Oskar Bider

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oskar Bider, 1915

Oskar Marcus Bider (born July 12, 1891 in Langenbruck , † July 7, 1919 in Dübendorf ) was a Swiss farmer and aviation pioneer .

Oskar Bider grew up in Langenbruck in the Basel region as the son of Jakob Bider (cloth merchant and district administrator ) and Frieda Maria Glur. After primary school he graduated from the district school in Waldenburg . Since he didn't want to take over his father's business, but rather to become a farmer, he attended the Waldhof agricultural school in Langenthal BE in 1908/09 , a course at the Basel commercial school in the summer of 1909 and the winter course at the Rütti cantonal agricultural school in 1909/10 Zollikofen BE. In 1910 he worked as an intern with his godfather in Bad Bubendorf .

Dream of flying

April 25, 1913, Oskar Bider lands on the grid in Liestal. Photographer, Arnold Seiler-Rudin. Copyright, State Archives Basel-Landschaft. https://www.kimweb.ch/sammlungen#999cf841-400e-7e2d-e336-9fa7023f3393 The aviation pioneer Oskar Bider (1891–1919) from Langenbruck with his mechanic Jean-Blaise Saniez (1889–1976) after landing on 25. April 1913 on the grid in Liestal. The Liestaler Flugtag took place two days later. Behind the plane, the military does not block the runway from unwary spectators, but Oskar Bider landed in the middle of a group of exercises. The aircraft is a Louis Blériot monoplane with an 80 hp engine that was installed in early April 1913. On July 13, 1913, Bider was the first to cross the Alps - from Bern to Milan over the Jungfraujoch, at the same time setting a Swiss altitude record of 3,600 m. The aircraft is a Louis Blériot monoplane with an 80 hp engine that was installed in early April 1913.
April 25, 1913, Oskar Bider lands on the grid in Liestal .

After recruiting school in 1911, he spent a year as a gaucho on the Huber-Berli family farm in Romang , Santa Fé province, Argentina. In 1912 he returned to Europe and entered Blériots Aviation School in Pau , at the northern foot of the Pyrenees , in November . There he trained as a pilot and after a month obtained an international pilot's license . On January 24, 1913, he was the first pilot to cross the Pyrenees from Pau to Madrid in a Blériot XI . Through the flight in the Pyrenees, Bider became well known in Switzerland.

Alpine crossing

Take-off from Bider's overflight on July 13, 1913

Bider's big goal, however, was what had ended fatally for the aviator Geo Chavez from Brig three years earlier : to fly over the Alps from Bern to Milan . He gave up his first plan of a direct crossing of the Alps because a test flight showed him that his plane with the 70 hp engine could only reach the necessary altitude in the thin mountain air with the weight of the half-full tank. Therefore, he planned a stopover in Domodossola to pick up fuel.

On the day after his 22nd birthday, on July 13, 1913, at four in the morning, Bider set off in Bern for Italy . The Jungfraujoch was the biggest obstacle at the beginning and for over half an hour the plane wrestled for the last hundred meters until it reached the required height of 3,600 meters. At 6.10 a.m. he flew over the Jungfraujoch at a height of about one hundred meters and then reached Domodossola and then Milan without difficulty.

He waited 13 days in Milan for good weather and then flew his plane over the Lukmanier Pass and the Chrüzli Pass back to northern Switzerland, where he landed in Liestal to refuel and complete his way via Basel to Bern. He was the first person to cross the Alps completely and in both directions by plane.

Non-stop flight Paris-Bern

At Christmas 1913, Bider set a new record with the direct Paris- Bern flight , as he was in the air for four hours and 20 minutes without a stopover.

First World War

Lt Bider with his aviation aspirants (1914-1918)

When the First World War broke out in the summer of 1914 , Oskar Bider and the small group of trained Swiss pilots were called up with their aircraft near Bern and formed the newly created air force . He was named chief pilot. In 1917, Bider promoted Max Cartier to lieutenant in the flying group.

Circumnavigation of Switzerland

After the World War, on June 21, 1919, Bider accomplished another great flying achievement, which was of particular benefit to civil aviation. That day he started a flight around Switzerland with a double-decker and two passengers in St. Jakob near Basel. The planned stopovers went well, and after 7½ hours Oskar Bider touched down again at the starting point.

crash

On July 7, 1919, after a farewell party and a waking night, Bider performed acrobatics in Dübendorf. He had a fatal accident. Bider was 28 years old. Through testimony and other evidence, including those from the crash witness and glider designer Jakob Spalinger , the possibility of suicide is now being considered.

Oskar Bider (1891–1919) Leny, Julie Helene Bider (1894–1919) Grave in Langenbruck
Grave in Langenbruck
Oskar Bider (1891–1919) Leny, Julie Helene Bider (1894–1919) Grave in Langenbruck
Commemorative medal.

His aviation career only lasted six and a half years, but with his pioneering achievements he was able to inspire the Swiss population for aviation.

Bider's sister Leny , who had been close to him, committed suicide that same day out of grief over the tragic loss of her brother and fear of her own immediate future. Before the First World War, she was the first film actress in Basel and later worked as a milliner and was 25 years old. Leny-Bider-Platz in Langenbruck has been a reminder of her since 2009 .

Bider memorial on the Kleine Schanze

memory

In Bern on the Kleine Schanze there is a monument to the aviation pioneer Oskar Bider, which was designed by Hermann Haller . It shows a man with arms outstretched, as if he wanted to fly away from Bern, out into the big wide world - just as Bider did in 1913 on a flight from Bern to Milan in the Alps.

In Zurich, Bern, Biel / Bienne, Dübendorf, Liestal, Langenbruck, St. Gallen, Sion and Vernier, one street was named after Bider.

The In Memoriam Bider / Mittelholzer / Zimmermann cooperative was named in his honor.

On July 7, 2019, the Swiss Air Force Patrouille Suisse planned to fly over its home town of Langenbruck. The pilot in the pilot aircraft of the type Tiger F-5E saw a large marquee on approach and wrongly set course for it from the yodelling festival in Mümliswil 3 km west of the planned destination. The flight, which took place only a few hundred meters above the ground, was “practically invisible” from Langenbruck. The old machines are not equipped with GPS .

literature

  • Kaspar Birkhäuser : Bieder [Bider], Oskar. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Johannes Dettwiler-Riesen: Biography of Julie Helene “Leny” Bider (1894–1919) [including additions about Leny's brother, aviation pioneer Oskar Marcus “Oski” Bider, 1891–1919]. 2nd Edition. Self-published by Johannes Dettwiler-Riesen, Thun 2019.
  • Eugen Dietschi: Swiss aviation back then. The history of Swiss aviation from wire chests of drawers to the first air giants. Pharos-Verlag Hansrudolf Schwabe AG, Basel 1976, ISBN 3-7230-0186-6 .
  • Ulrich C. Haller: Oskar Bider (1891-1919). In: Six Swiss Aviation Pioneers. Association for economic history studies, Meilen 1987, pp. 29–43 ( Swiss pioneers of economy and technology 46, ZDB -ID 146854-6 ).
  • Paul Jenni: Langenbruck local history. Verlag des Kantons Basel-Landschaft, Liestal 1992, ISBN 3-85673-514-3 , cf. Pp. 134-144.
  • Fritz Klaus: Our canton. A local reading and work book. 2nd updated edition. Verlag des Kantons Basel-Landschaft, Liestal 1987, ISBN 3-85673-401-5 , cf. Pp. 255-257.
  • Fritz Meier: Local history reading book of Basel. 3. Edition. Lehrmittelverlag des Kantons Basel-Stadt, Basel 1966, cf. Pp. 250-251.
  • Anne-Marie Renati: On the 100th birthday of Oskar Bider, July 12, 1891 to July 7, 1919. First chief flight instructor of Swiss military aviation. Federal Office for Military Aviation and Air Defense, Bern 1991.
  • Roman Schürmann: Helvetic hunters. Dramas and scandals in the military sky. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-85869-406-5 .
  • Eugen Schwarz, Heidi Schwarz: Oskar Bider, 1891-1919. A life for aviation. Langenbruck Transport and Improvement Association, Langenbruck 1991.
  • Peter Supf :  Bider, Oskar. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 218 ( digitized version ).
  • Otto Walter: Bider, the aviator. A book of memories. Walter, Olten et al. 1938 (the author was Oskar Bider's 1st observation officer).
  • Otto Walter: Bider, the aviator. A document of memory of the pioneering days of Swiss aviation. Walter, Olten 1963 (abridged new edition of the 1938 edition).
  • Otto Walter: Solothurn classics . Knapp, Olten 2012 (edited by Hans Brunner, abridged new edition of the work “Bider, der Flieger” by Otto Walter), ISBN 978-3-905848-68-7

Fiction

Web links

Commons : Oskar Bider  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Family tree of the Bider families from Langenbruck
  2. ↑ a b c www 20minuten ch, 20 minutes, 20 min. Www.20min.ch: 100 years ago Oskar Bider conquered the Alps. Retrieved July 8, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Expo archive: commemorative stamp, postcard. Retrieved September 24, 2019 .
  4. ↑ 1919, photo by Bider and Passenger, curriculum vitae
  5. ↑ a b Daniel Steffen: Oskar Bider's last flight | NZZ . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . ( nzz.ch [accessed on July 8, 2019]).
  6. ↑ See the official death certificate dated July 8, 1919 from the civil registry district of Zurich, as well as the very personal but published farewell letter of July 7, 1919 - written by Ernst Jucker (Zurich) and addressed to his bride Leny, who has just passed away
  7. ↑ Bridge builder : The << Götti >> expected more from us , January 11, 1984
  8. ↑ Swiss Army aerobatics fly over wrong location orf.at, July 8, 2019, accessed July 8, 2019.
  9. ↑ Failed honor: aerobatic pilots of the Swiss Army fly over wrong place . In: Spiegel Online . July 7, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed July 8, 2019]).
personal data
SURNAME Bider, Oskar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bider, Oskar Marcus (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss farmer and aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Langenbruck
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 1919
Place of death Dubendorf