"reimahg"

[Patrick Brion]

Dear members of the 12 o'clock high! forum,

It is for me a great honour to join this forum. I would like to present myself first, so that people will understand my motivation for the research.

My name is Patrick Brion and I am a Warrant Officer working at the audiovisual archives of the Belgian Army (so yes, we have a lot of imagery there).

Since almost 10 years now, I have been working on one theme : the former underground aircraft factory near Kahla/Grosseutersdorf, better known as the "REIMAHG" (or Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring). his factory was built between April 1944 and April 1945 by almost 15.000 forced labourers, of whom many died due to the terrible conditions.

What started as an extension of a official mission in a underground army depot, has now become a obligation to continue this work.

Many people often ask me, why are you putting all this work into this?
Well, I don't have any relatives who went as a forced labour, but I can tell you this, that the work that I have been doing for these people has in the meantime a very large response. It is all about the people and I don't make any difference between a Belgian, Russian, German, Italian and so.
To give you an idea of the results of the research... there is by now around 250 Gigabyte of data that I have gathered, not counting the numerous files (154 in total for now) of paper files, containing vital information to the "REIMAHG" research.

I work closely together with the survivors and their relatives and sadly every year some of them pass away. So, we have to continue our work for them and their family.

In 2003, I managed to start a association in Kahla, which was called "REIMAHG" e.V. The purpose still is to create a memorial site at the Walpersberg mountain. This will be done by a fondation that we are currently trying to raise, thus allowing us to obtain the site from the German Ministry of Finance, who currently owns it.
Last month, we deceided to change the name of the association to Förderverein "Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Walpersberg", which is a very stronger signal what we are doing (in English Association Memorial Walpersberg).

Of course, correct history needs time and this is also the reason why I deceided to join this forum. I had the honour allready to talk to experts like Mr. Eger, of whom I hold a great respect and hopefully will meet here from time to discuss about the neverending story of how many Me 262 left the "REIMAHG" factory.

So, this is in a nutshell why and what I do. If you have any others question, please feel free to ask me. With kind regards from Brussels,
Patrick

[Patrick Brion]

Here is the first question.

In order to take the Me262 off the Walpersberg Mountain, a runway had to be built. "Runway" is in this case a bad choice, since the Me262 pilots didn't had the oppurtunity to land again. The track itself was too short and only with boosters were they able to have a safe take-off.

These pilots were also known as "Überführungspiloten" or "transfer pilots".

Here are the names of them, as I currently know them

Flugkapitän Ritz
Tippel
Zechmeister
Mittelstädt (who came to Kahla last year)
Fricke
Born

Does anyone have information about these pilots? I do have a number of documentens, like from the AGO Works in Oschersleben, where probably most of them came from.