On the night of October 15, 1946, Hermann Göring ended his life in his cell in Nuremberg, just hours before his scheduled execution. His death closed one chapter of his story, but opened another: What happened to the family he left behind? From the luxury of Carinhall to the uncertainty of postwar Germany, the name Göring experienced a dramatic fall.
In the final weeks of the war, Emmy and Edda Göring watched as the world they knew vanished. In late April 1945, as Soviet forces advanced through Germany, Hermann Göring ordered the destruction of his estate, Carinhall. By the time the last building was reduced to rubble, Emmy and Edda had already been moved deeper into Bavaria, first toward Berchtesgaden and then to scattered Alpine refuges controlled by the collapsing leadership of the Reich. On May 6, 1945, U.S. troops intercepted Göring near Radstadt, Austria. His surrender was reported within hours. Shortly afterward, Allied authorities located Emmy and Edda in the same region. They were escorted to temporary internment sites for “dependents of senior officials,” a category created to prevent escape and secure potential witnesses.
The accommodations ranged from requisitioned hotels to guarded houses, and living conditions varied, but the message was clear: freedom would not come soon. Allied interrogators questioned Emmy repeatedly. She had been one of the regime’s most visible women, often photographed alongside Hitler’s inner circle. They pressed her about her influence, her wartime privileges, and her proximity to official decisions.
For the first time since the 1930s, she had no staff, no status, and no protection. For Edda, the transition was even more abrupt. At just seven years old, she moved from a household surrounded by servants and ceremonial display to a series of unfamiliar rooms under military guard.
Allied personnel noted that she remained calm and polite, often clutching a small suitcase containing the few belongings she was allowed to keep. She repeatedly asked when she would see her father. Meanwhile, Hermann Göring’s arrest changed Emmy’s legal position overnight. The Allies began a detailed inventory of the family’s assets, from jewelry and furs to works of art, in connection with larger restitution investigations.
Personal belongings that Emmy tried to keep were often confiscated for inspection. By late summer 1945, Emmy and Edda had been moved several times. They lived for weeks in a requisitioned building near Garmisch-Partenkirchen before being moved again to facilities closer to Munich.
The war was over, but for the Göring family, the ordeal had only just begun. While Hermann Göring awaited trial before the International Military Tribunal, Emmy and Edda entered a new and uncertain phase, caught between the legal machinery of denazification and the personal collapse of everything they had known.
When the International Military Tribunal opened in November 1945, Hermann Göring was its most prominent defendant. His testimony, delivered in the winter and spring of 1946, dominated world headlines. He denied criminal responsibility, defended the regime’s decisions, and attempted to portray himself as a statesman rather than a leading architect of the war. For Emmy and Edda, who were still under Allied surveillance, the trial meant months of uncertainty and renewed scrutiny.
Allied reports noted that Emmy repeatedly asked for updates but was not allowed direct communication with him. The verdict was delivered on October 1, 1946. Göring was found guilty on all major charges and sentenced to death. Less than two weeks later, on October 15, he took his own life in his cell using a hidden capsule.
His death ended his role in world affairs but intensified the legal and political consequences for his family. When the news reached Emmy and Edda, observers noted a quiet but profound shock. Emmy reportedly initially refused to believe the details; Edda, then eight years old, asked where her father had gone. Beyond the personal repercussions, the Nuremberg verdict triggered the complete legal dismantling of Göring’s estate.
Allied and German authorities began formal confiscation proceedings for real estate, valuables, and financial accounts. Carinhall had already been destroyed, but the family still possessed art, jewelry, and personal collections. Much of this inventory was related to larger restitution efforts involving artworks looted from across occupied Europe. The most famous case concerned the Göring art collection, one of the largest private collections amassed during the Third Reich.
Allied investigators tracked hundreds of paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects to warehouses in Bavaria and Austria. The collection was dismantled and distributed for restitution or held as evidence. When Germany entered the denazification phase in 1947, the case of Emmy Göring attracted considerable attention.
Unlike many wives of Nazi officials, Emmy was a very visible figure. As Hermann Göring’s wife, she participated in public ceremonies, cultural events, and diplomatic functions. Some Allied investigators even informally referred to her as “the social First Lady of the Reich,” a description that shaped subsequent legal proceedings.
The loss she suffered after 1945 was both financial and symbolic. Without an inheritance and without access to former privileges, Emmy entered the postwar years without security. Compensation claims she attempted to file in the late 1940s were blocked by denazification regulations, and pension entitlements tied to her husband’s former government posts were denied. Edda’s situation was similarly uncertain.
Although children were not subject to denazification, the Göring name carried considerable weight. Allied administrators briefly debated whether she should be placed under guardianship during the trial. The idea was ultimately rejected in favor of her returning to Emmy under supervision once her mother’s case was resolved.
In early 1947, Emmy was summoned before a Munich denazification court. Prosecutors presented photographs, witness statements, and records demonstrating her involvement in state-sponsored cultural organizations. They argued that her public presence bolstered the regime’s image and contributed to the normalization of the Nazi leadership.
Emmy countered that she had been merely a private individual, forced into a role she had never sought. The tribunal delivered its verdict in March 1948. Emmy was classified as an “incriminated person,” the second most serious category in the denazification system. She lost all remaining property rights, including claims to household items in Allied possession.
She faced a permanent ban on working in the public sector, as well as restrictions on travel, media appearances, and participation in cultural institutions. The ruling also prohibited her from receiving pensions tied to her husband’s former government positions. Appeals followed almost immediately.
Emmy argued that her classification overstated her political involvement, emphasizing her lack of formal power within the government. Defenders pointed to her responsibilities as a mother, her limited knowledge of high-level decision-making, and her withdrawal from public life after 1939. Appeals over time relaxed some restrictions, particularly those concerning movement and personal employment.
Nevertheless, the main sentences remained in place for the rest of her life. Her financial situation after the trial was challenging, but not desperate. Emmy settled back in Munich, where she lived in modest accommodations, supported by longtime friends from the theater world. Some accounts portray her as destitute, while others suggest she led a quiet, stable life without luxuries. Historians still debate whether she exaggerated her plight in later interviews.
In the late 1960s, Emmy briefly re-entered the public eye. In 1967, she published her autobiography, “At My Husband’s Side.” An English edition, “My Life with Göring,” followed in 1972. In the memoirs, she portrayed Hermann as compassionate and attentive, defended him against historical facts, and presented her life with him as one of devotion and loyalty. She never changed this view.
Her final years were marked by declining health. On June 8, 1973, Emmy died in Munich at the age of 80. Edda stayed with her mother until the end. Edda Göring was born on June 2, 1938, and the Nazi regime treated her birth as a national celebration. Ten days later, crowds filled the streets of Berlin as Hermann Göring brought Emmy and her newborn daughter home.
On November 4, 1938, Hitler acted as her godfather at a formal christening at Carinhall, an event covered by Life magazine. Among her gifts were paintings attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder, a testament to the privilege she enjoyed from birth. Carinhall, the family estate in the Schorfheide forest, boasted an indoor swimming pool, a cinema, a gymnasium, and a small zoo. Members of the Nazi elite often called her the “little princess.” In 1940, the Luftwaffe built her a miniature castle in the orchard, a 50-meter-tall structure complete with a small theater. It was known as Edda’s Little Castle. This world crumbled in 1945. For Edda Göring, childhood ended in an internment camp under Allied guard. After her mother’s denazification case was concluded, she returned to Munich.
Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, she tried to build a normal life, attending local schools and living with her mother in modest quarters. The name “Göring” ensured that she lived with a label she hadn’t chosen and vehemently rejected. Upon reaching adulthood, Edda began studying law at the University of Munich. She worked briefly as a legal trainee before switching to a position as a medical-technical assistant in a hospital laboratory. She worked in this profession for decades, never married, and had no children.
In the 1970s, Edda briefly re-entered public life. For several years, she was closely associated with the journalist Gerd Heidemann, who had bought the “Carin II,” the yacht that had once belonged to her father. Their relationship brought her into social circles where the past was often openly discussed.
Gatherings on board the yacht sometimes included former wartime figures, such as Karl Wolff and Wilhelm Mohnke. What distinguished Edda from many descendants of Nazi leaders was her unwavering defense of her father. In interviews during the 1990s and early 2000s, she insisted that her father had been a kind, protective figure in her life, claiming he had tried to curb the excesses of the regime.
When directly confronted about his crimes, she simply replied that she remembered him as “a loving father.” She continued to live a reclusive life, spending years in Schwaz, Austria, before returning to Munich. When she died on December 21, 2018, her obituary in the New York Times highlighted her unwavering loyalty, a loyalty that set her apart not only from German society but even from members of her own extended family.
Edda was not the only living descendant of Hermann Göring. His great-niece Bettina Göring, who was born after the war, took a radically different path. Growing up outside the immediate family structure, Bettina developed a profound awareness of Göring’s legacy and its impact in Germany and internationally. Unlike Edda, she completely rejected the family narrative.
Bettina moved to the United States as an adult and later settled in New Mexico. In interviews, she openly described the burden of the Göring name and spoke about the psychological weight of being related to one of the most notorious figures of the Third Reich. Her statements garnered international attention in the 2000s when she revealed that both she and her brother had voluntarily undergone sterilization.
Her reasoning, as she put it, was to “end the line” and ensure that no future generation would inherit what she called “the shadow of Göring.” Bettina’s decision reflected a personal attempt to break completely with the family legacy. Her choice stood in stark contrast to Edda’s lifelong loyalty. While Edda defended her father until her final years, Bettina confronted the past directly, discussing shame, responsibility, and the cost of the inherited history.
