Riccius, Walter Die Institution der Luftattachés. Deutsche Luftattachés von Beginn bis 1945

It took an extraordinarily long time before the idea of deploying German air attachés in other countries became a reality. Many detours and intermediate steps were necessary before the first German air attaché of a German air force that did not yet exist was notified in Italy in 1929 with the legitimisation of a diplomatic representative. Paradoxically, it was the development engineer for new airborne systems who eight years later, in March 1937, was in favour of the first large-scale bombing campaign against civilians, which reduced the Spanish town of Guernica to rubble. A year later, it was the air force attaché in Vienna who was instrumental in the German occupation of Austria in March 1938. The results of the institution's work and its activities are hardly known today, even among experts. Not only because they were highly controversial within the top Luftwaffe leadership itself. However, the reasons for this are not to be blamed on the attachés themselves, but lay to a large extent in the system and the attitude it characterised towards the achievements of others. Until yesterday, little was known about the origins, interests and attitudes of those involved in this special field of activity of the air attachés. However, the 95 biographies of the most important players in this field recorded in the book now allow conclusions to be drawn about the political, operational and military-historical contexts associated with their specific deployment. These personal portraits are preceded by a brief outline of the historical development of the institution itself and an overview of the countries in which German air attachés were deployed from the beginning of their service until 1945.