Dear moose1,
Here is what I found out:
1. Did Göring conduct the blowing-up of Carinhall in person?
No, he did not. The Carinhall estate was dynamited on 28 April 1945.
Hermann Göring was at that time in his cottage at the Obersalzberg,
Berchtesgaden (Bavaria), where he and his staff had betaken themselves
one week before. He had issued the order to destroy the estate upon
the arrival of the Red Army. The blasting was carried out by a unit of
Pioniere (engineers) of the Luftwaffe (air force). They used aircraft
bombs containing 20 metric tons of explosives.
2. Why did Göring issue the order that Carinhall had to be destroyed?
The reason is fairly easy: Because he could not stand the idea that
his estate might be a victory trophy for the Soviets, inhabited by the
winners of the war.
3. What happened to Göring's art collection?
As early as mid-February '45, evacuation of Göring's art treasures
began. You will find the details in the translated source quotations
below. The huge collection was finally transported to several
locations in and around Berchtesgaden, where American forces found it
in the first days of May 1945.
4. What happened next?
When the Russian forces reached Carinhall, they found nothing but
ruins of the main complex (though some of the various adjoining
buildings that belonged to the estate had not been destroyed and even
exist still today). They searched the debris, but it is questionable
whether they discovered anything of value.
The art collection was seized by the US forces. Army art specialists
were given the task of doing an inventory taking, to prepare for
transporting the works of art to safer places in order to avoid more
damage than the transports have already caused, and to see which
objects were stolen and could be returned to the original owners or
museums.
Quotations from printed sources:
"Göring ordered the total destruction of Carinhall after he had left
it forever. The thought that others may live in the chateau-like
building, that to him was the symbol of his power and his personality,
was beyond all bearing for him. When the last trucks and railroad
trains carrying objects of art had departed, leaving Carinhall like an
empty hull, Göring's soldiers blew up the structure; it totally
collapsed. Only debris remained."
- Heinrich Fränkel and Roger Manvell: Hermann Göring. Published by
Pawlak, 1962.
"[After the last Führer conference] Göring departed for Southern
Germany, where he would be relatively safe and where Emmy was waiting
for him. In Carinhall, he had left a Luftwaffe (air force) demolition
squad that blew up the buildings when the Red Army came closer. On 20
April, Göring was in the Führer bunker for the last time. Outside, a
convoy of automobiles was waiting to bring him and his staff to
Berchtesgaden after he had said good-bye to Hitler."
- Roger Manvell: Der Reichsmarschall. Published by Moewig, 1983. ISBN
3-8118-4370-2
"Some days later Hitler got informed by someone that Göring had
assembled his Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers) for the protection of
Carinhall. Immediately, they were drawn off to take position south of
Berlin. Göring stayed in Carinhall to supervise the packing of his
valuable glasses, carpets, gobelins, and paintings. They were loaded
on trucks for transport to Bavaria. Then he he shot four of his
favorite bisons, had his gamekeepers lined up, shook the hand of each
of them, and boarded his car. (...) They drove to Berlin, and
Brauchitsch later said that Göring did lot look back once. (...) Only
few days later, Russian tanks reached Carinhall on their way to
Berlin, and the Soviet soldiers got off and searched the debris. No
one will ever know what they found. But they ignored a human skull in
the debris. It was disovered only months later. It was the skull of
Karin Göring, for whose memento the grandiose house had once been
erected."
- Leonard Mosley: Göring. Desch, 1975. ISBN 3-420-04727-4
"When the Russians aproached further in Eastern Germany and came
closer to Berlin, Göring decided in mid-February 1945 to evacuate
Carinhall and to relocate his collections to Southern Germany. Göring
himself went through the rooms and sorted out which objects were to be
transported soonest and which ones later. He wanted a part of the
collection to be brought to his castle Veldenstein in Franconia, and
the rest to Berchtesgaden. At the end of the month, the first train
left, and the second on 13 March. But since the huge air raid shelter
in Berchtesgaden had not been completed in time, also the second
transport had to be directed to Veldenstein. As soon as the works of
art had been unpacked and stored in the castle, an order from Göring
arrived to immediately pack everything again, and to load it on two
trains. The new destination was Berchtesgarden. In Pieding near
Reichenhall, they were joined by the third train, and on 16 April, the
art transports reached Berchtesgaden. One of the trains was parked in
a tunnel at the railway station, the other one rolled further to
Unterstein on the line to the Königsee lake. There, the objects of art
were brought to the vacant Luftwaffen-Erholungsheim (air force
recreation home). The freight of the third train was stored in the air
raid shelter of the Luftwaffen-Stabsamt (air force staff
administration) in Berchtesgaden. In late April, Göring came to
Berchtesgaden to make sure that his collections were appropriately
quartered. On 30 April, he was arrested in his house on the
Obersalzberg mountain by the SS upon an order of Hitler, and then
brought to Mauterndorf."
- Jakob Kurz: Kunstraub in Europa 1939-45. Published by Facta, 1989.
ISBN 3-926827-25-4
"The last destination of the art treasures of Carinhall was
Berchtesgaden. (...) [The American Army art experts] discovered that
the region of Berchtesgaden was virtually flooded with art treasures.
(...) The chaos meant months of inspection work for the American
experts. It was their task to find and index the tens of thousands
objects which the former owners wanted back after the war. Many works
of art remained untraceable, many were damaged."
- Heinrich Fränkel and Roger Manvell: Hermann Göring. Published by
Pawlak, 1962.
Websites of particular interest:
Bunker-Interessengemeinschaft: Carinhall
http://www.bunker-ig.de/intro/start/bunker/alte_bunker/carinhall/body_carinhall.html
Der Bunker-Kundschafter: Der Hausherr vieler Besitzungen - Hermann
Göring
http://mitglied.lycos.de/Kundschafter/Carinhall.htm
Search terms used:
Karinhall
://www.google.de/search?q=Karinhall&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=
Carinhall
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=Carinhall&meta=
Carinhall gesprengt
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=Carinhall+gesprengt&meta=
Hope this answers your questions!
Best regards,
Scriptor |
,
0 Comments
)