Wolfgang von Gronau

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Wolfgang von Gronau (1933)

Hans Wolfgang Gronau , from 1913 from Gronau (born February 25, 1893 in Berlin , † March 17, 1977 in Frasdorf , Upper Bavaria) was a German naval pilot and major general in the Air Force. He became famous as an aviation pioneer.

family

Wolfgang Gronau came from an old family from the Duchy of Berg . He was the son of the General of the Artillery Hans Gronau (1850-1940) and Luise Gerischer (1867-1926). His father was raised to the hereditary Prussian nobility on June 16, 1913 .

On September 1, 1918, Gronau married Irma Hell (1895–1981) in Baden-Baden . This marriage, which was divorced in 1934, had a daughter and two sons. In his second marriage, he married Hertha Seelmann-Mirow (1901–1988) in Berlin on March 29, 1935.

Life

Wolfgang von Gronau with his Dornier-Wal over the Templiner See

Gronau joined the Imperial Navy on April 1, 1911 and received basic infantry and seaman training that same year. This was followed by training at the naval school and special courses until 1913. He experienced the outbreak of the First World War on the great cruiser von der Tann , where he was promoted to lieutenant on August 1, 1914 . From here he switched to the ship of the line Brandenburg as adjutant in August . But since he was very interested in aviation, he was commanded to the Norderney sea ​​pilot station in March 1915 , where he learned the basic elements of flying. He then acquired his license as a pilot in the glider piloting department on Borkum . Until December 1915 he worked as a flight manager on the Answald . From 1916 Gronau was deployed to the Warnemünde Sea Flying Test Command in the field of test and acceptance flying. On November 1 of the same year he became 1st Adjutant of the Second Sea Aviation Department and in November 1917 moved from here, also as 1st Adjutant and First Lieutenant , to the staff of the Commander of the Aviators in the High Seas Fleet. From here he was given command of the Wilhelmshaven sea flying station, which he held until December 31, 1918. In the confusion of the transition from the German Empire to the Republic, the dissolution and later reorganization of the armed forces, he was assigned to the General Command Opole at the Border Guard East from January 1919 and retired from military service on November 24, 1919.

After various attempts to gain a foothold in civilian professions, Gronau became an employee of the DVS on October 1, 1925 and, as a clerk in a covered form, was responsible for the aviation training of the naval command of the Reichswehr Ministry. Since Germany was not allowed to maintain military aviation due to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty , the courses carried out were declared as private or civil pilot training. From 1926 he returned to Warnemünde and headed the small sea flight department of DVS. In the same year he set an altitude record for seaplanes with the Heinkel HE 5 D-937 floatplane , which was internationally recognized as the first German world record after the war. On October 1st, he moved from Warnemünde to Sylt, where he became the director of the German Aviation School List. Over the next few years, he mainly took care of stability and the necessary specialist staff at the site and, from 1928, further expanded the school station in List on Sylt . In Königsberg he was a member of the Rossitten Academic Aviation Association .

In addition to his training activities , Gronau was planning an Atlantic flight and was supported by the Dornier company and Shell . Both in 1930 and in 1931 he was able to realize these pioneering flights. A year later he even managed to circumnavigate the world. He published travel reports and gave lectures on aviation. In 1933 he received the title of Ministerialrat in the Reich Aviation Ministry , but nevertheless remained head of seaplane training. When the now five seaplane stations were transferred to the still camouflaged Luftwaffe on April 1, 1934, Gronau left. He then became President of the Aeroclub of Germany and in 1935 Vice President of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale . In the years from 1936 he remained in the reserve for the Air Force , was promoted annually as reserve officer until he was reactivated on January 1, 1939 and was commanded as a lieutenant colonel in training squadron 1 in Greifswald .

When, in the course of preparations for the Second World War in 1938/39, the posts of military attachés were refilled at several German embassies or embassies, and specialists who were experienced in the field of the air force and who had current experience in dealing with modern technology were sought , Gronau was one of the chosen ones. From April 15, 1939, he was used as an air force attaché at the German embassy in Tokyo , replacing Gerhard Matzky (1894–1983), who remained on site as a military attaché. The German ambassador in Tokyo at that time was Eugen Ott . The position and perception of the responsibility of the military attachés in Japan was of great importance for Germany in these years from two different perspectives. On the one hand, alliance-related agreements existed between the two countries within the framework of the Anti-Comintern Pact concluded in 1936 . These related primarily to Japan's political and military strategic orientation towards China and the Soviet Union. On the other hand, there were politicians and military in the Japanese leadership circles who, in the interests of hegemony vis-à-vis the USA, spoke out in favor of their own regional alliances in which the Soviet Union should also be included. In order to avoid any danger for Germany from this, Japan had to be kept in stability as the Asian flank for the planned annihilation of the Soviet Union. Obtaining the necessary information was one of the main tasks of the attachés positioned in Japan. This mainly concerned information about the Japanese armed forces, the development of weapons and combat technology, but also their operational planning. From June 1, 1939, Gronau was also responsible as an air force attaché for the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo . In January 1940 Gronau was promoted to colonel and rose to major general in July 1943. But when working with the Japanese military, the Air Force attaché did not stop at the step of gathering information. In order to help the Japanese Air Force to improve its effectiveness quickly, he handed over the construction documents of the latest Messerschmitt Me 163 jet-propelled fighter and the V 1 wing projectile, which were kept strictly confidential . Due to the increasingly tense war and personnel situation in the military command areas, he was transferred to the command reserve of the Army High Command on January 27, 1945 . With the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht , he was interned in Japan on May 8, 1945 and was taken prisoner by the US on August 16, 1945 , from which he was released on November 30, 1947.

Wolfgang von Gronau returned to Germany from Japan at the end of 1947 and took up residence in Bavaria.

Circumnavigation

Further rose to fame, Gronau, when he in July 1932 with the twin-engine seaplane Dornier Wal with the registration D-2053 by the then Pilot School in List on Sylt embarked on a world tour that led him back to more than 44,000 km in the November 1932 return to List.

prehistory

On August 18, 1930, Gronau took off with an old Dornier Wal D-1422 on its first transatlantic flight in an east-west direction. Together with his crew, he managed to cope with the northern air route across the Atlantic on the route Sylt-Island-Greenland-Labrador-New York (4670 miles) in "only" 47 flight hours. When the crew landed on the Hudson River in New York on August 26, 1930 , they received an enthusiastic reception. In recognition of his achievement, he was received at the White House by Herbert Hoover , President of the United States . At that time he was director of the DVS (German Traffic Aviation School) in List on Sylt. He had planned this flight in secret and carried it out against the express prohibition of the responsible German ministry. Only about Iceland he informed by radio the Ministry in Berlin with the words: "Fly, provided your consent, via Iceland to New York!" .

He also informed his crew shortly beforehand about his further plans, which hit them quite unprepared: Gronau's co-pilot managed the flight in worn, perforated sneakers (anecdote by E. Zimmer). As the last of the crew, the newly engaged on-board mechanic "Franzl" Hack only found out everything through the radio message. Gronau's superiors were anything but happy about this behavior and disciplinary measures that had already been decided against him were only refrained from because his record flight was received with great enthusiasm both internationally and by the German population. From New York, Gronau and his crew flew on to Chicago. The return journey to Germany took place by ship.

crew

His team consisted of the copilot Eduard Max Lorenz Zimmer (1904-1989), then a flight instructor in List on Sylt, the Swabian mechanic Franz Xaver Hack - called "Franzl" - (1904-1964) and the radio operator Fritz Albrecht. On the world flight in 1932, Ghert von Roth (1907–1942) replaced Zimmer.

technology

Only one flight veteran was available for the first flight in 1930, an old Dornier DO-J whale with the registration number D-1422, with which (as N 25) the polar explorer Roald Amundsen had attempted to fly to the North Pole in 1925. After his first successful North Atlantic flight, Gronau was able to deliver a technically improved machine from Dornier in 1931, a new 8-ton J II -Wal (Dornier Do J II b Bos), the flying boat now called "Greenland Whale" with the registration D-2053, receive. The pioneer flights in 1931 and 1932 were successfully carried out with the D-2053.

She was u. a. equipped with two BMW -VIIa engines with 2 x 550 kW (750 hp) in tandem arrangement, a then novel Sperry - gyroscopic horizon and a FT system with Peilrahmen and dismountable antenna mast.

D-1422, formerly N25, landed on the snow-covered Oberwiesenfeld airfield in Munich in the winter of 1932 and came to the Deutsches Museum . There it was almost completely destroyed by air raids in 1944/45. An original stern segment / bulkhead is in the Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen.

Whale flying boats were used as reconnaissance aircraft and sea rescue pilots during World War II , and D-2053 was probably lost in the process. The whereabouts are unclear.

After returning from its successful world flight in November 1932, Gronau and its crew Claude Dornier were celebrated in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.

Flight route 1932

Wolfgang von Gronau am Templiner See (1930)
Reception for v. Gronau in New York (1930)

Honors

Publications

  • In the Greenland whale. Three times across the Atlantic and once around the world . R. Hobbing, Berlin 1933.
  • Edited together with Arnold Frisch: In a flying boat to America - experiences of the ocean pilot Wolfgang von Gronau . 1936.
  • How I learned to fly . 1941.
  • Pioneer flights with the Dornier whale . Aviation publishing house Walter Zuerl, Steinebach-Wörthsee.

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Volume 2, Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-2209-0 , p. 395 f.
  • John WM Chapman: The Price of Admiralty. The War Diary of the German Neval Attache in Japan 1939–1943. UK 1984 (3 volumes).
  • M. Michiel van der Mey: Dornier Wal - "A light coming over the sea".
  • Kurt W. Streit, John WR Taylor: History of Aviation. 1972.
  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the noble houses . Part B, Justus Perthes Verlag, Gotha 1941.
  • Genealogical manual of the nobility . Nobility Lexicon. Volume IV, Volume 67 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1978.

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang von Gronau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kurt W. Streit, John WR Taylor: History of Aviation. 1972.
  2. ^ Manfred Kehring: The re-establishment of the German military attaché service after the First World War (1919–1933). Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein 1966, p. 230.
  3. ^ John WM Chapman: The Price of Admiralty. The War Diary of the German Neval Attache in Japan 1939–1943. UK 1984 (3 volumes).
  4. ↑ Gronau Nunatakker . In: Anthony K. Higgins: Exploration history and place names of northern East Greenland. (= Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland Bulletin Vol. 21, 2010). Copenhagen 2010, ISBN 978-87-7871-292-9 (English), accessed July 30, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Gronau, Wolfgang von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gronau, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pilot and aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1977
Place of death Frasdorf