Luitpold Count Wolffskeel von Reichenberg

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Luitpold Graf Wolffskeel von Reichenberg (born as Freiherr Wolfskeel von Reichenberg; born January 20, 1879 in Munich , † April 2, 1964 in Uettingen ) was a German officer, first commander of the Bavarian Air Force , aviator pioneer and legal knight of the Order of St. John .

Life

family

Luitpold Graf Wolffskeel von Reichenberg came from the Uettinger line of the Franconian noble family Wolffskeel . He was the second son of the baron and later Count Karl Wolffskeel von Reichenberg and Emma Freifrau (later Countess) Wolffskeel von Reichenberg, born Freiin von Thüngen . Godfather to Count Wolffskeels was Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria . Wolffskeel spent his youth as a noble boy at the Royal Bavarian Pagerie in Munich and graduated from the Wilhelmsgymnasium in 1897 . In 1918 he married Sophie Freiin von Guttenberg in Munich (* February 28, 1892; † July 22, 1947). The marriage had three children:

  • Hertha-Marie Countess Wolffskeel von Reichenberg (born August 31, 1919 - † December 25, 2014) ⚭ 1. Alois Prinz v. and to Liechtenstein , 2nd Erwin Janik.
  • Emma-Sophie (Effi) Countess Wolffskeel von Reichenberg (* May 3, 1921 - May 31, 2000) ⚭ Friedrich von Seydlitz-Kurzbach .
  • Ott Graf Wolffskeel von Reichenberg (* December 4, 1925 - December 23, 2003) ⚭ Luise Schätzlein.

Military career

In 1897 he began his military career as an ensign in the 1st Heavy Rider Regiment of the Bavarian Army . In 1899 he was promoted to lieutenant and in 1907 to first lieutenant . In 1911 Wolffskeel switched to aviation. He was trained by August Euler in Darmstadt and on July 6, 1911 received his license number 93 in Germany. At the same time he received the first Bavarian military pilot's license. In 1912 Wolffskeel took part in the reliability flight on the Upper Rhine and was only one of four of the participants to reach the destination. Promoted to Rittmeister , he was commissioned by General Karl von Brug in 1912 to set up the Bavarian Air Force. The newly founded 1st Air Battalion, stationed in Oberschleißheim, was placed under the leadership of Wolffskeels. Soon he was referred to as the "Rittmeister of the Skies". From 1914 Wolffskeel was in action as head of Aviation Department 2b on the Western Front in World War I. Between 1915 and 1917 he was again active as a squadron chief in the 1st Heavy Rider Regiment. In 1918 he became the commander of the 1st Battalion of the Landwehr Infantry Regiment 1 .

In 1919 Wolffskeel resigned from military service as a major . During the Second World War he was reactivated for a short time before he could retire in 1942 when he reached the age limit in the rank of lieutenant colonel .

literature

  • Genealogical manual of the nobility enrolled in Bavaria. Volume XXIX (2012).
  • Ulrich Rüthel: The story of the Count Wolffskeel from Reichenberg to Uettingen. Englert publishing house. Uettingen 2002.
  • Gothic Genealogical Handbook , Count's Houses, Volume 1, Marburg 2016, pp. 553 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Annual report on the K. Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Munich 1896/97.
personal data
SURNAME Wolffskeel von Reichenberg, Count Luitpold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1964
Place of death Uettingen