Hanna Reitsch: A woman Pilot who soared high and plunged low.
I first came across her biography when I was still in high school. Impressed by her courage and determination she could have been a female role model. But then I realized her association with evil.
From an early age, Hanna was captivated by the skies. Born in 1912, she grew up in Hirschberg, Silesia (now the Polish city of Jelenia Góra) Her father, a doctor, indulged her fascination with flight.
Her first taste of freedom came at 20 when she took a glider flight. The silence, the wind, and the view from above were intoxicating. Hanna felt as if she had found her true calling. She pursued it relentlessly, winning competitions and setting records, driven by an insatiable hunger to conquer the sky. She joined the German Air Mail Service as a glider pilot.
The rise of the Nazi regime was a period of peril for her but also opportunity. Her talent did not go unnoticed by the Nazis, and soon she was flying for the Luftwaffe. In 1937, she became the first woman to fly a helicopter, showcasing her versatility and pioneering spirit. Her achievements extended to testing various experimental aircraft, including rocket planes and jet-powered fighters, making her a prominent figure in aviation history.
Hanna’s rise was meteoric, but it was shadowed by a growing awareness of the darkness within the regime she served. She met Adolf Hitler several times. As the war intensified, Hanna’s missions became increasingly perilous. She flew everything from bombers to rocket planes, including a V-1 flying bomb. Her work earned her several awards, including the Iron Cross First Class, a rare honor for a woman. The air, once her sanctuary, had become a battlefield. She witnessed the devastation wrought by the war firsthand, the charred remains of cities haunting her dreams.
After Germany’s defeat in 1945, Hanna Reitsch was captured by the Allies and interrogated about her role in the war and her knowledge of Nazi technology. Despite her collaboration with the regime, she was not charged with war crimes. She continued to advocate for aviation and worked as a flight instructor in post-war Germany and India.
Throughout the rest of her life, Reitsch struggled to reconcile her love for aviation with her wartime actions. She published several books, including her autobiography, The Sky My Kingdom, in which she reflected on her experiences and the ethical dilemmas she faced.
It was sad, as a young pilot she once had all the makings of becoming a German Emilia Erhardt. But her association with the Third Reich forever left a stain on her name that she could not clear for the rest of her life. Hanna Reitsch died in 1979, in Frankfurt, West Germany
