Editing Hermann Göring (section)

== Early Nazi career ==
[[File:Hitler 1928.jpg|left|thumb|Göring (left) stands in front of [[Hitler]] at a [[Nuremberg rallies|Nazi Party rally]] in [[Nuremberg]] (1929).]]

Göring joined the [[Nazi Party]] in 1922 after hearing a speech by [[Adolf Hitler]].{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|pp=45, 47}}{{sfn|Miller|2006|p=426}} He was given command of the {{lang|de|[[Sturmabteilung]]}} (SA) as the {{lang|de|[[Oberster SA-Führer]]}} on 1 March 1923, succeeding [[Hans Ulrich Klintzsch]], and headed the organisation until it was banned in November 1923. He was appointed an {{lang|de|SA-[[Gruppenführer]]}} on 18 December 1931. On 1 January 1933, he was among the first to be promoted to the recently created rank of {{lang|de|SA-[[Obergruppenführer]]}} and he held this rank on the SA rolls until 1945.{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2015|pp=29, 41}}{{sfn|Lepage|2016|p=140}}

Through the early years, Carin—who liked Hitler—often played hostess to meetings of leading Nazis, including her husband as well as Hitler, [[Rudolf Hess]], [[Alfred Rosenberg]] and [[Ernst Röhm]].{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|p=47}} Hitler later recalled his early association with Göring:

{{blockquote|I liked him. I made him the head of my SA. He is the only one of its heads that ran the SA properly. I gave him a dishevelled rabble. In a very short time he had organised a division of 11,000 men.{{sfn|Hitler|1988|p=168}}}}

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.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|pp=49–51}} 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.{{sfn|Holland|2011|p=54}} Fourteen Nazis and four policemen were killed; many top Nazis, including Hitler, were arrested.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=131}} 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.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|pp=57–58}} This was the beginning of his morphine addiction, which lasted until his imprisonment at Nuremberg.{{sfn|Speer|1971|p=644}} Meanwhile, the authorities in Munich declared Göring a wanted man. The Görings—acutely short of funds and reliant on the good will of Nazi sympathisers abroad—moved from Austria to [[Venice]]. In May 1924 they visited Rome, via [[Florence]] and [[Siena]]. Sometime in 1924, Göring met Mussolini through his contacts with members of Italy's Fascist Party;{{sfn|Overy|2012|p=7}} Mussolini had also expressed an interest in meeting Hitler, who was by then in prison.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|pp=59–60}} Hitler penned {{lang|de|[[Mein Kampf]]}} while incarcerated, before being released in December 1924.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=160}}

Meanwhile, personal problems continued to multiply for Göring. 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 [[Free City of Danzig|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 after he had violently attacked a nurse who had refused his request for morphine.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|p=61}} 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.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|p=404}} 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.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|p=62, 64}} Carin Göring, ill with epilepsy and [[tuberculosis]],{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=146}} died of heart failure on 17 October 1931.{{sfn|Evans|2024|p=122}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-02134, Bad Harzburg, Gründung der Harzburger Front.jpg|thumb|Camp service of the [[NSDAP]] delegation, in the first row SS Chief [[Heinrich Himmler]], SA Chief [[Ernst Röhm]] and Göring, 1931]]
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 {{lang|de|[[Schutzstaffel]]}} (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 [[1928 German federal election|the May 1928 elections]] the Nazi Party only obtained 12 seats out of an available 491 in the {{lang|de|[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]}}.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|pp=118–121}} Göring was elected as a representative from Bavaria.{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|p=66}} Having secured a seat in the {{lang|de|Reichstag}}, Göring gained a more prominent place in the Nazi movement, since Hitler saw him as a public relations officer for Nazism in this capacity.{{sfn|Overy|2012|p=8}} Göring continued to be elected to the Reichstag in all subsequent elections during the Weimar and Nazi regimes.{{sfn|Reichstag databank}} Electoral success also afforded Göring with access to powerful sympathisers to the Nazi cause, such as [[Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia]] and the conservative-minded businessmen, [[Fritz Thyssen]] and [[Hjalmar Schacht]].{{sfn|Overy|2012|p=9}} The [[Great Depression]] led to a disastrous downturn in the German economy, and [[1930 German federal election|in the 1930 election]], the Nazi Party won 6,409,600 votes and 107 seats.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|pp=136, 138}}{{efn|By 1930, the Nazi party claimed upwards of 293,000 members.{{sfn|Childers|2017|p=131}} }} In May 1931, Hitler sent Göring on a mission to the [[Holy See|Vatican]], where he met the future [[Pope Pius XII]].{{sfn|Manvell|Fraenkel|2011|p=74}}

In the [[July 1932 German federal election|July 1932 election]], the Nazis won 230 seats to become far and away the largest party in the {{lang|de|Reichstag}}. By longstanding tradition, the Nazis were thus entitled to select the President of the {{lang|de|Reichstag}}, and elected Göring to the post.{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=297}} He would retain this position until 23 April 1945.