Georg Hacker (pilot)

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Georg Hacker (born January 18, 1870 in Münchberg , † June 19, 1947 in Potsdam ) was the first captain of an airship built by Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin .

Life

Georg Hacker was born on January 18, 1870 together with his triplet sisters Babette and Alwine in Münchberg, Upper Franconia, as the son of a station commander of the Bavarian gendarmerie . As an adolescent he wanted to get to know the world and aspired to the profession of missionary or captain , but had to start his professional career as a piccolo in the “Gasthaus zum White Lamb”. After an American wanted to take the young hacker with him to Chicago because of his artistic talent and teach there, his father turned to Otto von Bismarck to stop this project. With Bismarck's help, he was able to place Georg, now 15, as a cabin boy in the German Navy, where he was promoted to the helmsman's post on the National surveying steamer. At the age of 32 he finally moved to Wilhelmshaven with his newly wedded wife to work as Karl Börgen's assistant at the meteorological institute. When Hacker found out on August 18, 1907 that Count Zeppelin was trying to construct a steerable rigid airship , he presented himself on September 7, 1907 and was appointed chief surveyor.

He steered the airship LZ 5 / Z II until the First World War (see also list of all zeppelins ) and then took over command of the civilian "zeppelins". In the summer of 1920 he finally took over the management of the Potsdam airship port until he retired a few years later. Hacker died in Potsdam in 1947.

Trips with LZ 5 / ZII

Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin at his desk (around 1900)

LZ 5 measured 136 meters in length and 13 meters in diameter. It held 15,000 cubic meters of hydrogen and, with the help of two 105 hp Daimler engines, achieved a top speed of 48.6 km / h. It made its first voyage on May 26, 1909 with Hacker as helmsman. After three months in civil aviation, it was handed over to the German army on August 9, 1909 and renamed Z II. On the first trip of the airship to Berlin, it also crossed the city of Münchberg and the native Münchberg hacker did a few laps over the city to a storm of applause. Responsible for this memorable event were the Münchberg schoolchildren who asked Count Zeppelin in a public letter to also run over their city. The builder Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, two engineers, two captains and three fitters were on board during this trip. In the small village of Reinersreuth in what was then the district of Münchberg , the village schoolmaster Dittmar set up a memorial stone and planted a zeppelin oak , which can still be seen in the village center today. He summarized his memories of this journey on November 16, 1909 in a book that was published in 1936 under the title The Men of Manzell .

The stranding in Göppingen in 1909

On May 29, 1909, LZ 5 undertook a trip with Graf Zeppelin, the engineers Ludwig Dürr and Stahl, the captains Hacker and Lau and three fitters without a specific destination. After a quiet voyage, the airship turned over Bitterfeld after rumors of a planned visit to Kaiser Wilhelm had surfaced and headed back towards Ludwigshafen. On May 31, the airship landed in Göppingen, ramming a pear tree that was standing alone and getting stuck. In order to be able to end the journey under one's own power, the destroyed point was temporarily tied together and the construction was reinforced with hop poles , the body was filled with gas and the journey continued.

The crash on Webersberg in 1910

LZ 5 after the crash near Weilburg

When a parade ordered by Kaiser Wilhelm II took place in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe on April 22, 1910 , three airships, including LZ V, were exhibited. While the first was dismantled for removal, the other two drove back to their starting points on their own. On the 24th, after the take-off had been postponed several times due to bad weather conditions, the Z II took off under the command of Captain von Jena with his 28-man crew for the return flight at around 8 a.m. But on that day, heavy storm clouds came in and forced the airship to make a stopover near Limburg to refill gas. In the hope of being able to continue the journey the next day, the airship was tied to a buried cart with steel cables. After the weather had improved temporarily, the wind force on 25 April grew so strong that about 100 soldiers stationed in Diez Infantry - Regiment were 160 used to secure the zeppelin with steel cables. When a violent gust hit the zeppelin's body around 1:00 p.m. and the attached tether ropes tore, the soldiers could no longer prevent a drift and the pilotless airship flew away.

When the wind from the direction of Gräveneck / Kirschhofen drove the zeppelin over the town of Weilburg , its tip was pushed so far down by emerging gusts that it dipped into the Lahn . After another gust of wind hit the corpus, the airship was thrown broadside against the Webersberg and remained lying just below the Kurhaus Webers Berg. Nobody was harmed in the accident. The flightless and badly damaged zeppelin was dismantled and scrapped. A memorial plaque was placed at the site of the accident.

Honors

The Georg-Hacker-Weg in Hof is named after him.

literature

  • Georg Hacker: The Men of Manzell Memories of the first Zeppelin captain . Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei GmbH, Frankfurt a. M. 1936.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Münchberg Helmbrechtser Tageszeitung : Article on the 75th birthday of the Hacker triplets in January 1945.
  2. ↑ Hans Bucka , Oskar Heland : boundary stones - corridor and small monuments in the district of Hof. Hoermann, Hof 1991, ISBN 3-88267-040-1 , p. 103.
  3. ^ Karl Heinz Reuss: Archives and museums.
personal data
SURNAME Hacker, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German airship
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Münchberg
DATE OF DEATH June 19, 1947
Place of death Potsdam