DLV Photo

[Mike H]

I thought you would all enjoy this original photo I have in my collection of this DLV officer. He is Gerd Fieseler, whose company later built the famous Fieseler "Storch". Here he is decked out in full DLV regalia --- which I have never seen him in before.

Gerd was a famous aerobatic pilot before World War II and well known in air sports circles at the time. He was German National Aerobatic Champion. In this photo, he is shown next to his own aircraft, the Fieseler F2 "Tiger". In those days, aerobatic competitions were well attended affairs in Europe and a small competition was even held in conjunction with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin --- something we no longer see, as the Olympic charter does not permit motorized sports.

Gerd was well respected among German pilots, as well as internationally, and a trophy bearing his name has been presented in recent years at German aerobatic competitions.

Mike Heuer

[Stijn David]

nice one

Hello Mike,


Very nice picture => does anyone know what awards exactly this man did earn ? ( during WWI and WWII ? )

Any data is welcome


Greetings,

[François SAEZ]

Yup Mike,
Give us some more on Gerd Fieseler (other pics, what he did, .........)
Super pic

François

[Rick Research]

The ribbon bar is: EK2 1914, Prussian Gold Military Merit Cross (the "enlisted Pour le Merite"), an Austro-Hungarian Bravery Medal, and all FOUR classes of the Bulgarian Soldiers Crosses for Bravery.

While he is almost certainly unique in making a "grand slam" on all four Bulgarian awards, it is interesting to note that the top ace of that Front is NOT wearing a Bulgarian flying badge--reserved, regardless of extraordinary achievements, for officers only!

Neal O'Connor has a WWI portrait of him in his Prussian volume, but Fieseler seems to have been shy about his war record, preferring to "advertise" his considerable post-WWI civilian flying achievements over his distinguished war record.

Wonderful photo!

[Mike H]

More on Gerd ...

Francois, et al ...

A friend of mine helped me with research on Gerd and here is some more info.

The following is from "Aviation Awards of Imperial Germany in WW1 and the men who earned them" by Neil W. O'Connor. He joined the Flying Service in June 1915 at age 18. Took flight training at Johannistal, a crash in November kept him in hospital until Feb 1916. His first major assignment was to Jagdstaffel(Jasta) 25 in Macedonia 12 July 1917. First victory 20 August 1917 brought EK1. Got seriously ill 21 September and in hospital till 5 November. Ended war with 19 victories and commissioned Leutnant late in the war. Received Golden Military Merit Cross Sept 3, 1918. Also Austrian Merit Cross in Silver with Crown and all four classes of the Bulgarian Soldier's Cross for Bravery (as Rick previously pointed out).

In another book it states he was born 15 April 1896 in Bonn. He did time in some 2 seater units before posting to Macedonia. He died in Kassel on 1 September 1987.

I wish I had an opportunity to meet him as I was in Germany that year officiating at the European Aerobatic Championships and it would have been good to have honored Fieseler at that Championships. Too often, we forget the champions of the past --it's that old "15 minutes of glory" thing.

Mike

[François SAEZ]

... nothing in WWII ?

François

[Mike H]

Busy ...

Francois,

I suspect Gerd was busy building Storches for the Luftwaffe.

Mike