Lilienthal's Crash and Death @museum.de

The 9th of August 1896 was a mild, sunny summer’s day. There was a gentle easterly wind. Lilienthal had arrived in Stölln that morning. His assistant, Paul Beylich, was waiting for him and had set up the undercarriage of the Large Biplane – a flying machine not unlike the Normal Soaring Apparatus.

A week earlier, Otto Lilienthal had welcomed the US physicist Robert William Wood on a visit to Stölln. Wood wanted to purchase a flying machine and had already made a few flying attempts himself. Since Lilienthal's firm only had monoplanes on offer, arrangements were made for the following weekend. This involved preparing a model along the lines of what Wood wanted to buy.

But Wood was unable to come. Lilienthal arrived in Stölln on his own and completed his flight exercises with the monoplane. In the early afternoon, Lilienthal was caught by a thermal updraft. He attempted to bring the apparatus back under control by shifting his body. But it was no use: the flying machine came to a dead stop in the air – it stalled, lost lift, and crashed, nose first, into the ground.

Beylich rushed over and found Lilienthal unconscious. But he awoke shortly afterwards, just wanted to rest a while and was sure he’d soon be able to carry on flying. Lilienthal wasn’t in pain, because his lower body was paralysed. He was quickly taken to the village inn here in Stölln, and a doctor was summoned from Rhinow.

While Lilienthal spent the night on a camp bed at the inn, Beylich rushed back to Berlin to let the family know. On the morning of the 10th of August, Gustav arrived and had his brother taken back to Berlin in a cart and on a goods train. Still en route, Otto Lilienthal slipped into a coma and died late that afternoon at a clinic in central Berlin.

In 1894, Otto Lilienthal had brought one of his lectures to a close with far-sighted modesty:

"Finally, I would like to ask that you not consider what I have achieved as more than what it is, in and of itself. The photographs in which you see me flying high in the air convey the impression that the problem has already been solved. That’s not the case at all. I must confess that a great deal of work is still required to transform this simple soaring into sustained human flight. In relation to flying, what has been achieved so far is nothing more than a child’s first uncertain steps in relation to the gait of a grown man."

That brings us to end of our tour. We hope you’ve enjoyed it. Be sure to take a look at the historic site of Lilienthal's flying exercises. There’s a track called the “Fliegerpfad” that leads from the museum to the Gollenberg, past information panels and models of Lilienthal's flying machines.

That’s all from us. Thank you for listening. We look forward to seeing you again soon, here at the Lilienthal-Centrum Stölln.

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Zitat Lilienthal nach: Bernd Lukasch, Otto Lilienthal auf Fotografien, Friedland: edition lesezeichen 2016, S. 15.