Ehrenfried Günther von Hünefeld

Ehrenfried Günther baron von Hünefeld (* May 1st 1892 with Königsberg; † February 5th 1929) was a pioneer of aviation German and the initiator of the first transatlantic flight (northern) in the East-West direction in 1928.

Blind man of the eye left and obliged to carry a monocle to the right eye, this noble young person of Eastern Prussia had a very fragile health and its schooling had strongly suffered from it (it caught up with his gaps later and attended the university of Berlin).

As of its schooling, it attended the evolutions of the first planes close to the airport of Berlin - Johannisthal where many pioneers of the first hour had their workshops and where it accepted its first rudiments of piloting. To the declaration of the First World War, it went voluntary to fight as Aviateur S but was reformed because of its bad physical condition. There existed however a regiment of voluntary drivers which accepted whoever came with its own vehicle. It " " borrowed; at once a motor bike (its family refunded it with the injured person…) and was useful like agent of transmission on the Western face.

The War

It was seriously wounded at the time of its first mission in Flandres in September 1914. Wounds by glares of shell to the two legs immobilized it for almost a year and one of its legs was shortened by it several centimetres. A little later it was made operate to make shorten the thigh of the other leg to be able remarcher suitably and with the segment of taken femur, it was made make a pommel for its cane.

A military career had become impossible because of its handicap. It then presented its candidature for a station near the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. As it was very friendly with the oldest son of the Emperor Guillaume II, it was immediately allowed. After some missions which led it to Sofia and Constantinople, he became vice-consul of the Emperor in Holland.

Civil life

After the capitulation and the dismissal of the Emperor, it was diverted of the policy and was devoted again to aviation to make its passion a trade to serve its country as a patriot, if possible by occupying a position raised in the economy.

Incompetent to control, a station with the service of the public relations of the ship-owner Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) was for him a dreamed task. With the beginning of the year 1920, the German aircraft industry suffered from the restrictions of the Traité of Versailles. However, of many companies or industrial associations with companies domiciled in Swiss, Italy or South America worked with the installation of regular lines and with the development of more powerful planes like Dornier with its Dornier Do X.

At this station, Hünefeld had contacts with many engineers and decision makers of the branch. It had especially a vision of the possible extension of the passable distances from the planes and followed closely the technical developments. The public was impassioned then for the records which beat of the intrepid pilots. The North Atlantic had already been crossed several times of west in is, therefore while going from the America towards Europe (see the flight of the seaplane Curtiss NC or that of Charles Lindbergh in 1927). In the opposite direction on the other hand, that was regarded for a long time as impossible because of the dominant head winds. Hünefeld thought, him, that it was possible.

The crossing of the Atlantic

Hünefeld bought in 1927 two Junkers W 33 and engaged two pilots having crossed records of endurance, Johann Risticz and Fritz Loose, to carry out tests and to continue the development as of these apparatuses. The apparatuses were baptized name of the steamers with vapor “Bremen” and “Europa” of the company NDL . The planes underwent the necessary modifications to be able to accomplish a flight above the Atlantic. The first attempt in 1927 had to be stopped and the two planes returned to their starting point because of the unfavourable weather.

The health of Hünefeld was degraded however quickly. In 1926, one had already removed half of the stomach to him and it knew that it would not live any more very a long time. It accepted the assistance of Hugo Junkers and Hermann Köhl. Köhl was an old driver experienced of the First World War which directed the service of the night flights of the Luft Hansa (the ancestor of the company current Lufthansa ). As a specialist in the instrument flying and Navigation, the overflight of the Atlantic without visual references interested it particularly, the pilot who can trust only with the indications of sound gyrocompas.

The attempts to beat records being dangereous because of nature, the companies Luft Hansa and NDL did not support these projects. Hünefeld had to finance its pocket another attempt and to keep secret its preparation with respect to its employer NDL! Moreover he wanted to take part in the flight! Köhl had proposed to fly the plane. For this reason, Luft Hansa laid off it when it went to Ireland from where was to leave equipped.

With Baldonnel in Ireland, Hünefeld and Köhl found in the person of the commander James C. Fitzmaurice an enthusiastic copilot. Their plane, the Junkers W 33 " Bremen" took off on April 12th, 1928 of Baldonnel and lands on April 13rd, 1928 on the island Greenly, an island supporting a headlight at the border of the Quebec and] (Canada). Had certainly not achieved their original goal, New York (it they still missed them several hundred kilometers) but the North Atlantic had been crossed for the first time in the East-West direction by a plane. This last had been damaged with the landing and they were collected by another apparatus come to seek them.

The pilots were accommodated as heroes and were celebrated during weeks in the United States, Canada and in Germany. Hermann Köhl was reinstated in Luft Hansa which baptized its larger in May 1928 and all new plane of his name.

Other prowesses

Ehrenfried Günther von Hünefeld undertook in September 1928 another tour which carried out it in the Far East. He succumbed however of cancer on February 5th, 1929 to the 37 years age. The town of Bremen baptized a street in its honor (*) and the German Post office emitted a stamp in 2003 as well as a book reporting the exploits of the pilots.

(*) This street leads to the airport and the factories of EADS, Airbus and Astrium.

Hünefeld was also writer. Him a play " is owed; Die Furcht VOR dem Glück" (the fear of happiness) produced in 1928 with Dresden.

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