Hermann Reichelt

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Hermann Reichelt
Grave of Hermann Reichelt in the New Annenfriedhof in Dresden

Heinrich Hermann Reichelt , also Heinrich Herrmann (born March 18, 1878 in the inner old town in Dresden , † April 10, 1914 in Dresden-Friedrichstadt ) was a German aviation pioneer .

Life

Hermann Reichelt was a freelance photographer and painter when he saw "real" flying machines for the first time in his life in 1909 at the ILA in Frankfurt / Main. With the help of August Euler , who was also present , he built a glider in a few days according to his own, previously drawn up plans , with which he promptly won the ILA prize for the best gliding flight worth 3000 Marks .

For a while he continued his gliding attempts on the Dresdner Heller , then he ventured into the first engine airplane designs. In 1911 he entered the Oswald Kahnt flight school in Leipzig-Lindenthal and on April 26, 1913, he was the 388th pilot at the Johannisthal airfield and obtained a German pilot's certificate. In the same year he founded the flight school Melli Beese GmbH together with Melli Beese and Charles Boutard in Berlin-Johannisthal .

His own flight school with attached aircraft workshops was launched in the spring of 1913 and Hermann Reichelt took part in his first powered flight competitions. With his Harlan monoplane he won the national flight donation grand prize (4000 ℳ pension) on July 22, 1913 for a 500 km overland flight from Kiel via Berlin to Posen , which he completed with his nephew Kurt Hähnel. On September 9th he surpassed this achievement with the 1025 km long Berlin – Brussels – Paris – Villacoublay route.

His third record attempt should lead from Berlin to San Sebastian, Spain. Hermann Reichelt took off on October 14, 1913 at 12:41 a.m. and was the first pilot to undertake a long-haul flight at night. However, after the Mercedes engine failed, the journey ended east of Cologne (in Morsbach ) on the roof of a farmhouse with a crash landing, Hermann Reichelt and his passenger were uninjured.

Reichelt went back to Dresden at the end of 1913 and opened the new Dresden-Kaditz airfield together with the engineer Hugo Allers jr. on December 18, 1913 the aircraft construction and aviation school AERO Gesellschaft and held sightseeing flights with paying passengers.

On one of these flights, Hermann Reichelt was killed on April 10, 1914 when his plane crashed due to a defect in the wing near the Dresden-Kaditz airfield. His flight passenger and sister-in-law Selma Steglich was also killed. Both were buried in the New Annenfriedhof in Dresden. Reichelt left behind his wife Anna Martha Reichelt and three sons.

Appreciation

The Hermann-Reichelt-Straße along the Dresden airport to the motorway junction leads Dresden Airport, was named after him. A stainless steel memorial desk, designed and executed by the artist Roland Fuhrmann, has stood next to his grave since 2014 .

literature

  • Günter Schmitt, Werner Schwipps: Pioneers of early aviation . Gondrom, Bindlach 1995, ISBN 3-8112-1189-7 .
  • Siegfried Reinhardt: When flying was still a risk. On the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Dresden-Kaditz airfield . Engelsdorfer, Dresden, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-86268-969-9 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ The year of birth stated on the tombstone is incorrect. During the renovation of the tomb in 1994, the correction of the last digit was commissioned, but was not carried out because the renovation funds had been used up.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to birth certificate no. 471 in the civil status book birth register no. 1-1000 (January 2, 1878 - June 18, 1878) of the Royal Saxon Registry Office Dresden I, signature 6.4.25-1.2.2-5 in the Dresden City Archives .
  2. ↑ according to death certificate no. 739 in the civil status book, death register no. 1–999 (January 1, 1914 - May 15, 1914) of the Royal Saxon Registry Office Dresden II, signature 6.4.25-2.4.2-114 in the Dresden City Archives
  3. ^ Frank Lemke (based on notes by Hermann Reichelt jr.): The Dresden aviation pioneer Hermann Reichelt. In: Flieger Revue. 4/1994, pp. 40/41.
  4. ↑ F. Rasch (ed.): Yearbook of the German Aviation Association 1914 . Pass & Garleb, Berlin 1914, DNB  012953865 , 7th guide list, c) flight guide, p. 133 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 30, 2018]).
  5. ↑ Eberhard Blobel, Lothar Brehmer, Wolfgang Fiedler, Karin Kretschmar, Ansi Zimmerer: The becoming of German aviation . In: Lothar Brehmer (Hrsg.): Aviation in Saxony . UniMedia, publishing house for universal media productions, Leipzig 1998, ISBN 3-932019-32-6 , p. 12.
  6. ^ Wolfgang Fiedler: Airfield and airship port Dresden-Kaditz . In: Association “New Neighborhood Kaditz e. V. “(Ed.): Typically Kaditz - history and stories . Dresden: Saxonia 2002. ISBN 3-9808406-4-6 . P. 191.
personal data
SURNAME Reichelt, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reichelt, Heinrich Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH March 18, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1914
Place of death Dresden-Friedrichstadt