I heard this quote below from Peter when I arranged a meeting between Peter, many time US Soaring Champion Dick Johnson and historian/author/publisher Jay Miller in Dallas.
Peter was an accomplished pre-war German civil and glider pilot, winning many championships and flying for Lufthansa and SCADTA. He was a prolific writer and very accomplished aviator. He attended the US National Soaring Championship Meet in '37, demonstrating a new German sailplane, and outstripped the competition, but not being a citizen, was not declared Champion. However, with all the favorable publicity, he was asked to become Air Attache for the US.
When war was declared, he was returned to Germany, along with the American woman he had married. Not being in favor of the government, but too prominent for them to ignore, he was named Air Attache in Sweden during the conflict.
His return to the US was yet another adventure, where he became a citizen, flying for TWA, PanAm and American Airlines, from which he retired.
We all benefit from his work compiling the German Aviation Archives at the Library of Congress, done in his retirement with Marshall Plan Foundation funding.
Being a doer and often gone from his homeland, he was chagrined and amused to find that in his absence, several Nazi favorites, one in particular, had taken credit for many of his record flights and achievements in published records.
His detailed accounts of pre-war German gliding are not published in English, but a book on Peter is: German Air Attache and Peter Riedel – both by Martin SIMONS. Not only a pioneering aviator's bio, but a lot of inspiring adventure in times and places not often documented.
en.wikipedia.org
"Live long enough to write the truth ... and to get even! History is written by the last survivor." – Peter Riedel
Peter was an accomplished pre-war German civil and glider pilot, winning many championships and flying for Lufthansa and SCADTA. He was a prolific writer and very accomplished aviator. He attended the US National Soaring Championship Meet in '37, demonstrating a new German sailplane, and outstripped the competition, but not being a citizen, was not declared Champion. However, with all the favorable publicity, he was asked to become Air Attache for the US.
When war was declared, he was returned to Germany, along with the American woman he had married. Not being in favor of the government, but too prominent for them to ignore, he was named Air Attache in Sweden during the conflict.
His return to the US was yet another adventure, where he became a citizen, flying for TWA, PanAm and American Airlines, from which he retired.
We all benefit from his work compiling the German Aviation Archives at the Library of Congress, done in his retirement with Marshall Plan Foundation funding.
Being a doer and often gone from his homeland, he was chagrined and amused to find that in his absence, several Nazi favorites, one in particular, had taken credit for many of his record flights and achievements in published records.
His detailed accounts of pre-war German gliding are not published in English, but a book on Peter is: German Air Attache and Peter Riedel – both by Martin SIMONS. Not only a pioneering aviator's bio, but a lot of inspiring adventure in times and places not often documented.
Peter Riedel - Wikipedia
"Live long enough to write the truth ... and to get even! History is written by the last survivor." – Peter Riedel
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