Gunther Plüschow

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Gunther Plüschow 1927
Plüschow in July 1929

Gunther Plüschow (born February 8, 1886 in Munich , † January 28, 1931 in Argentina ) was a German naval officer . After the siege of Tsingtau he became known as the aviator of Tsingtau and as a pioneer in flight in Tierra del Fuego , where he was the first to fly over the Darwin Cordillera , Cape Horn and the Torres del Paine, among others .

Life

Gunther Plüschow came from the well-known Plüschow family , which goes back to the Hereditary Prince Friedrich Ludwig zu Mecklenburg (1778-1819). He was the son of the officer Eduard Plüschow (1855-1911) and Hermine, nee. Wellensieck (1858-1910). In 1898 he joined the Plön cadet institute and then on April 6, 1904 as a midshipman in the Imperial Navy . During his training as a naval officer, he was already in Tsingtau with the armored cruiser SMS Fürst Bismarck . On September 28, 1907 he was promoted to lieutenant at sea and on December 11, 1909 to first lieutenant at sea . In 1911 he was used as the commander of the torpedo boat SMS S 87 . In 1913 he was sent to England and then worked as a company officer in the Kiautschou sailor artillery department in East Asia. From January 2, 1914, Plüschow completed an aircraft pilot training course at the Rumpler Werke at the Johannisthal airfield near Berlin and returned to Tsingtau as a sea pilot in June. He also acted there as a board member of the naval aviation station .

His son Gunter Guntlof Plüschow (1918-2017) emerged from his marriage to Isot Kempfe (1889–1979).

First World War

In mid-July 1914 about three weeks before the outbreak of the First World War were, in Jiaozhou Bay two for the local German reserve certain, built also by Edmund Rumpler aircraft type Etrich pigeon arrived. Plüschow was able to fly in the first just a few days later. Further test flights followed. Only an area of ​​around 600 m × 200 m was available as an airfield, where difficult wind conditions with turbulence existed due to the nearby hills and rocks. The second "pigeon", flown by Lieutenant Müllerskowsky, crashed on the first flight and was completely destroyed. The pilot was seriously injured. Three days later, Plüschow could not avoid a break in an emergency landing after an engine failure. He himself was unharmed and the aircraft could be repaired, albeit with difficulty, although many of the spare parts supplied had become unusable due to moisture and heat during the long sea transport. This also included the five reserve propellers. So a new copy had to be made according to the pattern of the least deformed propeller, from oak boards glued with carpenter's glue. This succeeded even if the motor turned about 100 revolutions per minute less. The makeshift propeller also had to be repeatedly glued in a press.

Japan's entry into the war on August 15 and its demand for the unconditional surrender of the German base in Tsingtau changed the situation suddenly. The Japanese army drew its ring around Tsingtau and began the siege of Tsingtau . As the eye of Tsingtau , Plüschow carried out important reconnaissance flights with his "dove" and even attacked enemy targets with simple bombs he had built himself. A tethered balloon that was also present and under the command of Plüschow did not meet the expectations placed on it. His explorations became all the more important. All the efforts of the German defenders were able to delay the occupation of the colony by the Japanese, but ultimately could not prevent it, as the hostile superiority was too great. In the end, Plüschow had eight Japanese aircraft against him, including four large water biplanes, which had no problems with take-off and landing due to the large amount of water. During a reconnaissance flight, he came across a Japanese plane that he was tracking and, in his opinion, could even shoot down with 30 rounds from his Parabellum pistol . However, he soon found out that the Japanese aircraft, especially the seaplanes, were technically superior to his "pigeon". He now tried to build his own water biplane, which he had to destroy himself in the last few days before the fall of Tsingtau.

Extract from the Secret Navy Loss List 17a of January 22, 1915

When the Japanese were about to take the city on November 6, 1914, Plüschow fled with his "dove", equipped with a Chinese passport / permit, into the interior of southern China . After landing in Kiangsu Province , he set his plane on fire. Then in nine months he made his way through Shanghai and San Francisco and finally as an alleged “Swiss” on an Italian ship to Gibraltar . There he was arrested by the British because they had a Swiss informant on board who recognized Plüschow's false identity. A little later, Plüschow was able to escape from captivity with a comrade at Donington Hall , where he had been taken. The other German officer, Oberleutnant Oscar Trefftz, brother of Erich Trefftz (incorrectly called Lieutenant Treppitz in the contemporary English press), was soon caught. Plüschow managed to hide in the docks of London for a few weeks , despite several wanted posters from Scotland Yard , until he found a way to smuggle himself in as a stowaway on a ship that was going to Vlissingen in the (neutral) Netherlands . In August 1915 he came back to Germany by train, where he was immediately arrested as a spy by a constable in Goch . He was transferred to Wesel , where he was recognized by an officer and was released. He is considered to be the only German prisoner of war who ever managed to escape from Great Britain. Plüschow then served again with the sea pilots in the troop service until the end of the war. At the end of 1919 he retired from active military service as a lieutenant captain (since October 17, 1915).

First expedition

On September 15, 1925, Plüschow set off from Hamburg on his first South America expedition on board the four-master Parma . The trip took him to Chile, Peru and Ecuador and is described in detail in the book Segelfahrt ins Wunderland , published in 1926.

Second expedition

On November 27, 1927, Gunther Plüschow traveled with his specially built expedition cutter Tierra del Fuego from Büsum to Punta Arenas in Chile . The trip led through Tenerife , Bahia , Rio de Janeiro , Santos , Montevideo and Buenos Aires . At the same time, the Steamer Planet from the Laeisz shipping company and engineer Ernst Dreblow, who had come from Askania , transported his Heinkel HD 24 W seaplane with the registration number "D-1313" to Chile, where Plüschow was able to take over it in Punta Arenas and upgrade it together with Dreblow. He asked for the number plate with the double 13 because his future wife Isot had given him a chain with a gold 13 on the occasion of his passing his pilot's exam, which he considered to be his lucky charm.

Plüschow's expedition ship "Tierra del Fuego" from 1928 in the Atlantic
Heinkel HD 24 W from Plüschow

By December 1928, Plüschow and Dreblow had successfully assembled the Heinkel HD 24 W double-decker, which had previously been packed in boxes, on the premises of the Braun y Blanchard shipyard in Punta Arenas. The first big flight was to Ushuaia, Argentina . On board was a mailbag , the first airmail from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia.

In the months that followed, Plüschow and Dreblow were the first people to fly over the Darwin Cordillera on the large Tierra del Fuego , Cape Horn and the Torres del Paine in Patagonia . They were fascinated by the overwhelming beauty of the Patagonian inland ice and brought back photos and film material from these previously unexplored areas of South America from their flights, often at risk of death.

Plüschow stayed in the southernmost part of South America for about eight months. In July 1929 he returned to Germany and published his book Silberkondor on Tierra del Fuego and a documentary of the same name. On July 6, 1930, he was the guest of honor at the big flight day in Travemünde, where an airplane, not a HD 24, but an HD 30 , was painted with the inscription "Tsingtau" in his honor .

Third expedition

Burial of Plüschow and Dreblow in 1931 in Berlin

At the end of 1930 Plüschow returned to Chile and Argentina to continue his research flights. He crashed on January 28, 1931 with his plane in the Rico arm (Brazo Rico) of Lake Argentino at the foot of the glacier, where he and Dreblow were killed.

Honors, commemorations, research

Grave site, Thuner Platz 2–4, in Berlin-Lichterfelde

In 1936, the Air Force named its air traffic control ship Gunther Plüschow after him. The barracks at the Mendig Air Base (Niedermendig) bore his name until it was closed at the end of 2007: "Gunther-Plüschow-Kaserne". In 1931 in Berlin-Zehlendorf the street behind the cemetery (between Fischerhüttenstrasse and Sven-Hedin-Strasse) was named after Plüschow. In Kiel-Holtenau, the Plüschowhafen, which is now used by sports boats but was previously intended for flying boats - immediately north of the area of ​​Naval Aviation Squadron 5, which was dissolved in 2012 - bears his name.

Construction of the Plüschow monument on Lake Argentino (Patagonia) by the Spielschar Burg Waldeck , 1962
Plüschow monument on Lake Argentino (Patagonia) around 2010

A monument was erected at the crash site in the Argentine part of Patagonia, where the death of the two aviation pioneers is regularly commemorated to this day. Another monument was erected in Chile, in the Torres del Paine National Park , not far from the place where Plüschow and Dreblow had set up a strategically important camp on the shores of Lake Sarmiento. The consuls of Argentina and Chile also took part in the small celebration at his grave in the Parkfriedhof Berlin-Lichterfelde on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of his death in 2006. His grave was an honorary grave of the city of Berlin from 1985 to 2011 .

On December 12, 2006, a central Gunther-Plüschow-Platz was inaugurated in Punta Arenas (Chile) on Magellan Street in the presence of the mayor, a general of the Air Force and the director of the German School. The memorial speech was given by the Chilean historian Prof. Mateo Martinic.

Since August 2006 - for the first time in Europe - an exhibition has been on view in various German cities (Büsum, Schwerin, Rostock, Munich, Cologne) in which photos, books, contemporary documents and objects (including a model of the HD 24 W, the Rumpler-Taube and the research ship FEUERLAND on a scale of 1:20) was reminded of Plüschow. Between August 2008 and summer 2009, the exhibition was shown in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut in various cities in Chile and Argentina.

On March 8, 2007, in connection with the arte premiere of the GEO report “The Wind Riders of the Andes”, excerpts from the UFA film “Silver Condor over Tierra del Fuego” were broadcast in the Berlin Minister Gardens. The background to this was the glider flight distance records and turbulence research of the Mountain Wave Project (MWP) over the Andes and the decline of glacier massifs documented there in comparison with the historical film recordings of Plüschow in the course of the discussion of current climate changes. The pilots of the project also clearly demonstrated the exceptionally strong updraft and downdraft systems of air currents over the Andes.

From October 17, 2008 to March 1, 2009, a special exhibition entitled “Gunther Plüschow - an aviation pioneer” was on view in the Bundeswehr Air Force Museum in Berlin-Gatow. The exhibition is a special exhibition of the German Airship and Naval Aviation Museum Nordholz e. V. in cooperation with the Air Force Museum of the Bundeswehr.

In October 2007, the aviation pioneer with Mecklenburg roots was honored at a ceremony in Buenos Aires at the Argentine National Congress. The Argentine journalist, filmmaker and Plüschow researcher Roberto Litvachkes presented the current status of his research results to representatives of the Argentine government, the German embassy, ​​the public and the press.

In Germany, the Freundeskreis Gunther Plüschow e. V. committed to the memory of the aviation pioneer and endeavors to make his life and deeds known to the public again with publications, lectures and exhibitions. In cooperation with the phanTechnikum, the Technical State Museum Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, in Wismar, a professionally designed Gunther Plüschow exhibition was put together in 2017. This exhibition has been on view so far (as of April 2020) in Wismar, the Deutsches Museum Munich, Flugwerft Schleißheim and the Naval Aviation Museum aeronauticum Nordholz.

In 2006, Plüschow's expedition ship Tierra del Fuego , which had been based on the Falkland Islands for many years, was returned to Germany by its new owner. The "Förderkreis Kulturdenkmal Expedition Ship Tierra del Fuego" has set itself the task of renovating the research cutter Tierra del Fuego as an expedition ship of outstanding historical value as well as a technical cultural monument of a certain construction, restoring it as historically correct as possible and contributing to its preservation. This takes place in the workshop of the Shipping Museum Flensburg .

Some members of the sponsoring group have been researching the life and work of Gunther Plüschow for many years and decades. In 1993 the base camp of the flight expeditions in Patagonia was rediscovered.

In 2007 an expanded and updated new edition of the book Silberkondor about Tierra del Fuego was published , in which the current results of the Plüschow research are incorporated.

Plüschow's grave of honor in the Parkfriedhof Berlin-Lichterfelde was opened in spring 2009 with the support of the Freundeskreis Gunther Plüschow e. V. completely renovated and inaugurated on June 16, 2009 as part of a small memorial service.

On February 29, 2020, a 4.30 m high monument in honor of the aviation pioneer was inaugurated in Ushuaia, Argentina. It shows Plüschow in front of a fragment of his airplane.

Streets in several cities are named after Plüschow, for example in the vicinity of the former Cologne airport Butzweilerhof , in a residential area near Düsseldorf airport, in the residential area of ​​the Donaufeldsiedlung in Manching (Upper Bavaria), in Berlin-Zehlendorf and in Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina).

Awards

Works

  • The adventures of the aviator from Tsingtau . Ullstein, Berlin 1916 (digitized: [1] ) and the bottle post edition published by Wunderkammer Verlag, 2008, Neusatz, ISBN 978-3-941245-00-6
  • Sailing trip to wonderland . Ullstein A.-G., Berlin 1926
  • Silver condor over Tierra del Fuego . Ullstein A.-G., Berlin 1929, new edition: Prague books, ISBN 3-925769-07-2 ; updated and updated by Hans Georg Prager, Köhler / Mittler Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-8132-0877-1
  • My escape from Donington hall, preceded by an account of the siege of Kiao-Chow in 1915 (Download)

Movies

  • Gunther Plüschow: Sailing Trip into Wonderland , 1926
  • Gunther Plüschow: Silver condor over Tierra del Fuego , 1929

posthumously :

  • 1931: Icarus
  • after 1931: journey to the land of wonders and clouds
  • 2013: On the way to Utopia . Documentary about Gunther Plüschow, directed by Carmen Blazejewski , 95 minutes
  • 2017: The plane from Tierra del Fuego. On the trail of a German pioneer. Film by Uwe Agnes, Bernd Siering, 43 minutes ( media library )

literature

  • Isot Plüschow: Gunther Plüschow, German sailor and aviator , Ullstein, Berlin 1933
  • Roberto Litvachkes: Gunther Plüschow, Una Vida de Sueños, Aventuras y Desafíos por una Amor Imposible: La Patagonia! - A life full of dreams, adventures and challenges, for an impossible love: the indomitable Patagonia! . 2006, ISBN 987-21760-1-9
  • Roberto Litvachkes: Pluschow Screto . Buenos Aires 2008, ISBN 978-987-05-4810-2
  • Mateo Martinic: Plüschow y Dreblow - Aguilas Alemanas En El Cielo Austral . FS Editorial - Fantástico Sur Birding Ltda., Punta Arenas, Chile 2008, ISBN 978-956-8007-27-0 .
  • Anton Rippon: Gunther Plüschow, airman, escaper, explorer . Pen & Sword books ltd., 2009, ISBN 978-1-84884-132-1
  • Robert E. Whittaker: Dragon master: The Kaiser's one-man air force in Tsingtau, China, 1914. Compass Books 1994, ISBN 978-0-9639310-0-9 .
  • Gerhard H. Ehlers and Niklot Klüßendorf, article Gunther Plüschow, naval aviator and research traveler , in: Biographisches Lexikon für Mecklenburg (Publications of the Historical Commission for Mecklenburg, Series A), Vol. 7, Rostock (Schmidt-Römhild) 2007, p. 246– 250

Web links

Commons : Gunther Plüschow  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ Secret naval loss list, page 017_02: Plüschow. In: des.genealogy.net. Retrieved September 10, 2018 .
  2. In the Secret Navy Loss List 24a page 15 he is reported as "Krgef in Gibraltar". http://des.genealogy.net/search/show/11723533
  3. ^ My escape from Donington hall, preceded by an account of the siege of Kiao-Chow in 1915 (1922). Retrieved January 8, 2019 .
  4. ^ Coal dust disguise secret of the only German PoW ever to flee britain , Daily Express of February 11, 1911
  5. ^ Gerhard H. Ehlers: Gunter-Plüschow-Platz inaugurated at the end of the world. in FLIEGERREVUE 02/2007
  6. www.gunther-plueschow.de ( Memento of the original dated February 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 4, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gunther-plueschow.de
  7. W.-D. Herold: Forschungs-Stemme ensures publicity not far from the Brandenburg Gate ; Rene Heise: MWP aviation expedition to the roof of America. in LILIENTHALER 1/2007
  8. ^ Funding group for cultural monument expedition ship Tierra del Fuego
  9. Günther Jüllich and Hilda + Hans Roehrs: Preliminary results of the discovery (1993/94) of the base camp by pilot Gunther Plüschow , in: Andina , DAV Chile, 1994
  10. ^ Gunther Plüschow: Silberkondor über Feuerland , updated and updated by Hans Georg Prager, Köhler / Mittler Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2007.
  11. a b c d e Ranking list of the Imperial German Navy for the year 1918 , Ed .: Marine-Kabinett , Mittler & Sohn Verlag , Berlin 1918, p. 40
  12. ^ My escape from Donington hall, preceded by an account of the siege of Kiao-Chow in 1915 (1922). Retrieved January 8, 2019 .