Kurt Katzenstein
Kurt Katzenstein (born February 27, 1895 in Kassel ; † December 6, 1984 in Johannesburg ) - from 1944 Kurt Kaye - was a German and later a South African military pilot , engineer , entrepreneur , flight instructor and traffic pilot .
Youth and First World War
Kurt Katzenstein, son of Franziska and Otto Katzenstein, volunteered for the army after graduating from high school in 1914 at the secondary school I in Kassel. After recovering from an injury, he applied to be transferred to the air force.
From May 1916 he was trained as a pilot and initially deployed as a reconnaissance pilot on the Eastern Front, later as a fighter pilot with Fighter Squadrons 55 and 30 on the Western Front. An aerial victory was officially recognized for him. Lieutenant Katzenstein was awarded the Iron Cross, first and second class.
After the war he returned to Kassel with a Fokker D.VII and organized flights over northern Hesse until the soldiers' council confiscated the aircraft.
Weimar Republic
Works pilot
From 1919 to 1923 he completed a mechanical engineering degree at the TH Darmstadt to obtain a Dipl.-Ing. Then he was employed as a works pilot at Dietrich-Gobiet Flugzeugbau in Kassel. With a DP IIa Bussard he flew under the Kassel Fulda Bridge in October 1924, the bridge arch of which has a clear passage height of around four meters at normal water level. German and international newspapers reported on it illustrated with a photo montage.
“I didn't intend to do that, but was encouraged by the many people on the Fuldaufer, who waved to me, to go down on the flight in the direction of Waldau. I wouldn't have crossed the bridge with the 80-horse machine, there were numerous wires hanging from it. I had to go downstairs. I wouldn't have done that again voluntarily. "
Flight instructor
Because of disagreements with Dietrich , Katzenstein left Dietrich-Gobiet in 1925, founded the Raab-Katzenstein-Flugzeugwerke together with Raab and others in November 1925 and headed the flying school and flight operations of the newly founded company. In 1927 Raab-Katzenstein developed the aircraft towing process , in which Katzenstein played a decisive role as a pilot. Among other things, at the first public presentation of the aircraft tow on April 18, 1927, he steered the towed aircraft RK 7 "Butterfly" , which was pulled by Gerhard Fieseler with an RK 6 "Kranich" .
Advertising flyer
With the end of the Raab-Katzenstein company in 1930, Katzenstein separated from Raab and, together with H. Wackwitz, managed the advertising flight team for the Bergmann cigarette factory . In this function he was the initiator of the aerobatic championship in 1932 in Breslau, which was won by Fieseler.
emigration
After the National Socialists came to power , Katzenstein, who was of Jewish descent and apparently correctly assessed his situation, went to the Netherlands and started a family there; Son Peter was born in 1935. When he lost his work permit in 1935, he decided to emigrate to South Africa.
In 1936 in Johannesburg he successfully founded "Union Aviation" with Willy Rosenstein , which sold Bücker aircraft in Africa and carried out pilot training.
Second World War
When the Second World War broke out, Germans were interned in South Africa; that also affected Katzenstein and Rosenstein, so that “Union Aviation” came to an abrupt end. In June 1941 - after eight months of internment - Katzenstein volunteered for the Union Defense Force , where he served as a test and transfer pilot with the South African Air Force , even before he was granted South African citizenship in 1942. During his South African military service until 1946 he officially changed his name to Kaye , was promoted to 2nd and 1st lieutenant and completed 2220 flight hours on 25 different types of aircraft.
Traffic pilot
After retiring from active military service, the 51-year-old Katzenstein, who now had around 14,000 flight hours, acquired a commercial pilot's license and worked as a commercial pilot. Among other things, as Captain Kaye of Tropic Airways on an Avro 685 York, he carried out around 150 flights on the Johannesburg – London route. When Katzenstein stopped working as a commercial pilot in the late 1950s, he had recorded over 24,000 flight hours in his flight log .
swell
- Hessian / Lower Saxony General
- Easter Monday at the Kassel airfield . In: Kassel Latest News . April 20, 1927, p. 2. Supplement .
- Rolf Nagel, Thorsten Bauer: Kassel and the aviation industry since 1923 . History (s), people, technology. A. Bernecker Verlag GmbH, Melsungen 2015, ISBN 978-3-87064-147-4 .
References and comments
- ↑ a b c d e f He flew under the Fulda bridge. in: Hessian General Kassel City Edition , February 27, 1960, No. 49
- ↑ a b c d e Kassel and the aviation industry since 1923 , p. 383 ff.
- ↑ Enough of flying. in: HNA Kasseler Allgemeine , September 1, 1978, No. 202
- ↑ a b Flying never let go of him. in: HNA Kasseler Allgemeine , February 27, 1975, No. 49
- ↑ a b Flying pioneer Katzenstein dies. in: HNA Kasseler Allgemeine , December 11, 1984, No. 289
- ↑ Kassel Latest News , April 20, 1927, 2nd supplement
- ↑ Did the "Spitfire" originate in Kassel? in: HNA Kasseler Allgemeine , June 23, 1973, No. 143, special page
- ↑ Fieseler and his talented student. in: HNA Kasseler Allgemeine , July 17, 1982, No. 162
- ↑ Pilots “wrote” figures. in: HNA Kasseler Allgemeine , June 23, 1973, No. 143, special page
- ↑ a b c under the Fulda bridge. in: Hessische Allgemeine , March 28, 1951, No. 72, Kassel Stadt und Land
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Katzenstein, Kurt |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kaye, Kurt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German aviation pioneer, pilot and entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 27, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | kassel |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 6, 1984 |
| Place of death | Johannesburg |