Luise Hoffmann

Luise Hoffmann (born July 8, 1910 in Gelsenkirchen , † November 27, 1935 in Horn near Vienna ) was a German aviator and the first woman to be permanently employed in the German aircraft industry as a single flyer and demonstration pilot.

Flight training

Even as a young girl, during her high school years, the sports-loving daughter of a Bochum baker showed interest in aviation in addition to riding and driving a car. She attended flight days and got to know the well-known military pilot Fritz “Bobby” Seelbach , who ran a flight school at Münster-Loddenheide airfield. She moved to Münster and began her flight training at Seelbach, known as Peterle because of her boyish appearance . In July 1928 she passed the test for the A2 pilot's license, which, according to the applicable regulations, she only received at the age of 19. Until then, she had completed her aerobatic training . At that time she was the youngest female pilot in Germany.

Aerobatics

Soon after completing her training, her parents gave her a brand-new Raab-Katzenstein Kl I c Schwalbe with the serial number 70 and the registration number D-1588, which was powered by a 108 hp Siemens Sh 12 nine-cylinder radial engine. With this airplane, which she called Spatz , she practiced aerobatic maneuvers - still supervised by Fritz Seelbach - which she soon demonstrated at flight days. At the first German women's aerobatic championship on May 29, 1930 in Bonn-Hangelar , Luise Hoffmann took second place out of eight participants after Liesel Bach and ahead of Elly Beinhorn and Marga von Etzdorf .

She joined the NSDAP in September 1930 and left again six months later. She also used her airplane for propaganda purposes of the National Socialist movement, especially before 1933.

One-flyer at Bücker

Despite this success, Hoffmann had to continue performing on air days for a living and largely maintaining her aircraft himself. Women were banned from commercial passenger flights in Germany, and the sometimes 2000 Marks income on weekends was reduced by wages for fitters, repairs, transport and insurance.

In January 1935, Carl Clemens Bücker and his company Bücker Flugzeugbau moved into new production facilities in Rangsdorf and hired the young pilot as a single-flyer and demonstration pilot. For example, she made the maiden flight of the Bü 133 Jungmeister . She still had three male colleagues of similar age to her: Arthur Benitz (born 1910), who was deployed as chief pilot, Werner Ahlfeld (1912) and Josef Beier (1911). The fact that all four were needed was due to the fact that demonstrations and transfers often had to be made, which also involved longer absences. Such flights brought Luise and her colleagues to many countries such as Belgium, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey. At the International Air Day in Lisbon in the summer of 1935, she did very well.

Aviation accident

At the beginning of October 1935 she was on an advertising tour for Bücker with the Bü 131 Jungmann D-EGSY via Yugoslavia to Romania, Greece and Turkey. In Bucharest she met the world aviator Wolfgang von Gronau , now president of the German Aeroclub , and his wife Hertha, also a pilot who she knew from many events. The return flight was via Bulgaria, where she happened to meet the chief pilot of the Gothaer Waggonfabrik , Hugo Harmens , who was demonstrating the Gotha Go 145 training aircraft . The penultimate route for Hoffmann was the flight via Hungary to Vienna-Aspern , where it landed on November 1st. Soon after taking off the next day, she found herself in thick fog and grazed trees near Horn, about 90 km northwest of Aspern, where her plane caught fire and suffered severe burns. She died in hospital on November 27th and was buried in an honorary grave on December 1st in the Werne district of her hometown Bochum. Among the mourners were Thea Rasche and Liesel Bach, as well as Wolfgang von Gronau, their flight instructor Seelbach, the mayor of the city and many other high-ranking personalities. Three Heinkel 72 cadets of the Fliegerlandesgruppe, decorated with mourning ribbons, flew over the cemetery.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Evelyn Zegenhagen: Luise Hoffmann - Germany's first female factory pilot . In: VDP-Nachrichten . No. 3 , 2003, p. 30th f . ( pilotinnen.net [PDF; 539 kB ]).
2. ↑ Bü-133 Jungmeister (on athenianaviatorscollection.com)