Hanna Reitsch | |
|---|---|
 Hanna Reitsch in 1941 | |
| Born | 29 March 1912 (1912-03-29) |
| Died | 24 August 1979 (1979-08-25) (aged 67) |
| Known for | Nazism,Aviator,test pilot
|
| Partner | Robert Ritter von Greim (1945) |
Hanna Reitsch (29 March 1912 – 24 August 1979) was a Germanaviator andtest pilot. Along withMelitta von Stauffenberg, she flight-tested many of Germany's new aircraft duringWorld War II and received many honors. Reitsch was among the very last people to meetAdolf Hitler beforehis death in theFührerbunker in late April 1945. Following her capture, she provided information about her departure from Berlin and denied that she might have helpedHitler escape.
During the 1930s, Reitsch set more than 40flight altitude records and women's endurance records ingliding and unpowered flight. In the 1960s, she was sponsored by the West German foreign office as a technical adviser inGhana and elsewhere. She also founded a gliding school in Ghana, where she worked forKwame Nkrumah.
Reitsch was born inHirschberg,Silesia, on 29 March 1912 to an upper-middle-class family. She was daughter of Dr. Wilhelm (Willy) Reitsch, who was an ophthalmology clinic manager, and his wife Emy Helff-Hibler von Alpenheim, who was a member of theAustrian nobility. Despite her mother being a devoutCatholic, Hanna was raised aProtestant. She had two siblings, brother Kurt, a navalFregattenkapitän (frigate captain), and younger sister Heidi. Reitsch began flight training in 1932 at the School of Gliding inGrunau.[1] While a medical student inBerlin, she enrolled in a German Air Mail amateur flying school for powered aircraft atStaaken, training in aKlemm Kl 25.[2]
In 1933, Reitsch left medical school at theUniversity of Kiel to become, at the invitation ofWolf Hirth, a full-time glider pilot/instructor atHornberg in Baden-Württemberg.[3] Reitsch contracted with theUfa Film Company as a stunt pilot and set an unofficial endurance record for women of 11 hours and 20 minutes.[4] In January 1934, she joined a South American expedition to study thermal conditions, along with Wolf Hirth,Peter Riedel andHeini Dittmar.[5] While inArgentina, she became the first woman to earn theSilver C Badge, the 25th to do so among world glider pilots.[6]
In June 1934, Reitsch became a member of theDeutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS) and became atest pilot in 1935.[7] Reitsch enrolled in the Civil Airways Training School inStettin, where she flew a twin-engine on a cross country flight andaerobatics in aFocke-Wulf Fw 44.[8] In 1937,Ernst Udet gave Reitsch the honorary title ofFlugkapitän after she had successfully testedHans Jacobs'sdivebrakes for gliders.[9] At the DFS, she test-flew transport and troop-carrying gliders, including theDFS 230 that was used at theBattle ofFort Eben-Emael.[10]
In September 1937, Reitsch was posted to theLuftwaffe testing centre atRechlin-Lärz Airfield by Ernst Udet.[11]
Her flying skill, desire for publicity, and photogenic qualities made her a star ofNazi propaganda. Physically she was petite and very slender, with blonde hair, blue eyes and a "ready smile".[12] She appeared in Nazi propaganda throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s.[13]
Reitsch was the first femalehelicopter pilot and one of the few pilots to fly theFocke-Achgelis Fa 61, the first fully controllable helicopter, for which she received the Military Flying Medal.[14] In 1938, during the three weeks of the International Automobile Exhibition in Berlin, she made daily flights of the Fa 61 helicopter inside theDeutschlandhalle.[13]
In September 1938, Reitsch flew theDFS Habicht in the ClevelandNational Air Races.[15] By the end of the 1930s, Reitsch had set more than 40flight altitude records and women's endurance records ingliding and unpowered flight.[16][12]
Reitsch was a test pilot on theJunkers Ju 87Stukadive bomber andDornier Do 17light/fast bomber projects, for which she received the Iron Cross, Second Class, from Hitler on 28 March 1941.[17] Reitsch was asked to fly many of Germany's latest designs, among them the rocket-propelledMesserschmitt Me 163Komet in 1942.[18] A crash landing on her fifth Me 163 flight badly injured Reitsch; she spent five months in a hospital recovering.[19] Reitsch received theIron Cross First Class following the accident, one of only three women to do so.[20]
In February 1943 after news of the defeat in theBattle of Stalingrad, she accepted an invitation fromGeneraloberstRobert Ritter von Greim to visit theEastern Front. She spent three weeks visiting Luftwaffe units, flying aFieseler Fi 156 Storch.[21]
On 28 February 1944, she presented the idea of Operation Suicide to Hitler atBerchtesgaden, which "would require men who were ready to sacrifice themselves in the conviction that only by this means could their country be saved." Although Hitler "did not consider the war situation sufficiently serious to warrant them ... and ... this was not the right psychological moment", he gave his approval. The project was assigned to Gen.Günther Korten.[22] About 70 volunteers enrolled in the Suicide Group as pilots for the human glider-bomb.[23] By April 1944, Reitsch and Heinz Kensche finished tests of theMe 328, carried aloft by aDornier Do 217.[24] By then, she was approached bySS-ObersturmbannführerOtto Skorzeny, a founding member of theSS- Selbstopferkommando Leonidas (Leonidas Squadron). They adapted theV-1 flying bomb into theFieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg, including a training single-seater with landingflaps, a training two-seater with no power unit, and an operation single-seater without landing flaps.[25] The plan was never implemented operationally due to other war concerns.[26]
In her autobiography, Reitsch recalled that after two initial crashes with the Fi 103R she and Heinz Kensche took over tests of the prototype Fi 103R. She made several successful test flights before training the instructors. "Though an average pilot could fly the V1 without difficulty once it was in the air, to land it called for exceptional skill, in that it had a very high landing speed and, moreover, in training it was the glider model, without engine, that was usually employed."[27]
In October 1944, Reitsch claimed she was shown a booklet by Peter Riedel which he had obtained while in the German Embassy in Stockholm, concerning thegas chambers. She further claimed that while believing it to be enemy propaganda, she agreed to informHeinrich Himmler about it. When she did, Himmler is said to have asked whether she believed it, and she replied, "No, of course not. But you must do something to counter it. You can't let them shoulder this onto Germany." Himmler replied, "You are right."[28]
In late April 1945, during theBattle of Berlin, Hitler dismissedHermann Göring as head of the Luftwaffe and appointedRobert Ritter von Greim to replace him. Reitsch had been making military and personal flights betweenBreslau (Poland),Munich (Germany), andKitzbühel (Austria) when von Greim instructed her to meet him in Munich, thinking he might need her to pilot a helicopter. Reitsch said goodbye to her family late on 25 April at theSchloss Leopoldskron inSalzburg before driving to Munich.[29][30] That night, she and von Greim were flown in aJu 188 from Germany'sNeubiberg Air Base to theRechlin airfield, about 100 km (60 mi) northwest of Berlin.[31] They were then flown toGatow, Berlin, in aFocke-Wulf Fw 190 (Reitsch riding in the tail by way of an emergency opening), protected against theSoviets by perhaps 40 fighters,[32]: 2 including 12 other Fw 190s fromJagdgeschwader 26 underHauptmannHans Dortenmann's command.[33][34] The pair took a Fi 156Storch, first piloted by von Greim until his foot was struck by a bullet, then by Reitsch reaching over him to land onan improvised airstrip in theTiergarten near theBrandenburg Gate.[35]
The pair arrived in theFührerbunker on the evening of 26 April, whenRed Army troops were already in central Berlin.[36] Hitler thanked von Greim for coming in light of Göring's dismissal.[32]: 3 Late that night, theReich Chancellery received the first heavy Soviet barrage.[32]: 5 As arranged with Rechlin a day before, on 27 April aJu 52 landed on the makeshift runway for Reitsch and von Greim,[a] but having learned of Göring's betrayal, they decided to stay in a gesture of loyalty.[32]: 4 Later on 27 April, Hitler gave Reitsch two capsules of poison for herself and von Greim, which she accepted.[37][38][b] Hitler suggested that GeneralWalther Wenck's12th Army could still save them and spent the next two days contemplating this.[32]: 4, 8 On 29 April, a telegram reported that Himmler had made unauthorised contact with thewestern Allies regarding surrender terms.[32]: 10 Shortly after midnight on 30 April,[32]: 11 [c] Hitler ordered Reitsch and von Greim to fly out of Berlin in anArado Ar 96 that had arrived on 28 April,[d] asserting that they could get Wenck to save Berlin.[39][43] Von Greim was ordered to command the Luftwaffe to attack the Soviet forces that had just reachedPotsdamer Platz and to make sure Himmler was punished for his treachery.[e]
Reitsch reputedly stated during her 1945 interrogation that she left Berlin early on 30 April, less than 12 hours beforeHitler's suicide.[32]: 11 [f][d] In his 1947 book,Hugh Trevor-Roper cites this as a factual error, while arguing that Reitsch's account is biased in favor of Hitler and especially von Greim.[g] Trevor-Roper dates Reitsch's escape to the very early hours of 29 April, citing other eyewitnesses and noting that she lacked knowledge of Hitler's wedding toEva Braun (which took place just after).[49][h] The interrogation report claims that the plane took off from the Tiergarten's makeshift runway under heavy Soviet fire; it was spotted by searchlights and attacked by shells, but only shrapnel hit the plane.[32]: 12 In her 1951 book, Reitsch wrote that although it was fairly clear and moonlit, they plane took off on 29 April without detection and she saw only "spasmodic"tracer fire from the Soviets before finding a cloud to hide behind, about a mile away.[40][i] Although Reitsch claimed to her interrogators that there was no plane in the area that Hitler could have used to escape,[32]: 12 in the 1970s she told American journalistJames P. O'Donnell that after takeoff, she saw a Ju 52 in the area along with a pilot "obviously waiting for somebody".[51] O'Donnell asked pilotHans Baur about this, having heard that he saw Reitsch and von Greim to the runway, but Baur said he did not know of such a plane, leading the author to speculate that it landed afterair traffic control had ceased due to the Soviet advance.[51]
After leaving Berlin, Reitsch and von Greim landed in Rechlin, then flew in aBücker 181 toLübeck, where they heard the German announcement of Hitler's death on the night of 1 May[j][k] and met with officials of the new government.[54] In an effort to continue engaging the Soviets, Reitsch and von Greim flew toGraz, Austria, on 7 May[55] and toZell am See two days later, by which timeGermany had formally surrendered.[32]: 12–14 Reitsch's family had evacuated from Silesia before the Soviet troops arrived and taken refuge in Salzburg;[56] on the night of 3 May 1945, after hearing a rumour that all refugees were to be taken back to their original homes in theSoviet occupation zone, Reitsch's father shot and killed her mother, her sister,[57] her sister's three children, and himself.[58] Von Greim, after being captured by the Allies, killed himself on 24 May 1945.[32]: 15
On 8 October 1945, Reitsch was captured in theUnited States occupation zone of Germany[32]: 1 and subsequently interrogated byU.S. military intelligence officers.[46] When asked about being ordered to leave theFührerbunker,[59] Reitsch stated: "It was the blackest day when we could not die at our Führer's side." She asserted that "We should all kneel down in reverence and prayer before the altar of the Fatherland," referring to the bunker.[60] After interrogators suggested that Hitler had been seen alive (inTyrol, Austria, near where she had flown), Reitsch dismissed assertions of his survival and her possible complicity, stating, "He had no reason to live and the tragedy was that he knew it ... perhaps better than anyone else did."[32]: 9
Reitsch claimed that Hitler's initial motivation was "how to give his people a life free from economic insufficiencies and social maladjustments", but gambled with the lives of people: "the first great wrong, his first great failure". She criticised his incompetence as a leader (e.g. his selection of the wrong persons for office) and stated that Hitler had transformed ideologically, becoming adespot. Reitsch stated repeatedly that never again must an individual have so much control over any country.[61] Reitsch's chief interrogator noted that she seemed to be a reliable witness, having struggled with thoughts of suicide since the war but more recently becoming interested in advocating fordemocracy.[32]: 15 She was held for 18 months.[62]
After her release, Reitsch settled inFrankfurt am Main. After the war, German citizens were barred from flying powered aircraft, but within a few yearsgliding was allowed, which she took up again. In 1952, Reitsch won a bronze medal in theWorld Gliding Championships inSpain; she was the first woman to compete[63] and in 1955 she became German champion.[63] She continued to break records, including the women's altitude record (6,848 m or 22,467 ft) in 1957 and her first diamond of the Gold-C badge.[63]
During the mid-1950s, Reitsch was interviewed on film and talked about her wartime flight tests of theFa 61,Me 262 andMe 163.
In 1959, Indian Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru invited Reitsch, who spoke fluent English, to start a gliding centre; she flew with him overNew Delhi.[63] In 1961, she accepted U.S. PresidentJohn F. Kennedy's invitation to theWhite House.[64]
From 1962 to 1966, she lived inGhana. The then Ghanaian President,Kwame Nkrumah invited Reitsch to Ghana after reading of her work in India. AtAfienya she founded the first indigenous African national gliding school, working closely with the government and the armed forces. The West German government supported her as technical adviser.[65] The school was commanded byJ. E. S. de Graft-Hayford, with gliders such as the double-seatedSchleicher K7,Slingsby T.21 and aBergfalke, along with a single-seatedSchleicher K 8.[66] She gained theFAI Diamond Badge in 1970.[67] The project was evidently of great importance to Nkrumah and has been interpreted as part of a "modernist" development ideology.[68]
Reitsch's attitudes to race underwent a change. She stated that "Earlier in my life, it would never have occurred to me to treat a black person as a friend or partner". She now experienced guilt at her earlier "presumptuousness and arrogance".[69] She became close to Nkrumah. The details of their relationship are now unclear due to the destruction of documents, but some surviving letters are intimate in tone.[70]
In Ghana, some Africans were disturbed by the prominence of a person with Reitsch's past, butShirley Graham Du Bois, a noted African-American writer who had emigrated to Ghana and was friendly towards Reitsch, agreed with Nkrumah that Reitsch was extremely naive politically.[71] Contemporary Ghanaian press reports seem to show a lack of interest in her past.[72]
Throughout the 1970s, Reitsch broke gliding records in many categories, including the "Women's Out and Return World Record" twice, once in 1976 (715 km or 444 mi) and again, in 1979 (802 km or 498 mi), flying along theAppalachian Ridges in the U.S. During this time, she also finished first in the women's section of the first world helicopter championships.[12]
Reitsch was interviewed and photographed several times in the 1970s, towards the end of her life, by Jewish-American photojournalist Ron Laytner. In her closing remarks she is quoted as saying:
And what have we now in Germany? A country of bankers and car-makers. Even our great army has gone soft. Soldiers wear beards and question orders. I am not ashamed to say I believed in National Socialism. I still wear the Iron Cross with diamonds Hitler gave me. But today in all of Germany you can't find a single person who voted Adolf Hitler into power ... Many Germans feel guilty about the war. But they don't explain the real guilt we share – that we lost.[73]
In the same interview, she is quoted as saying,[74]
I asked Hermann Göring one day, "What is this I am hearing that Germany is killing Jews?"Göring responded angrily, "A totally outrageous lie made up by the British and American press. It will be used as a rope to hang us someday if we lose the war."
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Reitsch died of a heart attack in Frankfurt at the age of 67, on 24 August 1979. She had never married.[75] She is buried in the Reitsch family grave in the Salzburger Kommunalfriedhof.
Former British test pilot andRoyal Navy officerEric Brown said he received a letter from Reitsch in early August 1979 in which she said, "It began in the bunker, there it shall end." Within weeks she was dead. Brown speculated that Reitsch had taken the cyanide capsule Hitler had given her in the bunker and that she had taken it as part of a suicide pact with Greim.[76] There is no record of an autopsy.[77]
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Reitsch has been portrayed by the following actresses in film and television productions:
Footnotes
Citations
