Max Court

Eduard Hubert Max Court (born April 10, 1884 in Munich-Gladbach , † March 22, 1915 in Hanover ) was a German aviation pioneer.

Family and education

Max Court was a son of Düren state building inspector Hubert Alexander Court (born January 9, 1846 in Siegburg ) and his wife Clara Hofstadt (born August 25, 1862 in Lindlar ). Ancestors of both parents had lived in Lindlar for a long time:

• The Court family goes back to Johannes Court (born June 21, 1668 in Altenrath ), who was entered in Lindlar's baptismal register in the same year. The family member Peter Michael Court (born March 13, 1736 in Lindlar) was from 1738 to 1797 mayor administrator of the Steinbach office . His son Franciscus Alexander Court (born April 26, 1770 in Elverfeld) was Mayor of Lindlar from 1815 to 1836. His son Eduard Gustav Joseph Court (born February 17, 1816 in Lindlar) worked as a district architect in Siegburg .
• A member of the Hofstadt family can be found in 1665 as "Hofstedt" in Lindlar's baptismal register. Johann Wilhelm Hoftstadt (born October 29, 1824 in Hartegasse ) was Max Court's grandfather from 1851 to 1890 as Mayor of Lindlar.

Court's parents did not live in Bergisches Land at the time of his birth for professional reasons. After the early death of his father, he moved with his mother and sister Else to his grandparents and two aunts in Lindlar in 1887. Here he grew up in a corner house on Am Frohnhofsgarten / Friedhofstrasse and attended an elementary school and later a rectorate school. Since there was no grammar school in Lindlar and the surrounding area, he then lived with his aunt Adele Rommeler, née Hofstadt in Jülich . His mother later moved with her children to Engelbertstrasse in Cologne. Court studied here at the Kreuzgasse grammar school and graduated with a school leaving certificate.

Court dealt with automobile construction during his time as a high school student and received a German Reich patent for a very good invention in this field. After attending school, he worked practically for a year and a half and then attended the Technical University of Hanover . After taking his first exam, he completed an internship at Humboldt-Kalk in Cologne . He then studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Aachen . He then completed his military service in the field artillery regiment von Holtzendorff in Saarlouis , where he was appointed vice sergeant. A certificate shows that he “promised to become a very useful officer.” In August 1912, he was with the regiment on a maneuver in Lindlar, where he did an obligatory exercise.

Working as an engineer

Court constructed a custom-made car that his uncle Victor bought from Daimler in Gaggenau in 1908 and which he later took over. He visited the motor show in Paris and wrote about it for the magazine "Der Motorwagen". He also took part in Prince Heinrich trips .

After that, Court dealt with the construction of aircraft. He constructed a monoplane for Kühlstein , which crashed on December 6, 1912 in Berlin during the autumn flight week. Kühlstein then withdrew from aircraft construction. Court founded his own company with headquarters at Flugplatzschuppen No. 11 at Johannisthal Airfield . In early 1912, he built a new aircraft within four weeks. Then he constructed small, fast and manoeuvrable observation aircraft in France for the administration of the local army, which were to be used in the field artillery. In doing so, he attracted the attention of Gustave Eiffel , who offered him to work for him. Due to the increasingly tense political situation, however, Court decided to return to Berlin.

In early 1912, Court hired the pilot Richard Schmidt. A little later, he took part in an aircraft built by Court in France in the speed overflights of the great Krupp flight week, which took place from August 4th to 11th in Gelsenkirchen . He flew an average of 180 km / h and won the two first prizes. Court then repeatedly constructed expensive new aircraft. In a letter dated May 26, 1913, he offered the artillery general von Gallwitz to deliver high-performance special machines and set up a flight school. The military judged that Court's planes were fast, but that the start-up time was too long and the aircraft's carrying capacity was insufficient.

In 1913/14, Court issued invoices to Daimler-Motoren for aircraft construction and concluded contracts with flight students. His monoplane won third prize on a triangular flight on June 4, 1914, which led from Leipzig via Dresden to Berlin. After the outbreak of the First World War , he had to report to Mainz on the second day of mobilization and served as a catering officer in foot artillery regiment No. 15. During the Battle of the Marne , he worked in the reconnaissance and reporting service and was injured.

After he had recovered from his injuries, Court was supposed to train student pilots in the aviation replacement department at the Hanover military airport. In addition, he dealt with the devices that had already been completed or were still under construction from his time as an entrepreneur in Johannisthal, where he had deregistered his company immediately after being called up for military service. On March 22, 1915, he undertook a test flight with a repaired Euler biplane, in which he crashed and died due to a non-functioning elevator.

literature

• Inge Trott: An early aviation pioneer from an old Lindlar family . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1989. Volume 60, pages 146-149.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Birth certificate no. 511, birth register 1884, volume 2, registry office Mönchengladbach-Mitte, civil status register, 1798–1903. City Archives Mönchengladbach
2. ↑ List of casualties : Air forces 1914–1918, letter C. In: Gefallenendenkmäler. denkmalprojekt.org, accessed on October 6, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Inge Trott: An early aviation pioneer from an old Lindlar family . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1989. Volume 60, pages 146–147.
4. ↑ Inge Trott: An early aviation pioneer from an old Lindlar family . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1989. Volume 60, pages 146–147.
5. ↑ Inge Trott: An early aviation pioneer from an old Lindlar family . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1989. Volume 60, page 147.
6. ↑ Inge Trott: An early aviation pioneer from an old Lindlar family . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1989. Volume 60, pages 147–148.
7. ↑ Inge Trott: An early aviation pioneer from an old Lindlar family . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1989. Volume 60, page 148.
8. ↑ Inge Trott: An early aviation pioneer from an old Lindlar family . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1989. Volume 60, page 149.
9. ↑ Inge Trott: An early aviation pioneer from an old Lindlar family . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1989. Volume 60, page 149.
10. ↑ Inge Trott: An early aviation pioneer from an old Lindlar family . in: Rheinisch-Bergischer Calendar 1990 . Heider-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1989. Volume 60, page 149.