Gunther Plüschow

Gunther Plüschow (8 February 1886 – 28 January 1931) was a German aviator, aerial explorer and author from Munich, Bavaria. His feats include not only the only escape by a German in either World War from Britain back to Germany, but he was the first to explore and film Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia by air. He was killed on a second aerial expedition to Patagonia in 1931. As an aviator and explorer he is honoured as a hero by the Argentine air force to this day.

World War I

When the First World War broke out in 1914, Plüschow was assigned to Tsingtau, a German colony in China. A Taube airplane was shipped in crates by boat from Germany. He assembled it and began his duties as an aerial observer. After an ultimatum on August 15 Japan declared war on Germany and Tsingtau was besieged by the Japanese. Soon the situation in Tsingtau proved untenable, and on November 5 Plüschow fled in his Taube, with a packet of secret documents, bound for Hai-Daschou. He landed there, burnt his airplane so that it could not be used by the enemy, and set off for Germany on foot.

Escape from China

He walked to the city of Daschou, where the local mandarin gave a party for him. He managed to finagle a passport to cross China as well as a junk, which he uses to journey down a river, passing dozens of colorful towns along the way, finally arriving safely at Nanking. He soon felt that he was being watched, even by officials friendly to Germany. After almost being arrested, he leapt in a rickshaw and sped to the railway station, where he bribed a guard and slipped on a train to Shanghai.

In Shanghai, he met the daughter of a diplomat he knew from Berlin, and she obtained papers, money, and a ticket on a ship leaving for the United States.

During the voyage to the United States, Plüschow hid in his cabin, pretending to be sick. He landed in Los Angeles, but felt unsafe, so he took a train up to San Francisco, and in January 1915 journeyed across the country to New York City. He was afraid to approach the German consulate there, for fear of being arrested. Worse, he read in the newspaper a report that he was presumed to be in New York.

His luck, not to mention his female friends, saved him again: he met a lady from Berlin who managed to get him tickets for a ship that left on January 30 for Italy, from where he hoped to reach Germany. However, a storm forced his ship to land at Gibraltar, where the English arrested him, suspecting he was an enemy alien. They soon discovered he was the famous aviator from Tsingtau.

Escape from London

On July 1 he was sent to a prisoner of war camp in England, but three days later during a storm he escaped and headed for London. Scotland Yard issued an alert, asking the public to be on the lookout for a man with a dragon tattoo on his arm.

Now disguised as a worker, Plüschow felt so safe that he took photographs of himself as a souvenir in the docks of London. He occupied himself reading books about Patagonia, and at night hid inside the British Museum. For security reasons, there were no published notices announcing the departure of the ships but a lucky encounter with Kitty, another one of his many lady friends, allowed him to obtain the necessary information to get on board the "Princess Juliana", bound for Holland. He arrived safely and from there he quickly traveled to Germany.

Return to Germany

Plüschow is acclaimed as "the hero from Tsingtau," decorated, and named commander of the marine base at Libau Fact|date=February 2008 in Germany. In June 1916, in an airplane hangar at Libau, Plüschow and Isot were married. There he also wrote his first book, "The Adventures of the Aviator From Tsingtau", which sild more than 700,000 copies. In 1918, his son Guntolf was born.

The year 1918 was also one of crisis in Germany. William II, German Emperor, fled and left the nation in chaos. In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed, and several military and civil revolts took place, but Plüschow declined to participate. Instead, at age 33, he resigned from the Reichsmarine.

outh America explorations

After the war, Plüschow took a number of jobs until he obtained a position on the "Parma". The ship took him to South America where he left it in Valdivia and traveled across Chile and Patagonia. Upon his return to Germany he published "Segelfahrt ins Wunderland" the success of which allowed him to proceed with further explorations.

On November 27, 1927 Plüschow took the wooden two-masted cutter "Feuerland" to Punta Arenas, Chile. His engineer Ernst Dreblow brought his seaplane, a Heinkel HD 24 D-1313 aboard a steamer. By December 1928 the airplane had been fully assembled and the inaugural flight brought the first air mail from Puntas Arenas to Ushuaia, Argentina. In the subsequent months Plüschow and Debrow were the first to explore by air the Cordillera Darwin, Cape Horn, the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, and the Torres del Paine of Patagonia. In 1929, to get back to Germany Plüschow had to sell the "Feuerland". Upon his return, he published his explorations and photographs in the book "Silberkondor über Feuerland" and a documentary of the same name.The following year he returned to Patagonia to explore the Perito Moreno Glacier. There, he and Debrow had a fatal aerial accident near the Brazo Rico, [ [http://www.glaciologia.cl/moreno.html Campo de hielo sur ] at www.glaciologia.cl] part of the Lake Argentino, on January 28, 1931.

The Gunther Pluschow Glacier in Tierra del Fuego is named in memory of him.

Books by Plüschow

* "My escape from Donington Hall" by Kapitänleutnant Gunther Plüschow,of the German Airservice ;published by John Lane the Bodly Head Ldt., London , 1922 ; autobiographical book telling the story of ( full title) : My escape from Donington Hall preceded by an account of the siege of Kiao - Chow in 1915 .
* "Escape from England", Gunther Plüschow, Ripping Yarns.com, ISBN 1-904466-21-4 is a 2004 English language reprint of "My Escape from Donington Hall".
* "Segelfahrt ins Wunderland", Gunther Plüschow, Ullsteinverlag 1926.
* "Silberkondor über Feuerland", Gunther Plüschow, Ullsteinverlag 1929, new edition: Prager Bücher, ISBN 3-92576-907-2

Movies by Plüschow

* Gunther Plüschow: "Silberkondor über Feuerland", documentary 1929posthumously:
* "Ikarus", 1931
* "Fahrt ins Land der Wunder und Wolken, nach 1931

Literature about Plüschow

* Dragon master: "The Kaiser's one-man air force in Tsingtau", China, 1914, Robert E Whittaker (1994), ISBN 0-96393101-6
* Gunther Plüschow: "Una Vida de Sueños, Aventuras y Desafíos por una Amor Imposible: La Patagonia ! - Ein Leben voller Träume, Abenteuer und Herausforderungen, für eine unmögliche Liebe: Das unzähmbare Patagonien!' Roberto Litvachkes (2006) Deutsch-English-Spanish-Portugues with a DVD with the original film from G. Pluschow filmed in 1929, 127 minutes duration ISBN 987-21760-1-9

References

* [http://www.pluschow.iofm.net/ Story of GP's escape]
* [http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/pluschow.htm GP's explorations]

External links

* [http://webpages.charter.net/ralphcooper/ Videos of his explorations]
* [http://www.expeditionsschiff-feuerland.de The expedition ship "Feuerland"]