Hermann Frommherz

Hermann Frommherz (born August 10, 1891 in Waldshut-Tiengen in Baden , † December 30, 1964 there ) was a German officer , most recently Major General of the Air Force in World War II .

Early years and World War I

After finishing secondary school, Frommherz served from October 1, 1911 to the end of September 1912 as a one-year volunteer with the Mecklenburg Jäger Battalion 14 in Colmar / Alsace. On September 30, 1912, he was released into the reserve . He then started studying at the Technical University of Stuttgart .

After the outbreak of World War I , Frommherz was drafted and assigned to the 5th Baden Infantry Regiment No. 113 in Freiburg im Breisgau , with which he took part in the battles in Alsace-Lorraine. In January 1915 he, meanwhile a sergeant , was transferred to the Reserve Infantry Regiment 250, which took part in the winter battle in Masuria in February 1915 as part of the 10th Army .

On June 1, 1915, Frommherz switched to the air force , where he received training as a pilot in the pilot schools in Freiburg / Breisgau and Darmstadt until the end of November 1915 . He then flew as a fighter pilot from December 1915 to the end of 1916 in Kampfgeschwader IV near Verdun and on the Somme and then until the end of February 1917 in Kampfgeschwader I in Romania and Macedonia . He was promoted to lieutenant in the reserve on August 1, 1916. On March 1, 1917, he was transferred to Jagdstaffel 2 (Jagdstaffel Boelcke) in northern France. He scored with his on 11 and 14 April 1917 Blue Mouse called Albatros D.III - biplane his first two victories in which he forced his opponents every time to land and these were then captured by ground forces. In a crash on May 1, 1917, however, he was injured badly enough that he had to interrupt his flying career for the time being. After his recovery he was an instructor at the Aviation School in Lübeck from October 1917 to the end of February 1918 . On March 1, 1918, he returned to the hunting season 2 where he is now a Fokker Dr.I - triplane flew and celebrated his tenth victory in the air on 28 July 1918th On August 1, 1918, he was appointed to succeed Hermann Göring as leader of Jagdstaffel 27 , which under his leadership had killed 82 aircraft by the end of the war, with three wounds of its own. During this time he achieved 22 more aerial victories with a Fokker Dr.I and a Fokker D.VII , the last on November 4, 1918. It was submitted to the Order Pour le Mérite on October 22, 1918 after his 26th aerial victory , However, as a result of the end of the war and the abdication of the emperor, he no longer received it. Previously he was u. a. was awarded the Iron Cross of both classes, the Grand Ducal Baden Military Karl Friedrich Order of Merit and the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords.

Weimar Republic

After the end of the war, Frommherz founded a police squadron on December 15, 1918, the Haßfeld Fliegerstaffel , which he led until it was banned at the end of April 1919. Then he went to the Deutsche Luft-Reederei in Berlin as a pilot . In 1920 he returned to Baden and became head of the new Lörrach airfield and one of the guides and pilots of the air mail and passenger service Badische Luftverkehrs-Gesellschaft (BALUG) founded in 1919 . He had "saved" his Fokker D.VII and brought it to Lörrach . “His aerobatics with this machine were a sensation back then. He is even said to have flown under the Tumringer Wiesenbrücke. " The airmail line turned out to be not profitable, but Frommherz and Ernst von Althaus , former squadron captain in the Boelke Jagdstaffel, continued to operate passenger flights, which were mainly used by Swiss. But on July 2, 1921, the airfield had to be abandoned and the planes demolished by order of the victorious powers. Before that, Frommherz and two comrades went on a farewell flight over Loerrach, with black flags on the wings.

In 1925 Frommherz spent a few months as a trainer in Lipetsk in the Soviet Union , where the Reichswehr held secret (because it was forbidden) pilot training at the Secret Aviation School and Test Site. From June 1927 to 1931 he was a flight instructor and flight director at the commercial aviation school in Berlin. In 1931/32 he was in China , where he instructed air force personnel of the national Chinese government in combat techniques.

Period of National Socialism and World War II

In 1932 he returned to Germany and worked again as a teacher at the German air traffic school until the end of September 1934. During this time he was appointed from December 1933 to the end of September 1934 to inspect the aviation reserve in the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) of his lifelong friend Hermann Göring. On October 1, 1934, Frommherz was hired with the rank of captain in the air force that was under construction . Until the end of September 1935 he was training manager for the inspection of the flying reserve in the RLM. On October 1, 1935, he was promoted to major and transferred to the fighter pilot school in Schleissheim as head of training . On April 1, 1936, Frommherz became a squadron captain in Jagdgeschwader 134 "Horst Wessel" in Dortmund . After his promotion to lieutenant colonel on April 1, 1938, he was appointed commander of Group I of the same squadron on July 1, 1938, which soon after, on November 1, 1938, was in Jagdgeschwader 142 and on January 1, 1939 in destroyer squadron 142 was renamed. With this unit he was involved in the occupation of the Sudetenland in October 1938.

From February 1, 1939 to June 30, 1941, Frommherz was commander of Fighter Pilot School 2 in Schleissheim. In this position he was promoted to colonel on October 1, 1939 . From July to September 1941 he was stage manager of the night hunting schools of the 1st hunting division . On October 1, 1941, he was appointed fighter pilot in Berlin-Central Germany . From April to September 1942 he was fighter pilot in the German Bight . as well as from October 1942 to September 1943 again the fighter pilot in Berlin-Central Germany . Although Frommherz was promoted to major general on April 1, 1943, the aversion to the NSDAP , known to the conservative monarchist and nationalist , stood in the way of his appointment to more important command posts. On October 1, 1943, Frommherz became the commanding general of the aviation ground organizations, which he commanded until September 30, 1944. From October 1944 to mid-March 1945 he was airport area commander 2 / I in Königsberg and Danzig and at the same time commander of Luftgau troops I.

On March 16, 1945, Frommherz was transferred to the Führerreserve and received no more command until the end of the war. On May 1, 1945, he was taken prisoner by the French , from which he was released on November 30, 1946.

Post-war years

He returned to Waldshut, where he lived in seclusion with his wife Anny, née. Wunderlich, who died in 1953 at the age of only 53, and died there on December 31, 1964.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hermann Frommherz .
2. ↑ ^{a b} http://www.lg-hotzenwald.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58&Itemid=66
3. ↑ Fighter Wing 142 .
4. ↑ Cross & Cockade journal, Volume 6, Cross & Cockade, the Society of World War I Aero Historians, 1965, p. 401 Online ( memento of the original from June 9, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

Web links

• Hermann Frommherz, at www.theaerodrome.com
• Südkurier, August 22, 2003
• http://ww2gravestone.com/general/frommherz-hermann
• Model of his Fokker Dr.1, which he flew in Jasta 2 (Boelcke) from May to July 1918

literature

• Walter Zuerl: Pour le merite-Flieger. Steinebach-Wörthsee, Luftfahrtverlag Axel Zuerl 1987, ISBN 3-934596-15-0 .
• Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945, Part II, Volume 1: Abernetty – v.Gyldenfeldt , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1701-1 , pp. 325–326