Page 47 - Was Hitler a Riddle?

34 The British Diplomats

together with his american, italian, and French colleagues as well as several
senior officials in the German government, attended a social function at
Göring’s “new bison enclosure” some forty miles from Berlin. When all the
guests had arrived, Göring “opened the proceedings by a lecture delivered
to us on the outskirts of the bison enclosure in a stentorian voice with the
aid of a microphone. He celebrated the beauties of the primeval German
forest, in which roamed the primeval German animals, and announced his
intention of reconstituting such a forest, ensuring to the animals the neces-
sary forest peacefulness and to the German citizen the possibility of glanc-
ing at primitive German animals in German surroundings.”
then the forty guests were treated to a series of other events: a drive
to a new “shooting-box” that had just been completed for the host and an
“excellent and purely Germanic collation.” Phipps was especially unnerved,
and amused, by the “concluding scene in this strange comedy,” which took
place “at a lovely and very beautiful spot some 500 yards distant, overlook-
ing the lake, where a mausoleum has been erected by General Göring, to
contain, as he told us in his final and semi-funeral oration, the remains of
the swedish wife [who had died of tuberculosis in 1931] and his own (no
mention was made of Fräulein sonnemann [an actress, his “secretary” and
mistress]). Under an oak tree General Göring planted himself, harpoon in
hand, and celebrated to his guests, drawn up in a semi-circle round him, the
Germanic and idyllic beauties of these Germanic surroundings. the mau-
soleum was placed between two German oak trees and flanked by six dru-
idical (but Germanic) sarsen [pagan] stones reminiscent of the stonehenge,
which itself must be Germanic though we do not know it. the stones are to
have various appropriate marks engraved upon them, including the swas-
tika, but no sign of the Cross. the only blot in an otherwise perfect, and
consequently Germanic, picture was the tombstone itself, which is made
of swedish marble; but this could not be avoided, as General Göring ex-
plained to me apologetically, for it was the original tombstone on his wife’s
grave in sweden. ‘she will rest here in this beautiful spot, [Göring said]
where only swans and other birds will come; she will rest in German earth
and swedish stone. the vault will serve for all eternity, as the walls are 1
metre 80 centimetres thick.’”
Phipps ended his report on the outing with some insightful comments
on what it all signified. “the whole proceedings were so strange as at times
to convey a feeling of unreality; but they opened, as it were, a window
on to Nazi mentality, and as such were not perhaps quite useless.” Visitors
could observe the “almost pathetic naiveté” of Göring, “who showed us