Wilhelm Frankl

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Lieutenant Wilhelm Frankl

Wilhelm Frankl (born December 20, 1893 in Hamburg , † April 8, 1917 between Vitry-en-Artois and Sailly-en-Ostrevent , Département Pas-de-Calais , France ) was a German fighter pilot and holder of the order Pour le Mérite im First World War .

Life

Wilhelm Frankl, son of a Jewish merchant family, acquired a pilot's license in Johannisthal from the first German female pilot, Melli Beese , after graduating from high school in Frankfurt am Main . In the same year he was baptized in Charlottenburg and accepted the Evangelical Christian religion. At the beginning of the First World War he volunteered for the air force and, after completing his training as a military pilot, was deployed as a reconnaissance, artillery and bomb pilot in Feldfliegerabteilung 1 and 40. In this application he achieved his first aerial victory on May 10, 1915 with a five-shot self-loading carbine against a French Voisin aircraft , which in turn was armed with a machine gun. His department head Captain Adolf Victor described him after the end of the war in his book Vom Gefreitenknopf zum Pour-le-merite as "a daredevil, passionate aviator who receives unreserved attention from comrades because of his kindness and modesty".

Wilhelm Frankl was the brother of Clarence C. Franklin alias C. Frankl, who ran the sanatorium of Oskar Kohnstamm after his death until he emigrated in 1938.

Pour le Mérite

Repeatedly honored for bravery and promoted to Vice Sergeant , he was assigned to a combat unit in January 1916 . After his fourth kill, he was promoted to lieutenant. The officer rank was the prerequisite for being able to receive the order Pour le Mérite after the eighth kill as the ninth fighter pilot . In 1917 he took over command of Jasta (Fighter Squadron) 4. On April 2, 1917, he was the first pilot ever to shoot down an enemy aircraft at night, then three more aircraft during the day. On April 5, 1917, Lieutenant Frankl scored three aerial victories.

Three days later he fell in a dogfight at the wheel of his Albatros D.III near Vitry-en-Artois . He was one of more than 12,000 German war veterans who were Jewish or of Jewish origin who died in World War I. With 19 victories in the air he is counted among the most successful fighter pilots of the First World War. From the point of view of the Jewish religious community, Frankl was no longer considered a Jew when he died, because he had been baptized.

During the time of National Socialism , in the context of the biographies compiled by Hanns Möller, the bearer of the Pour le Merite also received Frankl, referred to as " the 'Maccabees' Frankl ", one last brief appreciation of his military services, otherwise he became a German propagandist Aviation personalities of the First World War withheld because of his Jewish origin.

Wilhelm Frankl Barracks

After a corresponding proposal by Gerd Schmückle had failed twelve years earlier due to rejection and hesitant resistance, the Luftwaffe barracks in Neuburg an der Donau were converted into "Wilhelm-Frankl-Barracks" on November 22nd, 1973 at the initiative of a committed group of sergeants. renamed. At the same time, the Jagdgeschwader 74 stationed there received the traditional name " Mölders " (revoked in 2005) .

April 8, 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of his death. On this occasion, soldiers, alumni and guests met at the memorial stone in the barracks.

literature

  • Felix Aaron Theilhaber: Jewish Aviators in the World War . Verlag der Schild, Berlin 1924
  • Rolf Vogel : A piece of us: German Jews in German armies 1813–1976, a documentation. 2nd edition, Verlag von Hase & Koehler, Mainz 1977, ISBN 3-7758-0920-1 .
  • Heinrich Walle (ed.): German Jewish soldiers 1914–1945. Catalog for the traveling exhibition, published on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Defense. from the Military History Research Office , 3rd exp. Aufl., Mittler, Herford 1987, ISBN 3-8132-0277-1 .
  • The Jewish fighter pilot Wilhelm Frankl fell 100 years ago: Wilhelm Frankl, for the second. In: FliegerRevue No. 7/2017, pp. 54–55

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Frankl - he was baptized in 1913 . In: Journal for Low German Family Studies . 93rd volume, issue 4. Hamburg 2018, p. 355 f .
  2. ↑ It was shot down after the 19th aerial victory: Jacob Rosenthal The Honor of the Jewish Soldier - The Jewish Census in World War I and its Consequences , Frankfurt am Main 2007, plate 10
  3. ↑ Hanns Möller-Witten : History of the Knights of the Order “pour Le Mérite” in World War I , Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, p. 19, cf. P. 328
  4. ↑ Gerd Schmückle: Without timpani and trumpets: memories of war and peace . 2nd edition, DVA, Stuttgart 1982, SS 222
  5. ↑ Bundeswehr honors fighter pilot Wilhelm Frankl on the 100th anniversary of his death. In: Donaukurier.de. April 10, 2017, accessed August 14, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Frankl, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fighter pilot in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1917
Place of death France