Otto Könnecke

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Otto Könnecke (born December 20, 1892 in Straßberg (Harz) , † January 25, 1956 in Bad Aibling ) was a German fighter pilot in the First World War and knight of the order Pour le Mérite and the first German commercial pilot .

Otto Könnecke 1918

Life

Könnecke grew up as the son of a carpenter, attended school in Straßberg, completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter and then graduated from the commercial school in Frankfurt am Main . In order to do his military service, he reported to the Railway Regiment No. 3 in Hanau in 1911 and in 1913 came as a surrender to the Aviation Battalion No. 4 in Metz (→ Metz Fortress ), where he was trained as a pilot.

At the beginning of the First World War, Könnecke was employed as a flight instructor at AEG to train military pilots. In 1916 he came to the front in Macedonia as a deputy sergeant for Jagdstaffel 25 . It was here that he achieved his first aerial victory when he shot down a French Farman aircraft northwest of Magila on February 5, 1917. At the end of April 1917, Könnecke joined Jagdstaffel 5, which operated from Boistrancourt airfield on the western front ; there he formed the “golden triumvirate” with his fellow fighter pilots Fritz Rumey and Josef Mai with a total of 109 aerial victories. On August 8th and 9th, 1918 alone, Könnecke shot down three enemy planes each time there was one enemy flight. His aircraft, an Albatros DV , was recognizable by its red propeller hood, green fuselage and tail unit with the red border lines of the Jasta 5 and had a black and white checkerboard pattern with a red border as a symbol. Könnecke received the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords. In addition, he was awarded the Golden Military Cross of Merit , the highest war award for NCOs, and received on September 26, 1918 the order Pour le Mérite; he is considered one of only five soldiers who were decorated with these two highest honors of the First World War. On November 2nd, shortly before the end of the war, Könnecke shot down his 33rd (according to the Jasta 5 war diary, his 35th) opponent.

The plane "Germania" of the ocean pilot Könnecke
Intermediate landing of the ocean pilot Otto Könnecke with his plane Germania at Tempelhof Airport

Following the example of Charles Lindberg , many European pilots tried in vain to take the reverse route from Europe to America across the Atlantic. During the war, Otto Könnecke and his fallen comrade Fritz Rumey had forged plans to one day venture to fly from Europe to America. His idea was to set up an airline between Europe and America, for which purpose he founded his own airline "Germania" based in Cologne . In order to explore the route before the planned regular service, Könnecke set out on his own in a Caspar C 32 double-decker , which was designed by Reinhold Mewes from the Caspar-Werke and equipped with additional tanks and which had previously been used as a spraying aircraft in agriculture. The route was supposed to initially lead via England , Scotland , Iceland , Greenland and Newfoundland and to the east coast of Canada in the USA . A storm over the Atlantic, however, forced Könnecke to reschedule at short notice and to choose the detour via Hungary , Romania , Turkey , Persia , India , Korea and Japan . From there it went on via China and the Soviet Union to the Kamchatka Peninsula with the aim of reaching the west coast of North America and flying further south. After visiting the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco , he could have crossed the United States to be the first world circumnavigator to return to Germany from New York along the originally planned route .

The Mayor of Cologne at the time , Konrad Adenauer , was on vacation to report on the progress of the company and on August 12, 1928, telegraphed the flight control: "The plane Koennecke is to be granted every relief," and four days later asked expressly to "via America flight Koennecke to be kept up to date by telegram. The departure from the airfield in Butzweilerhof near Cologne-Bickendorf on September 20, 1927 caused a sensation. With over 1000 kg of fuel; Tools, provisions, rubber dinghy, flare pistol and ammunition, hand weapons, spare parts and some hand luggage, Könnecke and his two fellow pilots Georg Friedrich Graf zu Solms-Laubach and Johannes Hermann got on their plane at around 2 p.m. with the inscription "Pressa" on the wings ( Press exhibition in Cologne). The planes reached Basra via Frankfurt am Main , Vienna , Budapest , Belgrade , Constantinople , the Princes Islands, Angora, Aleppo and Baghdad . During the flight, Count Solms-Laubach had to refill the tank by pumping out additional canisters, and when the engine threatened to explode due to overheating over the desert, the Count cut ventilation holes in the engine cowling during the flight. On the onward flight to Bandar Abbas , the machine got into an air hole and threatened to crash; Otto Könnecke brought the machine back under his control, but Count Solms had to travel back to Germany due to a head injury. On the flight from Karachi to Delhi in Etawah , an engine failure finally prevented the onward flight. Otto Könnecke and his mechanic Johannes Hermann were forced to give up the daring company. It was not until April 1928 that the pilot Hermann Köhl managed to fly over the Atlantic to the west. After his return, Könnecke returned to the "Deutsche Luft Hansa" as a pilot.

Reactivated in 1935, Könnecke again served as a flight instructor and head of training in the Air Force . As a major , he became the commandant of a flight school. His last post in World War II was Lieutenant Colonel Könnecke from October 15, 1944 as airport area commander 271.

Otto Könnecke died on January 25, 1956 in Bad Aibling and was buried in the city cemetery. His grave (Section 13, Row 7, Grave 55) no longer exists, as it was re-occupied in 1984.

His awards and certificates are exhibited in the German Order Museum in Neuffen .

See also

literature

  • Georg Friedrich Graf zu Solms-Laubach: Flight to Asia and return home. A report. E. Roth, Giessen 1928.
  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 2: HO. Biblio Publishing House. Bissendorf 2003. ISBN 3-7648-2516-2 . Pp. 247-248.

Web links

Commons : Otto Könnecke  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Konnecke, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fighter pilot in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Straßberg (Harz)
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1956
Place of death Bad Aibling