Gliding is the gateway for the aviation world. In order to fly an airplane one must first know how to fly a glider, which is much easier and cheaper to. A glider flight is also the closest to birds flight. Gliding experience relies on the strength of wind. It therefore requires repeated trails, without promise of success, due to the uncertainty of weather conditions. The experience of gliding in a glider is very similar to surfing in the sea on a surfboard. Both attract the same kind of population of brave young people, but to some extent also destitute, un institutionalized. The large public interest in Germany in the sport, during the Weimar Republic period, added a competitive, professional and nationalist dimension to it. Hitler resembled gliding young people. He could get on a political "air wave" and "glide" on it.
The imaginary fall - the feeling of terror, paralysis and loss of control, is a familiar phenomenon among flight trainees. In the sky, the trainee sometimes finds himself in a sudden panic because of the fear of falling. He is fixed, in his body and mind, in one blind flight path, without the ability to deviate from it. As a result, he very quickly loses control of the aircraft and crashes to his death. All this to the astonishment of his flight guide and the spectators from the ground. They do not understand why he did not resort to a basic maneuver of acceleration, elevation and turn, which would have saved his life. According to Gaston Bachelar, the experience of the imaginary fall is an initial truth of the dynamic imagination. But it does not exist in the aerial imagination as an invitation for travel. For the most part it is a journey into the void, the pit of utter emptiness, the endless fall, the dive like a stone into the abyss where there is nothing. It is known in psychology as "Vertigo". It's a primitive fear. It is found as a constant component in fears of various kinds, such as in the fear of the dark. It's the fear of being completely unprotected, completely exposed. We fear the approach of this fear and try to stay away from it as much as possible. But the attitude to the fear of falling can be defined as an attitude of hate-love. The subconscious is drawn to this basic life experience. But as a result of the lack of mental strength, there are not enough words to describe it. Man is therefore unable to use the fear of falling per se, but rather as a source of inspiration for images of ascent only. As a result of the shortage of the images of the fall, its human and poetic imagery and expression are of an extreme ascent. The imagination imagine in abundance heights but not depths. The psychological fall, in its simple and dynamic form, is the dialectical game of fall and victory. It is the courage associated with standing and uprightness, the desire to live against weight, to live vertically in the sense of healthy rising, height growth and proud head-raising. Sometimes, to further revive the images of the ascent, there are those who enrich them through occasional images of the fall. In Germany, before the Nazis came to power, the fighter pilots who fell in World War I were mentioned along with the glider pilots who fell as part of the sporting pursuit. Hitler added anti-Semitism to this.
Otto Lilienthal - Gliding is one of the first documented experiences in human culture. From the dawn of civilizations man has tried to imitate the flight of birds, by building wings made by his hands. The legend in Greek mythology about Daedalus and Icarus is one testimony of many kinds. Almost every culture in the world has similar legends or historic tales. Hence the immense importance of the enterprise of Otto Lilienthal, the German Jew who, at the end of the 19th century, was the first man to succeed in partially imitating bird flight by gliding. He built gliders with stiff, bird-shaped wings, harnessed himself to them and jumped from a hill tens of meters high, which he set up himself. He made hundreds of attempts, which he documented in photographs. The photographs, in the early days of photography, were widely circulated in the press and they made him one of the most famous people in the world. He was able to gradually improve the gliding results. The gliders he built hovered only hundreds of feet away, in a straight line and for a few seconds. Despite this it was an unprecedented achievement. The Wright brothers used his research to build the world's first motorized aircraft. Lilienthal fell to his death while flying in his glider, in 1896. He is known for a number of sayings he composed. One is: "Designing a plane is nothing, building it is something, but flying it is everything''. A second statement is about the risks of flight: "Sacrifice is required''. The nationalist Germans used his sayings to promote the achievements of aviation in their country.
Oskar Ursinus - Oskar Ursinus [1877-1952] is known in Germany as "the father of gliding". Following his great interest in the then modern technology of motorized flight he began, in 1908, to publish articles on aviation. In 1909 he organized an amateurs group to promote the flight without an engine. After building a self-designed glider, the group embarked on flight trials. In 1912 they set a record of close to two minutes in the air and a record distance of close to one kilometer. Amateurs and technology institutes have organized additional gliding clubs throughout Germany. As the models improved and with them the records, the public interest in the subject expanded. The outbreak of World War I led to a freeze on gliding research. Germany focused on building military airplanes. Ursinus joined the army, to design military aircraft. A week after being posted in a factory, he presented a plan for a heavy bomber, the largest and most innovative of its kind. The prototype was operationally tested on the Russian front, in early 1915. After proving its effectiveness on the battlefield, more with more powerful engines were ordered. In all, several hundred were built, with the constant development of more advanced models. The bomber was used in a variety of operational missions. He terrorized all fronts, including successful strategic bombings over Britain. It was the first airplane in the world to be used for this purpose. Under the terms of the Versailles Treaty, all the bombers were destroyed at the end of the war. But Ursinus did not take part in the revolt against this move, as he thought the German airplanes were bad. He argued that the warplanes were too heavy and powerful to effectively study the aerodynamics of flight. Their awkwardness created a major problem of motivation for the air crews. It was this lack of flight experience that caused Germany's military defeat. Aviation in the pre-war era was inspired by aerodynamics purity. It could demand idealism and self-sacrifice, in the name of the spirit of ascent that Gaston Bechelar described. In contrast, the service in the air force during the war was in awkward airplanes with no good gliding capabilities, complicated machines which tended to fall swiftly, while requiring mostly obedience to authority from the crews, resulting in constant shortage of pilots. He believed that in order to increase motivation for a pilot career, Germany has to design better airplanes. This will attract young people because the trainees will identify with the birds flight characteristics. They will become better men, pilots and citizens. He saw the new circumstances as an opportunity to return to the field of gliding. In order to master advanced aerodynamics, aviation engineers must return to gliding. Germany could engage in the development of gliders, because it was not restricted in the Versailles Treaty. Ursinus organized a first yearly gliding competition in 1920. Ten years later this competition became an international event. Germany became the world center for gliders research and production. Gliding became a major factor in the development of aviation during Weimar Germany. Ursinus' contribution to the Nazis rise to power was immense. He joined the Nazi Party in 1933. He happily agreed to Nazi gradual oversight and nationalization of the sport of gliding, as it was accompanied by massive financial support from the regime. His many students were among the founders of the Luftwaffe and the Nazi aviation industry. He continued his research until the end of World War II. Later on he watched the gradual revival of the gliding sport in Germany, while receiving much respect for his life long work.
Gliding in Germany during the years 1918-1933 - The flat-topped summit of mount Wasserkuppe, in the Rhone Mountains range in central Germany, is the site where Oscar Ursinus chose to make his first gliding flights. Ursinus organized the first gliding camp on mount Wasserkuppe in 1920. The format was similar to an alternative festival outdoors, lasting several weeks, during the summer. Several groups of gliders, from gliding clubs throughout Germany, gathered in the camp to fly gliders they had built. Thus began a snowball that had accumulated immense dimensions. Only four gliders were found eligible for flight in the summer of 1920. The longest flight lasted less than a minute. A successful conclusion of the event, through a new glider that broke a world record, led to a second event in the summer of 1921. More than double the number of participants were recorded and new records were broken. In August 1922, one of the gliders flew in Wasserkuppe for more than two hours. Most of the gliders were built by students of technological institutes from all over Germany. Despite their young age, they were mostly veteran pilots from World War I. The international aviation community has begun to pay attention to what is happening. The German government also began to support the activity. The German press was enthusiastic. It called the pilots "Birdmen''. Many journalists climbed to the mountain summit. On their return they claimed that the gliding event had restored their faith in Germany. There were young pilots who broke world records, even though "they came from nowhere and with nothing''. Four years after the defeat, the Germans again acted and won. Gliding has become, for this reason, nothing less than a "national duty''. The national pride as a result also carried on the thousands of participants in Wasserkuppe, who initially came for science and sports purposes. After the connection between gliding and German nationalism was shaped, history was rewritten. What Ursinos described as a return to aerodynamics research soon became a legacy of a nationalist visionary enterprise. This is especially after France invaded and occupied the Ruhr region in West Germany in January 1923. For the third event, in the summer of 1923, 53 gliders were registered. The summit of the mountain turned from a tent camp into a small town. The clumsy models of the early years became gliders of advanced design, designated for a production line. A world record was set for more than 3 hours in the air. The highlight of the season was the inauguration of a memorial site, established by the Veterans German Pilots Association, in honor of the fellows who fell in the war. More than 30,000 visitors came, including many from the German social elite. Government officials announced that a memorial service would be held at the site each year. They stated that the German nation must conquer the skies "for the sake of all mankind''. In the summer of 1926 a significant breakthrough occurred in the mountain, with the discovery of thermals, which are vertically rising hot air currents, allowing birds, by circling and ascending in them, to soar to heights without investing a lot of energy. The discovery occurred by accident, when a pilot suddenly entered into a thermal. He found himself hovering to heights and distances not yet known until then. The discovery made the sport of gliding much more meaningful. The gliders pilots glided for many hours above storm clouds, for distances of hundreds of miles, backed by advanced meteorology. They passed over metropolitan areas and crossed national borders. The new destinations they reached were in Czechoslovakia, France and Poland. At that years, motorized aircraft had limited performance. Gliders surpassed them in terms of range, altitude and flight duration. They could also have greater carrying capacity, as they were constructed of lightweight materials. So gliding was perceived as the third part in a triangle that also included airplanes and airships. Most of the influential figures in the German aviation world, regularly visited Wasserkuppe. They did so for the sake of gettting impressions, social encounters and flights in the latest models. A tradition has developed, on which new generations have grown. The glorious days of the "Flying Circus" were a source of inspiration. Pilots and spectators shared the feeling: "We are here to upset the Allies''.
Gliding in Germany between the Weimar Republic and Nazi regime - on one typical day in August 1931, there were about 20,000 visitors on the summit of mount Wasserkuppe. That year there were close to 40 gliding schools across Germany. The gliding industry has become the gatekeeper of German aviation and the temporary executor of its ambitions. The number of gliders built each year has increased from tens to several hundreds. The gliding associations had tens of thousands of members, most of them young people aged 18-26. They attended summer camps of gliding, where special folklore developed. The opportunity to engage in a semi-military sport fascinated many young people. From this also developed a rebellion against the Allies, accompanied by strong patriotic feelings. gliding has become more than just a sport. It served a national purpose. Members of the gliding clubs began to wear uniforms. They openly participated in nationalist and pro-Nazi demonstrations. The nationalist movement adopted them, but the socialist left liked them too. Along with many people in the Weimar Republic, they loathed the decadent lifestyle of the period. The teams of the gliding camps were a sample of the population, bridging the various classes. The glider became a medium and a message: the aerodynamic appearance of the glider expressed accurate mathematical calculations of weight and stability, while also highly valued for its elegant shape and graceful movement in the air. it became a style model. Their pilots were, for the political left, a new breed of laborers. Opponents of the Weimar Republic, from both the left and the right, saw themselves as servants of a new Germany. Gliding summed up for them the world in which they lived, in which Germany was both glorified and endangered. The effort of left and right politics was to create a new model of human being, who will combine technology and patriotism. The gliding teams were soldiers of the first line. Gliding prepared them for the challenges of technology: they learned to work with wood, metal, fabrics and other materials. They acquired knowledge in meteorology, aerodynamics, engineering and more. They specialized in many new professions and created professional work teams. Many of them subsequently began careers in all civilian and military aviation sectors. But most of them saw Nazism, not Communism, as the ideology by which aviation society will be established. They applied their experience to the underground re-establishment of Germany's military might. After the rise of the Nazis to power, mount Wasserkuppe became a center of German military nationalism.
Gliding in Germany during the years 1933-1939 - In the July 1932 elections, more than 50% of the voters at the Wasserkuppe polls put the Nazi party ballot paper. Much higher than the national average of 37%. The Nazis took the first steps in shaping civilian air consciousness immediately after coming to power, during the period of "ideological coordination" in the spring of 1933. Aviation was intended to serve Germany's mission. In conclusion, it was only the Nazi state that oversaw all activities in this area. Ministry of Aviation established. It was headed by Herman Goering. He declared: "We will become a nation of pilots''. He reorganized the various aviation sporting bodies into one framework, named the "German Aviation Sports Association". Another, much larger framework, was the "Reich Air Defense System". It included all the organizations of the air defense volunteers. The Nazis manned the managements of the aircraft manufacturing factories and the civil airlines. Schools required diverse aviation studies, integrating them into as many other subjects as possible. Many streets in Germany were named after fighter pilots who fell in the war. The Nazification of the gliding clubs was carried out as if by itself. There was no objection whatsoever. Goering budget abundantly the gliding clubs, with the aim of training a new generation of Nazis. Beginning in 1934, participants in the camps at Wasserkuppe wore uniforms and operated on a Nazi military agenda. In 1935 the sporting character was excluded from the competitions. They were redefined as a "military demonstration." Goering stated that the gliding teams are ''workers and students, artisans and professors, who repeatedly pull together the gliders with the rope up the mountain and this is the essence of National Socialism ... The whole nation is fighting as one man for one goal: the greatness of Germany''. The gliding superstars of the Weimar Republic had no more room. The new Aviation Association has started awarding medals to teams only. The Nazi authorities worked to rewrite the achievements of individuals. Until 1937, the Nazis completed their political control of aviation, under the slogan: "First a Nazi and then a pilot''. Mount Wasserkuppe had become an official training base of the Luftwaffe. Large buildings were built, to meet the growing demands of the Third Reich. Ironically, in the center of the buildings is the "Hall of Fame", a magnificent mausoleum in memory of Otto Lilienthal, for all the pilots who lost their lives during flight. The building was inaugurated about a month before the outbreak of World War II.
Gliding during the World War II, 1939-1945 - Transporting fighters with their equipment using freight gliders was developed by the Germans in the late 1930s. Large gliders were built, capable of carrying dozens of armed soldiers, or light vehicles and cannons. At the same time, the Airborne Forces army was established, with trained soldiers brigades for operating extensively on the battlefield, immediately after landing in gliders and parachuting from the airplanes who pulled the gliders. At the beginning of World War II, the Wehrmacht carried out successful small-scale gliding operations, with elite commandos, in Norway, the Netherlands and France. The success encouraged the Germans to carry out the conquest of the island of Crete, in May 1941, through a massive invasion by airborne forces. It was the first time in history that a major military campaign had been carried out in this way. The lack of experience in transporting the forces harmed the Germans heavily. On the other hand, the Allies had deciphered orders in the German enigma code for the first time. The invading Germans encountered heavy resistance from small forces, which included local guerrilla forces. The Allies surrendered, after about ten days of fighting, while inflicting heavy losses on the Germans. The result had a significant impact on the course of events of World War II, as the Germans re-examined the doctrine of airborne forces. In light of the losses, Hitler stopped further such operations. He abolished the massive use planned for the airborne units in the forthcoming campaign in the Soviet Union. For his deputy, Herman Goering, what happened in Crete was added to the list of more bad news, which undermined his political status. On the eve of the invasion to the Soviet Union, in June 1941, he was left with thousands of airplanes less than he originally planned and completely without airborne forces, which could become a major base of political power for him. On the eve of Tisha B'Av 1941, he wrote the order to Reinhard Heydrich to begin the "Final Solution'', by which the Jews from all over Europe were ''transported'' directly to the gas chambers.
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