Was Johannes von Gozdava Gschwendtner a Luftwaffe Captain?
 

Hello,

I am new to this forum. It was recommended to me to come here to post this question and this is the story.

I am researching the life of a physics professor who taught at Central University of Venezuela for more that 10 years.He then emigrated to the US (1960) and taught at several east coast colleges (University of Scranton, PA and Dowling College, NY).

There are several places in Internet where it is mentioned that this person, whose name is Johannes von Gozdava Gschwendtner (sometimes he is named John), Ph.D. in Physics, University of Vienna, 1940, born in Vienna, March 4, 1916, immediately after graduation was forced to join the Luftwaffe. Because of his technical background he was assigned to the meteorological services of the Luftwaffe (WEKUSTA?, I don't know) where he reached the rank of captain. But, in 1942, he deserted to neutral Switzerland and he eventually managed to come to Venezuela (maybe in 1948, for sure he was in Venezuela in may 1949).
But I have not been able to validate his Luftwaffe part of the story. He is not on the list of more than 36 thousand Luftwaffe officers compiled by Henry L. deZeng IV and Douglas G. Stankey
Is there any way to validate these claims?

Looking forward to your comments and replies.

Acknowledgment: Thanks to Douglas G. Stankey co-author of the Luftwaffe Officer Career Summaries for let me know about this forum.

Re: Was Johannes von Gozdava Gschwendtner a Luftwaffe Captain?
 

I tried to post a longer story with the URL to the original sources but the system prevented me from doing so.

Once source in Internet claims the following:

"In 1942 he made a bold but dangerous escape from Germany to neutral Switzerland. His treacherous journey took him through the heavily guarded and fortified German border patrolled by soldiers with attack dogs. Capture, of course, would have meant certain execution as a deserter. That he eluded the Nazis was miraculous. However, once in Switzerland, Gschwendtner was not a free man. The Swiss detained and interrogated him. To prove that he had nothing to hide Gschwendtner revealed to the Swiss certain technical details about the German military, including some secret codes."