Wilhelmine Reichard

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Wilhelmine Reichard, lithograph by Adolf Kunike , around 1820
Wilhelmine Reichard's house in Döhlen
Hot air balloon D-OBDD "Wilhelmine Reichard" in flight over Dresden
Tomb of the first balloonist Wilhelmine Reichard in the Döhlen cemetery

Johanne Wilhelmine Siegmundine "Minna" Reichard , née Schmidt (born April 2, 1788 in Braunschweig , † February 23, 1848 in Döhlen ) was Germany's first female balloonist .

Life

Wilhelmine Schmidt, called Minna, was the daughter of a ducal Brunswick cupbearer . She spent her childhood and youth in Braunschweig. In 1806 she married the balloonist Gottfried Reichard (1786–1844), who was a professor of physics in Braunschweig. They had eight children together. Both shared a passion for airship travel and together they built a gas balloon , which they took off from Berlin in 1810 . On April 16, 1811, she took her first solo trip in a balloon. It started in the garden of the Berlin Royal Veterinary School and landed in Genshagen, about 30 km away . The third balloon flight from Dresden followed on September 30, 1811 . She reached a height of 7000 m.

Despite several crash landings , she continued to take balloon flights from all major German cities. On August 9, 1818, she drove from Braunschweig via Wolfenbüttel towards Asse and Harz . Finally she was aborted in the direction of Königslutter and ended up with apprenticeship .

By 1820 she made 17 trips, which she also used for scientific purposes. As a research assistant for her husband, she also worked in the field of chemistry . Among other things, she carried out weather observations and temperature measurements. During a balloon ride, she rose so high that she passed out due to lack of oxygen. The balloon burst, crashed, and got caught in some young spruce trees. Reichard survived with some injuries and rose again five years later. Your last trip took place at the tenth Oktoberfest in Munich .

In 1814 she moved to Döhlen, where she lived on Grenzstrasse 9 , today Reichardstrasse 9, until her death . The money she earned from her balloon rides was invested in her husband's chemical factory, which she bought in 1821. After his death in 1844, she continued this for four years until her own death. She died of a stroke in 1848 . Her grave is in the Döhlen cemetery .

Her sons continued to run the chemical factory successfully for decades. Her grandson Otto Reichard died in an industrial accident in 1891. The factory was closed in 1894.

plant

On September 19, 1818 Wilhelmine Reichard's description of her experiences as an aerial skipper appeared in the Braunschweig magazine under the title History of my air journey.

Honors

Balloon ride Oktoberfest Munich 1820
  • Reichard possibly served Karl May as a model for his character Wanda . In Chapter IV of the story of the same name from 1875, May exploited the turbulent events of September 30, 1811.
  • In 1978 the Deutsche Bundespost issued a youth stamp with Reichard's balloon ride in 1820 at the Munich Oktoberfest.
  • Her house in Freital-Döhlen has been reconstructed since 1998 by the Dresden balloonist Matthias Schütze with co-financing from the community. There is a memorial plaque for her and her husband on the house. The street on which the house is located, formerly "Grenzstraße", was renamed Reichardstraße after her and her husband .
  • Balloonist Matthias Schütze had a balloon designed with a half-length portrait by Wilhelmine Reichard and has been offering public trips with this balloon since the 200th anniversary of her first single flight (2011). Wilhelmine Reichhard D-OWIR , balloon height 21 m, diameter 18 m, envelope size 3398 m 3 , envelope weight 138 kg, maximum take-off weight 1088 kg.
  • On September 19, 2014, the school for learning support in Döhlen was named Wilhelmine-Reichard-Schule .
  • At Dresden Airport, on the airfield in Böblingen and at the former Gatow airfield in the aviation district of Berlin-Spandau , streets are named after her.
  • In the Munich district of Lerchenau, in the Frankfurt district of Bockenheim and in the Kassel industrial park, a street was also named after her.
  • On Wachberg at Saupsdorf their local emergency landing was unveiled a plaque on September 30, 2011 to mark the 200th anniversary.
  • In 2014, the tram with the number 1452 was christened Wilhelmine Reichard in Braunschweig . There is also the Wilhelmine-Reichard-Weg here.
  • In June 2015, a restaurant named the balloonist opened in Berlin's WeiberWirtschaft . It was closed again in April 2016.
  • Until 2018, the traditional balloon glow took place every year at the Freitaler Windbergfest as a souvenir of Wilhelmine Reichard. Her involvement in the city was remembered on the sports field not far from her former home.

literature

Web links

Commons : Wilhelmine Reichard  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Elisabeth Reifenstein: Johanne Wilhelmine Siegmundine Reichard. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 479 .
  2. ^ Elisabeth Reifenstein: Johanne Wilhelmine Siegmundine Reichard. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 480 .
  3. Wilhelmine Reichard: History of my air journey. In: Braunschweigisches Magazin. 38th piece, Saturday, September 19th, 1818, column 593-600 (digitized version).
  4. ^ René Grießbach: Wanda and Wilhelmine . In: Mitteilungen der Karl-May-Gesellschaft 169/2011, pp. 5–15.
  5. Karl May: Wanda. In: The observer on the Elbe. 2nd year 1875, No. 26–44.
  6. Ballonsport & Luftwerbung Dresden presents Wilhelmine Reichard dresden-ballonfahrten.de, Ballon-Sport und Luftwerbung Dresden GmbH, old website, accessed February 4, 2021.
  7. Dresden-Ballonfahrten ballon-sport-dresden.de, Ballon-Sport und Luftwerbung Dresden GmbH, new website 2016, accessed February 4, 2021.
  8. freital.de: Wilhelmine-Reichard-school in Freital . September 30, 2014 ( Memento from November 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ^ Saupsdorfer honor balloonist ( memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) in Sächsische Zeitung Online
  10. Bus and tram baptisms. Braunschweiger Verkehrs-GmbH, accessed on May 24, 2016 .
  11. ^ Wilhelmine dining room. In: GastroGuide.de. Retrieved April 15, 2016 .
  12. wilhelmine dining room. In: wilhelmine dining room. Retrieved April 15, 2016 .
  13. In memory of Wilhelmine Reichard. City of Freital, accessed on September 6, 2019 .