Werntgen, Tony (own name Katharina Antoinette, also Antonie)

Aviation pioneer

born: 25.04.1875 in Duisburg-Ruhrort

Died: 05.01.1954 in Wiesbaden

Werntgen's first marriage was to Matthias Buschmann, with whom she had sons Bruno (1893-1913) and Erik. In 1909, the family moved to Frankfurt am Main.

In the same year, Werntgen founded the "Deutsches Flugtechnisches Institut" in Köppern in the Taunus. She was regarded as the first female aircraft manufacturer in Germany and one of the first in the world. After the institute went bankrupt in December 1910, she moved to Cologne at the beginning of 1911. There she founded another flying school. Her son Bruno - at the age of 17 when he obtained his pilot's license, he was considered the youngest aviator in the world - took part in numerous flying events in the Rhineland and Westphalia in 1911/12.

In April 1912, the Werntgens moved to Hangelarer Heide near Bonn on the recommendation of aviation enthusiast Prince Heinrich of Prussia. An aircraft hangar with workshop and offices was built there. Today, the Bonn/Hangelar airfield is one of the oldest in Germany.

On February 25, 1913, Werntgen's son Bruno crashed his own design, the "PK 102", fatally. After his death, the Werntgen aviation company also came to an end.

In 1916, Werntgen married the opera singer Josef Lindlar, from whom she divorced in 1928. She lived in Berlin until shortly before the end of the war. In 1939, her book about her son Bruno was published with the title "Jungflieger Werntgen". After the Second World War, Werntgen initially lived in Johannisberg (now Geisenheim-Johannisberg) near her brother Wilhelm. In 1953, she moved to Wiesbaden-Bierstadt and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon for her services to aviation in the same year. Her urn was buried in the family grave in the North Cemetery in Bonn.