Description
"Readers interested in early aviation history will find some interesting anecdotes in Baur’s account." New York Journal of Books "Bauer gives us a look at the evolution of aviation in the period, air combat in the Great War, and the rise of commercial aviation, while offering often revealing observations about Hitler, those around him..." The NYMAS Review "...offers inside views of the murderous Nazi regime up to the bitter end of the battle for Berlin in 1945..." Over the Front "...a treasure trove of insight..." ARGunners.com Born in Bavaria in 1897, HANS BAUR served in the German Air Force during the First World War. After the Treaty of Versailles, he flew commercial airliners before becoming Hitler’s personal pilot, a role he first undertook during the election campaign in 1932. The Führer’s last order to Baur was to fly Martin Bormann out of Berlin, but during their escape attempt Baur was captured by the Russians. For ten years the Russians questioned him, suspecting that he had flown Hitler to safety before the fall of Berlin. After his release in 1955, Baur eventually returned to Germany. He passed away in 1993.
Features & Highlights
- A decorated First World War pilot, Hans Baur was one of the leading commercial aviators of the 1920s before being before becoming Adolf Hitler’s personal pilot, a role he first undertook during the election campaign in 1932. Hitler, who loathed flying, felt safe with Baur and would allow no one else to pilot him. As a result, an intimate relationship developed between the two men and it is this which gives these memoirs a special significance. Hitler relaxed in Baur's company and talked freely of his plans and of his real opinions about his friends and allies.Baur was also present during some of the salient events in the history of the Third Reich; the Röhm Putsch, the advent of Eva Braun, von Ribbentrop’s journey to Moscow, and the attempt on Hitler’s life in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. When war came in 1939, it was Baur who flew Hitler from front to front.Baur remained in Hitler’s service right up to the final days in the Führerbunker. In a powerful account of Hitler’s last hours, Baur describes his final discussions with the Führer before his suicide; and his last meeting with Magda Goebbels in the tortuous moments before she helped kill her six children.Throughout it all, Baur’s loyalty to the Führer never wavered. His memoirs capture these events, and many others, in all their fascinating and disturbing detail.
