Bruno and Franz Steffen

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Bruno Steffen (1971)

Bruno Steffen (born September 16, 1891 in Gaarden ; † November 27, 1973 in Kiel ) and Franz Steffen (born February 20, 1887 in Gaarden; † June 26, 1916 in Döberitz ) were German pilots, aircraft manufacturers and aviation pioneers.

Childhood, adolescence and first experiments

Bruno's Lust in Kronshagen in October 1968

Bruno and Franz Steffen were the sons of the Kronshagen innkeeper and landowner Wilhelm Steffen (born August 9, 1857 in Kiel; † January 9, 1951 in Kronshagen) and his wife Caroline, née Sellhorn (born July 7, 1861 in Gaarden; † April 22 1922). Bruno, whose father ran his restaurant after him under the name “Bruno's Lust”, spent his childhood in close touch with nature with his brother in Kronshagen. The brothers built kites when they were young and designed a giant kite with an attached basket, but they did not finish it. With financial help from their parents, they created a roadworthy car in 1905 that had a 24 hp single-cylinder engine and thus reached a speed of around 20 km / h.

In 1908 the brothers built a hang glider that came close to Otto Lilienthal's plans . You started with it from Kronshagener Heischberg . Bruno Steffen became, also because of his lower body weight, the better pilot of the two and flew longer distances than his brother. It is not known who inspired the brothers to attempt their flight. One reason could have been the "Motor Airship Association in the North Markets" founded in Kiel at the end of September 1908. In addition, pilots like Friedrich Treitschke from Neumünster flew from Kronshagen . It is also not known exactly where they learned the necessary knowledge. Both allegedly attended a secondary school in Kiel.

The Steffen brothers approached motorized flight via airship travel. In 1908, Franz Steffen created plans for an impact airship that had a ship's keel-like structure. The parents paid the brothers an airship hangar on their property. In 1908/09 the brothers built the steel structure while their mother sewed the yellow balloon envelope. The balloon could hold 500 cubic meters of hydrogen gas, with which the vehicle should reach a speed of around 50 km / h. On March 24, 1910, the airship flew for the first time on a trial basis. A later flight in Melsdorf took an hour.

The Steffensche airship K 1 (1910)

The airships made the Steffen brothers known far beyond their hometown. The Berlin press reported on them. Prince Heinrich of Prussia inspected the airship himself and was of the opinion that such small balloons would be more successful than large airships and airplanes. Franz Steffen gave a lecture on the construction and possible uses of small motor balloons at the first general meeting of the Kiel branch of the "Association for Motor Airship in the Nordmark". The brothers wanted to build a second airship, but had no money for it.

First construction of powered aircraft

Then the brothers occupied themselves with designing and building powered airplanes. Since the airship's existing launch site was too small, they leased meadows and built an airfield there. They spanned the Kopperpahler Au with a wooden bridge and were able to start regular flight operations from 1910/11. The airfield was 920 meters long, about 450 meters wide, initially had three, later four large aircraft sheds and a farm building that housed the canteen "Zum funny Propeller".

After the founding of the "Schleswig-Holstein Flying Club e. V. ”in December 1910, many aircraft owners and designers came to Kronshagen. The airfield was used frequently from 1911 to 1913. In 1911, the Steffen brothers founded the first flight school in Schleswig-Holstein in Kronshagen, based on the flight school in Berlin-Johannesthal. This worked independently of the Aviation Club, which took over the protectorate. They also founded the "Flug-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft-Kronshagen GmbH", which was supposed to operate the airport. It was the first commercial aviation company in the region.

The Steffen brothers developed the "Steffen-Falke I" monoplane. This aircraft had a fixed landing gear with a skid between the wheels. The wings were made of bamboo poles. 28 tension cables, which ran over the upper and lower tombstones, held the wings together. The plane had a wingspan of 14 meters. Information about whether it was a one-seater or two-seater is not clear. It is likely that the aircraft had two seats. Bruno Steffen flew with the "Steffen-Falke 1" until the outbreak of the First World War spectacularly at many flight events and thereby made flying known in Schleswig-Holstein.

Bruno Steffen (1971)

On September 9, 1912, Bruno Steffen flew to Heiligenhafen , seven days later he was the first pilot to land on the city limits of Burg on Fehmarn , for which he was euphorically praised. He also took part in flight events in Neustadt and Tondern. In October 1912 he passed the examination for the official pilot's license with an examination committee from Berlin-Joachimsthal. This made him what would later be called the Old Eagle . His brother Franz got the license in November 1913.

On March 25, 1913, Bruno Steffen flew from Kronshagen to Flensburg . He covered the distance in two hours and three minutes and reached an altitude of 2300 meters. Because of this achievement, he asked for a national flight donation and, due to the duration of the flight, a reliability price. His brother Franz had taken the same route in the morning of March 25th in 73 minutes with the "Steffen-Falke II". The two-seater Falke II was based on the Falke I and enabled the installation of a second control device in the passenger seat. The aircraft had a wingspan of 14.40 meters with a surface covering secured by sixteen steel cables. It had ailerons, a 100 hp Argus engine, and was difficult to steer. On August 26, 1913, Steffen flew the Falken II for 6 hours and 15 minutes, which was a German long-term flight record. Four months later, Willy Jansen flew almost two hours longer, replacing Steffen as the record holder.

Due to the steadily increasing popularity, the Steffen brothers received many flight students and offered amicable sightseeing flights. After a while, the airport in Kronshagen turned out to be too small and soft for training with two-seaters and passenger flights with the Falke II. The city of Neumünster made the Steffens a generous offer. So they moved with their school and the Flug-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft in October 1913 to the parade ground on Ehndorfer Weg. Bruno Steffen first landed there at the end of May 1913 when he took off from Kronshagen during the council meeting on the airfield contract. The council members interrupted their deliberations and watched Steffen from the town hall during his overflight. On his return flight he had to make an emergency landing in Einfeld due to a broken cooling pipe . At this point the contract had already been signed. With the relocation of activities, Kronshagen lost the foundation of the flight school and the flight club.

In Neumünster, the Steffen brothers gave many flying lessons and often flew for the national flight donation. Franz Steffen planned a giant airplane. The Idflieg judged the model as a suitable large bomber. From December 1914, the Steffen brothers worked in the Berlin dynamo works of Siemens-Schuckertwerke , which were working on large aircraft for the war. Bruno Steffen had served as a soldier and pilot and suffered injuries on the Eastern Front. His brother served as a lieutenant and pilot. They were commissioned to design a large aircraft, implement the plans and fly the machine in.

Construction and construction of large aircraft

The Steffen brothers created a prototype called "Steffen-G-Flugzeug", which was given the type designation "SSW-R I" or "R 1/15" in early November 1915. The majority of the components came from Berlin. Since the construction was to be kept secret, the final assembly of the biplanes was carried out at Neumünster airfield. The brothers checked the construction here and made test flights. The double-deckers had a wingspan of 28 meters with three Benz engines that were 150 hp and were located in the fuselage. The aircraft had a transmission and deflection gear and two propellers sitting between the wings, each of which reached 900 revolutions per minute. This form of construction turned out to be groundbreaking and offered unrivaled efficiency. Since the engines were located in the fuselage, the aircraft had only a low forehead resistance with favorable flow conditions. In addition, on-board mechanics could carry out maintenance work during operation. The six-ton ​​aircraft could reach a summit height of 3700 meters within 45 minutes. At an altitude of 10 meters, the maximum flight speed was 128 km / h.

The Steffen brothers' double-deckers flew missions in the Vilna region from late 1915 to late 1917 . The aircraft, the successor models of which reached spans of 38 meters, proved to be successful right from the start and clearly superior to all competing products. Bruno Steffen set a world record with the SSW R 6 on April 25, 1916. The flight with the biplane with a payload of 2.4 tons took more than six hours. Since this should be kept secret due to the war, the flight was not recognized internationally.

SSW R 5

Due to his flying skills, Bruno Steffen took on the task of flying in new aircraft for the Siemens-Schuckert Group. His brother Franz developed new machines intended for use in the war. As the only one-flyer, he managed to control a failure of the Swede Villehad Forssmann. It was a double-decker with a wingspan of 24 meters and four engines.

From 1914 to 1918 the Steffen brothers developed seven large aircraft with the designations SSW R 1 to SSW P VII, the reconnaissance double-decker SSW BI, the single-deck combat single-seater SSW EI to SSW E III, the double-decker single-seat fighter DD 5 and the double-decker Jäger DI and D II. When testing SSW E II, Steffen experienced several false starts and almost completely destroyed the machine. After the plane was repaired, Franz Steffen did not want to leave the flight to his brother, who was in Nuremberg . Therefore, he started himself on June 26, 1916 and died when the machine crashed in Döberitz.

After the end of the war

Bruno Steffen made many test flights with various machines until the end of the war and brought them to series production. Due to the Versailles Treaty and the political situation, military aviation then fell sharply. Therefore, he worked for Lufthansa in the 1920s and then went to Berlin as a senior staff engineer at the Reich Ministry of Aviation. In 1946 he went back to Kronshagen. In 1956 he reported in a series in the Kieler Nachrichten about his memories.

Honors

  • The Luftsportverein Kiel made Bruno Steffen an honorary member in 1962.
  • The Aero-Club St. Peter-Ording donated the Brothers Steffen Prize , which has been awarded to people who have made special contributions to aviation in Schleswig-Holstein since 1973.
  • A street in Kronshagen is named after the brothers.
  • The inn "Bruno's Lust", which Steffen's father had heard, burned down. A memorial plaque donated by the Kieler Luftsportverein has stood on this property since 2000.

Familys

  • Bruno Steffen married Bertha Ida "Käthe" Schulz on December 14, 1919 (* August 4, 1894 in Nielbau ; † February 16, 1994 in Kronshagen). The marriage remained childless.
  • Franz Steffen married Ida Ratjen (1894–1977) from Vaasbüttel in 1914 , with whom he had two daughters.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bruno Steffen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Manfred Klett: Steffen, Bruno . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 399.
  2. ↑ Manfred Klett: Steffen, Bruno . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , pp. 399–400.
  3. ↑ a b c d Manfred Klett: Steffen, Bruno . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , p. 400.
  4. ↑ Manfred Klett: Steffen, Bruno . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , pp. 400–401.
  5. ↑ a b Manfred Klett: Steffen, Bruno . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , p. 401.
  6. ↑ a b Manfred Klett: Steffen, Bruno . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , pp. 401–402.
  7. ↑ a b Manfred Klett: Steffen, Bruno . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , p. 402.
  8. ↑ Manfred Klett: Steffen, Bruno . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , pp. 402–403.
  9. ↑ Manfred Klett: Steffen, Bruno . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck , p. 403.