Wolfram von Richthofen

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Wolfram Freiherr (Baron) von Richthofen (10 October 1895 - 12 July 1945) was a German General and Field Marshal during World War II. He was born in Barzdorf, part of the Sudetenland, now the city of Pernoltice in the Czech Republic. During World War I he was serving in a German cavalry unit, in 1918 he learnt to fly fighter aircraft and was transferred to the airforce. In March 1918 he was assigned to Jasta 11 fighter squadron, and by the end of the war he shot down eight aircraft, which gave him the title of flying ace. On 18 September, 1920, he married Jutta von Selchow (1896-1991) at Breslau (now the city of Wrocław in Poland). They had three children.

In 1933 he joined the Luftwaffe. From 1936, he was one of commanding officers in Legion Condor in the Spanish Civil War. On July 17, 1941, General der Flieger von Richthofen, then the commanding general of VIII Fliegerkorps, became only the 26th recipient (out of an eventual 890 from all branches of the armed forces) of the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves (Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub). On 16 February, 1943, he became only one of six officers in the Luftwaffe in the history of the Third Reich alongside Göring (who had held the rank from 1938 until his promotion to Reichsmarschall in July 1940), Kesselring, Milch, Sperrle and (when the Third Reich was within days of falling) von Greim to be promoted to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall. However, he was retired on medical grounds in late 1944 and he died in American captivity at Bad Ischl on July 12, 1945.

He was a distant cousin of the German World War One flying aces, the siblings Manfred von Richthofen, who was known as the Red Baron and had shot down 80 enemy aircraft before being killed in action in 1918 and his younger brother Lothar von Richthofen who shot down 40 enemy aircraft.

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