Original Item: One of a Kind. The German Air Sports Association (Deutscher Luftsportverband, or DLV e. V.) was an organization set up by the NSDAP Party in March 1933 to establish a uniform basis for the training of military pilots. Its chairman was Hermann Göring and its vice-chairman Ernst Röhm. It had evolved from many interwar organizations intended to train pilots while staying within the limitations of the Treaty of Versailles. This is a lovely presentation profile metal bust of DLV Chairman and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, which is mounted on a 7 1/4" x 10 5/8" wooden backing. It looks to have been presented when the current leader at one air sports base moved onto another position. The small silver plaque under the bust reads as follows:

Uns. bewährten Truppenführer
L. Hagedorn
zum Abschied gewidmet.
Die Kameraden d. Luftsport
Stützpunktes Blieskastel.
März 1936

This translates as follows:

Dedicated to our esteemed troop leader L. Hagedorn upon his departure.
The comrades of the Blieskastel Air Sports Base.
March 1936

The profile bust looks to be silver plated cast metal, which has matured to a lovely tarnished patina. The wood is in very good shape, showing only light wear. This would definitely make a very interesting addition to any German WWII collection. Ready to display!

Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the NSDAP Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945.

A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, Göring was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite ("The Blue Max"). He was the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1 (JG I), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the NSDAP Party, Göring was among those wounded in A H's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine which persisted until the last year of his life. After AH became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Göring was named as minister without portfolio in the new government. One of his first acts as a cabinet minister was to oversee the creation of the Gestapo, which he ceded to Heinrich Himmler in 1934.

Following the establishment of the NSDAP state, Göring amassed power and political capital to become the second most powerful man in Germany. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (air force), a position he held until the final days of the regime. Upon being named Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan in 1936, Göring was entrusted with the task of mobilizing all sectors of the economy for war, an assignment which brought numerous government agencies under his control. In September 1939, A H designated him as his successor and deputy in all his offices. After the Fall of France in 1940, he was bestowed the specially created rank of Reichsmarschall, which gave him seniority over all officers in Germany's armed forces.

By 1941, Göring was at the peak of his power and influence. As the Second World War progressed, Göring's standing with A H and with the German public declined after the Luftwaffe proved incapable of preventing the Allied bombing of Germany's cities and resupplying surrounded Axis forces in Stalingrad. Around that time, Göring increasingly withdrew from military and political affairs to devote his attention to collecting property and artwork, much of which was stolen from Jewish victims of the war crimes. Informed on 22 April 1945 that A H intended to commit suicide, Göring sent a telegram to A H requesting his permission to assume leadership of the Reich. Considering his request an act of treason, A H removed Göring from all his positions, expelled him from the party, and ordered his arrest. After the war, Göring was convicted of conspiracy, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. He was sentenced to death by hanging, but committed suicide by ingesting cyanide hours before the sentence was to be carried out.