Käthe Paulus

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Photo montage around 1890: Käthe Paulus in a balloon with a parachute
Aeronaut Käthe Paulus on her Wright flying machine (1910)

Käthe Paulus (born December 22, 1868 in Zellhausen near Offenbach , † July 26, 1935 in Berlin ) was the first German professional air skipper, aerial acrobat and inventor of the collapsible parachute . Back then, all those involved in the lighter-than-air technology, including balloonists, were called "airmen" . B. Field airship designated.

Life

Katharina "Käthchen" Paulus came from a petty-bourgeois, poor family. Her father, who worked as a blacksmith, day laborer and sometimes as a machine heater, died in 1887. This event welded Käthe Paulus and her mother, Maria Paulus, so closely together that they lived together all their lives. Paul had a penchant for acrobatics from a young age . So they wanted to, for example, on a taut rope over the house yard, the tightrope learn.

Paul learned the tailoring trade , which later turned out to be ideal for her career.

First ascents and jumps

During a spa stay in Wiesbaden she met the balloonist Hermann Lattemann on June 21, 1889 and was enthusiastic about his art. From now on she wanted to be an airship operator.

At Paul's request, Lattemann taught her the art of ballooning and parachuting. But before the longed-for first ascent, Paul first had to learn how balloons and parachutes were made. "In this way, I became familiar with the technical aids that have to be made with the most meticulous care and caution."

Soon Paul was indispensable for Lattemann. She maintained his equipment and mended the balloons, which often returned in tatters. Paulus and Lattemann not only worked together, but were also a couple in private. Her son, Willy Hermann Paulus, was born on March 7, 1891 in Frankfurt am Main . Because of the pregnancy and the birth, Paul had not yet ascended in the balloon himself.

On July 19, 1893, the long-awaited moment came: Lattemann had a passenger in Krefeld , and someone had to bring the balloon and passenger to the ground unharmed after he jumped off. Paul didn't know much more about ballooning than her passenger, and by incorrectly manipulating the valves she climbed to 3500 m before the balloon almost burst and then whizzed down at high speed. In addition, she had to avoid an express train at the last moment. Fortunately, she and her passenger survived the near disaster. “I hit my skull bloody. But what did all of this do against the proud awareness that by and large the thing had worked out. "

Lattemann did not want to let Paul jump off at first. However, she insisted, and in pouring rain she dared her first jump in Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal ).

A year later Lattemann died in a fatal balloon experiment in Krefeld . On June 17, 1894, Paulus and Lattemann wanted to ascend together in the balloon, they should jump off, and Lattemann then wanted to transform the balloon into a parachute and slide it gently to the earth. After Paul jumped off and her umbrella opened, Lattemann pulled on the leash. However, the balloon did not react as planned, but twisted and fell to the earth with a hiss. Less than ten meters away, Paul had to watch helplessly hanging from the parachute as her lover fell to his death. “I was hanging on the umbrella without being able to help, while it fell at breakneck speed, the cover fluttering like an upside down umbrella, into the depths. Everything was dull. When I landed, they had found him dead on a street in Krefeld. It was very difficult."

First professional female aeronaut in Germany

As a result of Lattemann's death, Paul had a severe shock and a nervous breakdown - today one would speak of a post-traumatic breakdown. She was tied to the bed for months. She received comforting and encouraging letters from all over Germany, which finally enabled her to move on.

She bought four new balloons with which she toured all major European cities: London, Nice, Vienna, Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Gdansk, Düsseldorf, Wiesbaden, Paris and Frankfurt.

Little Willy Hermann died of diphtheria in July 1895, barely a year after Lattemann's death . Paul threw himself into the work again. She rose 516 times in a balloon, 147 times she plunged herself into the depths with her parachute. Her ascents met with enormous public interest: at one point she sold almost 20,000 tickets.

Paul had a flair for publicity and image. At her appearances she wore a sailor suit, harem pants, tight patent leather gaiters and black lace-up boots: this is how people imagined an "air heroine". Paulus - her artist's name was "Miss Polly" - quickly became the most successful aerialist of her time.

Her most spectacular feat was the double crash she invented, in which she detached from the balloon, whereupon a first parachute opened, from which she again detached for a few moments until a second parachute opened.

During her entire career, Käthe Paulus - with one broken leg - has not had a serious accident.

Detour into powered flight

Paul Engelhard in flight, Johannisthal near Berlin, August 12, 1910

All her life Paul was open to technical innovations in aviation. At the age of 41, she bought a Blériot flying machine and took flying lessons from the famous flight instructor Paul Engelhard . But when he died in a crash, she gave up further training and a flight license.

Not only the death of her teacher contributed to this decision. It seems as if Paul had become so used to the silent gliding of the balloons that she found the roaring engine noises of the flying machines annoying.

In July 1914, the now 46-year-old went on her last balloon flight. A few days later the First World War broke out. Paul gave their balloons and parachutes to the army administration.

First World War and parachute production

Memorial plaque on the house at Gotthardstrasse 105 in Berlin-Reinickendorf

From the beginning of the war, Paulus repeatedly turned to the German army administration with improvements for parachutes. But it wasn't until 1916 that the authorities even began to take an interest in parachute issues.

Triggered by the death of Lattemann, Paulus had dealt with the constant improvement of her parachutes during the many years of her career as an aeronaut. At the time of the First World War, she was regarded as Germany's expert and the best advisor to balloon reconnaissance troops.

From the summer of 1916, she was commissioning the Prussian Ministry of War to manufacture the parachute parachutes she had invented and the corresponding covers in her apartment. Later, as production expanded, she cut the fabric and had the umbrellas sewn by homeworkers. “By the end of the war I delivered around 7,000 parachutes. The work involved can be seen from the fact that I delivered around 125 parachutes a week and had to cut around 20,000 meters of fabric a week; because I did not let myself do this work myself, given its importance. "

After silk was no longer available due to the scarcity caused by the war, Paulus had to switch to other materials. Their parachutes saved the lives of twenty balloon scouts in April 1917 when they were shot down in the Battle of Verdun . In 1917 she was honored with the Cross of Merit for War Aid.

After the war

After the end of the First World War it became quiet about Paul. She lived with her in her apartment in Reinickendorf until her mother's death in 1922. Your fortune gained from ballooning was lost to inflation.

When flying became possible again for German citizens, she often took part in flight days and air shows as a spectator and guest of honor. She donated personal mementos such as her jumping clothes, her balloon gondola or her double parachute to the German aviation collection, which was set up in 1932 at the Johannisthal airfield .

Käthe Paulus died on July 26, 1935 after a long illness. Only a few mourners were present at her funeral, including the aviators Elly Beinhorn and Hanna Reitsch , who very much appreciated their pioneering work for flying women.

Gravestone in the Dankes cemetery in Berlin

Käthe Paulus was buried in the cemetery of the Protestant congregation of the Wedding Church of Thanks in Reinickendorf, Blankestrasse 12, in Dept. D-2-32. Her grave is now an honorary grave of the State of Berlin . The short form of her first name Käte is mentioned on the tombstone .

Honors

  • Street names in the Berlin district of Gatow as Käthe-Paulus-Straße and since 2005 as Katharina-Paulus-Straße in the Berlin district of Moabit on the ULAP site.
  • In her place of birth, Zellhausen, there is a Käthchen-Paulus-Straße and the Käthe-Paulus-Grundschule.
  • In Frankfurt-Bockenheim there is a Käthchen-Paulus-Strasse on Rebstock, a former airport , as well as in Beerfelden in the Odenwald, her father's birthplace.
  • In Hildesheim and Sarstedt (Lower Saxony) there is also a Käthe-Paulus-Straße in the industrial area.
  • In Eschborn near Frankfurt there is a Katharina-Paulus-Straße in the industrial area near a former airfield, now Arboretum Main-Taunus .
  • In Cologne, on the site of the former Butzweilerhof airfield, there is Käthe-Paulus-Straße.
  • On August 24, 2011, the municipal council of Schönefeld decided to name a street in the entrance area of Berlin Brandenburg Airport after Käthe Paulus.

literature

  • Käthe Paulus: How I got into parachuting. In: Siegfried Winter (ed.): The great pilot book. From the first human flight to space travel. Ensslin & Laiblin, Reutlingen 1955, DNB 455699984 , pp. 97-99.
  • G. Schmitt, W. Schwipps: Pioneers of early aviation. Gondrom Verlag, Bindlach 1995, ISBN 3-8112-1189-7

Web links

Commons : Käthe Paulus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. 1000 biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 371.
  2. ↑ Template - GV / 065/2011 , decided at the 27th meeting of the community council of Schönefeld on August 24, 2011, accessed on August 24, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Paul, Kathe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Paulus, Katharina; Paulus, Kathchen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German professional air skipper, aerial acrobat and inventor of the collapsible parachute
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Zellhausen near Offenbach am Main
DATE OF DEATH July 26, 1935
Place of death Berlin