Aumann, Joseph

Aviation pioneer, builder of Wiesbaden-Erbenheim airport

Born: 28.08.1882 in Selters

died: 03.09.1976 in Waldems-Steinfischbach

After attending the cadet academies in Bensberg and Groß-Lichterfelde, Aumann became a lieutenant in Koblenz in 1904. In 1909 he was transferred to Cologne, where he learned the fortress pioneer service. Through the lectures of airship designer Hans Groß in Berlin, his interest in aviation had been growing since 1906, and from 1911 he was practically active in free balloons and airplanes in Cologne. There he was trained as a military aircraft observer and in 1914 was transferred to Darmstadt as a teacher for aircraft observers. He specialized in aerial photography and aerial surveying.

During the First World War, he was deployed as a pilot on the Western Front. In 1927, Aumann, who resided in Wiesbaden from 1926, was commissioned to build an airport for the cities of Wiesbaden and Mainz and converted the Erbenheim racecourse into an airfield. In 1929, Aumann was appointed managing director of Mittelrheinische Flughafen GmbH.

At the same time, as secretary of the Mittelrheinischer Verein für Luftfahrt, he helped to re-establish the various air sports of free ballooning, gliding and powered aircraft.

After the Erbenheim airfield was taken over by the Wehrmacht in 1937, the association was dissolved. He himself was persecuted for his opposition to National Socialism and removed from his position in April 1933. It was only after the end of the Second World War that he returned to a leading position as a consultant in the Hessian Ministry of Economics.

At an open day at the US airfield in Erbenheim in 1961, the Americans celebrated Aumann as the "father of the airport".