Introduction
Vertiefungswissen anzeigenVertiefungswissen verbergen
Military Pilots in the First World War – a Student Project for Teachers and Pupils
Wartime experiences of military pilots are an important but often neglected phenomenon of modern warfare. Heroic figures such as Richthofen, Boelcke or Immelmann are well known and integral part of public war memories to the present day. However these popular images of individual fighter pilots rather hide the industrialized character of warfare in the First World War.
This image shows the characteristic male posture of the contemporary military pilot. Boelcke looks down from above with confidence and it seems as if he has everything under control. In fact the technological and military virtues of courage and sportsmanship are represented by pilots. Heroic stories and legends about flying, like Boelckes’ “Reports from the Frontline” or Richthofen’s “The Red Fighter Pilot” were published in several hundred thousand copies. In view of the fact that the traditional military virtues of courage and honor didn't make sense anymore in the context of the industrialized killing in the trenches, these publications were of significant propagandistic value.
The following student projects focus on the experiences of aerial warfare in the First World War. They address particularly students, teachers and pupils, who are invited to work with these materials and problems concerning the relation between propagandistic images and daily experiences of death. The sources in combination with specific questions shall help to get a better insight into the dimension of modern warfare. Two introductory films deal with important aspects of aerial warfare. Prof. Hans-Joachim Braun is interviewed by Christian Kehrt and explains some crucial aspects of airplane production and technology. Achim Messer introduces key features of his project on flight conditions in WW I.
The project has been realized at the Helmut-Schmidt-University of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg under the supervision of Dr. Christian Kehrt. The individual authors are responsible for the content and the copyrights of the pictures. We must also express special thanks to the Media Centre, especially Manuel Sommer, Marion Hartung, and Sebastian Wewer whose support made the realization of this project possible, as well as the Stuttgart based team around Dr. Thomas Schuetz and Dr. Sonja Petersen who coordinated the online edition and translated parts of the project.
