Manfred von Richthofen Born: 2-May-1892 Birthplace: Breslau, Germany Died: 21-Apr-1918 Location of death: Vaux sur Somme, France Cause of death: War Remains: Buried, Südfriedhof Cemetery, Wiesbaden, Germany
Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Occupation: Military, Aviator Nationality: Germany Executive summary: The Red Baron Military service: German Army (1911-15, to lieutenant); Prussian Air Service (1915-18, to captain) Baron Manfred von Richthofen was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), and joined the Prussian Army as a cavalry officer in 1912. He spent the last three years of his short life in his nation's World War I air force. He was credited with shooting down eighty enemy aircraft, and was shot down himself in 1917, but recovered from his injuries and resumed battle flights three weeks later. His skill and red-painted plane earned him international fame as "the Red Baron". At the age of 25 he was shot through the chest in an air battle over Somme Canal in France, and according to an eyewitness who rushed to von Richthofen' plane, his last word was "Kaput".
He was related, albeit distantly, to Leopold I, explorer Ferdinand von Richthofen, World War II Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen, Frieda von Richthofen (wife of D. H. Lawrence) and Hermann von Richthofen (Germany's Ambassador to England in the late 1980s and early '90s). The Red Baron's uncle, Baron Walter von Richthofen, emigrated to America in 1877 and settled in Colorado, where he was co-founder of the Denver Chamber of Commerce.
Father: Albrecht von Richthofen (Prussian nobility) Mother: Kunigunde Schickfuss von Richthofen Sister: Ilse von Richthofen (b. 1890) Brother: Lothar-Siegfried von Richthofen (pilot, b. 1894, d. 1922 air crash) Brother: Bolko von Richthofen (archaeologist, b. 1899, d. 1983)
High School: Royal Military Academy, Lichterfelde, Germany
Plane Crash 6-Jul-1917 Brain Injury 6-Jul-1917 Shot: Battle 21-Apr-1918 Plane Crash 21-Apr-1918 German Ancestry
Author of books:
Der Rote Kampfflieger (1918, memoir)
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