Wilhelmine Reichard

Johanne Wilhelmine Reichard Siegmundine (nee Schmidt; born April 2, 1788 in Braunschweig, † February 22, 1848 in Döhlen ) was the first balloonist Germany.

Life

Wilhelmine Schmidt, called Minna, was the daughter of the Duke of Braunschweig butler. Childhood and youth she spent in Braunschweig. 1806 she married the aeronaut Johann Gottfried Reichard ( 1786-1844 ), who was Professor of Physics in Braunschweig. They had eight children together. Both shared a passion for aeronautics and built along a gas balloon, which they jointly launched in Berlin in 1810. On April 16, 1811, embarked on her first solo flight in a balloon. It started in the garden of the Berlin Royal Veterinary School and landed in the gene Hagen around 30 km away. On September 30, 1811, the third balloon ride from Dresden came from. It reached this height of 7000 m.

Despite several crash landings they still undertook balloon rides from all major German cities. So they drove on 9 August 1818 by Brunswick from over Wolfenbüttel towards aces and resin. Finally, she was driven off in the direction of King Lutter and landed in teaching.

Until 1820, it stated 17 rides, they also used for scientific purposes. As a research associate of her husband, she was also active in the field of chemistry. She led by, among other weather observations and temperature measurements. In a hot air balloon ride, it rose so high that they became unconscious from lack of oxygen. The balloon burst, crashed and got stuck in some young spruce trees. Reichard survived with some injuries and rose again five years later on. The last train was held for the tenth Oktoberfest in Munich.

1814 she moved to Döhlen, where she lived until her death. The money they earned with their ballooning, they invested in 1821 purchased chemical factory of her husband. After his death in 1844 led these four years until her own death on. She died in 1848 of a stroke. Your tomb is located in the cemetery Döhlen ( Freital ).

Work

On September 19, 1818 appeared Wilhelmine Reichard's description of their experiences as Luftschifferin in Brunswick Magazine under the title story of my air travel.

Honors

• Reichard served Karl May possibly as a role model for his character Wanda. In the fourth chapter of the story by May 1875 recovered the turbulent events of 30 September 1811.
• In 1978, the German Federal Post Office from a youth stamp with Reichard's balloon flight in 1820 at the Munich Oktoberfest.
• Your house in Freital was reconstructed by the Dresden balloonist Mathias Sagittarius since 1998. Also, is named after a street in their neighborhood Döhlen.
• At the airport Dresden, on the airfield in Böblingen and the former Gatow airfield on the plane section of Berlin -Spandau streets are named after her.
• On Wachberg at Saupsdorf a memorial plaque was unveiled on September 30, 2011 to mark the 200th anniversary of its local emergency landing.
• Located in Munich's Lerchenau in Bockenheim and in the industrial park of Kassel, respectively, a street was named after her.