The German World War II Ace Collection consists of 6 linear feet of correspondence and photographs of German aces and pilots of World War II collected by Kurt Schulze and Raymond Toliver.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 6 linear feet of mostly correspondence and photographs gathered by Schulze or Toliver, of German aces and pilots, including the following: Hans Otto Boehm, Erich Hartmann, Adolf Garland, Gunther Rall, Dietrich Hrabak, Edward Neumann, Hajo Herrmann, Georg Elder, Johannes Steinnoff, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, Jagerblatt Molder, Walter Schuck and Wolfgang Spate. There are also German combat reports, accounts by German test pilots on World War II captured aircraft, information on the Tirpitz raid, photographs of Knights' Cross and Oak Leaves recipients, and material relating to the JG5 and JG51 Squadrons. Besides the correspondence and photography, the collection consists of obituaries, programs, publications and over 70 videos.
Note: The digital images in this finding aid were repurposed from scans made by an outside contractor for a commercial product and may show irregular cropping and orientation in addition to color variations resulting from damage to and deterioration of the original objects.
Arrangement:
The German World War II Ace Collection [Schulze] is arranged by content type.
Biographical / Historical:
Kurt Schulze (b. 1921) began his German military service in 1939 as a cadet with the Air Service Corps. He started out as a wireless operator and air traffic controller before becoming a navigation officer. As a Navigator, he flew 23 night missions in Dornier Do 217s over England. In September of 1943, he received his wings as a pilot and in March 1944 he started fighter pilot training. From then until May 1945, Schulze flew 103 missions. Sixty-five of those missions were in Messerschmitt BF-109 on the Russo-Finnish border. When Finland signed a peace agreement with Russia, Schulze's unit was moved to Northern Norway. Schulze's last nine missions were in command of the first JG-51 squadron. After the war, he was turned over to the American Forces and then to the French. In 1951 he moved to California and in 1958 he became a US citizen. Schulze had a strong friendship with Colonel Raymond Toliver, author of books on German World War II pilots, and he translated German correspondence and documents for Toliver's research, as the author did not speak or write German.
Provenance:
Kurt Schulze, Gift, 2012
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
Topic:
World War, 1939-1945 -- Germany -- Refugees Search this
World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations Search this
Citation:
German World War II Ace Collection [Schulze], Accession 2012-0025, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Eleanor Sayre conducted 1993 April 19-1997 January 10, by Robert F. Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
Sayre talks about her early childhood in Williamstown and Cambridge, Mass.; her family background; visits to the White House with her maternal grandfather, Woodrow Wilson; living abroad while her father was in government service in Bangkok, then Siam (now Thailand), Paris, and Switzerland, with extensive recollections of her brothers and schooling in Europe.
Attending Winsor School in Boston; her mother's death; her years at Bryn Mawr College, including her switch to art history from political science; Georgianna Goddard King as an influential teacher; an internship under Laura Dudley at the Fogg Art Museum's Print Room and the lasting effect of this experience.
Being a graduate student in fine arts at Harvard and the importance of Edward Forbes and Paul Sachs as teachers; her decision not to pursue a PhD; working with Jakob Rosenberg; helping to get young Jews out of Europe; her position as assistant for exhibitions at Yale University Art Gallery under Theodore Sizer; the trauma of her father's internment by the Japanese in the Philippines, where he was High Commissioner and his rescue; and her decision to turn down a military intelligence job in order to work with German Jewish refugees.
Her brief tenure at Lyman-Allyn Museum, Conn., under Winslow Ames; her years in the education department under Lydia "Ma" Powel at the Museum of Art of the Rhode Island School of Design with Gordon Washburn as director; and working closely with Heinrich Schwartz on prints and drawings.
The liberal tradition of her father's wealthy family; her father; being brought to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by its curator of prints, Henry Rossiter and on the charming collector and benefactor, Maxim Karolik; MFA curator of paintings, William George Constable; and George Harold Edgell, MFA director.
The collector, Philip Hofer, who by putting his Goya proofs on loan at the MFA, led to Sayre's life-long study of the artist; her research on Goya in Spain; raising of a large sum from Boston businesses to purchase Hofer's prints for the MFA, and the MFA's eminence by the 1960s in Goya's graphic work; the disgusting repression of dissent in Franco-era Spain; Goya's passionate self-assertion, which is what principally attracted Sayre to his work, and his conceptual process and method of work.
Earlier years at the MFA, Boston, including the accessibility of the print department's study rooms; Edwin J. Hipkiss, curator of American decorative arts; the Christmas poetry and prints exhibitions designed as profound learning experiences for a broad public; and being chosen as successor to Rossiter; and further comments on Maxim Karolik.
W.G. Russell Allen and other collectors who gave their collections to the MFA; her efforts to effectively present art to the broad public; her methods of appealing to the public coalescing at the MFA in 1989 with the "Goya and the Spirit of the Enlightenment" exhibition; and an exhibition of the work of Beatrix Potter.
Spain under the dictator, Francisco Franco; her first study in Spain of Goya's drawings and her urging the Prado Museum to conserve its drawings; the Prado's director, F. Sanchez-Canton; her research on prostitution at the Ministry of Justice; being decorated for her recommending the preservation of Goya's art and the marvelous private collections of Goya in Spain; and her obsession with interpreting the meaning of Goya's work.
The MFA, Boston, under the directorship of Perry Rathbone, who wanted many more people involved than had his predecessor, George Harold Edgell, who ran it like a Boston Brahmin Club; Rathbone's accomplishments; his downfall and that of his assistant (and curator of European decorative arts and sculpture) Hanns Swarzenski in bringing a so-called Raphael into this country by irregular means, which led to Rathbone and Swarzenski's firing by George Seybolt, the trustee president; Rathbone's reluctance to hire women curators and Sayre's finally becoming curator of prints and drawings in 1967; her philosophy as curator; on Hanns and Brigitte Swarzenski as dear friends; her exchange of positions with the curator of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, where she put their valuable but neglected print collection in order.
The exhibition and catalog, "Rembrandt: Experimental Etcher," (1969) in collaboration with the Pierpont Morgan Library; general views on exhibitions; co-authoring the exhibition catalog "Goya and the Spiris of Enlightenment" (1989); her contributions to Goya research; her current research and writing on Goya's Capaprichos print series; and her satisfaction in having spent her career in art museums.
Biographical / Historical:
Eleanor A. Sayre (1916-2001) was a curator and art historian from Boston, Mass.
General:
Originally recorded on 8 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 15 digital wav files. Duration is 11 hrs., 21 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
This collection contains interviews with Reimar and Walter Horten that were recorded by David Myhra.
Scope and Contents:
This collection contains interviews with Reimar and Walter Horten taped by David Myhra, author of The Horten Brothers and Their All-winged Aircraft. It includes various topics relating to the Hortens, and comprises sixty original tapes donated by Myhra, as well as two copies made by NASM, one consisting of sixty-one master reel-to-reels, and another of 120 reference CD-Rs. A box of "transcripts" for some of the tapes is also included in the collection, although it is unclear which transcripts go with which tapes.
Arrangement:
This finding aid was generated from the original recording labels. Mr. Myhra labeled most of the tapes, but each group of tapes is labeled differently. Dates are included when provided but the list does not follow a chronological order, which is irrelevant anyway considering the wandering nature of Mr. Myhra's interviews. The finding aid is arranged in groups, which roughly correspond to each set of interviews. In addition, NASM has given each tape a new number which runs consecutively from one through sixty. The original number given by David Myhra is listed in the description of each tape. The new NASM numbers for the original tapes correspond to the NASM reel numbers and the NASM CD-R numbers as to make locating each copy more convenient.
Biographical / Historical:
Reimar Horten and his brother Walter, two largely self-taught aircraft designers, were born in Bonn, Germany; Walter on March 3, 1912, and Reimar on March 12, 1915. Their interest in aircraft began as early as 1925 when they joined a fliers' club in Bonn. In 1932 Reimar and Walter commenced work on their first piloted all-wing sailplane the Ho I. The basic concept of the flying wing dates from the dawn of aviation, but the Horten brothers became the virtuosos of this aircraft. The Horten all-wing sailplanes were gliders without a fuselage or tail section. Because the fuselage and the tail section of a regular plane produced 30% to 50% of an airplane's drag, the benefit of the sailplanes was clear. During the time preceding World War II the brothers improved upon the Ho I glider, creating other models including the Ho II, Ho III, and the Ho IV--none of which had any engines. Reimar and Walter joined the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) during the course of the war where Walter flew Messerschmitt Bf-109s for six months and Reimar worked for Operation Sea Lion, whose objective was the invasion of England. Upon the cancellation of this operation the Horten brothers went on to continue their projects, developing many enhanced versions of their original flying-wing. In 1942 Reimar began working on the Ho VII at the Luftwaffe's request, a machine equipped with two pusher-type propellers and a pulse jet engine. However, the Ho VII was not strong enough to fly safely at the greater speeds made possible by the jet, so the brothers began work on the new Ho IX (code named "Go 229"), the first functional jet propelled flying wing. The arrival of the American army in 1945 ended the construction of this type of aircraft. After the war, Reimar moved to Argentina where he continued to develop his unorthodox aircraft designs; Walter stayed in Germany. Walter died in 1988 and Reimar died in 1994.
Provenance:
David Myhra, Gift, 1998
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
Topic:
World War, 1939-1945 -- Germany -- Refugees Search this
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Eleanor Sayre, 1993 April 19-1997 January 10. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Special report of Civilian Defense Division field team no. 82 covering the organization, administration, and operation of reception areas in Bavaria, Germany : dates of survey: 28 June 1945-11 July 1945
Author:
United States Strategic Bombing Survey Civilian Defense Division Search this
Physical description:
9, [3] leaves ; 28 cm
Type:
Books
Place:
Germany
Bavaria
Date:
1945
Topic:
World War, 1939-1945--Evacuation of civilians Search this
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