For many, the term "ace" is best remembered from World War I. The aces were senior pilots in each country who shot down at least 5 planes in air battles. Their governments nurtured them for the sake of raising morale and the citizens adored them for their courage, perseverance, and talent. The press immortalized them as knights of the skies.
In no country has the ace figure been more popular than in Germany. At the beginning of the war, most of the army's resources, with the enthusiastic support of the public, were invested in the development of the zeppelin. During the war, after the airplane's advantages as a weapon became clear, the German government had to divert public attention from the zeppelins and used aces for this purpose. They were described in the media as modern knights, who embodied the ideal of the German warrior. The highest military decoration, "For the Merit", was awarded to many of them. At their death a royal funeral was held for them. The public admired them, in part because most of them were from the middle-class. They starred in movie diaries and in the press. Some have even won a popular biographical book.
The possibility of receiving the title "ace" was a strong incentive for pilots. After receiving the coveted title, the additional medals and prestige pushed them to pursue a pilot career. The downside was that many of them died, during air battles or in airplanes crashes that were very common in those days. This is because the planes were unreliable and in addition the flight experience was little. It was necessary to turn them into mythological figures not only in the eyes of the public, but also in the eyes of themselves, so that they could routinely deal with the death that awaited them soon.
The "Flying Circus" was a fighter airplanes squadron set up by the German army to deal with Allied air superiority at the war's end. It is probably the most famous fighter squadron in history. Its commander, Manfred Richthofen, the "Red Baron", is one of the most famous pilots in history. There is no aviation enthusiast in the world who does not know the name and over the years his memory has intensified. He and his friends have become a major icon in aviation history.
Few know that the flying circus was the incubator in which the leaders of the Nazi regime and the Nazi worldview grew up. This is where the big bang occured. It created the chain reaction that led directly to World War II and the Holocaust of European Jews. Hitler's deputy, Hermann Goering, was Richhofen's successor as the commander. Goering and his friends did not accept the surrender agreement signed by their government in November 1918. Surrender was out of the question, for those who the war propaganda cultivated as Supermen. In his farewell speech to his friends, Goering assured them that "our day will return''. They smashed their airplanes, even though the surrender agreement ordered to transfer them to the Allies.
Several movies, adapted to guide viewers on certain topics, were commissioned by the Nazi state before the outbreak of World War II. The most important in this category was the aviation film "For the Merit" (1938), created by Carl Ritter, the government's senior filmmaker, who was also a celebrated fighter pilot in the First World War. The film was establishing cultural event. In fact, it officially rewrote all of German history from the end of World War I until Hitler came to power, in a way that conformed to Nazi ideology.
The film deals with a group of former fighter pilots, who according to clear biographical and historical characteristics are from the Flying Circus. They are headed by the squadron commander, whose character is modeled on the biography of Herman Goering. The first half of the film has many air battles. In the second half, after the war, he leads his men to revolt against the ruling regime and Democrat Weimar republic, whom he publicly despises, mainly due to its attitude towards the discharged soldiers. Out of the hardships of existence, the pilots join the small Nazi party. Their struggle succeed and Hitler comes to power. At the end of the film we see the new German Air Force, which they have become its commanders.
The film depicts civil politics as a continuation of the war in other ways and scenes of violations of the law are presented in it as inevitable, due to the rule of the corrupt left. The film was described as "the purest Nazi film". At its premiere in Berlin in December 1938, Hitler, Goering and Goebbels watched it, with Carl Ritter by their side. Outside the cinema hall stood a guard of honor of veterans. Apart from the great political, box office and artistic success, the film was also recommended for viewing by youth, and millions of young people watched it as part of the compulsory screenings held for "Hitler's Youth".
The marginal Nazi party accepted into its ranks, with the addition of Hermann Goering, the figure of the military man who was perhaps the most perominent in Germany, despite his young age and rank. He brought with him his friends, led by Ernest Udet and established with them the Luftwaffe, which was the mainstay of the Nazi army. Rudolf Hess, a pilot in the flying circus towards the end of the war, became Hitler's second deputy and tried, by secret flight, to bring about a peace agreement between England and Germany without the knowledge of the Nazi leadership. Arthur Greiser, a squadron commander in the German navy who apparently joined the Flying Circus in its last days, was a jealous Nazi whose war conduct as mayor of Danzig in Poland caused the outbreak of World War II. During the war he was the governor of the Lodz region and created the models for the Nazi occupation and expropriation policy and for the extermination of the Jews in the entire Third Reich. The younger Reinhard Heydrich, the planner of the final solution, combined his career as deputy commander of the SS with that of a fighter pilot. Chapters in the book "Holocaust and Aviation" are dedicated to everyone. Another chapter in the book deals with the great influence of the sport of gliding, in Germany after the First World War, on the revival of nationalism and the awakening of Nazism. Senior members of gliding clubs were pilots and aircrew members from the First World War. They became the backbone of the Luftwaffe after its establishment.
The entire Nazi regime was run according to the patterns formed in the Flying Circus. Adolf Hitler was shaped as a young patriot in the spirit of military propaganda that glorified the knights of the sky. He must have sought the proximity of the pilots when he began political activity. He understood the potential and political significance they could provide. He made the Nazi Party publicly identified with aviation. He gave huge budgets for the re-establishment of the German aviation industry and air force, while challenging the Versailles Agreements. The figure of the forged pilot as the popular Nietzschean Superman became the Aryan human model. The simple and effective but ruthless warfare tactics of the Flying Circus became the tactics of Nazi politics and the fast war method used by the Nazi army.
The flight is automatically perceived in the subconscious in a positive way. Therefore everyone who flies is automatically perceived as a positive, brave, communicative person, with a broad worldview. Adolf Hitler conducted his campaign as a mythical magician, mediating between the aerial and earthly mediums, between the glorious pilots and the common people. He rtraveled from city to city by airplane. In each speech he emphasized the conspiracy theory that Germany surrendered not on the battlefield, but through the fault of politicians. The airplane on which he flew became meaningful in itself. The medium became a message. Thus Hitler won the election and came to power democratically. Lenny Riefenstahl has perpetuated the immense popularity of Hitler's flights in her "Triumph of the Will" film, which opens with long minutes in which the shadow of his airplane is seen constantly passing over German soil. Through the "air order" the Nazi management culture was outlined, replacing the celestial eye of God with an eye-shutting dictatorship.
The clear symbol of mythical totalitarian modernism in Nazi Germany was the airplane. At the forefront of propaganda and popular culture were motion pictures, which were the favorite medium of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels the propaganda minister. They closely monitored their making. UFA, the nationalized film studios corporation, produced many Nazi-style aviation films, with a high degree of redesign of reality. The airplane has been incorporated, thanks to its prominent harmonic contours, as a mythical icon in cinema from its beginning. It became the main symbol in Carl Ritter's films.
Ritter, who was also a flight instructor, developed the subject of aviation in expanding circles. Various aircraft models starred in his first films, along with their air crews. In the second circle, his films featured the large, professional and diverse ground crews who work at the airfields. In the third circle is the civilian front in the cities, in which the loved ones of the air crews live together with all the civilians, all recruited for air defense efforts. In an even wider circle are the fronts on the various borders of Germany. In the widest circle is the whole world, which is the full German living space. It was revealed to the public through exotic films about pilots who are a combination of explorers and adventurers. In this way, a perfect format was found for building a new Germany.
