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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