Fliegerdenkmal (Wasserkuppe)
The aviator memorial on the Wasserkuppe in the Rhön was erected in 1923 and commemorates the field pilots who died in the First World War (1914–1918).
The location
The aviator memorial is on the western slope of the Wasserkuppe above Abtsroda (coordinates: 50 ° 29 '53 " N , 9 ° 55' 59" E, ). It was built on a volcanic chimney, formerly called Lerchenhügel, later called "Loessl Steine". Carl Oskar Ursinus had chosen this place for an annual commemoration because Eugen von Loessl took off on his last flight from here on August 9, 1920 during the first Rhön competition . On August 14, 1921, the World War II pilot Wilhelm Leusch , the second dead in gliding, died here as a result of a wing break due to a faulty design of his Weltensegler glider .
The history of origin
After the end of the First World War, various comradely associations were formed, which later formed in the Ring der Flieger e. V. united. Probably in 1922 the idea of a German aviator memorial was born . This was originally to be built in the Harz Mountains and consecrated to all those "who dared and committed their lives in peace and in war in the struggle to conquer the air, and who sealed their efforts with their death."
The connection to the Rhön results from the development of gliding on the Wasserkuppe, the Harz was less suitable for this. Well-known World War II pilots had considerable success in the first glider flying competitions.
Reichswehr Oberleutnant Ottfried Fuchs , the managing director of the Ring der Flieger e. V. and the Munich architect Johannes Moßner , also a World War II pilot , negotiated the building contract.
The eagle sculpture
The sculpture was created by the sculptor and animal sculptor Prof. August Gaul . Two more copies are in the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Nationalgalerie Berlin . It was cast in the Hermann Noack art foundry in Berlin.
The copy of the aviator memorial was originally intended for the entrance to the villa of Albert Ballin , the general director of HAPAG , in Hamburg (today: UNESCO Institute for Education). After Ballin's death on November 11, 1918, his widow bequeathed the sculpture and a considerable amount of money to Lieutenant Ottfried Fuchs, the managing director of the Ring der Flieger e. V. She was convinced that she was acting in the name of her deceased husband and true to his patriotic sentiments.
In the inventory catalog of the sculpture department of the Hamburger Kunsthalle ( The Third Dimension by Georg Syamken, Hamburg 1988) the eagle sculpture is described in a contemporary way as follows:
- “The archetype of all National Socialist eagles with all the paraphernalia of the predator, its defensive beauty and its energy discreetly hidden under its comfortably taut plumage. In view of the climate before the First World War, it is no longer an innocent symbol of a monumentally displayed power consciousness and yet a work that deserves respect because of its originality. In terms of its format alone, it is more than a sculptural sketch of animal existence and behavior, but it takes care not to strain any anthropomorphic parallel beyond the naturalistic dimension. The burden of meaning arises from heraldry: the proximity to the heraldic animal of the German Empire can no longer be overlooked in this size; To relate the waiting peeking too much to the geopolitical loneliness of the empire, which was mistakenly still considered promising ... "
After the Second World War , the eagle was likely a target for the occupation soldiers. During a repair by the Fulda company Pfeifer (1954), 68 bullets were mended.
The bronze tablets
The oval bronze plaque on the front bears the text written by Lieutenant Ottfried Fuchs:
DEAD FLYERS STAY
VICTOR
BY US ALONE [.]
PEOPLE [,]
YOU FLY AGAIN
AND YOU WILL
BE WINNER
BY YOU
ALONE [.]"
On the small, rectangular plaque on the back there is a brief note: "Erected by the Ring of Aviators in 1923".
The inauguration ceremony
The memorial was inaugurated on Thursday, August 30, 1923, a working day, with a ceremony. Despite a normal working day, the reporter from the Fuldaer Zeitung estimated that 100,000 people attended the celebration. The inauguration ceremony took place as part of a Rhön gliding competition . The Reichsbahn had used a total of six trains from Fulda to Gersfeld .
The guests of honor
Numerous, well-known guests of honor, e. B .:
- Prince Heinrich of Prussia (the brother of Kaiser Wilhelm II )
- Duke Ernst August of Braunschweig with his wife
- Alfred von Tirpitz (Grand Admiral)
- Erich Ludendorff (former Chief of Staff)
- Felix Graf von Luckner (Naval Officer)
- Colonel Hermann Thomsen (former chief of field pilots and chief of staff of the air force)
- Freifrau von Richthofen (mother of the fallen Manfred von Richthofen and Lothar von Richthofen )
- The widow of General Ernst von Hoeppner (former Commanding General of the Air Force)
- Captain Helmut Wilberg (organizer of the new air force in the Reichswehr)
- Otto Boelitz , Prussian Minister of Education
- Ministerialrat von Bredow
- Georg Voigt (Lord Mayor of Frankfurt)
- Gustav Springorum ( District President Kassel) and all district administrators of the administrative district
In addition, there were 34 Pour le Mérite -Frontflieger, as well as numerous generals of all arms, in uniform and with orders and medals , as well as countless carriers of War flags and religious banners .
The participants also saw their presence as a tacit protest against the flight restrictions against Germany in the Treaty of Versailles of June 28, 1919.
The ceremony
The musical train of Infantry Regiment 21 (Würzburg) played Siegfried's lament for the dead . A quartet of gentlemen from the Frankfurt Opera performed the prayer of Goltermann ( Lord, whom I carry deep in my heart ) and the folk song of Good Comrade .
The chairman of the Ring der Flieger e. V. , Lieutenant General a. D. Walter von Eberhardt gave the opening speech. Among other things, he stated: “Just as the basalt of the monument is rooted in German soil, so should our strength be rooted in German soil. And it will be our own German strength that will break all the fetters, the shame and shame that hardship and misery have put on us, again. The eagle looks to the west. He shows us the way to go. The inscription on the monument is our motto ”.
A myriad of wreath-laying ceremonies followed. The bow of the wreath from the fighter pilot's union is remarkable , it carried the meaningful verse: “Eagle, you keep watch! There is shame and night around us. See the brothers' bones slumbering there behind the Rhine until morning wakes up. Eagle you, keep watch! "
The Dutch thanksgiving prayer sung together (" We come to pray before the Lord God, to praise him above with heart and mouth; and make great honor of his dear name, which has now thrown our enemy on the ground") and the Germany song formed the solemn conclusion .
The following day of flight
On August 29th, at around 7.30 p.m., a motorized aircraft belonging to German Aero-Lloyd, which had taken off three hours earlier with the pilot Piper and a passenger in Berlin-Staaken , landed on the Wasserkuppe in thick fog . It was the first powered airplane to land on the Wasserkuppe. Another powered airplane from Wroclaw landed near Fulda.
August 30, 1923 was a stormy day with wind speeds of 15 m / s and gale-force gusts of up to 36 m / s, so the powered pilots for the laps of honor during the celebration remained on the ground. Nevertheless, courageous pilots took off later and there were numerous accidents.
- On that day, Fritz Stamer flew a 35-minute flight past the Eubeberg (Eube) and the Dreierhöfen as far as the Schwalmbach in his heavy sailor “Bremen” .
- Hans Hackmack crashed with a Messerschmitt S-14 monoplane near the Red Moor and was slightly injured.
- Richard Tracinski with the monoplane "Galgenvogel" lost control of Abtsroda and also crashed. He suffered head injuries and a concussion.
- Max Standfuß , also a World War II pilot , hit the western slope. He died that evening in Tanner Hospital and was the third fatality from gliding.
criticism
The “martial ceremony”, the “heroic speeches” and the “patriotic fuss” met with approval. Rhön father Oskar Ursinus devoted just 16 lines (164 words) to the spectacle in his magazine Flugsport :
“The inauguration of an aviator memorial took place on August 30th on the Wasserkuppe. Hundreds of thousands of people had gathered. Among the guests were Prince Heinrich of Prussia, General Ludendorff and Count Luckner. - The emblem of honor and memorial towers up on the north slope of the Wasserkuppe: the base, which the eagle claws around, rises on piled-up basalt rocks, a splendid creation by the well-known animal sculptor Gaul. There are few monuments that leave such a massive, dignified, great impression as this aviator memorial, and none that stands in such a large, lofty setting in such an excellent place. To the left, the mountain world of the Rhön is open to the eye and the eagle's gaze stretches across the country, towards Fulda, and overlooks the German Gaue, surrounded by the storms of the Rhön. And everything that the memorial wants to say is summed up in the words of the unknown poet on the western plaque: “We German aviators, we remained victorious through ourselves!” The other plaque bears the dedication: “Erected by the ring the aviator 1923 "."
Even Kurt Tucholsky criticized the monument and the cult of the glider in the 1920s in the world stage . He wrote in 1931:
“These boys enjoy a sport that happens in every country, and they are gladly granted it. Why should the poison of nationalism be brought into this, as one should think, harmless activity? Because in Germany there is no indigestion without someone shouting: “Unconquered in the field! In spite of everything! Hooray! «They even manage to erect an aviator memorial emblazoned with this untruth: We dead aviators remained victorious through us alone. People fly again And you will be victor By yourself alone.
Nice but wrong. The dead fliers are those who are shot down, that is, they are inferior - which certainly does not shame them. But to construct a victory out of a shooting, which in the opposite case is celebrated as glory, is surely not acceptable. Rossitten . Gliding on the Rhön. Mr. Dominicus , former Minister of State D. Association for Germanness Abroad . It's the same everywhere. It is the worst mockery, nationalism, intellectual armament everywhere and advertising for the next war. "
The 1951 commemoration
On August 26, 1951, after a six-year prohibition period and re-authorization of motorless aviation after the Second World War, a ceremony was also held. The dead aviators of all nations were remembered in a simple ceremony. Press agencies named 50,000 visitors.
literature
- Joachim Jenrich: The Wasserkuppe. A mountain with a history. Parzeller, Fulda 2007, ISBN 3-7900-0389-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ (quote from the appeal for donations)
- ↑ Joachim Jenrich: History of the Fliegerdenkmals - Part II. 2004, accessed on September 22, 2018 (German).
- ↑ The world stage on archive.org