Flying over the gentle hills of the Rhön, I reached the Wasserkuppe, the birthplace of gliding in Germany. After the end of World War I, according to the Treaty of Versailles, Germans were forbidden from operating motorized aircraft, which is why the region became the cradle of gliding. Later, the Nazis exploited the enthusiasm of young people for aviation: the Flieger-HJ (Flying Hitler Youth) was trained here.
On Pentecost Sunday 1944, a tragic attack on the Wasserkuppe by US bombers took the lives of numerous youths and destroyed many aircraft. Today, the Aviators’ Monument and the Five Children’s Graves in Geisa commemorate these events.
During my flight from Eisenach to the Wasserkuppe, we crossed the former border between East and West Germany. On the Wasserkuppe, the domed radar and listening station built by the Americans can still be seen – a silent witness of the Cold War.
Today, the Wasserkuppe is once again a place of peaceful flying: gliding, paragliding, and light motor aircraft fill the skies of the small airfield. For me, this flight was a piece of living history: from historic Eisenach over the Wartburg to the Wasserkuppe, carried by the charm of the Bücker Jungmann.
