He was the father of five children including Hermann Göring, the Nazi leader and commander of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force).

[2] After a career as a provincial judge, the Dutch-speaking Göring was appointed as the first Imperial Commissioner of German South West Africa in 1885.

(German commercial interests had forced the Imperial Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, into creating a state-financed colonial administration to support his country's fledgling Protectorate of South West Africa.

The identity of the hoaxer remains a mystery, but suspicion falls on Göring making a last-ditch desperate attempt to bring investment to the protectorate and thus to save his failing mission.

[5] Göring left South West Africa in August 1890 without having been able to settle the constant friction between the Herero and the Oorlam people.