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Author Topic: Hanna Reitsch - A Young Germans Wet Dream  (Read 10621 times)
Rattler
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« on: 31 October 2010, 21:07:34 »
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...and truly so:

When I was young, living at the side of Frankfurt Airport and wanting nothing more than to become a pilot (that was right after the tow-truck driver phase, and it persisted...  Brede lach) I read everything about aviation, and one lady caught my eye instantly and had me fascinated (and while a civilian all her life, I think she qualifies for the board according to its title - she wore 2 Iron Crosses, as you can see in the vids even during the interview...):


Does she not look every young mans wet dream?







Not only was she the most famous female pilot of Germany, but on top she was a *test* pilot (which at my age meant a female Chuck Yaeger).

In my books she had flown everything, from the first helicopter of mankind (at 24!) way before WWII  over the (Boeing 747 sized) gliders "Gigant" and the first rocket and jet planes that Germany had thrown out through the war.

I am more than sure that her image has quite definitely shaped my attitude and my prey pattern towards women, I found her gorgeous!

Now, today, stumbled over one of the interviews she gave as an old lady (actually the last interview before she died) and discovered that I not only did not know much of the stuff discussed (or just the outlines, never knew she had to had an artificial nose, or that the "Gigant" took only 14 (!) weeks to be test flown after the design was finished - tell this to boeing!-  e.g.) but that even at this mature age (she must have been around 65 at the time of the interview, 3 years before her early death) her way of explaining stuff and reporting the anecdotes has me touched, and her English that turns half German (and the voice!) when she gets exited makes me smile, what a sympathetic, energy laden lady that revives her glorious moments for us in the interview to a point where you can almost visualize the jump back in time! ...

I would not have minded having (had I been born in 1912) her at my side as soul mate (I think).

Enjoy!

Hanna Reitsch - The Last Interview (1 of 3)


Hanna Reitsch - The Last Interview (2 of 3)


Hanna Reitsch - The Last Interview (3 of 3)


Rattler
« Last Edit: 31 October 2010, 21:27:33 by Rattler » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: 1 November 2010, 11:55:36 »
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after your words it's tough to add new ones... just expressing admiration is maybe the best I can do

she has been featured in movies:
Operation Crossbow
Operation Crossbow Hanna Reitsch V1 testing


Der Untergang
can't find the scene on YouTube
Quote
During the last days of the war, in light of Hermann Goering's dismissal as head of the Luftwaffe for what Hitler saw as an act of treason (sending the Göring Telegram and allegedly attempting a coup d'état), he appointed Colonel-General Robert Ritter von Greim as head of the Luftwaffe. To enable him to meet Hitler, von Greim asked Reitsch to fly him into embattled Berlin.
Red Army troops were already in the downtown area when Reitsch and von Greim arrived on 26 April in a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch. With her long experience at low-altitude flying over Berlin and having already surveyed the road as an escape route with Hitler's personal pilot Hans Baur, Reitsch landed on an improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate (Greim was wounded in the leg when Red Army soldiers fired at the light aircraft during its approach). They made their way to the Führerbunker, where Hitler promoted von Greim to Hermann Göring's former command of a now wholly defunct Luftwaffe. During the intense Russian bombardment, Hitler gave Reitsch a vial of poison for herself and another for von Greim. She accepted the vial willingly, fully prepared to die alongside her Führer. On Hitler's orders, she escaped from Berlin with von Greim during the evening of 28 April, flying the last German plane out of Berlin shortly before the fall of the city by climbing through heavy Soviet anti-aircraft fire. Hitler had ordered them to rendezvous with Karl Dönitz, who Hitler thought was rallying troops for a counter-attack.

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Rattler
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« Reply #2 on: 1 November 2010, 20:57:24 »
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Never saw the movie Operation Crossbow, but its sure funny to hear those guys speaking German with such a strong English accent... Smiley

Rattler
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« Reply #3 on: 2 November 2010, 06:44:17 »
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I have a bit of a problem with Hanna Reitsch in that she was a committed National Socialist and to be honest I have the same problem with Werner von Braun, there is no doubt that their achievements were great but they were achieved at the cost of a lot of innocent people.
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« Reply #4 on: 2 November 2010, 11:38:27 »
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I have a bit of a problem with Hanna Reitsch in that she was a committed National Socialist and to be honest I have the same problem with Werner von Braun, there is no doubt that their achievements were great but they were achieved at the cost of a lot of innocent people.


yep, it also surprised me (in a negative way) to see her saluting Nazi style.... but that's because we're used to see Luftwaffe personnel never do the Nazi salute.
So when she wanted to fly but couldn't be in the Luftwaffe there was probably only one option, the NSDAP.
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Rattler
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« Reply #5 on: 2 November 2010, 13:27:50 »
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I think it went a bit the other way around, probably you are not aware of the procedures after 1929 (when the Nazis won the majority of regional elections and Hitler ordered his party soldiers to "invade" the Reichswehr) until the war (during the war the loyality became more patriotic than political which I find quite normal).

In the time after 1929 and more or less until 1937+ not only did people not really were aware of the sinister ideas the Nazis were pursuing, from long talks to my father I have understood that there was a new feeling of national pride awakened that had been heavily damaged after loosing WWI and the emperor, so e.g. the Olympic Games in Berlin 1936 stood for this newly felt national pride without political sidelines.

Also, belonging to Hitlerjugend was obligatory for everybody, and nobody thought a lot about it: Friendly gaming rides over the weekend, a little camp fire romantic tossed in, and then the competitive setups were well liked both by the parents as well as by the young ones.

To become a pilot under the restricitve setup the allieds had left behind after WWI was literally exclusively possible if you were at least a "Hitlerjugend" member, and for the above 18 yrs old if you were a party member.

As HR was a pilot already before 1933 (when the Nazis threw over democracy) that was definitely her only option, and stuff like getting to fly the newest and first (not only military! There was not even a Luftwaffe at that time... After the treaty of Rapallo all development of planes and the education and training of pilots had to be kept top secret until 1930) planes surely at this time did not seem to conflict at all with becoming a party member when this was what everybopdy did anyway.

One of the main mean strategies the Nazis implemented was exactly this the "Gleichschaltung" (phasing into sync) of all levels of society and institutions, so actually the "Deutsche Luftsportverband" and "lufthansa" were some of the NSDAP organisations (though not on paper) where you could fly.

A bit like today, where "amateur" sportsmen are actually professionals: They become soldiers on paper, to be able to prepare for the Olympics.

FWIW,

Rattler
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« Reply #6 on: 2 November 2010, 19:33:55 »
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Not sure I agree in this case as I think unlike many others she embraced the ideology right to the end, as I have said this should not detract from her achievements but it does in my opinion put her character at question.
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Koen
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« Reply #7 on: 5 November 2010, 19:17:20 »
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Not sure I agree in this case as I think unlike many others she embraced the ideology right to the end, as I have said this should not detract from her achievements but it does in my opinion put her character at question.


it's indeed a question/issue that can be asked in several stories.

there was a brainwash when you grew up in Germany in the 30's and when the war started in '39 most soldiers were probably on what they thought a 'just' cause.

but when does/should it change? when you have to kill your first enemy? what then?

don't understand me wrongly, it was wrong what they did but I ask myself alot the question 'what would I have done'? would I've said 'no'? in that timeframe, that specific country?

there were people who said 'no' but most of them were civilians. what about soldiers? what would've happened when they said 'no'?
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« Reply #8 on: 5 November 2010, 23:17:29 »
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Quote
what would've happened when they said 'no'?



Real simple...

 at2 at2 at2 at2
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MontyB
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« Reply #9 on: 6 November 2010, 05:11:00 »
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Not sure I agree in this case as I think unlike many others she embraced the ideology right to the end, as I have said this should not detract from her achievements but it does in my opinion put her character at question.


it's indeed a question/issue that can be asked in several stories.

there was a brainwash when you grew up in Germany in the 30's and when the war started in '39 most soldiers were probably on what they thought a 'just' cause.

but when does/should it change? when you have to kill your first enemy? what then?

don't understand me wrongly, it was wrong what they did but I ask myself alot the question 'what would I have done'? would I've said 'no'? in that timeframe, that specific country?

there were people who said 'no' but most of them were civilians. what about soldiers? what would've happened when they said 'no'?


There is a difference between doing something to save your skin and embracing an ideology, there were literally millions of Germans that served the Reich faithfully and honorably and I would suggest that 90%+ of the German armed forces fall into this category they simply did their duty for their country as millions on the allied side did but there was also that 10% (rough numbers no real figures) that knew about the atrocities being committed in their name and simply didn't care or worst of all embraced them and supported the cause, I believe the likes of von Braun and Reitch were in that category.

I personally find it abhorrent that even after the war when the world knew what had gone on there she could still be loyal and supportive of Hitler.
 
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