Antonie Strassmann

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Antonie Strassmann (born April 14, 1901 in Berlin , † January 9, 1952 in New York ) was a German actress and sports pilot with an aerobatic license .

Life

Antonie Strassmann grew up with two brothers and a sister at Schumannstrasse 18 in Berlin. Her upper-class family around her father, Professor Paul Strassmann (1866–1938), a renowned gynecologist with his own clinic in Berlin, was influenced by his patriarchy . For her Jewish father, who converted to the Protestant faith in 1895, who was German national and socially conscious, her desire for a career as an actress, which she presented to him at the age of 16, was a novelty. But his daughter, who is active in many sports, defiantly prevailed against him.

As early as 1920 she celebrated great success as Maria Stuart (Schiller), Iphigenie auf Tauris (Goethe) and in 1921 as Judith (Hebbel) at the side of the famous Paul Wegener. Interrupted by very dramatic turns in her private life, she continued her highly successful and celebrated stage career until 1930.

The list of sports she practiced extensively from an early age ranged from gymnastics , swimming , mountaineering and skiing to horse riding , ice skating and boxing . These sports are viewed by some as a little eccentric and, especially in boxing, fashionable in the "new woman" trend. She found herself in the company of women like Vicky Baum , Leni Riefenstahl and Marlene Dietrich .

She got her first contact with aviation through her brother Erwin. The lieutenant in the airship force in World War I and balloonist probably set the course for her passion for sports flying. On February 25, 1928, she had her pilot's license in her pocket and, a few months later, her aerobatic license . She was soon to be seen on the many flight days of those years as a participant behind the control stick and as a sporty, elegant friend of popular time giants. The Prussian Crown Prince, actor Rudolf Forster and Ernst Udet took turns as lovers in this order. Strassmann belonged to the small group of German pilots like Marga von Etzdorf , Thea Rasche or Elly Beinhorn , who were mentioned more and more frequently in the press. From 1930 she stayed in the USA frequently. After a short time, at the end of 1931, she received a visa and quota number in order to legally immigrate to the United States. She took up residence in New York . On May 19, 1932, she took the chance to fly to Europe on the Dornier Do X. Journalistically ambitious, she wrote detailed descriptions of the overflight after landing on Berlin's Müggelsee . Her last big flight in a light aircraft took her over 3000 km down the east coast of South America in 1932.

In New York she discovered her business acumen and worked until the mid-1930s as a consultant and representative in technology transfer between German and American aircraft manufacturers such as Junkers , Messerschmitt , Siemens or Bendix and Goodyear . As a successful business woman, she also benefited in particular from the friendship with the President of Zenith Electronics , Commander Eugene F. McDonald , the inventor of the radio world receiver . She succumbed to longstanding cancer in 1952 at the age of 51. The body was interred in the Roman Catholic Cemetery in White Plains , New York . There is a memorial stone at the grave of honor of her father Paul Straßmann in the Berlin-Wannsee cemetery .

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personal data
SURNAME Strassmann, Antonie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Strassman, Antonia (English)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sport aviator, crew member of the Dornier DO-X (D-1929) airship while crossing the Atlantic in May 1932
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1952
Place of death New York USA