HISTORY

Text: Jörn Leckscheid

The Red Combat Flyer

Manfred von Richthofen

When asking a regular person on the street

to name a famous soldier from the First

World War, the answer is most likely going

to be “The Red Baron”.

Richthofen family were actually “Freiherren”.

The translated term gained popularity in postwar times, especially when cartoonist Charles

M. Schulz had his cartoon character “Snoopy”

fighting imaginary dogfights against the “Red

Baron” in his equally imaginary Sopwith Camel in

the 1960s and 70s.

Manfred and his sister Elisabeth (born 1890),

more commonly called “Ilse”, were to be joined

by two more brothers: Lothar was born two years

after Manfred, and Karl Bolko Alexander, usually

called by his second name, completed the quartet

in 1903. By then, the von Richthofen family had

moved from Breslau to Schweidnitz.

In August of the same year, at the age of 11,

Manfred was obliged to join the Cadet Academy at

Photo: author's collection

The full name and title of the person behind

this moniker was Manfred Albrecht Freiherr

von Richthofen, who was born on May 2, 1892,

in Breslau as the second child and first son of

Kunigunde and Albrecht von Richthofen. The

term “Red Baron” was bestowed upon as the

Anglo-American translation of his Prussian

rank of nobility: The male members of the von

Manfred von Richthofen (left) chats with Jasta 10 commander and fellow Pour le Mérite ace Lt. Hans Klein during the First Fighter Competition in Berlin-Adlershof

in January 1918. Von Richthofen held Klein in high regard and valued his leadership qualities.

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INFO Eduard

May 2023