Description
98Very rare Berlin Soldbuch, for the infamous RLM Building which still stands in Berlin.
Flieger-Hauptingenieur Walter Breitkopf was born in 1908 in Breslau (Today: Wroclaw in Poland). Breitkopf, an engineer that joined the Luftwaffe in 1938 worked in the RLM from the early days till the end of the war.
Breitkopf was a member of the Fliegeringenieur-Korps (Flight Engineer Corps) admission to the Corps meant having had done a prior two year military service, be commissioned as an officer whilst holding a degree in engineering and whilst having the state exam for aircraft design. Breitkopf was assigned to the department GL4 (later TLR/B) responsible for testing new aircraft. Work was done inside the RLM building and in 1942 Breitkopf was moving back and forth from an airbase in near Paris. When on duty for the RLM in Paris in late 1943 he was sent home to Berlin due to his apartment being damaged due to an allied bombing raid. On the first of March, Breitkopf was promoted to Flieger-Hauptingenieur, a head engineer with the rank equivalent of a Capitan. In the final days of the war he was captured in Rostock, (2nd Belo Fr) likely at the Heinkel aircraft plant.
The first page of his Soldbuch is stamped by the Soviet Command in Rostock. His prewar Dienstausweis (entry pass) into the RLM made of waterproof paper displays usage right the way till February 1945. His matching Erkennungsmarke (Dog Tag) and Luftwaffe issue Soldbuch.
Interestingly, Breitkopf lived with his wife next to Germany’s oldest airport in Berlin-Johannisthal the many streets around there were home to all the top names in the German aircraft industry. It was from there that the first planes and Zeppelins took to the sky over Germany. The scene of one of the world’s first air disasters. A test flight of a Zeppelin exploded and crashed killing all 28 crew members. Today the former Johannisthal airport is an abandoned place slowly falling apart, the runways are now a nature park, the paths around it a popular spot for runners.
Please note: This Soldbuch will feature alongside many other Berlin Soldbücher in a Book currently in he end phases.
