HISTORY

GOTTHARD

SACHSENBERG

I have written about the Sachsenberg family pilots several

times, but this time around I decided to spread the theme

of Gotthard Sachsenberg Jr. around his extended family. In

this way, the reasons as to why he became such a successful naval aviator and on what basis he built his career

as an industrialist and politician could be best explained.

Photo: Greg VanWyngarden

Jan Bobek

Autor: Richard Plos

Photo of Gotthard Sachsenberg made in late summer 1918 after the awarding of Pour le Mérite.

Note the Navy observer badge.

Seaman Gotthard

Gotthard Sachsenberg Jr. was born on December 6th, 1891 in Rosslau

on the outskirts of Dessau into the family of a shipyard co-owner and

secret Imperial Privy Commercial Councillor Dr.-Ing. h. c. Gotthard

Sachsenberg Sr. His son attended high school in Dessau and Schnepfenthal. The school in Dessau was also attended in the same year by

Oswald Boelcke and their one year younger peer Theodor Osterkamp.

These future aviation legends likely need no introduction.

Gotthard Sachsenberg Jr. graduated high school in Eisenach, and

went to college studies in national economics. However, he soon opted for a career change and even before the First World War began,

he joined the navy in April, 1913. Basic training was followed by naval training on the protected cruiser S.M.S. Hertha. The naval training

was undertaken with the rank of Fähnrich, and the beginning of the

war saw him with that rank on board the pre-dreadnought battleship

S.M.S. Pommern. This ship was sunk on June 1st, 1916 in a battle of

Jutland, and none of her crew survived. But by then, Gotthard Jr. had

been away from the battleship for quite some time.

In September, 1914, after a concentrated effort put forth on his superiors, he was allowed to volunteer for the air component of the

navy, the Freiwillige Marine Fliegerkorps. The commanding officer of

this branch of the service was Oblt. z. S. von Skrbensky, and achieved active duty status from December, 1914, flying from the airfield at

Oostende in Belgium. Sachsenberg became an air observer and crew

commander. At the beginning of 1915, he was reassigned to II. Marine

Landflieger Abteilung, which became combat ready in February of the

same year. In August, 1915, Sachsenberg was awarded the Iron Cross

6 eduard

1st Class for his service, but was sent to recover at Gent due to the

results of the demands of combat that were imposed on him.

His unit was redesignated as II. Marine Feldflieger Abteilung in October. In January, 1916, Sachsenberg was promoted to Leutnant z. See,

and became an observer instructor at an aviation school. A month

later, though, he could be found training on single seat fighters at

Kampf Einsitzer Staffel Mannheim. He would be the first naval aviator

to finish fighter pilot training. In April, 1916, he returned to his original

unit as a ‘Fokkerpilot’, as the unit had accepted single seat Fokker E

fighters, and, as was the custom at the time, it was known as Kampf

Einsitzer Kommando (KEK), but it was not a separate unit.

In November, 1916, the first new specialized naval fighter unit was

activated under the name Marine Feldflieger Jagdeinheit. The unit’s

commanding officer was Sachsenberg, and so the unit was named

Sonderkommando Sachsenberg, and for its lower numerical status

in terms of equipment, was also designated as Jagd-Halbstaffel (with

‘Halb’ meaning ‘half’). However, formally, it still was subordinated to

the command of II MFFA, who’s CO was Oblt. z. S. Hans Alfred von

Santen.

February, 1917 finally saw the activation of a full fledged fighter unit

at Neumünster called Marine Feldflieger Jagdstaffel I (MFJ I), and its

command was bestowed upon Sachsenberg. The unit’s pilots hailed

from Sonderkommando, which he had led until that time, and also

partly from II MFFA. Among those under his command was also

a friend in the form of Theo Osterkamp, and they soon found themselves in competition with another with regards to the number of aerial

victories, especially after Osterkamp was named commanding officer

INFO Eduard - April 2021