Wooden WW II Luftwaffe models

[fliegerii]

From time to time old wooden aircraft models of German WW II types appear on the market. These are not ex-ID models.
The building of model planes of the German warbirds was very poular in Germany during subject period. There were only few toy makers like Dux and Lehmann offering original tin toy planes of WW II warbirds for sale, and many of the Germans did not even have the money to buy them. This gap was filled by printed construction sheets of planes, which could be used as basis to craft the model. Wood was inexpensive, and the construction sheets were sold for less than 1,- Reichsmark. Some print companies even made sheets to build planes able to fly. Attached is the cover of Volckmann, which was such a company.
Many of the models survived, even though sometimes painted more than one time over the last 70 years....

volckmann HE 70.jpg (22.92 KiB) Viewed 9189 times

Also Luftwaffe soldiers were very busy at building models of the related planes:

do-17 bastel.jpg (152.2 KiB) Viewed 9189 times

The finished DO-17 apperars to be very accurate. The gentlemen on the picture behind the model I do not know

do 17 bastel fertig.jpg (139.69 KiB) Viewed 9189 times

[fliegerii]

Last but not least also some original aircraft producers in Germany supported this hobby of modelling airplanes. Heinkel was very active in producing inhouse models of their planes for the reason of wind tunnel tests, exhibition and engineering. At least until 1941 Heinkel issued a model construction map including all their planes with dimension data and photographs of the real planes. Below is the cover of the 1941 map. It includes all types from HE-42 to HE-116. The introduction of the booklet says, that these drawings are for toy manufacturers and private model-builders and it was issued because of the many mail they frequently get asking for construction data of their planes.

[grwebster]

Thanks for the information, Chris, and perhaps I can help with one thing, I know who the guy is in the portrait behind the model.
It's Reichsmarschall Herman Goering. Can't forget a face like that but the artist gave him a big diet. He took over as commander of the Jagdgeschwader 1, the squadron of Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron" when he was shot down and killed in WW I and then went on to become Hitler's designated successor of Nazi Germany.

First real clue was the gold braid on right shoulder- that is reserved for someone who is on the the staff of the head of state ie Presidents, Kings, Emperors etc....-in this case the Führer und Reichskanzler. Normally the braid is worn on the left shoulder for the staff of all lessor ranked General Officers.
Second clue was the Pour le Merite - 'The Blue Max' around his neck. He won this during WW I as a "Ace' pilot. It was the highest military honor/ decoration that could be given at that time, equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor {USA} or the Victoria Cross {GB} The award was not given out after WWI but he later received the highest order of the Iron Cross, The Grand Cross.
then, for confirmation, I found this photo on the internet- same guy and same decorations.
http://www.nouvelordremondial.cc/wp-con ... oering.jpg
http://www.cimilitaria.com/Graphics%20d ... _1_550.jpg

[grwebster]

...but on second thought, I guess you already knew that!

[fliegerii]

Yes, in fact.

But you may not believe it: Many of the info about Goering you provided were not aware to me. So I spent yesterday night one full hour in the net to learn a bit more about him. Obviously he was the last German soldier receiving the Pour le Merite, as this (military) decoration was stopped in 1918.

And in the last days of WW II he was trying to organise a seperate peace with the Western Allied together with Himmler, for which he was thrown out of the Nazi-party by Hitler 10 days prior to German surrender (of course this idea of Goering and Himmler was just the attempt to escape from the expected trial and punishment by the Allied forces after war).

He had to go to Nuremberg and finally committed suicide in 1946 before he was going to get killed by the hangman.

By the way: He was a junkie, his IQ was 138 (Mensa limit for superintelligent: 140) and ... he was a toy collector He was the first German operating a full (Maerklin) model railway. He had four Maerklin engineers in Luftwaffe uniform just to maintenance his line.

[grwebster]

I got into his past when I researched the 1935 Lehmann Tin He-70 registration UDET. I found that it was in honor of a very popular ace, Hans Udet. Turns out he was a pilot in the Red Baron's unit and he hated Goering........ so when Goering later became head of the Luftwaffe, Udet suffered and finally commited suicide.
Did not know about his toy collecting....

[fliegerii]

Ernst Udet. Goering made him responsible for the lost "Battle of Britain".

[grwebster]

Of course - it was Ernst, sorry about that.

[grwebster]

I stumbled upon a early video of Udet performing during the Chicago Air Races.
go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2CBx7x5GCI
Incidentally the video was complied by Bomberguy who has many historical aviation videos on youtube- worth watching