Hermann Göring

On August 30, 1932, Hermann Goering was elected Chairman of the Reichstag. An excerpt from the article:

"Göring's wife died in 1931, and the following year Göring rose to the presidency of the Reichstag (parliament) when the Nazi Party won the majority of seats in the July election. Hitler was named German chancellor on January 30, 1933, and before long a bill giving him dictatorial powers was passed. Hitler allowed Göring to create the Gestapo, or secret political police, and to establish concentration camps in which to imprison the Nazis' political opponents. He married his second wife Emma “Emmy” Sonnemann in 1935 with whom he had a daughter.

World War II
In 1934, Göring's Gestapo and the Nazis' parliamentary regiments, also known as "Schutzstaffel" or the "SS," carried out what has become known as the "Night of the Long Knives," in which 85 members of the political opposition were assassinated, thus consolidating Nazi power and quieting any further dissent. Göring's association with Hitler helped him rise to power alongside the Führer and, in 1935, he took command of the German air force—a position he held until the end of World War II.

In 1939, Hitler declared Göring his successor. The following year, he bestowed upon Göring the special rank of marshal of the empire. By April 1945, however, with the Allies moving in, Göring attempted to assume Hitler's powers in accordance with the pronouncements of 1939, as he considered Hitler to be pinned down and virtually helpless in Berlin. Convinced that this was an act of treason, Hitler stripped Göring of his offices and titles, and placed him under house arrest. By April 1945, the situation for the Nazis had become dire, and on April 30, 1945, Hitler and wife Eva Braun committed suicide. Göring was freed from prison, and he immediately sought out American troops and surrendered.

Trial and Death
While awaiting trial as a war criminal, Göring finally was able to break his morphine addiction, and he defended himself before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg. Göring denied any involvement in the regime's more monstrous activities but was condemned to death nonetheless. He pleaded to be shot instead of hanged, but the tribunal refused his request.

On October 15, 1946, the night that his execution was ordered — and a year and a half after Hitler had committed suicide in his own bunker — Göring took a cyanide capsule and died in his cell."