Wolfgang von Gronau's flight was not approved, but caused a sensation:in August 1930 he set off from Sylt for the first Atlantic crossing in a flying boat. His daring plan works.
"Fly, with your permission, via Iceland to New York": When Wolfgang von Gronau sent this radio message to the Berlin Ministry of Transport in August 1930, he was already on the second leg of his Atlantic flight, for which he set off from List on Sylt on August 18, 1930 - without first contacting the authorities or to have agreed with his team. The destination of his unauthorized flight is New York, where his "Dornier Wal" flying boat splashes down safely on August 26, 1930 after more than 40 hours of flight time. There, von Gronau and his three-man team are given an enthusiastic welcome - after all, no one had ever crossed the Atlantic in a flying boat before. Von Gronau's pioneering achievement goes down in flight history - and is something like the dress rehearsal for a circumnavigation of the world, which the aviation pioneer succeeds two years later.
First at sea, then in the air
Wolfgang von Gronau was born on February 25, 1893 in Berlin. The son of a Prussian general grew up in East Prussia, attended high school and became a sea cadet in 1911. During the First World War, von Gronau initially served on various warships as a lieutenant and first lieutenant at sea. However, he was interested in aviation, so from 1915 he was deployed as a sea pilot in various front and staff positions.
Instructor for young pilots on Sylt
The municipality of List made Wolfgang von Gronau an honorary citizen.After the war, von Gronau resigns as a lieutenant captain and runs a farm in East Prussia. He has been dreaming of a flight to America for a long time. Because the Versailles Treaty initially forbids motorized aviation, von Gronau temporarily devoted himself to gliding before switching back to motorized aircraft. In 1926 he won the "1st German Seaplane Competition" in Warnemünde with a Heinkel "He 5". A little later he sets an altitude record with the same float plane, which is recognized as the first German world record after the war. In December 1926, von Gronau took over the training management at the newly founded German Aviation School in Warnemünde and later switched to the German Aviation School List on Sylt, which he continued to expand.
Von Gronau's Iceland flight is already causing a stir
Von Gronau caused a sensation as early as 1929 when he flew to Iceland in one day - a remarkable aeronautical achievement for the time. By this time at the latest, von Gronau was working towards his plan to fly to America. At his disposal is a "Dornier Wal" flying boat with the registration number D-1422 - it is one of the two machines with which the polar explorer Roald Amundsen and his team flew to the North Pole in 1925, at that time still with the designation N25.
To New York without permission
When the Gronau Ministry of Transport puts all sorts of bureaucratic hurdles in his way, he decides without further ado to fulfill his dream without permission. On August 18, 1930, he set off from List on Sylt with a crew of three. "When I said goodbye and boarded the boat (flying boat Dornier "Wal"), all unrest had disappeared. We first flew over the elbow, a long, narrow peninsula that protectively surrounds the port of List in a semicircle," quotes the "Sylter Rundschau "Wolfgang von Gronau. "There was still a huge surf on the beach from the storms of the previous days. I climbed higher to focus my thoughts on the big goal." Von Gronau only informs his crew two days later about his daring plan - because the crew was actually commissioned to fly to the North Cape and back. With stopovers in Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland it goes all the way to New York.
Return journey on the water instead of through the air
The way back to Germany is not by flying boat, but by a Hapag Lloyd steamer.The Americans celebrate the crew for their flight performance, even President Herbert Hoover congratulates the airmen. However, Gronau and his team will return by water - a Hapag Lloyd steamer will bring them back home.
Incidentally, Gronau did not get much trouble for his arbitrary decision:On the contrary, the then Reich Transport Minister Theodor von Guérard even had him presented with a magnificent edition of Kleist's "Prince of Homburg". The prince in Kleist's drama intervened in a battle against an express order - and won it.
From Sylt around the world to Lake Constance
Meanwhile, von Gronau had a new vision, which he put into practice shortly thereafter:in 1931 he started with a new machine and all kinds of measuring devices to explore the northern route, which later became increasingly important. He flies over the Greenland ice sheet, discovers a new mountain range and finally reaches Chicago via Iceland and Labrador.
The culmination of his flying career, however, was his circumnavigation of the world, which he started on July 22, 1932 on Sylt. Again with a "Dornier Wal", the aviation pioneer flies over the Atlantic, the American continent, the Pacific Ocean, Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila and Burma. In the Bengal Sea, von Gronau had to make an emergency landing due to a malfunction in the engine, but was able to be towed to Rangoon by a British steamer and continued his world flight from there. On November 9, 1932, via Rome, von Gronau finally reached the Dornier works on Lake Constance before returning to List.
Farming as a second passion
Von Gronau, who repeatedly takes part in flight competitions, is showered with awards for this achievement. In February 1933, the German government appoints him to the newly founded Air Office, where he is given responsibility for training sea pilots in February 1933. During World War II, von Gronau was the air attaché at the German embassy in Tokyo. After the end of the war he was interned in Japan and only returned to Germany in 1947, where he became a representative for a North American aircraft factory. In 1955, von Gronau, who devoted himself to agriculture again from 1958, immortalized the memories of his pioneering achievements in a book entitled "Weltflier".
On March 17, 1977, von Gronau, who had been married twice and had three children from his first marriage, died at the age of 84 in Frasdorf, Upper Bavaria. He and his second wife are buried in List, where the community made him an honorary citizen.