Ludger Hölker
Ludger Hölker (born April 26, 1934 in Billerbeck , † September 15, 1964 in Schwabmünchen ) was a German pilot who was deployed as a first lieutenant in the Air Force with the 32nd Fighter Bomber Wing . On September 15, 1964, he died near Straßberg near Augsburg from a crash caused by a technical defect. For his previous maneuver, in which he risked his own life to prevent the plane from falling into populated areas in Bobingen and Straßberg, he achieved posthumously notoriety and various awards.
Life
Ludger Hölker was born the son of a Westphalian farmer in Billerbeck near Münster. At the age of 15 he had to leave school after two years of secondary school and one year of high school and manage the farm of his sick father. After an apprenticeship as a blacksmith, he attended the Coesfeld vocational and technical college , which he completed with a secondary school leaving certificate.
On April 16, 1958, he joined the newly founded air force of the Bundeswehr and was promoted to lieutenant on October 1, 1959. In 1960 and 1961 he trained as a jet pilot at Lackland AFB in Texas; He then flew F-84 F Thunderstreak and Lockheed T-33A at JaboG 32 in Lechfeld, while also attending evening courses to catch up on his Abitur.
In July 1964, just a few weeks before his death, he married the study assessor Charlotte Hagg, who taught at the state secondary school in Schwabmünchen.
death
Ludger Hölker started on the morning of September 15, 1964 as the pilot in charge in the front seat of the two-seater training aircraft Lockheed T-33A T-Bird on a training flight from Lechfeld Air Base. The 42-year-old Major Walter Sütterlin sat in the rear seat - as a staff pilot he only took part in flight operations sporadically and was supposed to practice flying with instruments on this flight.
After about an hour's flight time, Sütterlin carried out a radar approach to Lechfeld's home airfield. At the beginning of this procedure, the crew noticed a loss of power in the engine .
Hölker took over the lead and decided not to use the ejector seat in order to steer the aircraft in a controlled manner in the steady descent over Bobingen and Straßberg and to prevent a crash into populated areas.
During the accident investigation, Sütterlin reported that Hölker deliberately delayed the exit that Sütterlin had already wanted to do ("We have to get out now!"):
"Not yet! First we have to go over the houses! "
It was not until the north-eastern outskirts of Straßberg that the pilots operated their ejection seats at a low altitude. Walter Sütterlin survived the jump injured after a hard landing through treetops in the forest. Ludger Hölker rebounded after the opening of the parachute still high horizontal speed into a tree and died three hours after the accident at the hospital in Schwabmünchen .
The aircraft accident investigation showed:
“After the loss of thrust, Lieutenant Hölker deliberately stayed in the plane for a long time to avoid the plane crashing into populated areas. He saved the community of Straßberg from a catastrophe! "
Posthumous honors
In the autumn of 1964, the local council of Straßberg decided unanimously to name a street after him.
Less than a year after the unfortunate flight , the Bavarian Prime Minister Alfons Goppel awarded the rescue medal on ribbon to Ludger Hölker - it was given to the officer's widow.
In the autumn of 1977 the Air Force officer's school moved from Neubiberg to Fürstenfeldbruck. In the newly constructed building "Blue Palace" the Inspector of the Air Force, Lieutenant-General named Gerhard Limberg , the Auditorium Maximum of 850 people to "Ludger-Hölker Hall".
Twenty years after the flight, the 32nd Fighter-Bomber Wing also honored the pilot's rescue act. Colonel Fritz Morgenstern, at that time commodore of the squadron, inaugurated the "Ludger-Hölker-Straße" in the Schwabstadl barracks .
In 2004 a street in Billerbeck in the new building area between Massonneaustraße and Zu den Alstätten was named "Ludger-Hölker-Straße". Since the same year a memorial stone commemorates Ludger Hölker at the crash site.
The elementary school in the Bobingen district of Straßberg was renamed the Ludger-Hölker-Grundschule Straßberg in 2010 .
Ludger Hölker is listed as one of four role models by the Air Force - together with Richard W. Higgins , Michael Giermeier and Jürgen Schumann .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Harald Meyer: First Lieutenant Ludger Hölker - a flight accident . In: Military History Research Office (Hrsg.): Military history: Journal for historical education . Military history in the picture. 2005, ISSN 0940-4163 , p. 39 ( online [PDF; accessed on March 24, 2017] issue 1 + 2/2005).
- ↑ a b c d e f Harald Meyers: Ludger Hölker. (No longer available online.) In: Vorbilder. Federal Ministry of Defense , November 26, 2013, archived from the original on June 10, 2015 ; Retrieved December 22, 2015 (Air Force history website).
- ↑ a b A hero who sacrificed himself. (No longer available online.) In: The year 1964. Federal Ministry of Defense, November 26, 2013, archived from the original on June 12, 2015 ; Retrieved December 22, 2015 (Air Force history website).
- ↑ The Ludger Hölker Hall. (No longer available online.) In: The year 1977. Federal Ministry of Defense, August 7, 2012, archived from the original on October 14, 2013 ; accessed on December 22, 2015 (website on the history of the Air Force): "Fürstenfeldbruck, October 18, 1977. Lieutenant General Gerhard Limberg, Inspector of the Air Force, baptizes the new Auditorium Maximum of the Air Force Officer's School in Ludger-Hölker-Saal."
- ^ Robert Mühle: Primary school named after Bundeswehr pilot Ludger Hölker. (No longer available online.) In: Archive 2010. Federal Ministry of Defense, September 21, 2011, archived from the original on October 14, 2013 ; retrieved on December 22, 2015 (website on the history of the Air Force): "After expansion and renovation work, the elementary school in the Straßberg district of the city of Bobingen was named in a festive ceremony on October 8 [2010] after the former Bundeswehr pilot Ludger Hölker."
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hölker, Ludger |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German air force officer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 26, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Billerbeck |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 15, 1964 |
| Place of death | Schwabmünchen |