Aviation importance to Germany

In the hundred years which passed from late 18th century up to late 19th century there have been sharp ideological and political transformations in Europe. They can be described as a transition from the Enlightenment period to the Romanticism period. These changes occurred in correlatation with the rapid technological developments, particulary in aviation. It was the transformation from the agricultural revolution to the industrial revolution. From God revealed out of cycles of fertility and growth to God who is revealed out of the machines. In aviation, this transformation was manifested through the development of the flying baloon, which its era of dominating the skies is paralel to the era of Romanticism.

The flying baloon, and later on the airship and airplane, were revolutionary inventions that science did not predict. They were created by technical ingenuity of practical men. There was not a proper preparation of society for them. During the 19th century flying balloons created new paths and destinies. Human beings soared to the skies of God realms and earth’s gravity was unchained. Human boundaries and limits have been redefined, creating a revolution of worldview. But instead of adopting the positive ideas of the French Revolution, Europe got regressed into reactionary monarchies during the 19th century.

In early 20th century there were more ideological changes that came with the invention of the airship and airplane. Romanticism was replaced with Modernism. The universal ideas of the French Revolution were converted into extreme nationalism. Man was released gradually from traditional conceptions about flight, which were always involved with wings of the birds and replaced it with new concepts, were high fixed speed became the supreme value. At the same time aviation was transformed, in an era of modern and total states where national defense became the ultimate goal, not just to a symbol of progress, but also to a symbol of unity and national victory. In the aviation dictatorships of the first half of the 20th century, Germany, the Soviet Union, Japan and Italy, the airplane was kind of a religious icon, a new form of religious fanaticism. It was identical with the spiritual flight.

During the second half of the 20th century Modernism gave way to Post Modernism . During this period the missile replaced the airplane as ruler of the skies. The armed balistic missille, controlled at the touch of a button which can eliminate humanity, brought people to cynical worldview centered on themselves.

The spread of Romanticism movement, contributed to a new political world view among the Germans, who lived until the late 19th century in small kingdoms ruled from towering hilltop castles and fought each other. The natural desire was to unite under one roof. In the second half of the 19th century they started a process of consolidating the small German states into one big state, called the Second Reich. The process came to an end only after Hitler's rise to power, when all police forces were consolidated into one central police controlled by the SS. Second Reich was the period in which Germany has moved from Romanticism to Modernism. German Modernism had a militarist face, according to the German political tradition. Below are few key concepts to describe the period:

Pan German - During the Second Reich many German citizens joined a romantic movement with broad popular definitions, the Pan German, which had irrational belief in anything that was 'Germany'. Pan German organizations were vocal and influential, with political pressure groups who often made declarations of intent and mobilized public support. They advocated modern paganism with alternatives to the established religions using appropriate rituals and texts.

Bismarck - Otto von Bismarck, the giant in body and spirit, was the Iron Chancellor of the Second Reich who began to unite the German states gradually under the control of Prussia, the great and powerful kingdom from the north.

The process created Germany as a constitutional monarchy. The emperor was an influential icon, who united all corners of the nation. Actual control was in the hands of Bismarck. But after the death of Bismarck there was not a political leader of stature to counterweight the emperor. As a result, Germany was dominated in the early 20th century by capricious and powerful emperor with few skills to manage huge modern state.

The Second Reich was characterized by a conservative and dominant central government. Bismarck used three main components for establishing its policies: modernization, imperialism, and militarism.

Modernization - Rapid industrialization and modernization took place, aided by the great migration of population from villages to cities. Smoking tall chimneys of factories were popular icon of this period. Modernization took place in recognition of the fact that the real political power is still in the hands of the aristocrats, despite the greater importance of manufacturers.

Imperialism - Bismarck understood the value of the colonies as an addition and as a unifying factor. One of his arguments was that Great Britain's international standing has limited the economic growth of Germany and threatened its security, because economic survival depends on the availability of foreign markets. German imperialism promised the masses of all the social spectrum limitless possibilities in overseas countries. German imperialism was spread especially across the borders of Germany, and the neighboring states became part of its sphere of influence.

Militarism - Imperialism demanded strong army, which was already an essential component of the centralized regime of Bismarck. In the past the powerful army of Prussia gave her a world reputation of great importance. But Prussia didn’t have non-European colonial tradition. Now, it had the momentum to take advantage of a full military potential. the imperialist and militaristic mindset united and inflamed the aristocracy, industrialists and the public and contributed to waves of intense nationalism.

Due to all these reasons and more, united Germany developed aviation with great enthusiasm. Later it would even be nicknamed a 'nation of aviators'. Biographies of Germany’s aviation pioneers shows just how great was their enthusiasm and contribution to the development of aviation in the world. It is equally possible to see how wrong choices made throughout their way shaped the destiny for their homeland and consequently how much it tempted the state to control the decision-making process on the issue, instead of letting free competition.

Otto Lilienthal was a German engineer of Jewish origin, a pioneer of aviation and world's most famous aviator during late 19th century. Lilienthal did much to promote aviation and was the first man who designed and built a glider that could carry a person. Lilienthal was attracted from the begining to the idea of flying through the imitation of the structure and movement of the wings of the birds, since this idea cdominated the perception of aviation in Europe from ancient times to Leonardo Da-Vinci. His brother Gustav continued this line of thought after his untimely death in an aerial accident and tried intensively, until the 1930th, to built a big airplane with waving wings, long after the airplane with fixed wings and propeller became a sole ruler of the skies.

In the late 19th century the Germans developed another air transport mode which and much more efficient, the airship. This was elongated flying balloon wuth a rigid frame and driven by motors, thus allowing movement not only by the grace of the winds. The airship too was invented by a Jew, David Schwartz, but was named after the key figure who developed and promoted it in Germany, Count Zeppelin, and after him all airships became known just as Zeppelins. Despite the initial enthusiasm, it was a huge machine and therefore very expensive, cumbersome and vulnerable, especially due to the use of flamable hydrogen gas to create lift capacity. Airship development was not possible through private enterprise alone. It needed the support of the German people, eager to finance and stimulate these air pioneers. After the first airship crashed and discouraged the inventors, it was the turn of businessmen and politicians who sold the dream to the masses. Thanks to the public's financial support and  enthusiasm, aviation enthusiasts won the idea of count Zeppelin to produce more and more airships and to make them, eventually, the major strategic weapon during World War I. It was despite the rapid development of airplane technology.

The airplane was invented in the United States and Germany imported the technological innovation while focusing on the airship. Germany was then in the mid of its rapid modernizm, colonialism and militarism and therefore the airplane created an internal conflict. There was an intense incentive to adopt imported technologies at the expense of local technologies, but at a huge price for the national pride.

Aviation Industry in Germany was developed from zero to be a najor part of the economy within few years. It was developed not just as an integral part of technological development, in  process similar to that of many other modern states. In Germany, during the first part of 20th century, instead of being integrated organically, it took the leading position of the economy, society and politics. Development and independence of any state are directly dependent on its means of transport and this is one more important reason why in Germany the airship, and later the airplane, were of absolute importance. Germany is a country isolated by natural barriers: the Alps in the south, the Baltic and the North Sea in the north and the Rhine river in the west. Intuitively, the advanced state developed air mindedness few steps higher and further. It became the combined icon of mobility, unity, modernizm, colonialism, militarism and nationalism altogether.

Otto Lilienthal

During the development of aviation there has always been a sharp difference between 'experts' and 'prophets'. Experts were the experienced ones from the inside and were skeptical about the possibility of rapid development of aviation. When excited reporters asked Orville Wright about his predictions about the development of aviation he said that "prophecy is not my vocation”. The Wright brothers lived in a reality of everyday practical experience, of primarily small and gradual improvements in the area. When other aviation pioneers were asked to the prophecy, each one gave very careful predictions. Prophets, compared with the experts, were romantic visionaries who came from outside. Some of them were intellectuals, writers and poets, and some communication professionals, businessmen, politicians, and the public at large, who were all very enthusiastic about the new medium. Everybody composed countless phrases and tried various projects.

The biographies of the aviation pioneers of Germany shows just how great was their enthusiasm and contribution to the development of world aviation. It is equally possible to see how their wrong choices change the destiny for their homeland, and so as a result how much Germany was enslaved to dominate the decision-making process on the issue. Prominent among them is Otto Lilienthal's biography.

In the heart of the phenomenon of mind there is a true verticality. This verticality is not empty rhetoric. It is a principle of order, a law which governs the mind fabric - a scale along which the individual can experience various degrees of distinguished insights. Mental life, all the clever and delicate feelings, hopes and fears, all the moral forces which are involved in the future of the individual, have vertical differential in the mathematical meaning of the word. If we want to know really how emotions evolve, the first thing to do is to determine the extent to which they make us heavier or lighter. The positive or negative vertical differential indicates well the impact and purpose of emotions on the mind. Of all the metaphors, the metaphors of height, lift, depth, sedimentation and fall, are accepted and agreed above all else. Nothing explain them but they explain everything. These metaphors have an extraordinary power: they control the dialectic of enthusiasm and despair. Vertical boldness is so vital, so clear - its superiority can not be denied - that the mind can not turn away from recognizing its direct and immediate meaning.

Gaston Bashelard writes in the second chapter of his book 'Air and Dreams’ that the wings that are not visible are those that fly as far. The mind doesn’t feels quick affection to birds flying in the sky. Their flight movement creates immediate abstraction and a stunning dynamic image which is perfect, full and complete. The reason for this fast and complete impression is the beauty of the dynamic image. This abstraction leads us to the flowless flight that we experience without formal images during dreams, which is reduced to a full joy and a whole impression of lightness. This abstract flight itself is used as an axis. Around it the many images of our daily existence are gathered. The reason birds attract our attention is not their colors. Their main beauty is their flight. This flight is a base for the dynamic imagination. In the reality of dynamic imagination flying create a unique colour. The vision becomes at once the memory of our dreams and a passion for a reward that God promised us. We are envious of the bird’s part in the univers and we associate wings with what we love, because we feel instinctively that in the domain of joy and bless our bodies will move in space like a bird in the air. Bird Psychology creates a super natural ideal which associates the reality we experienced with a dream. Man, according to this ideal, will become a super bird which, far from this world, will fly among the infinite worlds to its real environment, the land of air. In folklore tales and the romantic creation as well we find many imaginative descriptions, direct and indirect, of flight. the bird, graceful and light, reflects images of love, youth, sweetness and purity. These features are, in fact, primary mental realities. We associate so many features to the birds that cross the sky during the day because we experience through our imagination a joyous flight, one that creates in us youth impression. This is also because the dreamy flight is usually also pure sensuality.

The bird, created to live in the air, the purest and most mysterious element, is inevitably the shape of the final creation, the supreme and most independent shape. The wing, an integral part of flying, bestows noble and ideal perfection to almost all realities. Our soul, escaping from the earthly existence which draws us down to the bottom of this earth, will transform into a magnificent body, easier and faster than of any bird. The role of the natural wing is to float up and carry what is heavy to where the gods stay. More than anything else belonging to the body, it is a partner of the divine nature. By its material power, this partnership provides a very practical significance to the abstract partnership. As the saying goes:''I never loved someone without associating wings to the love”. Therefore it is immediately clear that human wings are a barrier. Whether the artist has designed them large or small, sagging or swinging, ruffled or smooth, they remain motionless for our mind. Imagination is unable to make the link. The image, the winged statue, is static. The wings are a symbol of flying to satisfy allegorical tradition and reason, but we have to look somewhere else for different dynamic hints.

Only indirect processes allow the best solution for the problem of presenting the idea of wings to the human mind. Imagination creates an immediate connection between the purity of the air and the movement of the wings. Bird's body is made ​​from the air surrounding her and her life are made from ​​the movement that carries her on and on. All the feelings that we encounter in everyday life are refined, as they eventually channeled, to the flight experience reality in the creative imagination. Therefore ‘flight of ideas’ is not just allegory and a worn phrase but the true movement of birds’ abstract wings. The changing of the shape of the wings in the air is actually the hidden engine of all human spirituality, its DNA code.

Otto Lilienthal [1848-1896] was a German engineer of Jewish origin, aviation pioneer and the world's most famous Aviator in the late 19th century. Lilienthal did a lot to promote aviation and was the first person who designed and built a glider that could carry a person in the air. Based on researches he conducted on the flight of birds he wrote a book on Aeronautics, published in 1889, which was used later by the Wright brothers. One of his major discoveries was that he showed the advantages of a curved wing against a flat wing. For his flights Lilienthal constructed in Berlin an artificial hill that he built with his own money. Within five years he had produced a commercial model of glider for amateurs. His gliders hovered for hundreds of meters and for few seconds, yet it was an almost unprecedented achievement in human history.

Lilienthal thought of birds flying in the wind in the perspective of Birds Psychology and not just as the model for human aviation. He was attracted to the idea of flights through imitation of the structure and movement of the birds’ wings because this idea dominated the perception of European aviation from ancient ages to Leonardo Da-Vinci. His observations on the flight of birds, especially flying storks, reinforced his conclusion that the bird is the one that should be a model for human aviation. He attributed great importance to the complexity of wings movements and argued not to give up their imitation, because it means losing all hope of flying. He argued, consequently, that the flight is primarily a personal matter and can be defined as ‘the way a person is flying in any direction he wants, by an installation attached to his body, of which the use requires personal skill’. However, despite his confidence in his way, Lilienthal asked not see in his achievements more then what they were. The photographs showed him hovering in the sky and created the impression that the problem of human flight was solved, but he stated that he is in the same place of a child who tries to imitate adult actions. Lilienthal's aviation career indeed lasted only few years:

1893 - Lilienthal built his artificial hill on the outskirts of Berlin and started to perform his flights, some of them to a distance of 250 meters. The same year he began building few models of gliders and a flying machine with motor-driven flapping wings. Over hundreds of attempts, which he documented with photographs, he could gradually improve the results of duration, height, and distance.

1894 - He started serial commercial production of simple and efficientl glider, but sold only few units.

1895 - He received visits of famous aviation pioneers, Langley from United States and Zocovsky from Russia.

1896 - He continued experimenting with new models. On 9 August 1896 he crashed after more than 2500 flights and was killed at the age of 48. The crash that caused his death happened after he lost control during a standard glider’s flight, as a result of a strong and unexpected side wind gust.

Lilienthal wrote and lectured a lot about his inventions. He published articles in scientific and popular journals. He became one of the most famous icons of the late 19th century. He photographed consistency his flights by professional photographers and the images combined the innovation of photojournalism with the innovation of his flights. Lilienthal was received with the same degree of enthusiasm among the scientific community and the public alike and his lectures about interesting experiments received applause. Lilienthal said that it is impossible to invent the art of flight in the same way gunpowder was invented, because theory has not much room for this occupation and only actual experiments are meaningful. This is correct even for our days, when advanced wind tunnels and computer technologies are in use.

Nowdays Lilienthal is known as the first successful aviation pioneer in history. His pioneering research on birds’ wings surfaces make him one of the founders of Aerodynamic science and created the foundation for concepts that are used today. His research and his flights from 1891 to 1896 led to the invention of the motorized aircraft which flew successfully for the first time in 1903.

Flights in gliders with birds-like wings is one of the primary experiences documented in human culture. Since dawn of civilization people have tried to imitate the flight of birds by building hand-made wings. The legend in Greek mythology about Daedalus and Icarus is just one testament of many, since in almost all cultures of the world there are similar legends about people who tried to imitate the flight of birds by tying wings and flapping them with the arms’ muscles. It is possible that the winged angels figures are religious evidence for it. The legend of Daedalus and Icarus illustrates how big was the gap between the will and the ability. Muscles strength required for a bird’s flight is huge relative to the strength of human arms muscles. In addition, a bird's wing is very aerodynamic, a result of an evolution of tens of millions of years and until now it could not be properly duplicated by modern science. A prominent example of human failure in this area is the attempts of Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century. Leonardo worked for many years on drawing the structure of the wings of birds and studied their movement in air currents. Later he drew glider models based mainly on imitating the movement of their wings and possibly even built some of them. But analysis of the plans shows that they did not have any chance to take off.

Therefore the enterprise of Lilienthal is of enormous importance. The Jewish tailor’s son from Germany - Poland border town was, at the end of the 19th century, the first man who managed to partially mimic birds gliding. Lilienthal researched well the structure of the birds’ wings and the way they fly. He built rigid non-flapping wings, harnessed them to his body and jumped with them against the wind from a hill he constructed. Lilienthal used knowledge and technology that were known to human civilization thousands of years before his time. Research observations of birds in flight were made ​​by scholars of all ancient civilizations. His use for gliders’ construction of light wooden beams and strong silk fabric also was common in the ancient world. Yet there was not in the ancient world, medieval and modern times, a genius who planned and executed what Lilienthal did.

The legend of Daedalus and Icarus is a useful and common paradigm among aviation historians, which describes the many victims that development of aviation demanded, from its beginnings to the present. Lilienthal is known for number of maxims. One is: "Aircraft design is nothing, building it is something, but it's all to fly it’. His second important maxim is about flight risks: ‘It requires sacrifice’. German nationalists used this phrase repeatedly to highlight the achievements of German aviation through commemoration of the victims it demanded, in war and peace alike, during the crusade towards the sky that the Nazis had carried out in the 1930th, inspired by Nietzsche.

The biography of Otto Lilienthal is connected to that of his brother Gustav Lilienthal [1849-1933]. The two brothers worked together their entire lives on technical, social and cultural projects in addition to aviation, some are of great importance to this days. During his lifetime, based on his trusted gliders, Otto tried to add to them the possibility of flapping wings using a small and efficient engine which they developed. The results were not encouraging, but Gustav kept the attempts intensely until the 1930th and built a big airplane with flapping wings which could not ever takeoff, long even after the aircraft with fixed wings and propeller had become the sole dominator of the skies. This mistake was very common since not only the movement of the wings of the bird was considered as an essential component for creating the lift for flight, but wings flapping was perceived also as an essential element of the soul, just like the leaves on trees. 'Flight of Ideas’ is not just a worn allegory but an abstract truth. The changing shape of the wings in the air is actually the hidden engine of all human spirituality.

Another Jewish personality who expressed human anxiety about overcoming gravity not in a completely natural way was Theodor Hertzel. In 1896 Hertzel wrote a story called 'Airship’ about a man who invented an aircraft, one of the biggest dreams of his time, but destroys it with his own hands because of his understanding that this invention may be used in the future as a distructive tool for wars. This prediction was original in Hertzel's time, since the majority of mankind regarded the aircraft as an instrument which will bring peace to the world. It is possible also that this prediction was in the root of Hertzel’s Zionism. Hertzel wrote in 1896: “The earth floats in mid-air. Perhaps similarly I can found and stabilize the Jewish state without a firm support. The secret lies in the motion. I beleive that dirigible airship will somehow be invented on this principle”.

We can, in a poetic way, learn about the enormous impact of birds’ wings flapping on human thinking also from the theory of relativity by Albert Einstein: The birds ability to overcome gravity can be described in his terms as ‘energy which is invested in constant, fast and endless movement and create chain reaction’.

Sigmund Freud too was probably influenced by Otto Lilienthal in his research of human sexuality and the Oedipus complex in particular. Flight and sensuality are bound together in the reality of dreams and in this respect Lilienthal was clearly a phallic figure.

Most serious studies about the personality of Adolf Hitler claim that he suffered from psychological development complexes. No doubt, in view of the historical facts, that Hitler projected from his personal troubles to the politics of modern Germany and he probebly regarded the Jewish aviation pioneers as part of these problems and therefore a legitimate reason for antisimitism, in light of the airplane invention by the Wright Brothers and Germany’s defeat in World War One.

The Wright brothers have stated that Lilienthal was an influential figure on their way to the revolutionary design of the aircraft with fixed wings, although their invention was a huge leap and unconventional scientific and cultural breakthrough. They came to Germany in 1909, as part of a European tour which aroused tremendous interest and made ​​them the world's most famous people. The Europeans, unlike the Americans who rejected at first the invention of the airplane, quickly adopted the new invention because of their general interest in aviation. This interest was largely thanks to Lilienthal and David Shwartz, whose development of aviation engine for airships surely contributed to the Wright Brothers.

The Invention of the fixed-wing aircraft with propeller is a significant cultural landmark, which manifested the transition from Romanticism to Modernism. Futurism was artistic and social movement that started in Italy at the beginning of the 20th century and continues today. It was largely Italian, but there were parallel movements also in Russia, England and many other countries. Futurism turned to the feelings of modern man and his experiences of mass production, the media, and advanced transportation and communication systems, from the airplane to the phone, from the cinema to fast food. These are all expressions of modernity which changed necessarily the perception of all daily life and therefore alter the modes of expression of the poet and painter. The airplane’s invention had created a chain reaction: Aviation was the most valued subject for the Italian Futurist artists. Italian Fascism was inspired directly by Futurism and German Nazism was inspired directly by that Fascism. So it was ideologically and in all political, social and military actions.

Aviation historian Richard Hallion

Richard Hallion is eminent historian of aviation and one of the founders and curaters of Air and Space Museum in Washington, which has the largest number of visitors in the world. Hallion wrote many books, among them "Taking Flight" which deals with the development of aviation from dawn to present. Hallion is among the few historians who thinks that the invention of the airplane is particularly important and determines that the airplane completely changed the face of reality. But Hallion does not attribute to the development of aviation the same importance granted to it in "Holocaust and Aviation", as the most influential factor in shaping modern history. The reason for this, among other things, is that he does not use the concepts of Aerial Awarness and Aerial Conciousness.

Central role in the overall approach of researcing the airplane phenomenon is the use of the terms Aerial Awarness and Aerial Conciousness.

The term Aerial Awarness was created by researchers to explain the initial enthusiasm of the American people for the flying machine. In addition historians began to use the term to describe the nation's interest, of groups or individuals, in any aviation related subject. The term originally referred to the flight enthusiasm of flying machines, but its use also refers to all the traditions and symbols that make up the approach to the subject and the diversified practices of it.

The term Aerial Conciousness means wise use of aerial propoganda to create a complete world view. In other words, this is a unique culture based on the concepts of aviation.

Hallion consequently does not use the term Aerial Dictatorship. In the first half of the twentieth century four dictatorships were established based on Aerial Conciousness: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet Union and Imperial Japan. In these countries the airplane was more than just a flying machine. While statesmen from Western powers saw the airplane only as key technology component and a measure of progress, dictatorships of aviation attributed to it also symbolism as the precursor to national pride.

Another important aviation historian, Peter Fritzsche, author of "Germany - a Nation of Pilots”, which parts of it are the basis of few chapters in “Holocaust and Aviation”, discusses the development of German Aerial Conciousness before the rise of the Nazis. He too sees aviation as very important phenomenon, but secondary to the complex social factors that have shaped the history of the 20th century. It may be that the book was a bold intellectual experience for him and he abandoned it as advancing in academic career.

Peter Fritzsche is missing the use of the term Flying Psychology, developed by the philosopher Gaston Bashelard. Aerial phenomenon provides general guidelines which are basic important psychological principles. Experiences of taking of, rising, height, lift, floating, hovering, depth, landing, sinking, fall and so on are the experiences that sum up the human mind above anything else. Nothing explain them but they explain everything. More simply, if a person wants to live and feel them and above all to compare them, he realizes that they have an initial quality and they are more natural than all the others.

Richard Hellion deals in the first part of his book with the dawn of flight dream in humanity, as a process of spiritual purification and scientific investigation. He describes flying legends in ancient cultures, the impact of birds on the Greek and Roman civilizations, the consciousness of the spiritual flight in early Christianity and Islam, and the insistence of individuals in the Middle Ages on aviation experiences with meager means. Then he moves to the beginning of the modern ages, with the invention of gunpowder that also led to the development of military use of rockets, and he ends with the description of the scientific conflicts in early industrial revolution era regarding the proper way by which one can bring a person into the sky.

The second part of Hellion's book is devoted to the invention of the balloon and airship. An important chapter deals with the 'Magnificent Year' of 1783 when the balloon was invented. First floated, in the same year and same city - Paris, balloons which soared by hot air or using hydrogen, in competition greatly resembling race into space of nowadays. Each of the inventions had advantages and disadvantages and they both together forever changed the face of society. Hellion describes the effect of the inventions of the balloon on Paris fashion, but he is not connecting the balloon to the French Revolution which began in 1789 and started one of the most important processes in human history which heralded the era of the modern democratic state. The Flying Psychology of Gaston Bashelard explains well how single technological invention was able to influence in such significant way French society and the whole world.

Hellion finishes his book, which deals primarily with the development of the aircraft at the beginning of the twentieth century with a major part devoted to the Wright Brothers, with an epilogue about the events of 11 September 2001, when a number of airliners that terrorists had kidnapped crashed on major buildings in the United States. The damage and the relative ease with which terrorists were able to act led to worsening security regulations, and a simultaneous decrease in the number of passengers in airplanes. Spectacular airplanes in the sky suddenly became scaring.

September 11, 2001 events are a direct continuation of the Nazi worldview. A similar concern was the head of the public agenda even before World War II. Stanley Baldwin, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the early 1930th said that the man in the street has to realize that there is no place where the strategic bomber is not able to get and it is better if the airplane had not been invented, but it is now mandatory to incorporate it in religious values.

Hellion states that like all technological inventions, whether the aircraft is good or bad depends on who use it and briefly reviews other periods in the 20th century when the airplane was described as precursor of human solidarity on the one hand, but was used as a weapon in destructive wars. He focuses on Nazi Germany and quotes the last lines from the diary of Joseph Goebbels, written in Hitler's bunker in Berlin shortly before their suicides, in which he wrote that the issue of helplessness against air superiority of Allied bombers which constantly bombarded German soil was repeated on and on in his last conversations with Hitler.

Hellion, like the rest of aviation historians, hardly applies in his book to the contribution of Nazi Germany to the development of modern aviation. Aviation achievements were the mainstay of the regime but they contradicted all his evil deeds. In addition, Hellion may wish to emphasize the contribution of his homeland to the development of aviation and space technologies. The process worked out by the Nazi political leadership, which combined the construction of the world's most sophisticated airplanes with the establishing the mechanism for genocides  of innocent folks, is described in detail in “Holocaust and Aviation” only. It was a process of trial and error of integrated ideology and technology, where the sense of Nazi racial superiority intensified together with their aerial superiority and their need of jenocides intensified as their air superiority declined.

The moral aspect which occurs as by itself let “Holocaust and Aviation” be a poetic and healing research for the soul, contrary to Holocaust studies of the academic establishment, which focuses on conventional explanations and therefore it is still a 'black hole' for them. Aviation is the cornerstone of Israel's security and this gap created social crisis that results in deep social fracture. Holocaust rememberance is incomplete.

The author of these lines grew up as a teenager in the 1960th and experienced the Yom Kippur War. It formed the stimulus for a mental turnaround that led to writing “Holocaust and Aviation” on the foundation of his parents' memories, who were holocaust survivors, memories which he recorded and edited. This multi-year process was done while watching the awakening of public interest in the Holocaust as the clear gap between everyday life of post-modern era to questions of history and future became obvious.

The Many international crises occurred after significant breakthrough in aviation development in the 20th century raise the question of what will be, in the foreseeable future, major developments in aviation. There are four different directions of development, each of which bestows on the other:

a. Space is gaining maximum public attention and the people of planet earth will gradually reach more meaningful and distant places through powerful missiles and large spaceships, mostly unmanned.

B. Automatic unmanned airplanes with elaborate guidance technology will replace mankind in the celestial wilderness. The drones rapidly replace manned military aircraft and the process has huge influence on civil aviation.

C. Personal aviation, in which each person will own an aircraft, will grow immensly in scope. Recreational aviation is very popular nowdays, after it become affordable and available to all. But the big push will be to bring important means of advanced propulsion and guidance to solve the range, navigation and landing problems in 3D reality.

D. Economic aviation using the floating principle, which takes advantage of the air cushion created between the airplane's wings and the ground when flying only a few feet above it, will replace traditional shipping routes and will bring development to remote sea shores.

EurAsia Bear - view from the north pole

Eurasia Bear

Main matches:

Head - Western Europe

Arms - Scandinavia and Turkey peninsulas

Body - Eastern Europe and North Asia

Legs - around sea of Ochotsk

Intersting features:

Nose sniffing Iberian Peninsula

Back's lines match China, Mongolia and  Kasakhstan northern borders

EuroAsia bear with states borders

Buoyant Airborne Turbine

Introducing the Altaeros BAT: The Next Generation of Wind Power

Herman Shtruck Museum in Haifa

Herman Shtruck Museum

Hermann Shtruck (1876-1944) is considered one of the most important print artists in Germany and in Israel in the first half of the twentieth century. For more than forty years of operation, as successful and respected artist, he created a plethora of works on paper, mainly in two kinds of topics - portrait and landscape. His famous series of portraits immortalized the greatest intellectuals and scientists of his time, including the most famous painting in contemporary Judaism - a portrait of Theodor Hertzel.

Hermann Shtruck : Portrait of Theodore Hertzel

In addition to his artistic work Shtruck took an important part in the Zionist movement. His major artistic initiatives led to the establishment of Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem.

Shtruck was recognized as preeminent graphic arts teacher and began teaching art print even while in Germany. Among his many students were Max Liebermann, Marc Chagall, Jacob Steinhardt, Joseph Bodko and others.

In December 1922 Shtruck moved from Berlin to Haifa. Shtruck's settling in Haifa was a cultural event which Israel did not know before. Shtruck was internationally recognized Jewish artist and contributed greatly to the development of the artistic community of the north of the country in general and the city of Haifa in particular.

Shtruck settled in Haifa in a three-storey building at Arlosorov Street 23 in Hadar Carmel, designed by his friend Alexander Berwald - one of the greatest architects who were operating in the first half of the twentieth century. He restored his studio in Berlin and gathered a club of students specialized in various print techniques. Among those who attended were Anna Ticho, Zvi Goldstein, Joseph Ehrlich and others.

Shtruck's home today is a preserved elegant building of historical and architectural value. In 2013, after a reconstruction project that included the renovation of the building, while retaining the original details, it was opened as a museum which recreate the appearance and the original spirit of the house as it was in the life of Shtruck.

The purpose of the museum is to illuminate the portrait of Hermann Shtruck in all circles of his cultural and social creativity and activity. The museum's display include furniture items, rugs, personal items, books and oil paintings by Hermann Shtruck, alongside works from the collection of Haifa Museum of Art. On the top floor of the museum will soon be opened a creative activity center, including workshops for print and etching, sculpture and painting.

Temporary exhibitions of the museum will be dedicated to the multi-scale creation of Hermann Shtruck and the art to which the artist devoted his life - print. Exhibitions will focus on issues, ideas and cultural trends in the modern era. Display platforms will bring together the work of Shtruck with other artists that work in the graphic arts field today in Israel and abroad, with the aim to conduct a dialogue between periods and points of view.

Sources:  מוזיאוני חיפה, הרמן שטרוק, בית הרמן שטרוק

Dr. Carmela Efratt, certified senior aviation doctor, was on EL AL flight urgently looking for a doctor And took care of one of the passengers

 Dr. Efratt recieves a certificate of appreciation from EL AL CEO

Website of Dr. Carmela Efratt - senior aviation doctor - Israel, USA, 

F.A.A, Europe. Diving Physician

Medical emergency landing in Warsaw at the request of Dr. Carmela Efratt on 04/12/2013, of EL AL flight on New York - Tel Aviv line, taken by an amateur photographer

One of the passengers on the plane felt unwell during the flight, with vomiting and nausea. Dr. Efratt, who was the only doctor on the plane, was asked by the staff to help the patient, and decided of a medical emergency landing in Warsaw. An ambulance was waiting at the airport, and Dr. Efratt accompanied the patient to the hospital. A letter of thanks was sent to the management of El AL describing her super devotion. CEO of EL AL Shkedi did not remain indifferent. He invited her to his office and gave her a tribute.

Dr. Carmela Efratt is a senior aviation doctor to Israel, U.S. and Europe, and a diving physician. She is engaged in providing medical certificates for pilots and divers, plus providing diet medical consulting. 

She has a clinic in Haifa near Moria Avenue on Mount Carmel, phone number 04-8241382.

 Dr. Efratt gets model airplane with a plaque of appreciation from EL AL CEO

Certificate of Appreciation from EL AL to Dr. Carmela Efratt

Aviation and the 1960th

Spiritual flight is central symbol of the human spirit and freedom. Aviation, so important to national security, is a center of human interest and endeavor. Naturally, mechanical aviation is associated with spiritual flight. Aviation development allows short and sound historical commentary of modern times.

‘Sixties’ in popular culture is a term used to describe counterculture and social norms revolution in clothing, music, drugs, art, customs, emancipation of women and others, which characterized the decade from 1963 to 1974 or so, and has significant influence to these days. Conservatives condemned the decade as suffering from excess of extravagance, responsibility and social order decay, because of social taboos relaxation that occurred during the period.

Sixties have become synonymous in politics around the world with new, radical events and trends and political subversion. In Africa it was major period of radical political change and approximately 32 countries received their independence from colonial rule. Equal rights demands in the developed world, especially demonstrations of blacks in U.S. under leadership of Martin Luther King, changed the political map. In Middle East, Israel won the Six Day War of June 1967 with a quick and glorious victory over the enemies surrounding it.

More than any decade, 1960th will be remembered because of the permissive youth culture, developed mainly in Western developed world in North America and Europe as Hippie Subculture. It evolved together with the expansion of mass media but rejected it. Subculture activists, pacifist and anti-capitalist, rejected the values ​​of their parents' generation and spoke out against old sexual and social taboos, with marijuana and birth control pill at their hand. Rock bands and Pop art were pioneers of this culture. London was known as celebration capital excelled in Hippie culture of manners, style, music and art, all young and original.

The Summer of Love was a social phenomenon that occurred during the summer of 1967, when as many as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, initiating a major cultural and political shift. Although Hippies also gathered in major cities across the U.S., Canada and Europe, San Francisco remained the epicenter of the social earthquake that would come to be known as the Hippie Revolution. The city became even more of a melting pot of politics, music, drugs for mind expansion, creativity, and the total lack of sexual and social inhibition than it already was. As the Hippie counterculture movement came farther and farther forward into public awareness, the activities centered therein became a defining moment of the 1960s, causing numerous 'ordinary citizens' to begin questioning everything and anything about them and their environment as a result. This unprecedented gathering of young people is often considered to have been a social experiment, because of all the alternative lifestyles which became more common. Woodstock Music Festival in August 1968 is considered to be the definitive nexus for the larger counterculture generation.

Some commentators see this period as end of classic cycle of ending of a rigid culture, unable to contain requirements for greater individual freedom of the younger generation, who freed themselves from social constraints of the previous age through extreme behaviour. However, this alone does not explain the mass nature of the phenomenon.

In the International relationship arena world peace has deteriorated considerably during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, which almost resulted in nuclear holocaust in 1962 and 1973. Establishment of Berlin Wall and Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia demonstrated the ongoing diplomatic rift between the two superpowers. Cold War was manifested in conventional military wars, specially in Vietnam and the Arab-Israeli conflict. It was manifested especially in technological arms race. Most of this arms race was of ballistic missiles with atomic warheads.

As part of military balance of terror the super powers were armed with thousands of missiles with nuclear warhead. This race lasted about thirty years, from the 1950th to the 1980th. It stopped after U.S.A and U.S.S.R signed agreements of partial dismantling of these weapons which a small percentage of them could destroy the whole world.

The arms race of the Cold War created hostility and cultural and social disconnect between the capitalist and communist blocks. The nuclear confrontation created a strange time for the individual too on both sides. World was controlled by a small number of politicians and generals, so none of ordinary citizens, everywhere, knew what will bring next day. Sense of logic was missing in world politics. Insanity of the arms race created suspicion among the youth in every corner on the planet. It created the post-modern, underlying despair and skepticism towards the establishment, with a need for relying only on self and search for alternative culture haven.

Arm race had a by product of civil race to space with a relatively small budget and using military technology. It began by sending the first satellite and first man into space by U.S.S.R and reached its climax in landing of the first man on the moon by U.S.A. In sharp contrast to the early Hippies culture, 1960th technological achievements were outstanding.

Missiles reached very important place in the media after World War II. The front place in the headlines was analogous to that of the airplanes before the war. Missiles had become the largest flame in the global campfire. Television was nicknamed Global Electronic Campfire, referring to the few available channels where all news and entertainments programs were broadcasted.

Subject of nuclear missiles is seemingly incomprehensible by ordinary citizens. In fact it is nothing but a modern form of the intense and irrational fire which is the basis of civilization, as Freud described. These are the instincts that are operating and simmering beneath civilization. Ballistic missiles are perceived in human consciousness as most dangerous weapon on one hand, but as exhilarating means of transportation to conquer space on the other. Ballistic missiles, as result of the terror balance they created with global armament, are paralyzing the spine with fear reflex. Paradoxically, through the powerful vertical flight to uncharted boundaries, they also free us from this fear.

In the 1950th fear of atomic missiles attack was in top of global agenda. In 1960th conquest of space, managed by the same rocket scientists, became gradually the most important issue.

In 1959, first cosmonauts and astronauts were chosen. Golden Age of the race to conquer space started. Short time intervals occurred between launching missiles of the parties, each of which represented a significant technological improvement over its predecessor. Each launch was more impressive. It was a race similar any race, vivid, fascinating, prestigious and with lots of followers. The Space Race was with stressed schedules, so countless rockets and satellites of both sides crashed. Biggest failures were that of the Soviets.

On 12 April 1961 Yuri Gagarin was launched into space and became first human who view whole planet earth. First American astronaut, Alan Shepard , was launched a month after Gagarin flight.

Experience of Gagarin and all cosmonauts and astronauts after him is holistic experience of united world, a result of a floating weightless in space, along with viewing beautiful planet earth, knowing that they are at the top of an advanced technology enterprise and eyes of the world are watching them. This holistic world view penetrate gradually to the international political arena.

Ecstasy gripped the Soviets after the landing and was used by their political leaders for expanding internal and international influence. Sending the first man into space created a global resonance. It was a tremendous blow to American prestige that forced president Kennedy to announce launch of a man to the moon within ten years. Kennedy turned to former Nazi rocket scientist Von Braun to formulate a plan that would put U.S.A back in first place. Von Braun wrote in reply that he believes it is possible to land on the moon before the Soviets. Kennedy made historic speech to the American people to devote themselves to achieving this goal by the end of the 1960th.

Second half of the 1960th were climax of the race to conquer space with the American program to land a man on the moon on top. American Apollo program began to take shape, while Gemini program progressed rapidly at the same time and pairs of astronauts were launched almost every two months in competition with the Soviets.

Koriolov, head of the Soviet space program, also received approval to fly to the moon, with rocket N-1, but with a limited budget. At the same time he designed the spacecraft to carry cosmonauts there. In 1969 N-1first launch failed in a huge explosion on the launch pad, thus ended the space race between the United States with secret decision of Soviet leaders to stop investing in it. It was fatal mistake of the Soviet leadership which preferred to invest instead in military missiles. Soviets opened the space race and led at first by a big margin. Not only they launched the first satellite, first animal and the first man, but also the first satellite to the Moon. They made the first spacewalk and created the first and very successful space station. All of this may have led to complacency sense down the road, which U.S. utilized to catch up.

Even today the achievements of the U.S.A does not overshadow those of the Soviets. Soviet experience in space was well expressed during the construction of the International Space Station. They recognized before the Americans the importance of the near space and operated large space station for decades. Their lessons were important for the construction of the ISS, of which the first component was launched in 1998 and it is in ongoing construction in 2013.

Half a billion people worldwide watched TV broadcasting launching Apollo -9. On 20 July 1969 Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. It was a small step for man, a giant leap for mankind. It took all of humanity to a new reality, seemingly magical.

Von Braun initiated another five successful manned flights to the Moon. The fact that the Nazi rocket scientists ran the space program of U.S.A added confusion for the younger generation, who could not tolerate it, together with the continuing arms race, regional conflicts and dictating media dominance.

1960th were the best example of the gap that existed between government aviation programs and personal spiritual flying experience. Although in this period mankind had reached the peak in mechanical flight, on Earth drug culture was developed with many young people engaged in it, looking in this way for their the personal flying experience. It could perhaps be concluded that Western countries civilization has reached maturity with the understanding that there is not allegedly a link between the spiritual flying experience and the fascinating flight of airplanes and spaceships. Large passenger airplanes became common in the 1960th and flight in them became dull as bus traveling. But the extensive drug culture for mind expansion shows rather that the youth felt frustrated as a result of the control of a small elite of all aviation and space technology, together with all economic, technological and cultural advantages it gave them.

Since all significant aviation and space operations were in exclusive control, political, social and economic elite concluded that they can create direct continuation of this situation through a strategy to create stable society. It was called Strategy of Desire. Psychological advertisement was main tool for distributing this strategy which was originally created by Freud’s nephew in the 1930th and adopted by totalitarian and democratic regimes as well. It is psychological conditioning where the material new product is not intended to provide just direct need, but also indirect psychological need. It create material surrounding to strengthen the self with consumer products that have ability to uncover hidden desires and give people sense of common identity with those around them. Most powerful people in the world were those who could read or even generate public opinion, in order to satisfy the masses by providing profitable products, through advertisements in the then few existing mass media channels.

But psychologists have discovered how difficult it is to understand and influence the internal structure of personality. They chased a ghost idea by which the human mind can be manipulated and influenced from outside by external factors. They found that humans are much more complex creatures. Application of childish psychoanalysis received sharp criticism for not answering fundamental problems and needs, such as  neglect of youth and creating problems of surplus products.

Emptiness created by artificial abundance resulted in emotional frustration. Humans have a wide range of emotional expressions that need a living space and should not be forced with normative consumerism. Source of evil is not internal conflict but society itself. This debate spilled over into violence in the 1960th. Resistance to mass consumer culture brought waves of protest, influenced by thinkers who opposed the theory of Freud as interpreted by the establishment. Student protest movements have been established, they tried to confront directly with the ruling establishment which shaped their lives not according to their will.

May 1968 events in France, birth place of modern aviation and French Revolution, were a volatile period of civil unrest punctuated by massive general strikes and the occupation of factories and universities across France. It was largest general strike ever attempted in France and first ever nation-wide wildcat general strike. In the height of its fervor, the unrest virtually brought the entire advanced capitalist economy of France to a dramatic halt. The events had a resounding impact on French society that would be felt for decades to come.

Events began with a series of student occupation protests, followed by strikes involving 11,000,000 workers, more than 22% of the total population of France at the time, for two continuous weeks and its impact was such that it almost caused the collapse of French President Charles de Gaulle's government. The movement was characterized by its spontaneous and de-centralized wildcat disposition. This created contrast and sometimes even conflict between itself and the establishment trade unions and workers parties.

Student occupations and wildcat general strikes initiated across France were met with forceful confrontation by university administrators and police. Tall de Gaulle administration's attempts to quell those strikes by police action only inflamed the situation further, leading to street battles with the police in the Latin Quarter, followed by the spread of general strikes and occupations throughout France. Protests reached such a point that government leaders feared civil war or revolution. Tall de Gaulle went to a French military base in Germany and after returning dissolved the National Assembly and called for new parliamentary elections for 23 June 1968. Violence evaporated almost as quickly as it arose. Workers went back to their jobs, and when elections were finally held in June, the Gaullist party emerged even stronger than before.

Uprising failed. As a result, young people began gradually thinking that if it is impossible to eliminate the mind police by eliminating corporations and the state, there should be a way to enter the mind and get rid in it of the control mechanism they implanted in it. This in purpose to create a new self and consequently a new society, by reaching full human potential through internal search. One of the dominant techniques designed to release the mind and teach the human being to be itself was the seminars of Werner Erhard. According to Erhard, the idea that every individual has a core of self is another way to limit personal freedom. In reality there is no fixed self. The purpose of his seminars was to expose the layers of personality up to the last and most internal ones, to find out that the nucleus is essentially meaningless. As humans shed all their personality layers to the last one, they found that what remains is an empty space.

Empty space is a great place to stand and an outstanding starting point to start from. Only from empty space it is possible to create originality and design life that are invented honestly. Be what you want to be. Without linking to it directly, Erhard's teachings have a direct connection to the conquest of space. One can compare the astronaut in white space suit, a tiny figure floating in outer space against the dark void, to the insights of personality’s internal empty space.

There are many similarities between 1960th to the 1930th. Fascism and Nazism were carried out by young people in a radical turn to the nationalist right, as a result of what they thought was irresponsible and decaying social order.

Futurism was dominant artistic and social movement that flourished in Italy at the first half of the 20th century and is significant to these days. It was largely Italian, but there were parallel movements also in Russia, England and many other countries. Futurism turned to the feelings of modern man with his experiencing of new means of mass production, electricity grid, radio, television, cinema, phones network, modern home appliances, advanced cars and highways, airplanes and fast food. These changes influenced all aspects of life and in this way altered the modes of expression of the poet and painter. Futurism expressed an intense loathing for all that is old, especially political and artistic tradition. Futurists admired speed, technology, youth and violence. They liked the car, airplane and the industrial city. All of these represented for them triumph of human technology over nature. Futurists artists were in most art fields, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, theater, film, fashion, literature, music, architecture and even gastronomy. Airplane became major player in the Futurist drama. Aerial paintings were at top of Futurist art achievements and typical of the final stage of Futurism development in the late 1930th and early 1940th.

There were many links between Nazism and Futurism. Love of the future and youth, love of modernization and technology, violence, nationalism, war and more. Hitler and other leaders of the Nazi movement started their ideological career in the spiritual associations 'Tula' and 'Vril'. These were just two of many cults for spiritual development, inspired by famous spiritualist figures from the 19th century. Tula was the cult were Hitler practiced his mental skills in his early stages. Berlin’s Vril and Munich’s Thule were interested in society and politics as well as with personal development and science. Members held concentration exercises, yoga and meditation. Head of the cults was professor Karl Haushofer, a retired general from World War I and a student of Japanese samurais, Tibetan shamans and famous Russian mystic Gurdjieff who was popular in the 1960th as well. Haushofer eventually became central pillar in the Nazi movement as professor of Geopolitics who conceived the notion of Living Space, was mentor of Mein Kampf and designer of Nazi’s international strategy and extreme form of eugenics policy.

In early 20th century use of intoxicant drugs, nowadays forbidden by law, was legal and common. There is a theory that one source of Hitler's mental distortion and that of many of his followers originates from drugs use, including hallucinogens. Hitler recognized the immense popularity of intoxicants in his time and his Nazi party offered colorful substitute for drug addiction which became another addiction for childish minds. Hitler was addicted to drugs, including amphetamines from his personal physician. They were originally used to calm tensions but they had huge impact on his fateful decisions. He acted under influence of euphoric feeling. During the war use of stimulants was common among front line fighters of German army with prescriptions from military doctors.

Feminism, sexual tolerance and equal rights were a major difference between 1930th and the 1960th. Futurist and Nazis believed that women's place is at home.

However, debate regarding Nazism and Holocaust in particular were deleted in 1960th from public agenda of the establishment and that of the Hippies as well. Rocket scientists did not like recalling their dark past and Hippies did not like the similarity between their youth subculture to that of the 1930th. Holocaust became a Black Hole in the public mind in the same fashion of black holes of deep space.

In 1960th long wild hair was very common among the youth. Long hair, flapping in the wind, is best expression of the air element in human body. The musical ‘Hair’ is one of most important cultural symbols of the 1960th. 'Hair' depict the short life of a rebellious young man, who is sent to Vietnam as a soldier and dies in the war.

As in the musical, the era of 1960th ended with defeat, in Vietnam and Yom Kippur wars, of United States and its Western allies.

Cold War continued after these wars, but the parties understood that the arms race is too dangerous and acted for arms reduction. Although at first defeated in the Domino game of international relationship, achievements of the Americans in the race to space, particularly manned missions to the moon and space shuttle launches, kept their political, social and technological advantage up to the 2010th. 

Cold war walls collapsed because of the revolution in sport aviation in the West during the 1980th. During this period the wind glider and and ultralight airplane were invented and became very popular among the youth due to their cheap cost. Private pilot liscence which was until those days very expansive to get, became affordable to the average youth and with it came immense creative energy input to society. Communist U.S.S.R was more oriented then the West toward regarding aviation as cultural trademark for society mobilization, but its dictatorial regime was indoctrinating and could not assimilate the free spirit needed for personal aviation.

Oigins of the world energy crisis, which effects even the economies of 2010th, are in Yom Kipur war of 1973. In retrospective the energy crisis can be described as a plan from outer space to take care of fragile planet earth ecology, in times when global heating is of great danger to it. High prices of oil force developing substitutes technologies of clean energy.

1960th ended with a crisis that strengthened the alternative cultures of the period in western democracies. Alternative culture became progressively central, through engaging topics such as environment, sustainability, self improvement, spirituality, religion, Holocaust, individual rights, cultural pluralism and more. these are nowadays in the core of Western culture.

Ex Hippies from California developed the personal computer as new form of self expression. Most international media and communication today is via the Internet which gradually replace the traditional newspaper, television and phone. Internet, with its infinite channels, symbolize the potential for personal aviation and spiritual flight experience for every human being.

Source:

Holocaust and Aviation

Nazi Germany Aviation as Major Cause for the Holocaust