RUBIN WECSLER 1876-1915

Rubin Wecsler Flugfürerzeugnis erworben im Dezember 1911 Collection of Rene Hackstetter, 11-20-04

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES from Hannes Täger, 2-20-05 Hello Ralph, Here is some more information about the above mentioned aviator.      Rubin Wecsler was born in Jassy (Romania) on 1 April 1876.      He was of Jewish descent reported Felix A. Theilhaber. The name suggests that too.      Wecsler moved to Germany, learned to fly here (license 146 on 22 December 1911) and took part in aviation competitions. For a while he did work for the Harlan Werke GmbH.      On 14 May 1913 he was involved in a very tragic accident in the air over the airfield of Johannisthal. Hauptmann (Captain) Jucker - the careful chief pilot of the enterprise LVG descending from Switzerland - flew together with his trainee Dietrich. Their aircraft came from the direction of the balloon hangar and intended to make a last curve and to land afterwards. Just in this time the aircraft piloted by Wecsler crossed over the field and crashed into the side of the Dietrich and Jucker´s biplane. Both aircraft did fall down. Hauptmann Jucker was immediately killed. Dietrich died because of his severly injuries on 23 May 1913. Wecsler experienced only slight injuries.      As a result of this and many other earlier accidents in aviation the member of the German parliament (called "Reichstag") Dr. Müller from the town Meiningen complained about the insufficient emergency installations and medical help on the airfield and demanded improvements.      Wecsler was possibly naturalised (became a German citizen) - otherwise he would not been allowed to take part as German pilot in WWI as he did. On 17 July 1915 Rubin Wecsler died when his aircraft crashed after a test flight over the Army Aviation Park in Valenciennes.      His age of 39 years made him one of the oldest German military pilots in WWI. Very Best Regards Hannes Täger

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Rubin Wecsler", using the Google search engine, (11-20-04), you will find just two links, but both are valuable.

Liste der 817 deutschen Piloten vor Kriegsausbruch 1914      The text of this website is written in German. However, a machine translation into English is available directly from the listing on Google. You can also access the translated version by clicking on: English Version       This page lists some 817 German pilots who flew before World War I. Included are the number of the license, the name of the aviator, his occupation and the date of the license. In the case of Rubin Wecsler, here is the translated entry.

License 146

Name Rubin Wecsler

Occupation Engineer (foreigner)

Date 22.12.1911

You can access the website in German by clicking on the title above.

 

Rubin Wecsler      You will find that this message on the AERODROME website offers a few more facts regarding his life and career. I have sent a message to the originator of the message. Hopefully he will respond and we can share information on this relatively unknown pioneer. You can access the message by clicking on the title above.

 

I have no information as to the dates of his birth or his death.   If you have any information on this pioneer aviator please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper

 

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