Menkhoff, Karl

Karl Menckhoff was born in Herford (Westphalia, Prussia) in the family of Friedrich Wilhelm Menckhoff (1853–1929) and Louise, nee Scheikmann (Siegmann) (1856–1922). He grew up in the family with an eighth child, in total there were ten brothers and sisters in the family. Karl’s father successfully did business, had a Herforder Leinen-Verein Wilhelm Menckhoff weaving factory, where Karl worked as an apprentice, and later after a failed independent business, his main employee. As a young man, Karl was interested in cars and took part in ballooning with his brother Willy (who received a balloon pilot license). It is believed that he played a major role in Karl's choice of the profession of a pilot.

Karl Menkhoff entered military service as a volunteer at the age of 20 in 1903, but six weeks later was found unfit for service after being in a military hospital with suspected appendicitis. In August 1914, at the age of 31, Karl Menckhoff was admitted to the 106th Infantry Regiment. He participated in the First World War on the Western Front, fighting against the French in the Chalon-en-Champagne region and on the Se River, and later against the British in the Armantiere region. He was wounded several times, for courage he was awarded the Iron Cross of the first and second class at the end of 1914.

After being wounded, Karl Menckhoff becomes unsuitable for serving as an infantryman and decides to find employment in aviation. He was accepted to flight school in February 1915. After receiving the necessary qualifications, Karl Menckhoff was sent in October 1915 to the Western Front, at the Pergnies-Quessey airfield, near Saint-Quentin , where he was again injured during an air battle in January 1916.

In April 1916, Karl Menckhoff was transferred to the Eastern Front and is located at the Oshmyany airfield. Here he gained combat flight experience, and at the end of 1916 he was appointed pilot instructor in Cologne. In January 1917 he was promoted to staff sergeant , and then again sent to the Western Front by a pilot in the Jagdstaffel 3 fighter squadron, stationed in Fontaine Uthert near Saint-Quentin and equipped with Albatros D.III aircraft.

After the first 12 victories won by Karl Menckhoff, he was shot down on September 28, 1917 and was slightly wounded once in early 1918. On February 11, Lieutenant Karl Menkhoff took command of Jasta 72. The number of victories reached 20. For this, the pilot was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Hohenzollern House with swords, and on April 23 after the 25th victory he was awarded the highest order - “Pour le Merite”. By that time, Jasta 72 had 60 wins in its account with only one loss.

July 25, 1918, three days after his thirty-ninth victory, in the Chateau-Thierry area he was shot down by Lieutenant Walter Avery from the 95th American fighter squadron and captured by French troops. Karl Menkhoff was disappointed to learn that he was hit by a rookie. Lieutenant Walter Avery cut the letter “M” from the crashed Menckhoff plane, but nobly decided to leave the Order of Pour le Merite to Menckhoff. After interrogation, Karl Menckhoff was transferred as a prisoner of war, like many other German pilots, to the camp of Montoir-sur-le-Loire, near Orleans . Menkhoff remained in captivity for a long time after the end of the war in November 1918. Having lost hope of release, he fled on August 23, 1919 and reached Switzerland.

In 1920, he moved to Berlin, where he became manager of Deutsche Luft Lloyd GmbH. In the late 1920s, Karl Menckhoff founded Caliqua Wärmegesellschaft MBH, then set up subsidiaries in France and Switzerland. Settled in Switzerland. In October 1938, while crossing the German-Swiss border in Basel, he was detained for smuggling Swiss francs. He was arrested by German authorities and spent in custody for more than eight months. While in prison, he wrote memoirs about the First World War. Forced to give up many of his shares and business patents, he was released in May 1939. For fear of further persecution, he moved to Switzerland for permanent residence in the fall of 1939. He settled in a villa near the Angenstein castle , which was owned by his wife's family, where he lived after the Second World War.

Karl Menckhoff died of complications after surgery on January 11, 1949. Buried in Basel.

Betty Avery Applegate, daughter of Lieutenant Walter Avery, it became known that the son of Karl Menckhoff lives in the District of Columbia (USA). She decided to return the father’s trophy: the air symbol of the Menckhoff coat of arms, the letter “M” from Karl Menckhoff’s plane. On May 10, 2007, she handed over the carved letter “M” from Karl Menckhoff’s plane to his son Gerard Menckhoff at a meeting of World War League veterans and aviation history ^[1] . Karl Menckhoff’s son said that he did not know that his father was one of the best German aces of the First World War. Having adopted the symbol, he promised to transfer the heirloom to his son, the namesake of the great Karl Menckhoff.

• Badge of a Military Pilot ( Kingdom of Prussia )
• Iron Cross 2nd and 1st grade ( Kingdom of Prussia )
• Royal Order of the Hohenzollern House Knight's Cross with Swords ( Kingdom of Prussia )
• Order of Pour le Mérite ( Kingdom of Prussia )

• Jürgen Brinkmann: Die Ritter des Orden Pour le merite 1914-1918. Th. Schäfer Druckerei GmbH Hannover, Bückeburg 1982
• Walter Zuerl: Pour le merite-Flieger. Luftfahrtverlag Axel Zuerl, 1987. ISBN 978-3-934596-15-3
• Carl Menckhoff: Reminiscenses of War and Captivity: a Knight of the Pour le Mérite reports. - Aeronaut Books, 2013.

• Imperial Air Force of Germany
• Karl Menkhoff's page on the Red Falcons site
• Karl Menckhoff page on the site Aviation and Ballooning before WWII