Marga von Etzdorf

Last updated
Margarete von Etzdorf
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2008-0814-500, Marga von Etzdorf.jpg
von Etzdorf, 1932
Born(1907-08-01)August 1, 1907
DiedMay 28, 1933(1933-05-28) (aged 25)
near Aleppo, Syria
NationalityGerman
Occupation Aviator
Known forWorld's first female airline pilot

Margarete (Marga) von Etzdorf (1 August 1907 - 28 May 1933) [1] was a German aircraft pilot, notable for being the first woman hired to fly for an airline, and the first woman to fly solo across Siberia, from Germany to Tokyo, Japan. [2]

Contents

Career

von Etzdorf, upon her arrival in Tokyo, 29 August 1931 Bundesarchiv Bild 183-W0801-521, Tokio, Ankunft Marga von Etzdorf.jpg
von Etzdorf, upon her arrival in Tokyo, 29 August 1931

When she was 19 years old, von Etzdorf received a pilot's license, the second woman after Thea Rasche to do so after the First World War. On 19 February 1928, she became the first woman to fly for an airline. Since the Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule did not accept women at the time, she was mostly self-taught, although she received support from Melitta Schiller, who worked as an engineer at the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt. She began flying a commercial Junkers F.13, nicknamed Kiek in die Welt, Berliner for "look in the world," for Lufthansa, then DLH. [3] She flew on the Berlin-Breslau and Berlin-Stuttgart-Basel routes. [4]

In 1930, with support from her grandparents, von Etzdorf bought herself a Junkers A 50ce, "Junior," which she painted bright yellow. She flew her first long-distance flight with it, to Istanbul. Soon afterwards, she attempted to fly to the Canary Islands, but her plane suffered severe damage due to a severe storm above Italy. It had to be sent by train to the Junkers factory, to be repaired. On 18 August 1931 she began her record-breaking flight to Tokyo. After 11 days, on 29 August 1931, she landed at Haneda Airport, where she was received warmly. The construction of the airport, costing approximately half-a-million dollars at the time, had recently finished, and von Etzdorf was the first foreigner to enter Japan by that port. [2] Her flight back was not as successful, due to a severe loss in altitude that left the aircraft damaged beyond repair and the pilot severely injured after taking off from a stopover in Bangkok. She made the most of her time in what is now Thailand, being the first person to send reports of the Siamese Revolution to Europe. [5] She returned to Berlin on 18 July 1932.

Personal life

She was the daughter of a captain in the Prussian Army, Fritz Wolff, and his wife Margarete, she lost both of her parents in an accident in Ragusa, Sicily when she was four years old. [4] After the accident, she and her sister, Ursula, lived with their grandparents Ulrich von Etzdorf  [ de ], who was a General in the Prussian army, and his wife.

After returning from Tokyo, Elly Beinhorn suggested she fly to Cape Town, South Africa. On 27 May 1933, she attempted to make a stopover near Aleppo, but lost control of her Klemm Kl 32, due to heavy winds. After dealing with the necessary formalities, she asked for a private room, where, not even an hour after the crash, she killed herself, because she felt that she could not bear returning to Germany.

There has been much speculation about the reasons for the suicide: Another return without an aeroplane would have destroyed her reputation as an aviator – no manufacturer would have entrusted her with an aeroplane again and no sponsor would have supported her ventures financially once more. Her flying career would have been over. It was not until 2007, [6] through the research of historian Evelyn Crellin, that it became public that von Etzdorf had entered into a secret agreement with the Nazis and that she was to initiate illegal arms deals. A letter from Ernst Heymann (retired captain, employee of the Haenel arms company and arms lobbyist with contacts to the NSDAP) was found in her last luggage. [7] The letter from Heymann indicated that the submachine gun was not only for self-defense, but mainly for illegal negotiations for the distribution of Schmeisser submachine guns. Enclosed were accessories and 100 rounds of ammunition as well as German and English catalogues and price lists. She was supposed to earn money from possible sales. [8] Carrying the submachine gun for private use would have been permitted only with the permission of the overflown country. However, trade in such weapons also violated fundamental provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. The Foreign Office, which had sent a diplomat to Aleppo, was well aware of the explosive nature of this situation. France had the League of Nations mandate for Syria and Lebanon at the time. Today it is assumed that one of the reasons for the suicide was the fear of discovery by French officials and of propagandistic exploitation by the French government. The latter refrained from capitalizing on the incident after the death. In Germany, arms smuggling was never publicized or discussed for decades.

She was buried in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin, but her grave was destroyed in the 1970s, due to its proximity to the Berlin Wall. Her gravestone read Der Flug ist das Leben wert, or "flying is worth life". [5]

Related Research Articles

Deutsche Lufthansa AG / Lufthansa German Airlines, commonly shortened to Lufthansa, serves as the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it stands as the second-largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried, after the ultra low-cost carrier Ryanair, largest in Europe and fourth largest in the world by revenue. Lufthansa is also one of the five founding members of Star Alliance, which is the world's largest airline alliance, formed in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanna Reitsch</span> German aviator and test pilot

Hanna Reitsch was a German aviator and test pilot. Along with Melitta von Stauffenberg, she flight tested many of Germany's new aircraft during World War II and received many honors. Reitsch was among the very last people to meet Adolf Hitler alive in the Führerbunker in late April 1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Junkers A50</span> Type of aircraft

The Junkers A50 Junior was a German sports plane of the 1930s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Baur</span> German military aviator

Johannes 'Hans' Baur was Adolf Hitler's pilot during the political campaigns of the early 1930s. He began his aviation career as a flying ace in World War I. He later became Hitler's personal pilot and leader of the Reichsregierung squadron. Apprehended by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II in Europe, he was imprisoned in the Soviet Union for ten years. He died in Herrsching, Bavaria, in 1993.

Austrian Airlines AG, often shortened to Austrian or AUA, is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat where it also maintains its hub. As of July 2016, the airline flew to six domestic and more than 120 international year-round and seasonal destinations in 55 countries and is a member of the Star Alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amelie Beese</span> German aviator (1886–1925)

Amelie Hedwig Boutard-Beese, also known as Melli Beese, was the first female German pilot, and airplane engineer female aviator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deutsche Luft Hansa</span> 1926–1945 German flag carrier airline

Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G. was a German airline. It served as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and throughout Nazi Germany, when it had close links to the Nazi Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thea Rasche</span> Germanys first female aerobatics pilot

Theodora Rasche was Germany's first female aerobatics pilot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Junkers Ju 160</span> Passenger transport aircraft

The Junkers Ju 160 was a German single-engine, low-wing six-seat passenger transport aircraft developed from the Ju 60 and targeted at the same fast airliner market as the Heinkel He 70 and the Lockheed Model 9 Orion. The Deutsche Lufthansa fleet of 21 aircraft began operations in 1935 and continued until the start of World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Salomon</span> German social reformer

Alice Salomon was a German social reformer and pioneer of social work as an academic discipline. Her role was so important to German social work that the Deutsche Bundespost issued a commemorative postage stamp about her in 1989. A university, a park and a square in Berlin are all named after her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilhelm Schüchter</span> German conductor

Wilhelm Schüchter was a German conductor. He was Generalmusikdirektor in Dortmund from 1962 until his death. He opened the new opera house in 1966 with Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss, and conducted the world premiere of the opera Eli by Walter Steffens after the drama of Nelly Sachs in 1967. He left a legacy of opera recordings, especially of excerpts sung in German.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margarete von Wrangell</span> Baltic German agricultural chemist

Margarethe Mathilde von Wrangell, after 1928 Princess Andronikow, néeBaroness von Wrangell was a Baltic German agricultural chemist and the first female full professor at a German university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margarete Bieber</span> German-American art historian (1879–1978)

Margarete Bieber was a Jewish German-American art historian, classical archaeologist and professor. She became the second woman university professor in Germany in 1919 when she took a position at the University of Giessen. She studied the theatre of ancient Greece and Rome as well as the sculpture and clothing in ancient Rome and Greece.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margarete Heymann</span>

Margarete Heymann, also known as Margarete Heymann-Löbenstein, Margarete Heymann-Marks, and Grete Marks, was a German ceramic artist of Jewish origin and a Bauhaus student. In 1923 she founded the Haël Workshops for Artistic Ceramics at Marwitz that she had to close in 1933 and settled in Jerusalem. She moved to Britain in 1936 and continued her work, becoming world famous as “Greta Pottery”. Her finest work is considered to be from her working period in Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margarete Himmler</span> Wife of Heinrich Himmiler

Margarete Himmler, also known as Marga Himmler, was the wife of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hedwig Bollhagen</span> German ceramicist in the Bauhaus style

Hedwig Bollhagen was a German ceramicist and co-founder of the HB Workshops for Ceramics. A museum dedicated to her work has been opened near Berlin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margarete Zuelzer</span> German zoologist and biologist

Margarete Hedwig Zuelzer was a German biologist and zoologist specializing in the study of protozoa.

Luise Hoffmann was a German aviator. She was the first woman test pilot in Germany, and possibly in Europe.

Haël Workshops for Artistic Ceramics G.m.b.H. was a company which produced stoneware and was founded in 1923 by Dr Gustav Loebenstein, his wife Margarete and Daniel Loebenstein, housed on a lease basis in a former cocklestove factory, as the successor of the manufacturing company Petry in Marwitz, in the Margraviate of Brandenburg.

Ingrid Roitzsch was a German journalist and politician (CDU). She served between 1992 and 1993 as parliamentary secretary of state at the Ministry of Defence.

References

  1. "Margarete von Etzdorf (1907 - 1933)". Berlin-airport.de.
  2. 1 2 "Marga von Etzdorf (1907-1933)". Monash University . Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  3. "In the Lufthansa cockpit 25 years on". Lufthansa . 22 August 2013. Archived from the original on 29 September 2014. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Marga von Etzdorf - Germany". Centennial of Women Pilots. 25 July 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  5. 1 2 "Marga and the Silver Bird". Kreuzberged Berlin. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2017.
  6. Christoph Gunkel (2021-08-27), "Flugpionierin Marga von Etzdorf: Rekordflug nach Tokio, Waffendeal mit den Nazis", spiegel.de, retrieved 2021-08-30
  7. Alice Bota (2014-02-02), "Pilotin Marga von Etzdorf : Der Flug ist das Leben wert", Die Zeit, Hamburg, ISSN   0044-2070 , retrieved 2019-02-11
  8. Evelyn Zegenhagen (2007), "Schneidige deutsche Mädel": Fliegerinnen zwischen 1918 und 1945, Göttingen: Wallstein, pp. 174–175, ISBN   978-3-8353-0179-5