Rudolf Oeltzschner

Rudolf Oeltzschner (born May 5, 1899 in Merseburg , † August 1, 1935 near Selb in Bavaria) was a German aviator and glider record holder.

Life

Rudolf became interested in model aircraft at the age of 12 . He was a student at the Merseburg Cathedral High School . After his school days he devoted himself to aircraft construction in Leipzig Lindenthal. At the age of 17 he began training as a pilot in Cologne , Braunschweig and Darmstadt . At the age of 19, he was a fighter pilot in France in 1918 towards the end of the First World War . On July 17, 1918, he passed his first aerial battle . After the war he discovered gliding for himself.

His marriage to Frieda Marta Schlegel in 1923 resulted in two children (son Helmut, daughter Marianne). The family lived at Nordstrasse 3 in Merseburg (today Goethestrasse). In the 1920s, as a flight instructor for glider and motorized pilots, he co-founded the local group Merseburg in the German Aviation Association DLV. In 1931 the Laucha (Unstrut) airfield was opened up on his initiative . On July 31, 1935, he set the world record in long-distance gliding during the 16th Rhön competition . He flew from the Wasserkuppe in the Rhön near Fulda with a Rhönadler aircraft to Brno in the Czech Republic over a distance of 504 km - a pioneering act at the time. On the return flight in the tow of a motor machine, Oeltzschner had an accident near Selb in Bavaria.

With great sympathy from the population, Rudolf Oeltzschner was buried in the Altenburg cemetery in Merseburg.

literature

• Rudolf Oeltzschner - a heroic life: Zsgest. from reports d. "Merseburger Korrespondent" / arrangement: Otto Georgi, Merseburg: Rössner, 1935