Hermann Epenstein

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Hermann Epenstein (* 1850 or 1851 in Berlin ; † June 5, 1934 in Mauterndorf ), from 1910 to the abolition of the nobility in Austria in 1919 Hermann Epenstein Knight of Mauternburg , was a German-Austrian doctor, wholesale merchant, lord of the castle and godfather of Hermann Göring .

Life

Epenstein was the son of a Catholic woman and a Catholic who had converted from Judaism for the purpose of marriage , and was therefore considered half- Jewish in Nazi parlance . He became a royal Prussian medical officer . Having become very wealthy through trade, he was politically German-national .

During a stay in German South West Africa , he met the local imperial commissioner Heinrich Ernst Göring and his wife Franziska, whose child he gave birth. Back in Germany, the Görings lived in his house in Berlin-Friedenau (Fregestraße 19). Franziska became Epenstein's lover. She had an open relationship with him, staying with him on visits, while her husband was housed apart. Epenstein was the godfather of Göring's five children, including Hermann and Albert . Rumors that he is the father of the two are rejected by historians.

In 1894 Epenstein acquired the dilapidated Mauterndorf Castle in the province of Salzburg and had it rebuilt by 1904. In 1897 he also bought Veldenstein Castle north of Nuremberg for 20,000 marks . In order to restore the castle to its former appearance, he invested over a million marks until 1914. Epenstein made the castle available to the Göring family as a residence. Hermann Göring also visited his "substitute father" Epenstein at Mauterndorf Castle, which he later called "the castle of his youth". Epenstein's fondness for castles and medieval pomp shaped the imagination of young Hermann.

In 1909 Epenstein became an Austrian citizen and lived in Mauterndorf after the First World War. In honor of the reconstruction of Mauterndorf Castle, Emperor Franz Joseph I elevated him to knighthood on August 8, 1910 .

In 1913 there was a break between the Görings and Epenstein, after he had married for the first time at the age of 62: the much younger Elisabeth “Lilly” Schandrovich Edle von Kriegstreu (1887–1939).

After the unsuccessful Hitler putsch in 1923, Göring found refuge near Epenstein in Mauterndorf. When Epenstein died in 1934, he bequeathed the castles to his wife, who in turn appointed Göring as heir.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anthony Read: The Devil's Disciples. The Lives and Times of Hitler's Inner Circle. Pimlico, London 2004, ISBN 978-0-7126-6416-5 , p. 28 (English).
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Paul: Who was Hermann Göring? Bechtle, Esslingen 1983, ISBN 3-7628-0427-3 , p. 36.
  3. ↑ Guido Knopp: Göring - a career. Gütersloh 2006, p. 15ff .
    For the house at Fregestraße 19, see Christian H. Freitag: Ritter, Reichsmarschall & Revoluzzer. From the story of a Berlin country house. edition Friedenauer Brücke, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-9816130-2-5 .
  4. ↑ Arno Gruen: The stranger in us. dtv, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-423-35161-6 , p. 164.
  5. ↑ Dieter Wunderlich: Goering and Goebbels. A double biography. Pustet, Regensburg 2002, ISBN 3-7917-1787-1 , p. 12
  6. ^ Alfred Kube: Pour le mérite and swastika. Hermann Göring in the Third Reich. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-486-53122-0 , p. 5.
  7. ^ Austrian magazine for folklore . 111 (2008) Association for Folklore in Vienna, p. 202.
  8. ↑ Götz Aly , Michael Sontheimer : Fromms. How the Jewish condom manufacturer Julius F. fell among the German robbers. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-000422-2 , p. 102.
  9. ^ Uwe Neumärker, Volker Knopf: Goering's area. Hunting and politics in the Rominter Heide. Links Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86153-705-2 , p. 99.
personal data
SURNAME Epenstein, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Epenstein Ritter von Mauternburg, Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian doctor, wholesale merchant and lord of the castle
DATE OF BIRTH 1850 or 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1934
Place of death Mauterndorf