Table Of ContentThe Author. Although translated here as Lieutenant-General, Baur’s ultimate rank of
Generalleutant was in fact the equivalent of Air Vice Marshal in the RAF and Major-
General in the USAAF.
I Was Hitler’s Pilot
This edition published in 2013 by Frontline Books,
an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,
47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS
www.frontline-books.com
Copyright © Frederick Muller Ltd, 1958
Introduction © Roger Moorhouse, 2013
The right of Hans Baur to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
9781783469826
Publishing History
The first German edition, Ich flog Mächtige der Erde (‘I Flew with the World’s
Powerful’), was published by Pröpster, Auflage in 1956. The first English
edition, Hitler’s Pilot, was published by Frederick Muller Limited, London in
1958. This edition, published by Frontline Books, London, contains a new
Introduction by Roger Moorhouse.
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mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Introduction
PART ONE - The First War in the Air
PART TWO - The German Lufthansa
PART THREE - With Hitler Over Germany
PART FOUR - The Second World War
PART FIVE - In Russian Hands
Index
Introduction
‘BUT FOR THE war,’ Hans Baur writes at the opening of this memoir, ‘I might have
spent the rest of my life in an office.’ Born in southern Bavaria in the final years of the
nineteenth century, Baur enjoyed an unremarkable youth growing up in Munich, until the
outbreak of war in 1914 transformed his life irrevocably. For countless millions of others
across Europe, the First World War marked a definite caesura: whether in the wanton
slaughter of the battlefields, or the political and economic maelstrom that followed. But
for Baur, the war gave him a skill and a career that he would otherwise never have
possessed – that of flying.
Serving as a pilot on the Western Front – where, with six victories, he technically
qualified as an ‘ace’ – Baur quickly showed a natural ability and understanding of the
pilot’s art, not least in the fact that he survived the war, no mean feat in those early days of
aerial combat. In the post-war years he rose swiftly, building a reputation for safety and
punctuality, and was appointed as one of the first cadre of six pilots of the nascent Luft
Hansa in 1926. He also earned a number of honours and accolades: piloting the debut of
the Berlin – Munich – Rome route in 1931, for instance, and flying over one million
kilometres for the airline.
Thus it was that Hans Baur came into contact with Adolf Hitler. During the election
campaigns of 1932, in which the Nazis were expected to make significant gains, Hitler
was persuaded that he needed more imaginative methods to reach his audience effectively
and Baur was suggested as someone whose flying expertise could help him to campaign
by air. Though such a step would be quite normal for any modern politician, it is worth
mentioning that it was an extremely radical and innovative idea for the 1930s, when flying
was still very much in its infancy and was seen by many as impossibly dangerous and
exotic. Whereas his opponents would use radio or give set-piece speeches to the political
and media elite, Hitler thus opted to make several grandstand speeches per night,
travelling between engagements by air. It was not only a more efficient use of time, it was
also a propaganda coup, marking him out with the German electorate as a thoroughly
modern, forward-looking politician, ready to embrace new technology.
When the election campaigns of 1932 were successful for the Nazis, Hitler was duly
persuaded of the political effectiveness of campaigning by air, not least because he had
overcome his own concerns about the safety of air travel. So impressed was Hitler with
Baur’s proficiency, indeed, that he would never fly with another pilot. With that, Baur
quickly became a fixture, and was appointed as Hitler’s personal pilot in February 1933.
Thus began a personal and professional relationship that would last until Hitler’s death
twelve years later in 1945. Baur – a bluff, no-nonsense Bavarian – would become one of
Hitler’s inner circle, one of his intimates, someone to whom the Führer regularly entrusted
his life.
Baur, therefore, was in an unusual position within the Third Reich – similar to that of
Hitler’s photographer Heinrich Hoffmann – in that for all his closeness to Hitler, he was
neither politically nor professionally entirely dependent upon him. His thoughts and
observations might thus be considered relatively free of the complicating influences of
politicking and naked ambition that could colour other accounts. Certainly Baur enjoyed
the prestige that his role as Hitler’s pilot brought him, and in these pages he clearly
relishes the time he spent flying the most prominent men of the Reich and its Allies:
Göring, Mussolini and King Boris III of Bulgaria foremost amongst them. It is telling, for
instance, that the original German edition of this book was entitled Ich flog Mächtige der
Erde (‘I Flew the World’s Powerful’).
Baur was also an eye-witness to many of the seminal moments in the history of the
Third Reich, including the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934, Ribbentrop’s historic
flight to Moscow in 1939 to conclude the Nazi – Soviet Pact and the fevered aftermath of
Hess’s flight to Britain in May 1941. On one level, then, his memoir can be read simply as
an engaging chronicle of those tumultuous years, albeit observed by one who was very
close to the epicentre of Nazi power. On another level, it is a portrait of the workings of
that inner circle: the characters and the petty rivalries that made up the Third Reich as seen
from within.
There are a number of highlights. One, certainly, is a passing reference that Baur makes
which would have profound consequences and spawn one of the most famous
controversies of the twentieth century. On page 177, Baur notes that, whilst Hitler’s effects
were being evacuated from the Reich Chancellery in April 1945, one of the aircraft used
for the purpose failed to arrive at its destination in southern Germany and was presumed
crashed. When this loss was reported to Hitler, he was ‘very upset’, stating that ‘extremely
valuable documents’ were aboard the plane, which would ‘show posterity the truth of [his]
actions’. That single reference, extrapolated and exploited by a later generation hungry for
‘Hitleriana’, would provide the factual seed for the ‘Hitler Diaries’ forgeries of the early
1980s.1
Another highlight is Baur’s dramatic account of his escape from Hitler’s bunker at the
end of the war: creeping with Bormann, Stumpfegger and others through the Berlin
underground system in a vain attempt to evade the closing Soviet forces. The passage is
also notable as it is one of the very few eye-witness accounts (along with those of Artur
Axmann and Heinz Linge) that relate to Martin Bormann’s fate, which until comparatively
recently was still shrouded in mystery.
Like Bormann, Baur also failed to escape the Soviets in Berlin in May 1945. Seriously
injured, he was captured close to the Lehrter Station, thereby beginning his long period in
captivity. As one of Hitler’s former inner circle, Baur was of particular interest to the
Soviets, who were keen to investigate the suggestion that he might have flown Hitler out
of the beleaguered Berlin, and that he may have had connections to looted art, particularly
the fate of the famed ‘Amber Room’. Baur would prove a disappointment to his Soviet
interrogators, however, not only because of his dogged insistence that Hitler had died in
the Berlin bunker, but also because of his apparent ignorance of the broader politics of the
Third Reich. In theory, at least, in capturing Hitler’s pilot Baur, his valet Heinz Linge and
his chauffeur Erich Kempka, the Soviets had secured a unique insight into the workings of
the Third Reich and the character of its leader, and they planned to exploit their three
captives to compile a ‘Hitler Book’ for Stalin’s pleasure. Baur, however, was swiftly
