Tony Werntgen

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Bruno and Tony Werntgen. Drawing from the Illustrated Kronen Zeitung v. February 28, 1913
Memorial stone in Köppern for Tony and Bruno Werntgen
Text of the memorial stone

Katharina Antoinette Werntgen , called Tony Werntgen , (born April 25, 1875 in Ruhrort ; † January 5, 1954 in Bingen am Rhein ) was a German entrepreneur who worked as a pioneer in aviation . She is considered to be the first woman in Germany to produce aircraft.

biography

The entrepreneur

Nothing is known about Tony Werntgen's childhood and youth. In 1893 she became a mother for the first time at the age of 17. Her son's name was Bruno , and four years later she had her second son Erik. She was married to the businessman Mathias Buschmann. It is unclear whether Tony Werntgen divorced him at an unknown point in time, or whether her husband died. The mother and sons took their mother's maiden name.

At the turn of the century Tony Werntgen ran a real estate business in Frankfurt am Main . When her son Bruno, who was studying elsewhere, visited her in 1909, she gave him a season ticket for the International Airship Exhibition , which was taking place in Frankfurt at the time. Bruno Werntgen was so enthusiastic about the idea of ​​aviation that he broke off his studies and made his own drafts of aircraft. The mother was initially skeptical, but experts who questioned her, including the aviation pioneer Johann Schütte , rated his construction drawings positively.

Thereupon Tony Werntgen founded the German Aviation Technology Institute in Köppern im Taunus together with “some gentlemen” and invested 200,000 marks in the company. The institute comprised a teaching institute, an experimental station and production; Edmund Bernhard Philipps became director of the institute. On the site there was a 1500 meter long and 1000 meter wide space for flight courses. Special courses for "women" were also offered.

From April 1, 1910, Bruno and Tony Werntgen developed two different functional flying machines there, a single- decker and a double-decker . The planes made their first "hops" up to 50 meters high and flight times of up to 17 minutes. Bruno Werntgen worked as a test pilot, trailer and flight instructor, although he did not yet have a pilot's license. Tony Werntgen: “We were delighted with these successes, but that didn't mean anything to the Taunus farmers from Köppern, which we thought was a great step forward, because too often one of the machines landed on a field after a few hops and devastated it. Before we could take off the plane, the damage to the land had to be paid for. ” A request to the community to lease the community pasture was rejected; the farmers' claims for damages consumed a considerable part of the company's capital. Bankruptcy proceedings were opened on December 7, 1910, and the following day the foreclosure auction took place , during which the tools, an engine and two flying machines found buyers. A week later, 17-year-old Bruno Werntgen was the second youngest German behind Bruno Jablonsky to receive the official pilot's license No. 40 in Berlin .

In 1911 Tony and Bruno Werntgen moved to Cologne , where they founded a new airline company on the premises of the Luftschiffahrt club in Merheim , a parade ground on the left bank of the Rhine . Tony Werntgen borrowed money from relatives to buy a plane for her son's planned sightseeing; this is how the money came together to buy a Dorner monoplane. About one of these flights, the mother later reported the anecdote that the engine of the aircraft had suspended and Werntgen gliding on a cattle pasture emergency landing had. Shortly thereafter, she received a penalty warrant for a three-mark fine for illegally entering with a flying machine because this pasture was closed due to foot and mouth disease . This incident is said to have caused laughs at Cologne carnival meetings.

On May 1, 1911, the son completed a few flight laps in front of spectators, and later his mother also flew as a passenger. Bruno Werntgen, who was advertised as the “youngest pilot in the world”, subsequently took part in numerous flight competitions and shows across the country and also won prizes. In December 1911, however, the flight exercises were banned by the military administration, as potential espionage from the air was feared.

The urn of his mother Tony is also buried in the grave of Bruno Werntgen in Bonn's north cemetery.

Tony Werntgen then traveled to Berlin to convince the War Ministry of the importance of their company. Back in Cologne, she tried herself as a pilot in the Dorner plane, but crashed, injured her leg and was taken to hospital. From her sick bed she wrote a letter to Prince Heinrich of Prussia , who was known as a promoter of aviation. As a result, the military training area in Hangelar was made available to her company under favorable conditions as an alternative: Use for 20 years on the condition that the area was given to the troops once a year and that they could take part in the maneuvers with aircraft. In June 1912 the construction of an aircraft hangar began there. Tony Werntgen accompanied her son Bruno on his flights almost every day.

On January 4, 1913, Werntgen Flugunternehmen GmbH , a company for the construction of aircraft, was founded. On February 25th, Bruno Werntgen took off with the PK 106 aircraft he had built , which was equipped with a 106 hp Argus engine. The plane crashed and Bruno Werntgen suffered fatal injuries. Tony Werntgen could not continue to run the company without her son, and another foreclosure auction followed in November 1913.

Later years

Three years later, Tony Werntgen entered into a second marriage with the bank clerk and opera singer Josef Johannes Lindlar (1890–1953); this connection lasted twelve years. In 1939 she wrote the book Jungflieger Werntgen about her son Bruno . The following year she took her maiden name again. She now lived in Berlin like her son Erik, who worked for the German Foreign Service and also appeared in popular films as a supporting actor. In November 1943 he was seriously injured in an air raid, which he died in April. Until 1945 Tony Werntgen received an honorary salary for her services to the aviation industry.

After the war, Tony Werntgen lived impoverished near her brother Wilhelm in Johannisberg in the Rheingau . On her 75th birthday, Revue magazine reported on her and gave her a sightseeing flight on a modern Pan Am plane . On January 5th, 1954, she died after a long and serious illness. Her urn was buried in the family grave in Bonn at the side of her son Bruno.

Honors

On July 23, 1953 Tony Werntgen was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon . In 2009, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the German Aviation Institute in Köppern, a memorial stone was unveiled for Tony Werntgen and her son Bruno.

literature

  • Jörg-Michael Hormann, Evelyn Zegenhagen: German aviation pioneers 1900–1950. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-7688-2484-2 .
  • Hans Vogt: silk ball and flying box. A history of aviation in Krefeld and on the Lower Rhine. (= Krefeld Studies , Volume 7), City of Krefeld, Oberstadtdirektor, Krefeld 1993, ISBN 3-9801610-8-0 .
  • Paul Wirtz, Ernst Probst : Tony and Bruno Werntgen. Two lives for aviation. GRIN, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-640-94952-6 ( Book-on-Demand ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wirtz / Probst; Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 19.
  2. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 11 f.
  3. ↑ a b c Vogt: Silk ball. P. 66.
  4. ↑ a b c Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 159.
  5. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 11 f.
  6. ↑ a b Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 105.
  7. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 17.
  8. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 17.
  9. ↑ quoted from: Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 24.
  10. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 25.
  11. ↑ 1910 History of Cologne Aviation. In: koelner-luftfahrt.de. Retrieved June 29, 2016 .
  12. ↑ 1910 History of Cologne Aviation. In: koelner-luftfahrt.de. May 15, 1915, accessed July 7, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 31 ff.
  14. ^ Hormann / Zegenhagen: German aviation pioneers. P. 152.
  15. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 39 f.
  16. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 96.
  17. ^ Fatalities In Germany. (PDF) In: FLIGHT, MARCH 8, 1913. Flightglobal.com , March 8, 1913, p. 292 , accessed on July 27, 2016 (English): “While testing, on the 26th ult., A machine built by himself at Cologne, Werntgen fell from a height of 60 meters and received fatal injuries. "
  18. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 148.
  19. ↑ Erik Werntgen - Biography - IMDb. In: imdb.com. Retrieved June 30, 2016 .
  20. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 163.
  21. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 163.
  22. ↑ Wirtz / Probst: Tony and Bruno Werntgen. P. 167.


personal data
SURNAME Werntgen, Tony
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Werntgen, Katharina Antoinette (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Ruhrort
DATE OF DEATH 5th January 1954
Place of death Bingen am Rhein