Hans Beißwenger

[Teresa Maria]

Dear All,
Do you happen to know whether Hans Beißwenger was married? (If so, who was his wife?)
Should you wonder why I'm asking, I'm not really in love with him. I just find him very handsome.

[Nick Beale]

Oh, give it a rest for Heaven's sake.

[Teresa Maria]

Surely, a question about the serial number of his plane would be much more interesting?
I'm not asking about anything too intimate to appear in an official biography.

[Peter Cornwell]

Fair enough - whatever floats your particular boat. But please help me understand your use of the phrase 'an official biography'. 'Official' in precisely what sense ?

[Steve Coates]

If you're really that interested in all these guys, then why not take yourself down to the BA-MA Freiburg for a week and research their PERS-6 files? You will need to complete a clearance form, so I would be general rather than overly specific as regards your interest.

Failing that, engage a paid researcher like Sebastian Remus: http://www.bundesarchiv.de/imperia/m...freiburg_2.pdf

[Teresa Maria]

Dear Steve,
Thank you very, very much for your answer. This seems to be a wonderful possibility! In fact, I'm going to Freiburg in July, to a conference organised by the Pedagogical University (nothing to do with fighter pilots, though; rather, it's devoted to multilingualism in education, language teaching, etc.; in fact, I'm a linguist ) and I hope to be able to make a trip to Wehr afterwards, to visit Friedrich Rupp's grave. Funny as it may seem, Friedrich is the greatest love of my life.
(Apparently, even unattractive women like me dream of love too... This is crazy, because love doesn't exist. I wish I could come round to the view that love was rubbish!)
I'll try to reconcile my participation in the conference with a visit to the Bundesarchiv.
Yes, fighter pilots fascinate me a lot, and there were a few about whom I'd like to know more... also about Friedrich, definitely.
Thank you very much once again!!! <3

[Teresa Maria]

Originally Posted by Peter Cornwell

Fair enough - whatever floats your particular boat. But please help me understand your use of the phrase 'an official biography'. 'Official' in precisely what sense ?

For example, Erich Hartmann's biography 'The Blond Knight of Germany' says that he married Ursula Paetsch, whom he had loved for years, and nobody regards that as a taboo.
Similarly, Helmut Lent's biography 'The Lent Papers' mentions the fact that he was married and had two daughters.

[Peter Cornwell]

I will try again this one last time. Who commissioned the biography you are working on?

[Teresa Maria]

Originally Posted by Peter Cornwell

I will try again this one last time. Who commissioned the biography you are working on?

No, I'm not writing a biography. I only meant that I was asking about information that was not too intimate or taboo. I am also against poking one's nose into disgraceful details, like, for example, publishing information about a fighter pilot's homosexuality (I was outraged at the posthumous attack on Ian Gleed), but I don't think that asking about a pilot's marital state is too intimate, while asking about the serial number of his plane is OK.

[Teresa Maria]

By the way, I've just been given a wonderful tip in a private message. Does anyone happen to have Hans Beißwenger's Soldbuch?