Tschudi, Georg Julius Friedrich von

Officer, aviation pioneer

born: 29.01.1862 in Wiesbaden

Died: 08.10.1928 in Berlin

His father, Colonel Georg von Tschudi (1808-1883), was the first director of the newly founded military school in Wiesbaden. In 1881, Tschudi graduated from the Realgymnasium in Wiesbaden and then attended the non-commissioned officers' school at the Rhine barracks in Biebrich. In 1881 he joined the Fusilier Regiment von Gersdorff (Kurhessian) No. 80. This was followed by three years of training at the Prussian War Academy in Berlin from 1890.

In 1894/1895 he was assigned to the only German airship battalion in Berlin at the time, where he became a captain in 1897 and a teacher in 1902; he published the textbooks "First Instruction for Balloon Pilots" and "First Instruction Book for Airship Pilots". In the following years, Tschudi contributed to the improvement of airship technology in the German army.

He soon enjoyed such a good reputation that in 1904 he was chairman of the jury for aviation at the World Exhibition in Saint Louis. In 1906, he left the Prussian army and entered Moroccan service as chief engineer and instructor for King Abd al-Aziz. After his overthrow, he returned to Germany in 1908 and prepared the first International Aviation Exhibition (ILA) in Germany in Frankfurt am Main in 1909.

He was director of the first German airfield in Johannisthal near Berlin from 1910-14. From 1915-17, he was commander of Fliegerersatz-Abteilung 7 in Cologne, where flying personnel (pilots and observers) were trained during the first years of the war. From 1917, he was vice president of the Aeroklub von Deutschland and executive chairman of the German Air Council.

Shortly before his death, his personal memoirs were published under the title "Aus 34 Jahren Luftfahrt".