Hans Baur (pilot)

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Hans Baur

Johann Peter Baur (born June 19, 1897 in Ampfing ; † February 17, 1993 in Herrsching am Ammersee ), known as Hans Baur , was SS group leader and lieutenant general of the Waffen SS and the police, Adolf Hitler's chief pilot and leader of the "Reichsregierung" flight squadron ".

Life

origin

He was the son of the postal secretary Johann Baptist Baur (born October 21, 1867 in Linden; † September 8, 1926 in Kempten) and his wife Babette, b. Bock (born June 15, 1875 in Ampfing).

First World War

After attending the Ludwig Realschule in Munich , Baur completed his training as a businessman. In September 1915, Baur reported during the First World War as a volunteer for the Bavarian army . From the end of November 1915 to January 1916 he received training in the Aviation Replacement Department in Schleissheim and was then employed in the Aviation Department 1B until March 1916. Then, until the end of the war, Baur worked as a pilot and artillery pilot with Aviation Department 295 on the Western Front . Here he and his observer Georg Ritter von Hengl achieved six (confirmed) aerial victories.

Weimar Republic

After the war ended, he was a member of the Epp Freikorps in 1919 . In the same year he became a courier pilot for the military airmail in Fürth , where he flew the route Munich - Nuremberg - Würzburg - Weimar . From 1921 to 1923 he was a pilot at "Bayerischer Luftlloyd" and then at Junkers . Baur was a pilot for Deutsche Luft Hansa from 1926 to 1933 and flew the Munich – Milan – Rome route when it opened in May 1928. In 1926 Baur became a member of the NSDAP (No. 48.113). On April 1, 1931 he flew the inaugural flight Berlin – Munich – Rome and on May 23 of the same year he had his 100th Alpine flight. Also Nuncio Eugenio Pacelli , Arturo Toscanini , Tsar Boris III. from Bulgaria and Mussolini were among his passengers.

Pilot of Adolf Hitler

He was Hitler's pilot for the first time during the 1932 election campaign. At this time, Baur also joined the SS (No. 171.865).

In 1933 he became an “air millionaire” (ie a pilot who flown more than 1 million kilometers - an achievement seldom achieved at the time) for Deutsche Lufthansa and was a pilot for Adolf Hitler from February 1933 to 1945 . Baur, appointed SS-Oberführer on September 9, 1934, was Hitler's chief pilot and leader of the "Reichsregierung" flight squadron during this period. Among other things, he flew Hitler to the Berghof for his stays . On January 31, 1944, Baur became SS Brigade Leader and Major General of the Police , on February 24, 1945 SS Group Leader and Lieutenant General of the Waffen SS . At the end of the war he was in the immediate vicinity of Hitler in the Führerbunker and was seriously wounded in both legs when he attempted to break out. He was taken prisoner by the Soviets on May 2, 1945 and was taken to a military hospital in Poznan because of his injuries. There a German doctor amputated his right leg.

post war period

Baur spent his captivity in the camps near Stalinogorsk , Krasnogorsk , Borowitschi and Woikowo as well as in the Lubyanka prison in Moscow . On May 31, 1950, a Moscow court sentenced him to 25 years in a labor and reformatory camp. Baur was one of the late returnees , was released early in October 1955 and returned to Germany. Baur, who last lived in Neu-Widdersberg near Herrsching am Ammersee, was friends with Winifred Wagner after his return . After his death he was buried in the Westfriedhof in Munich.

After the end of the war, the extensive 16 mm film material made by the amateur filmmaker from his time as a Hitler pilot was in the hands of a former US sergeant from Chattanooga for 53 years until it was transferred to the film archive department of the Federal Archives in 1998 .

honors and awards

Works

  • I flew mighty ones of the earth. Pröpster, Kempten 1956.
  • With mighty ones between heaven and earth. Schütz , Oldendorf 1971; 9th edition. Schütz, Coburg 1993, ISBN 3-87725-050-5 .
  • Hitler at my side. Eichler, Houston 1986, ISBN 1-930571-00-3 (autobiography, English).

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Andreas Schulz , Günter Wegmann: The generals of the Waffen-SS and the police. The military careers of the generals, as well as the doctors, veterinarians, intendants, judges and ministerial officials with the rank of general. Volume 1, Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2003, ISBN 3-7648-2373-9 , pp. 65-67.
  • CG Sweeting: Hitler's personal pilot. The life and times of Hans Baur. Brassey, Dulles 2000, ISBN 1-57488-288-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

Commons : Hans Baur  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  1. a b c d e f Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 34.
  2. Waldemar Scypion Sadaj: Hans Baur - SS-Gruppenfuhrer and Major General of the Police ( Memento of February 19, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), as of May 10, 2006.
  3. ^ Hans Baur in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved March 3, 2016.
  4. ^ Hitler's travels on celluloid. In: Berliner Zeitung . November 3, 1998, accessed June 10, 2015 .