Reitsch, Kurt.

Reitsch, Kurt, born 16-09-1910 in Hirschberg in Riesengebirge, Schlesien ; the first of three children and the only son of the ophthalmologist Dr. med. Wilhelm “Willy” Paul Reitsch (born 21-08-1878 in Wanggrawitz / Wongrowitz near Posen), his mother Emy, born Helff-Hibler von Alpenheim from Feldkrich, came from the old Tyrolean nobility. His father, a gentle, artistically gifted person and passionate cello player, who grew up in Magdeburg, where his father was a building officer, ran an eye clinic in Hirschberg, which was attached to the local deaconess house as a private clinic. He was also a medical officer (commencement of duty: 01-04-1900), since 27-01-1916 Marine Medical Officer of the Reserve, most recently Marine Chief Medical Officer of the Reserve. In 1928 he published the work “Das Dürerauge” in the series “Supplement to the yearbook of the art history seminar at the University of Marburg”. The exact date of his death is unknown, Emy and Wilhelm Reitsch were last seen alive in Salzburg in April 1945, a joint suicide cannot be ruled out. His younger sister was Queen of the Skies and Knight of the Iron Cross and a famous flying ace, Hanna Reitsch, and his youngest sister was Heidi, married Machholz (born 05-04-1916).

Kurt joined the German Reichsmarine/Navy on 01-04-1929 as a Offizier candidate. He went through the training of the naval officer and dedicated himself to the destroyer weapon, where he was also trained on torpedo boats. he went through the training of the naval officer and dedicated himself to the destroyer weapon, where he was also trained on torpedo boats. A Seekadett from 10-10-1929, Fahnrich from 01-01-1931, Oberfahnrich from 01-04-1933, Leutnant zur See from 01-010-1933 and promoted to Oberleutnant zur See on 01-06-1935. Service as first officer (I.O.) on the torpedo boat “G 8” in the training department of the 1st destroyer division in Swinoujscie and transferred to the 1st destroyer division. Promoted to Kapitänleutnant from 01-08-1938 and from August 1939 to April 13, 1940 the First Officer (I.O.) on the Z 13 destroyer “Erich Koellner From July to December 1940 in the staff of  “Commanding Admiral Norway” under Admiral, later General Admiral Hermann Paul Rudolph Boehm and van January 1941 to March 1942 First Officer (I.O.) on the “Z 26” In November 1941, Z 26 moved to Northern Norway. The HMS “Trinidad” shot Z 26 on 29-03-1942, unable to maneuver. Z 24 and Z 25 were able to save 88 men from the sinking Z 26. The German submarine U 378 was able to take over eight survivors of the Z 26 from a lifeboat. 240 men from Z 26 remained at sea, Kurt Reitsch was one of the survivors.

From June 1942 to June 1943, Kurt was in commander of the torpedo boat “T 20”. The T 20 entered service on 05-06-1942 and operated in the Baltic Sea and on the Arctic Front.  Promoted on 01-04-1943 to Korvettenkapitän and from July 1943 till March 1944 as Admiralofficer and Senior Staff Officer (1st Füsto) at the Commander of the Fleet Training  Associations (Vice Admiral August Thiele) .Thiele survived the war and died age 87 on 31-03-1981. From November 1943 to February 1944 Kurt was in the meantime training as admiral staff officer at the Naval Academy.

The city of Memel in East Prussia was enclosed by the Red Army on the land side in the course of the formation of the Courland Basin and threatened to be captured. To protect the cut off there German XXVIII Army Corps (“Gollnick” group), the combat group “Thiele” attacked land targets with their ship artillery. “Prinz Eugen”, “Lützow”, four destroyers and four torpedo boats fired a large number of grenades. The Prinz Eugen and Lützow steamed to Swinemünde. On 13 April, 34 Lancaster bombers attacked the two ships while in port. Thick cloud cover forced the British to abort the mission and return two days later. On the second attack, they succeeded in sinking Lützow with a single Tallboy bomb hit. Prinz Eugen then departed Swinemünde for Copenhagen, arriving on 20 April. Once there, she was decommissioned on 7 May and turned over to Royal Navy control the following day. For his leadership of Prinz Eugen in the final year of the war, The commander Hans-Jürgen Rudolf Reinicke ( was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on 21-04-1945. During her operational career with the Kriegsmarine, Prinz Eugen lost 115 crew members; 79 men were killed in action, 33 were killed in accidents and three died of other causes. Of these 115 crew members, four were officers, seven were cadets or ensigns, two were petty officers, 22 were junior petty officers, 78 were sailors and two were civilians

Kurt Reitsch from May 1945 to November 1947 was as a prisoner of war or interned in the German mine clearance service, among others. at the side of his crewmate Otto Schuhart, who is there as a department head. Otto Schuhart survived the war and died age 80, on 10-03-1990 in Stuttgart and Kapitän zur See Hans Jürgen Reinicke survived the war also and died 29-01-1978, aged 75, in Wuppertal.

From May 1945 to November 1947 Kurt was as a prisoner of war or internee in the German mine clearance service, including at the side of his crewmate Otto Schuhart, who is there as a department head. After the rearmament, Reitsch joined the German Armed Forces as a Korvettencapitan in the Navy. He served first on the deployment staff of the command academy of the Bundeswehr (FüAkBw), then in command of the fleet base, later at the Mürwik naval school and finally, as a Frigattenkapitan, as a naval attaché in Ankara. At the end of 1967 he retired.

Death and burial ground of Reitsch, Kurt.

Kurt Reitsch was married with his fiancée Wilhelma Ingeborg Elisabeth von Niedner (1916–2012), daughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II’s personal physician. Otto von Niedner and later naval chief.

Hanna Reitsch’s father shot and killed her mother Emy, her sister Heidi, and her sister’s three children, Hans Jürgen, Ellen, and Björn Macholz, before killing himself during the last days of the war, on 03-05-1945, after expulsion by the Polish communists from their hometown of Hirschberg. It was well known that Hitler gave Hanna and her lover commander in chief of the Luftwaffe, Generalfeldmarschall and successor of Herman Goering, Ritter Robert von Greim each a cyanide pill before dismissing them from the bunker on 28-04-1945. Von Greim made use of the cyanide capsule and committed suicde at a prison in Salzburg, Austria on 24-05-1945, age 53. His final words before taking Potassium cyanide were: ” I am the head of the Luftwaffe, but I have no Luftwaffe”. Hanna did not use the pill and died on 24-08-1979, of a heart attack, age 67, in Frankfurt am Main. Retiring in Hamburg Kurt Reitsch died age 80, on 02-04-1991 in Hamburg.and was buried in the Reitsch family grave in Austria, Salzburg, on the Kommunal Friedhof. Only steps away on the war section, the grave of her lover Robert von Greim.