, and appeared as a supporting character to The Rock in "Walking Tall" in the same year.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: He starred in Katrina Holden Bronson's "Daltry Calhoun" in 2005, and in "The Ringer" as an office worker who pretends to be disabled and joins the Special Olympics to pay for surgery for his office's janitor. He starred in the movie "Lords of Dogtown" as Topper Burks, made a minor appearance in the 2000 movie "Coyote Ugly", and was featured as a guest voice on two episodes of "King of the Hill".


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville appeared in the John Madden-directed adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel, "Killshot", however, his character was subsequently removed from the final cut of the film. He guest-starred in a season 3 episode "Prank Wars" on "Viva La Bam", in which he and Ryan Dunn trashed Bam Margera's Hummer and performed other pranks. He voiced himself in an episode of "Family Guy". He co-produced "The Dudesons in America" and the now-canceled "Nitro Circus" on MTV.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: In 2010, Knoxville hosted a three-part online video for Palladium Boots titled "Detroit Lives". The videos focus on the resurgence of creativity in Detroit. Knoxville guest-starred as the voice of Johnny Krill, an extreme sports enthusiast, in "Extreme Spots", a 2012 episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants". Knoxville voiced Leonardo in the 2014 film, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" but did not appear in the sequel.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville has a production company called Dickhouse Productions, which he owns and operates with Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonze of the Jackass franchise. Dickhouse's projects include "The Birth of Big Air" (2010), a documentary about Mat Hoffman that was part of ESPN's "30 for 30" series, and "The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia" (2010), both of which have been picked up by Tribeca Films.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: In May 2014, Knoxville (along with "Jackass" Executive Producer/H.M.F.I.C. Derek Freda) formally announced the formation of a new production company called 'Hello Junior', which will continue Knoxville's now-longstanding relationship with Paramount Pictures, who have signed an exclusive two-year first-look deal with Knoxville and 'Hello Junior' in the wake of the massive success of "Bad Grandpa" in late 2013.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville was quoted as saying, "I am over the damn moon about continuing an amazing partnership with Paramount Pictures," he said. "I have many more films to make and bones to break. I am glad I will be doing it for Paramount."


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville, as with the "Jackass" crew, has been involved with the professional wrestling promotion WWE. On the October 13, 2008 episode of "Raw", Knoxville made his WWE television debut feuding with The Great Khali. Knoxville later appeared as the guest star on the October 4, 2010 episode of "Raw" in Wichita, Kansas.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: On January 1, 2022, at WWE's Day 1 pay-per-view, Knoxville announced he would be at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view as a participant in the event's signature namesake match. His entry was confirmed on the January 7 episode of "SmackDown" while simultaneously starting a feud with Sami Zayn. He entered the Royal Rumble at number 9 and was eliminated by Zayn. Knoxville then returned on the February 25 episode of "SmackDown" and challenged Zayn for the WWE Intercontinental Championship that the latter won the week prior, but Knoxville got rejected and was attacked by Zayn. The following week, Knoxville distracted Zayn during his match with Ricochet, allowing the latter to win the championship from him. Later that same night, Zayn challenged Knoxville to a match at WrestleMania 38 to which Knoxville accepted, and the match was stipulated as an Anything Goes match, wherein on Night 2 of that event, he won the match against Zayn with the help of "Jackass" members Chris Pontius, Wee Man, director Jeff Tremaine, and new members Jasper Dolphin and his father Compston "Dark Shark" Wilson.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: Knoxville married Melanie Lynn Cates on May 15, 1995. They have a daughter born on January 4, 1996. His daughter can be heard in the credits for "Jackass Number Two", is seen in "The Making of Jackass Two" on the special features on the DVD, and was seen in the credits of "Jackass 3D", punching Tremaine with a boxing glove. After eleven years of marriage, the couple separated in July 2006. Knoxville filed for divorce on July 3, 2007. The marriage was legally ended in March 2008, with final divorce arrangements settled in July 2009.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: On February 4, 2009, Knoxville explained on "The Howard Stern Show" how he tore his urethra during a stunt for "", describing how he had to flush it twice daily. He said this was done by "sticking a tube into his penis all the way up to his bladder", referring to the practice of urinary catheterization. Knoxville said the process prevented scar tissue from forming and performed the procedure "twice a day for three and a half years" after the injury.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: On August 18, 2009, Knoxville announced that he and his girlfriend, Naomi Nelson, were expecting their first child. Nelson gave birth to a son that December in Los Angeles. Knoxville and Nelson married on September 24, 2010. Nelson gave birth to a daughter in October 2011, in Los Angeles. On June 17, 2022, it was reported that Knoxville filed for divorce from his wife.


title: Johnny Knoxville

text: In December 2022, while filming "The Prank Panel," Knoxville was sued by Khalil Khan, alleging that Khan was subjected to a “terrifying ordeal” after signing up for a handyman job on TaskRabbit in October.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945.


title: Hermann Göring

text: A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, Göring was a recipient of the ("The Blue Max"). He was the last commander of "Jagdgeschwader" 1 (Jasta 1), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine which persisted until the last year of his life. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Göring was named as minister without portfolio in the new government. One of his first acts as a cabinet minister was to oversee the creation of the Gestapo, which he ceded to Heinrich Himmler in 1934.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Following the establishment of the Nazi state, Göring amassed power and political capital to become the second most powerful man in Germany. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (air force), a position he held until the final days of the regime. Upon being named Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan in 1936, Göring was entrusted with the task of mobilizing all sectors of the economy for war, an assignment which brought numerous government agencies under his control. In September 1939, Hitler designated him as his successor and deputy in all his offices. After the Fall of France in 1940, he was bestowed the specially created rank of , which gave him seniority over all officers in Germany's armed forces.


title: Hermann Göring

text: By 1941, Göring was at the peak of his power and influence. As the Second World War progressed, Göring's standing with Hitler and with the German public declined after the Luftwaffe proved incapable of preventing the Allied bombing of Germany's cities and resupplying surrounded Axis forces in Stalingrad. Around that time, Göring increasingly withdrew from military and political affairs to devote his attention to collecting property and artwork, much of which was stolen from Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Informed on 22 April 1945 that Hitler intended to commit suicide, Göring sent a telegram to Hitler requesting his permission to assume leadership of the Reich. Considering his request an act of treason, Hitler removed Göring from all his positions, expelled him from the party, and ordered his arrest. After the war, Göring was convicted of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. He was sentenced to death by hanging, but committed suicide by ingesting cyanide hours before the sentence was to be carried out.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring was born on 12 January 1893 at the Marienbad Sanatorium in Rosenheim, Bavaria. His father, Heinrich Ernst Göring (31 October 1839 – 7 December 1913), a former cavalry officer, had been the first governor-general of German South West Africa (modern-day Namibia). Heinrich had three children from a previous marriage. Göring was the fourth of five children by Heinrich's second wife, Franziska Tiefenbrunn (1859–15 July 1943), a Bavarian peasant. Göring's elder siblings were Karl, Olga, and Paula; his younger brother was Albert. At the time that Göring was born, his father was serving as consul general in Haiti, and his mother had returned home briefly to give birth. She left the six-week-old baby with a friend in Bavaria and did not see the child again for three years, when she and Heinrich returned to Germany.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring's godfather was Hermann Epenstein, a wealthy Jewish physician and businessman his father had met in Africa. Epenstein provided the Göring family, who were surviving on Heinrich's pension, first with a family home in Berlin-Friedenau, and then a small castle called Veldenstein, near Nuremberg. Göring's mother became Epenstein's mistress around this time, and remained so for some fifteen years. Epenstein acquired the minor title of Ritter (knight) von Epenstein through service and donations to the Crown.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Interested in a career as a soldier from a very early age, Göring enjoyed playing with toy soldiers and dressing up in a Boer uniform his father had given him. He was sent to boarding school at age eleven, where the food was poor and discipline was harsh. He sold a violin to pay for his train ticket home, and then took to his bed, feigning illness, until he was told he would not have to return. He continued to enjoy war games, pretending to lay siege to the castle Veldenstein and studying Teutonic legends and sagas. He became a mountain climber, scaling peaks in Germany, at the Mont Blanc massif, and in the Austrian Alps. At age 16, he was sent to a military academy at Berlin Lichterfelde, from which he graduated with distinction.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring joined the Prince Wilhelm Regiment (112th Infantry, Garrison: Mülhausen) of the Prussian Army in 1912. The next year his mother had a falling-out with Epenstein. The family was forced to leave Veldenstein and moved to Munich; Göring's father died shortly afterwards. When World War I began in August 1914, Göring was stationed at Mülhausen with his regiment.


title: Hermann Göring

text: During the first year of World War I, Göring served with his infantry regiment in the area of Mülhausen, a garrison town less than 2 km from the French frontier. He was hospitalized with rheumatism, a result of the damp of trench warfare. While he was recovering, his friend Bruno Loerzer convinced him to transfer to what would become, by October 1916, the () of the German army, but his request was turned down. Later that year, Göring flew as Loerzer's observer in 25 (FFA 25); Göring had informally transferred himself. He was discovered and sentenced to three weeks' confinement to barracks, but the sentence was never carried out. By the time it was supposed to be imposed, Göring's association with Loerzer had been made official. They were assigned as a team to FFA 25 in the Crown Prince's Fifth Army. They flew reconnaissance and bombing missions, for which the Crown Prince invested both Göring and Loerzer with the Iron Cross, first class.


title: Hermann Göring

text: After completing the pilot's training course, Göring was assigned to "Jagdstaffel" 5. Seriously wounded in the hip in aerial combat, he took nearly a year to recover. He then was transferred to "Jagdstaffel" 26, commanded by Loerzer, in February 1917. He steadily scored air victories until May, when he was assigned to command "Jagdstaffel" 27. Serving with "Jastas" 5, 26 and 27, he continued to win victories. In addition to his Iron Crosses (1st and 2nd Class), he received the Zähringer Lion with swords, the Friedrich Order, the House Order of Hohenzollern with swords third class, and finally, in May 1918, the coveted . According to Hermann Dahlmann, who knew both men, Göring had Loerzer lobby for the award. He finished the war with 22 victories. A thorough post-war examination of Allied loss records showed that only two of his awarded victories were doubtful. Three were possible and 17 were certain, or highly likely.


title: Hermann Göring

text: On 7 July 1918, following the death of Wilhelm Reinhard, successor to Manfred von Richthofen, Göring was made commander of the "Flying Circus", "Jagdgeschwader" 1. His arrogance made him unpopular with the men of his squadron.


title: Hermann Göring

text: In the last days of the war, Göring was repeatedly ordered to withdraw his squadron, first to Tellancourt airdrome, then to Darmstadt. At one point, he was ordered to surrender the aircraft to the Allies; he refused. Many of his pilots intentionally crash-landed their planes to keep them from falling into enemy hands.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Like many other German veterans, Göring was a proponent of the stab-in-the-back myth, the belief which held that the German Army had not really lost the war, but instead was betrayed by the civilian leadership: Marxists, Jews, and especially the republicans, who had overthrown the German monarchy.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring remained in aviation after the war. He tried barnstorming and briefly worked at Fokker. After spending most of 1919 living in Denmark, he moved to Sweden and joined , a Swedish airline. Göring was often hired for private flights. During the winter of 1920–1921, he was hired by Count Eric von Rosen to fly him to his castle from Stockholm. Invited to spend the night, Göring may at this time have first seen the swastika emblem, which Rosen had set in the chimney piece as a family badge.


title: Hermann Göring

text: This was also the first time that Göring saw his future wife; the count introduced his sister-in-law, Baroness Carin von Kantzow ( Freiin von Fock). Estranged from her husband of ten years, she had an eight-year-old son. Göring was immediately infatuated and asked her to meet him in Stockholm. They arranged a visit at the home of her parents and spent much time together through 1921, when Göring left for Munich to take political science at the university. Carin obtained a divorce, followed Göring to Munich, and married him on 3 February 1922. Their first home together was a hunting lodge at Hochkreuth in the Bavarian Alps, near Bayrischzell, some from Munich. After Göring met Adolf Hitler and joined the Nazi Party in 1922, they moved to Obermenzing, a suburb of Munich.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring joined the Nazi Party in 1922 after hearing a speech by Hitler. He was given command of the (SA) as the in 1923. He was later appointed an (Lieutenant general) and held this rank on the SA rolls until 1945. At this time, Carin—who liked Hitler—often played hostess to meetings of leading Nazis, including her husband, Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Alfred Rosenberg, and Ernst Röhm. Hitler later recalled his early association with Göring:


title: Hermann Göring

text: Hitler and the Nazi Party held mass meetings and rallies in Munich and elsewhere during the early 1920s, attempting to gain supporters in a bid for political power. Inspired by Benito Mussolini's March on Rome, the Nazis attempted to seize power on 8–9 November 1923 in a failed coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Göring, who was with Hitler leading the march to the War Ministry, was shot in the groin. Fourteen Nazis and four policemen were killed; many top Nazis, including Hitler, were arrested. With Carin's help, Göring was smuggled to Innsbruck, where he received surgery and was given morphine for the pain. He remained in hospital until 24 December. This was the beginning of his morphine addiction, which lasted until his imprisonment at Nuremberg. Meanwhile, the authorities in Munich declared Göring a wanted man. The Görings—acutely short of funds and reliant on the good will of Nazi sympathizers abroad—moved from Austria to Venice. In May 1924 they visited Rome, via Florence and Siena. Göring met Mussolini, who expressed an interest in meeting Hitler, who was by then in prison.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Personal problems continued to multiply. By 1925, Carin's mother was ill. The Görings—with difficulty—raised the money in the spring of 1925 for a journey to Sweden via Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Danzig (now Gdańsk). Göring had become a violent morphine addict; Carin's family were shocked by his deterioration. Carin, who was ill with epilepsy and a weak heart, had to allow the doctors to take charge of Göring; her son was taken by his father. Göring was certified a dangerous drug addict and was placed in Långbro asylum on 1 September 1925. He was violent to the point where he had to be confined in a straitjacket, but his psychiatrist felt he was sane; the condition was caused solely by the morphine. Weaned off the drug, he left the facility briefly, but had to return for further treatment. He returned to Germany when an amnesty was declared in 1927 and resumed working in the aircraft industry. Hitler, who had written while in prison, had been released in December 1924. Carin Göring, ill with epilepsy and tuberculosis, died of heart failure on 17 October 1931.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Meanwhile, the Nazi Party was in a period of rebuilding and waiting. The economy had recovered, which meant fewer opportunities for the Nazis to agitate. The SA was reorganised, but with Franz Pfeffer von Salomon as its head rather than Göring, and the (SS) was founded in 1925, initially as a bodyguard for Hitler. Membership in the party increased from 27,000 in 1925 to 108,000 in 1928 and 178,000 in 1929. In the May 1928 elections the Nazi Party only obtained 12 seats out of an available 491 in the . Göring was elected as a representative from Bavaria. He continued to be elected to the in all subsequent elections during the Weimar and Nazi regimes. The Great Depression led to a disastrous downturn in the German economy, and in the 1930 election, the Nazi Party won 6,409,600 votes and 107 seats. In May 1931, Hitler sent Göring on a mission to the Vatican, where he met the future Pope Pius XII.


title: Hermann Göring

text: In the July 1932 election, the Nazis won 230 seats to become far and away the largest party in the . By longstanding tradition, the Nazis were thus entitled to select the President of the , and elected Göring to the post. He would retain this position until 23 April 1945.


title: Hermann Göring

text: The Reichstag fire occurred on the night of 27 February 1933. Göring was one of the first to arrive on the scene. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Communist radical, was arrested and claimed sole responsibility for the fire. Göring immediately called for a crackdown on Communists.


title: Hermann Göring

text: The Nazis took advantage of the fire to advance their own political aims. The Reichstag Fire Decree, passed the next day on Hitler's urging, suspended basic rights and allowed detention without trial. Activities of the German Communist Party were suppressed, and some 4,000 Party members were arrested. Göring demanded that the prisoners should be shot, but Rudolf Diels, head of the Prussian political police, ignored the order. Some researchers, including William L. Shirer and Alan Bullock, are of the opinion that the Nazi Party itself was responsible for starting the fire.


title: Hermann Göring

text: At the Nuremberg trials, General Franz Halder testified that Göring admitted responsibility for starting the fire. He said that, at a luncheon held on Hitler's birthday in 1942, Göring said, "The only one who really knows about the Reichstag is I, because I set it on fire!" In his own Nuremberg testimony, Göring denied this story.


title: Hermann Göring

text: During the early 1930s, Göring was often in the company of Emmy Sonnemann, an actress from Hamburg. They were married on 10 April 1935, in Berlin. The wedding was celebrated on a huge scale. A large reception was held the night before at the Berlin Opera House. Fighter aircraft flew overhead on the night of the reception and the day of the ceremony, at which Hitler was best man. Göring's daughter, Edda, was born on 2 June 1938.


title: Hermann Göring

text: When Hitler was named chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, Göring was appointed as "Reichsminister" without portfolio and "Reichskommissar" of Aviation. This was followed on 11 April 1933 by his appointment as Minister-President of Prussia, Prussian interior minister and chief of the Prussian police. In October 1933, Göring was made a member of Hans Frank's Academy for German Law at its inaugural meeting.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Wilhelm Frick, the Reich interior minister, and the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, hoped to create a unified police force for all of Germany, but Göring on 26 April 1933 established a special Prussian police force, with Rudolf Diels at its head. The force was called the (), or Gestapo. Göring, thinking that Diels was not ruthless enough to use the Gestapo effectively to counteract the power of the SA, handed over control of the Gestapo to Himmler on 20 April 1934. By this time, the SA numbered over two million men.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Hitler was deeply concerned that Ernst Röhm, the chief of the SA, was planning a coup. Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich plotted with Göring to use the Gestapo and SS to crush the SA. Members of the SA got wind of the proposed action and thousands of them took to the streets in violent demonstrations on the night of 29 June 1934. Enraged, Hitler ordered the arrest of the SA leadership. Röhm was shot dead in his cell when he refused to commit suicide; Göring personally went over the lists of prisoners—numbering in the thousands—and determined who else should be shot. At least 85 people were killed in the period of 30 June to 2 July, which is now known as the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler admitted in the Reichstag on 13 July that the killings had been entirely illegal, but claimed a plot had been under way to overthrow the Reich. A retroactive law was passed making the action legal. Any criticism was met with arrests.


title: Hermann Göring

text: One of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which had been in place since the end of World War I, stated that Germany was not allowed to maintain an air force. After the 1926 signing of the Kellogg–Briand Pact, police aircraft were permitted. Göring was appointed Air Traffic Minister in May 1933. Germany began to accumulate aircraft in violation of the Treaty, and in 1935 the existence of the Luftwaffe was formally acknowledged, with Göring as Reich Aviation Minister.


title: Hermann Göring

text: During a cabinet meeting in September 1936, Göring and Hitler announced that the German rearmament programme must be sped up. On 18 October, Hitler named Göring as Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan to undertake this task. Göring created a new organisation to administer the Plan and drew the ministries of labour and agriculture under its umbrella. He bypassed the economics ministry in his policy-making decisions, to the chagrin of Hjalmar Schacht, the minister in charge. Huge expenditures were made on rearmament, in spite of growing deficits. Schacht resigned on 8 December 1937, and Walther Funk took over the position, as well as control of the Reichsbank. In this way, both of these institutions were brought under Göring's control under the auspices of the Four Year Plan. In July 1937, the Reichswerke Hermann Göring was established under state ownership – though led by Göring – with the aim of boosting steel production beyond the level which private enterprise could economically provide.


title: Hermann Göring

text: In 1938, Göring was involved in the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair, which led to the resignations of the War Minister, Werner von Blomberg, and the army commander, General Werner von Fritsch. Göring had acted as witness at Blomberg's wedding to Margarethe Gruhn, a 26-year-old typist, on 12 January 1938. Information received from the police showed that the young bride was a prostitute. Göring felt obligated to tell Hitler, but also saw this event as an opportunity to dispose of Blomberg. Blomberg was forced to resign. Göring did not want Fritsch to be appointed to that position and thus be his superior. Several days later, Heydrich revealed a file on Fritsch that contained allegations of homosexual activity and blackmail. The charges were later proven to be false, but Fritsch had lost Hitler's trust and was forced to resign. Hitler used the dismissals as an opportunity to reshuffle the leadership of the military. Göring asked for the post of War Minister, but was turned down; he was appointed to the rank of . Hitler took over as supreme commander of the armed forces and created subordinate posts to head the three main branches of service.


title: Hermann Göring

text: As minister in charge of the Four Year Plan, Göring became concerned with the lack of natural resources in Germany, and began pushing for Austria to be incorporated into the Reich. The province of Styria had rich iron ore deposits, and the country as a whole was home to many skilled labourers that would also be useful. Hitler had always been in favour of a takeover of Austria, his native country. He met the Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg on 12 February 1938, threatening invasion if peaceful unification was not forthcoming. The Nazi Party was made legal in Austria to gain a power base, and a referendum on reunification was scheduled for March. When Hitler did not approve of the wording of the plebiscite, Göring telephoned Schuschnigg and Austrian head of state Wilhelm Miklas to demand Schuschnigg's resignation, threatening invasion by German troops and civil unrest by the Austrian Nazi Party members. Schuschnigg resigned on 11 March and the plebiscite was cancelled. By 5:30 the next morning, German troops that had been massing on the border marched into Austria, meeting no resistance.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Although Joachim von Ribbentrop had been named Foreign Minister in February 1938, Göring continued to involve himself in foreign affairs. That July, he contacted the British government with the idea that he should make an official visit to discuss Germany's intentions for Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain was in favour of a meeting, and there was talk of a pact being signed between Britain and Germany. In February 1938, Göring visited Warsaw to quell rumours about the upcoming invasion of Poland. He had conversations with the Hungarian government that summer as well, discussing their potential role in an invasion of Czechoslovakia. At the Nuremberg Rally that September, Göring and other speakers denounced the Czechs as an inferior race that must be conquered. Chamberlain and Hitler had a series of meetings that led to the signing of the Munich Agreement (29 September 1938), which turned over control of the Sudetenland to Germany. In March 1939, Göring threatened Czechoslovak president Emil Hácha with the bombing of Prague. Hácha then agreed to sign a communique accepting the German occupation of the remainder of Bohemia and Moravia.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Although many in the party disliked him, before the war Göring enjoyed widespread personal popularity among the German public because of his perceived sociability, colour and humour. As the Nazi leader most responsible for economic matters, he presented himself as a champion of national interests over allegedly corrupt big business and the old German elite. The Nazi press was on Göring's side. Other leaders, such as Hess and Ribbentrop, were envious of his popularity. In Britain and the United States, some viewed Göring as more acceptable than the other Nazis and as a possible mediator between the western democracies and Hitler.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring and other senior officers were concerned that Germany was not yet ready for war, but Hitler insisted on pushing ahead as soon as possible. On 30 August 1939, immediately prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, Hitler appointed Göring as the chairman of a new six-person Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich which was set up to operate as a war cabinet. The invasion of Poland, the opening action of World War II, began at dawn on 1 September 1939. Later in the day, speaking to the , Hitler designated Göring as his successor as Führer of all Germany, "If anything should befall me", with Hess as the second alternate. Big German victories followed one after the other in quick succession. With the help of the Luftwaffe, the Polish Air Force was defeated within a week. The seized vital airfields in Norway (Operation Weserübung) and captured Fort Eben-Emael in Belgium on 10 May 1940, the first day of the Battle of France. Göring's Luftwaffe played critical roles in the Battles of the Netherlands, of Belgium and of France in May 1940.


title: Hermann Göring

text: After the Fall of France, Hitler awarded Göring the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross for his successful leadership. During the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony, Hitler promoted Göring to the rank of (), a specially-created rank which made him senior to all field marshals in the military, including the Luftwaffe. As a result of this promotion, he was the highest-ranking soldier in Germany until the end of the war. Göring had already received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 30 September 1939 as Commander in Chief of the Luftwaffe.


title: Hermann Göring

text: The UK had declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, the third day of the invasion of Poland. In July 1940, Hitler began preparations for an invasion of Britain. As part of the plan, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had to be neutralized. Bombing raids commenced on British air installations and on cities and centres of industry. Göring had by then already announced in a radio speech, "If as much as a single enemy aircraft flies over German soil, my name is Meier!", something that would return to haunt him, when the RAF began bombing German cities on 11 May 1940. Though he was confident the Luftwaffe could defeat the RAF within days, Göring, like Admiral Erich Raeder, commander-in-chief of the "Kriegsmarine" (navy), was pessimistic about the chance of success of the planned invasion (codenamed Operation Sea Lion). Göring hoped that a victory in the air would be enough to force peace without an invasion. The campaign failed, and Sea Lion was postponed indefinitely on 17 September 1940. After their defeat in the Battle of Britain, the Luftwaffe attempted to defeat Britain via strategic bombing. On 12 October 1940 Hitler cancelled Sea Lion due to the onset of winter. By the end of the year, it was clear that British morale was not being shaken by the Blitz, though the bombings continued through May 1941.


title: Hermann Göring

text: In spite of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, signed in 1939, Nazi Germany began Operation Barbarossa—the invasion of the Soviet Union—on 22 June 1941. Initially, the Luftwaffe was at an advantage, destroying thousands of Soviet aircraft in the first month of fighting. Hitler and his top staff were sure that the campaign would be over by Christmas, and no provisions were made for reserves of men or equipment. But, by July, the Germans had only 1,000 planes remaining in operation, and their troop losses were over 213,000 men. The choice was made to concentrate the attack on only one part of the vast front; efforts would be directed at capturing Moscow. After the long, but successful, Battle of Smolensk, Hitler ordered Army Group Centre to halt its advance to Moscow and temporarily diverted its Panzer groups north and south to aid in the encirclement of Leningrad and Kiev. The pause provided the Red Army with an opportunity to mobilize fresh reserves; historian Russel Stolfi considers it to be one of the major factors that caused the failure of the Moscow offensive, which was resumed in October 1941 with the Battle of Moscow. Poor weather conditions, fuel shortages, a delay in building aircraft bases in Eastern Europe, and overstretched supply lines were also factors. Hitler did not give permission for even a partial retreat until mid-January 1942; by this time the losses were comparable to those of the French invasion of Russia in 1812.


title: Hermann Göring

text: After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Göring, along with Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and Admiral Erich Raeder, urged Hitler to immediately declare war on the United States.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Hitler decided that the summer 1942 campaign would be concentrated in the south; efforts would be made to capture the oilfields in the Caucasus. The Battle of Stalingrad, a major turning point of the war, began on 23 August 1942 with a bombing campaign by the Luftwaffe. The German Sixth Army entered the city, but because of its location on the front line, it was still possible for the Soviets to encircle and trap it there without reinforcements or supplies. When the Sixth Army was surrounded by the end of November in Operation Uranus, Göring promised that the Luftwaffe would be able to deliver a minimum of 300 tons of supplies to the trapped men every day. On the basis of these assurances, Hitler demanded that there be no retreat; they were to fight to the last man. Though some airlifts were able to get through, the amount of supplies delivered never exceeded 120 tons per day. The remnants of the Sixth Army—some 91,000 men out of an army of 285,000—surrendered in early February 1943; only 5,000 of these captives survived the Russian prisoner of war camps to see Germany again.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Meanwhile, the strength of the US and British bomber fleets had increased. Based in Britain, they began operations against German targets. The first thousand-bomber raid was staged on Cologne on 30 May 1942. Air raids continued on targets farther from England after auxiliary fuel tanks were installed on US fighter aircraft. Göring refused to believe reports that American fighters had been shot down as far east as Aachen in winter 1942–1943. His reputation began to decline.


title: Hermann Göring

text: The American P-51 Mustang, with a combat radius of over when using underwing drop tanks, began to escort the bombers in large formations to and from the target area in early 1944. From that point onwards, the Luftwaffe began to suffer casualties in aircrews it could not sufficiently replace. By targeting oil refineries and rail communications, Allied bombers crippled the German war effort by late 1944. German civilians blamed Göring for his failure to protect the homeland. Hitler began excluding him from conferences, but continued him in his positions at the head of the Luftwaffe and as plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan. As he lost Hitler's trust, Göring began to spend more time at his various residences. On D-Day (6 June 1944), the Luftwaffe only had some 300 fighters and a small number of bombers in the area of the landings; the Allies had a total strength of 11,000 aircraft.


title: Hermann Göring

text: As the Soviets approached Berlin, Hitler's efforts to organise the defence of the city became ever more meaningless and futile. His last birthday, celebrated at the in Berlin on 20 April 1945, was the occasion for leave-taking for many top Nazis, Göring included. By this time, Göring's hunting lodge Carinhall had been evacuated, the building destroyed, and its art treasures moved to Berchtesgaden and elsewhere. Göring arrived at his estate at Obersalzberg on 22 April, the same day that Hitler, in a lengthy diatribe against his generals, first publicly admitted that the war was lost and that he intended to remain in Berlin to the end and then commit suicide. He also stated that Göring was in a better position to negotiate a peace settlement.


title: Hermann Göring

text: OKW operations chief Alfred Jodl was present for Hitler's rant, and notified Göring's chief of staff, Karl Koller, at a meeting a few hours later. Sensing its implications, Koller immediately flew to Berchtesgaden to notify Göring of this development. A week after the start of the Soviet invasion, Hitler had issued a decree naming Göring his successor in the event of his death, thus codifying the declaration he had made soon after the beginning of the war. The decree also gave Göring full authority to act as Hitler's deputy if Hitler ever lost his freedom of action.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring feared being branded a traitor if he tried to take power, but also feared being accused of dereliction of duty if he did nothing. After some hesitation, Göring reviewed his copy of the 1941 decree naming him Hitler's successor. After conferring with Koller and Hans Lammers (the state secretary of the Reich Chancellery), Göring concluded that by remaining in Berlin to face certain death, Hitler had incapacitated himself from governing. All agreed that under the terms of the decree, it was incumbent upon Göring to take power in Hitler's stead. He was also motivated by fears that his rival, Martin Bormann, would seize power upon Hitler's death and would have him killed as a traitor. With this in mind, Göring sent a carefully worded telegram asking Hitler for permission to take over as the leader of Germany, stressing that he would be acting as Hitler's deputy. He added that, if Hitler did not reply by 22:00 that night (23 April), he would assume that Hitler had indeed lost his freedom of action, and would assume leadership of the Reich.


title: Hermann Göring

text: The telegram was intercepted by Bormann, who convinced Hitler that Göring was a traitor. Bormann argued that Göring's telegram was not a request for permission to act as Hitler's deputy, but a demand to resign or be overthrown. Bormann also intercepted another telegram in which Göring directed Ribbentrop to report to him if there was no further communication from Hitler or Göring before midnight. Hitler sent a reply to Göringprepared with Bormann's helprescinding the 1941 decree and threatening him with execution for high treason unless he immediately resigned from all of his offices. Göring duly resigned. Afterwards, Hitler (or Bormann, depending on the source) ordered the SS to place Göring, his staff, and Lammers under house arrest at Obersalzberg. Bormann made an announcement over the radio that Göring had resigned for health reasons.


title: Hermann Göring

text: By 26 April, the complex at Obersalzberg was under attack by the Allies, so Göring was moved to his castle at Mauterndorf. In his last will and testament, Hitler expelled Göring from the party, formally rescinded the decree making him his successor, and upbraided Göring for "illegally attempting to seize control of the state." He then appointed Karl Dönitz, the Navy's commander-in-chief, as president of the Reich and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, committed suicide on 30 April 1945, a few hours after a hastily arranged wedding. Göring was freed on 5 May by a passing Luftwaffe unit, and he made his way to the US lines in hopes of surrendering to them rather than to the Soviets. He was taken into custody near Radstadt on 6 May by elements of the 36th Infantry Division of the US Army. This move likely saved Göring's life; Bormann had ordered him executed if Berlin had fallen.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring was flown to Camp Ashcan, a temporary prisoner-of-war camp housed in the Palace Hotel at Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxembourg. Here he was weaned off dihydrocodeine (a mild morphine derivative)—he had been taking the equivalent of three or four grains (260 to 320 mg) of morphine a day—and was put on a strict diet; he lost . His IQ was tested while in custody and found to be 138. Top Nazi officials were transferred in September to Nuremberg, which was to be the location of a series of military tribunals beginning in November.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring was the second-highest-ranking official tried at Nuremberg, behind Reich President (former Admiral) Karl Dönitz. The prosecution levelled an indictment of four charges, including a charge of conspiracy; waging a war of aggression; war crimes, including the plundering and removal to Germany of works of art and other property; and crimes against humanity, including the disappearance of political and other opponents under the () decree; the torture and ill treatment of prisoners of war; and the murder and enslavement of civilians, including what was at the time estimated to be 5,700,000 Jews. Not permitted to present a lengthy statement, Göring declared himself to be "in the sense of the indictment not guilty."


title: Hermann Göring

text: The trial lasted 218 days. The prosecution presented its case from November through March, and Göring's defencethe first to be presentedlasted from 8 to 22 March. The sentences were read on 30 September 1946. Göring, forced to remain silent while seated in the dock, communicated his opinions about the proceedings using gestures, shaking his head, or laughing. He constantly took notes and whispered with the other defendants, and tried to control the erratic behaviour of Hess, who was seated beside him. During breaks in the proceedings, Göring tried to dominate the other defendants, and he was eventually placed in solitary confinement when he attempted to influence their testimony. Göring told American psychiatrist Leon Goldensohn that the court was "stupid" to try "little fellows" like Funk and Kaltenbrunner instead of letting Göring take all the blame on himself. He also claimed that he had never heard of most of the other defendants before the trial.


title: Hermann Göring

text: On several occasions over the course of the trial, the prosecution showed films of the concentration camps and other atrocities. Everyone present, including Göring, found the contents of the films shocking; he said that the films must have been faked. Witnesses, including Paul Körner and Erhard Milch, tried to portray Göring as a peaceful moderate. Milch stated that it had been impossible to oppose Hitler or disobey his orders; to do so would likely have meant death for oneself and one's family. When testifying on his own behalf, Göring emphasised his loyalty to Hitler, and claimed to know nothing about what had happened in the concentration camps, which were under Himmler's control. He provided evasive, convoluted answers to direct questions and had plausible excuses for all of his actions during the war. He used the witness stand as a venue to expound at great length on his own role in the Reich, attempting to present himself as a peacemaker and diplomat before the outbreak of the war. During cross-examination, chief prosecutor Robert H. Jackson read the minutes of a meeting that had been held shortly after Kristallnacht, a major pogrom in November 1938. At the meeting, Göring had plotted to confiscate Jewish property in the wake of the pogrom. Later, David Maxwell-Fyfe proved that Göring must have known about the killing of 50 airmen who had been recaptured after escaping from Stalag Luft III in time to have saved them. He also presented clear evidence that Göring knew about the extermination of the Hungarian Jews.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring was found guilty on all four counts and was sentenced to death by hanging. The judgment stated:


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring made an appeal asking to be shot as a soldier instead of hanged as a common criminal, but the court refused. He committed suicide with a potassium cyanide capsule the night before he was to be hanged.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Speculation as to how Göring obtained the poison holds that US Army lieutenant Jack G. Wheelis, who was stationed at the trials, retrieved the capsules from their hiding place among Göring's confiscated personal effects and passed them to Göring, who had earlier presented Wheelis with his gold watch, pen, and cigarette case. In 2005, former US Army private Herbert Lee Stivers, who served in the 1st Infantry Division's 26th Infantry Regimentthe honour guard for the Nuremberg Trialsclaimed he gave Göring "medicine" hidden inside a fountain pen that a German woman had asked him to smuggle into the prison. Stivers later said that he did not know what was in the pill until after Göring's suicide.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring's body, as with those of the men who were executed, was displayed at the execution ground for witnesses. The bodies were cremated at Ostfriedhof, Munich, and the ashes were scattered in the Isar River.


title: Hermann Göring

text: Göring's name is closely associated with the Nazi plunder of Jewish property. His name appears 135 times on the OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) Red Flag Names List compiled by US Army intelligence in 1945-6 and declassified in 1997.