Lothar Siegfried (Richthofen) von Richthofen (1894 - 1922)

Born 27 Sep 1894 in Świdnica, Lower Silesia, Poland

Ancestors

Husband of Doris (Keyserlingk) von Richthofen — married 5 Jun 1919 (to 1922) in Cammerau, Prussia

Died 4 Jul 1922 at age 27 in Fuhlsbüttel, Hamburg, Deutschland

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Lothar (Richthofen) von Richthofen was awarded the Pour le Mérite.

Biography

Lothar Siegfried von Richthofen was born in 1894. He was the son of Major Albrecht Philipp Karl Julius Freiherr Richthofen and Kunigunde Schickfus und Neudorff.

He married Doris Katharina Margarete von Keyserlingk (1894-1922) on 5 June 1919 in Cammerau, Prussia (modern day: Komorów, Gmina Świdnica, within Świdnica County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland), 2 children, /marriage dissolved 1922 .

He was killed in 1922 in a plane crash due to engine failure.

Lothar Siegried von Richthofen

BIRTH 27 Sep 1894

Świdnica, Dolnośląskie, Poland

DEATH 4 Jul 1922 (aged 27)

Fuhlsbüttel, Hamburg-Nord, Hamburg, Germany

BURIAL Garnisonfriedhof Cemetery (defunct) Świdnica, Dolnośląskie, Poland

Younger brother of famous German fighter ace Manfred von Richthofen. Lothar was born into Prussian nobility, the third of four children for his father Albrecht and mother Kunigunde. During his service in WWI, he scored a total of 40 aerial victories during the First World War. He scored his final kill on August 12, 1918, shooting down a Sopwith Camel flown by English ace John Summers. The next day (August 13, 1918) he was shot in the thigh when his Fokker D. VII was fired upon by a Sopwith Camel. This injury deemed him no longer fit for combat duty and he remained in the Hamburg hospital until after the war.

In 1919 he married Countess Doris Keyserlingk in Cammau, in an arranged ceremony. The couple had a daughter (Carmen Viola) and a son (Wolf-Manfred) They divorced in 1922, and shortly afterward, Lothar secured employment as a commercial pilot. He was traveling with American-born film actress Fern Andra (who was filming a movie in Germany at the time.) when the aircraft he was flying, a D1481 from Berlin to Hamburg stalled due to an engine failure, crashing into high-tension wires, killing him instantly. He was buried in Schweidnitz alongside his father. The plaque honoring him is at the family plot in Wiesbaden.

Contributor's note: It should be noted that Schweidnitz is part of Lower Silesia, in southwestern Poland. Since it is not listed, Breslau was the closest I could come to getting the burial location correct.

Some biographical information courtesy of http://www.wikipedia.org/

Sources

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22858902/lothar-siegried-von_richthofen