Manfred von Richthofen, head of the Luftwaffe

IchBinDieKaiser

IchBinDieKaiser

If Manfred von Richthofen survived the great war, would he become a Nazi? Would he have supported National Socialism?

I had a neat idea of the Red Baron as the head of the LuftWaffe. I think him being Germany's most famous ACE he would be qualified for such a position. Far more qualified then Herman Goering.
 

Dan Reilly The Great

Banned
Well, Goering was an ace of WWI too, didn't make him any more of a competent military leader. However, qualifications are irrelevent(almost), what is most important in the Reich is who has Hitlers ear, the kreigsmarine was lead by some very competent people, however they didn't get as much resources as the Luftwaffe or the Heer. So a more important question into the situation is whether he would have been able to get the resources that the Luftwaffe needs to succeed, also would Hitler have viewed The Red Baron as a political rival and thus have him eliminated to silence the competition?
 

Pit Amero

I don't think that that he was an Ace is qualifying for a top level management position.
You need to be able to lead, organize, manage and so on.............

Ofcourse he may qualify, because of political criteria like- loyal party supporter or to be placed on the post because of that that he is famous and will be helpful for the propaganda.
 

DuQuense

He was the commander of his own Air Wing [Not sure what rank that is equal to] But as a Commander he was in Charge, and command usually involves Political Ability.
 

esl

Dan Reilly The Great said:
Well, Goering was an ace of WWI too, didn't make him any more of a competent military leader. However, qualifications are irrelevent(almost), what is most important in the Reich is who has Hitlers ear, the kreigsmarine was lead by some very competent people, however they didn't get as much resources as the Luftwaffe or the Heer. So a more important question into the situation is whether he would have been able to get the resources that the Luftwaffe needs to succeed, also would Hitler have viewed The Red Baron as a political rival and thus have him eliminated to silence the competition?
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It always must be remembered when referencing KM rearmament , that interwar politics saw the mutiny of 1918/19 lead by the navy, and for that reason they were not trusted and treated as out siders . They were always marginalized. The grandfathers of the LW argued that the amount of money spent on just one Panzerschiff could fund the production of 400 multi engined bombers, and this would have much greater impact on German security than any Panzerschiff.

But you're right about Hitlers views. Theres a danger in beeing too good, since Hitler might see you as competion.
 

Astrodragon

esl said:
It always must be remembered when referencing KM rearmament , that interwar politics saw the mutiny of 1918/19 lead by the navy, and for that reason they were not trusted and treated as out siders . They were always marginalized. The grandfathers of the LW argued that the amount of money spent on just one Panzerschiff could fund the production of 400 multi engined bombers, and this would have much greater impact on German security than any Panzerschiff.

But you're right about Hitlers views. Theres a danger in beeing too good, since Hitler might see you as competion.
Click to expand...

The navy actually ha a much higher proportion of resources allocated to them than is genarally assumed - read Wages of Destruction.
Its interesting what you can do with figures :)
Germans - one heavy cruiser = 400 bombers
British - one battleship = 43 bombers (a figure agreed by both the RN abd the RAF! :)

With a 20:1 discrepancy, someones being creative here...!
 

FlyingDutchman

Hapsburg said:
You could raise the same objections about Goering. Who sucked miserably.
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Sure about that?

Göring did manage to garner heaps of funds/resources for the Luftwaffe during the '30s and build up a respectable airforce capable of facing the Allies in '39/40. Later he even managed to build up a private army (although that wasn't such a good idea).

On top of his responsibilities as minister of aviation he also managed to start the Gestapo, play a possible role in the Reichstag fires, threatening Schuschnigg into the Anschluss of Austria, play a large part in the '36 Olympics which were a huge success for the Germans and still be generally liked by everybody, especially on the Allied side.

Despite his actions with the Gestapo, Reichstag fires, Anschluss pre-war Göring very successfully played the 'moderate' nazi to foreign dignitaries.

The last even went so far that in '45, when generally his role in WWII and the extermination of the Jews in Europe was known, Göring managed to talk someone into taking a huge risk and providing him with poison so he wouldn't get hung.

IMHO that shows he was politically very capable, a decent manager and someone who was very adept at influencing people.

Luckily for us he was addicted to drugs, corrupt etc. :)
 
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