{"id":21278276,"date":"2026-09-09T11:08:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T09:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/marga-von-etzdorf-first-female-airline-pilot-1933\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T11:08:49","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T09:08:49","slug":"marga-von-etzdorf-first-female-airline-pilot-1933","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/marga-von-etzdorf-first-female-airline-pilot-1933\/","title":{"rendered":"Marga von Etzdorf: The First Woman to Fly for an Airline"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n<p>On 19 February 1928, a 20-year-old German woman climbed into the cockpit of a Junkers F.13 named <em>Kiek in die Welt<\/em> &mdash; Berlin dialect for &ldquo;look in the world&rdquo; &mdash; and flew it for Lufthansa. She is generally credited as the first woman anywhere hired to fly for an airline.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Five years later she was dead at 25 in a room in Aleppo, and in her luggage was a submachine gun, a hundred rounds of ammunition, and a set of price lists.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It took until 2007 for anyone to explain what those were doing there.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px;margin:24px 0;font-size:15px;line-height:1.8\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Who:<\/strong> Margarete &ldquo;Marga&rdquo; von Etzdorf, born Spandau 1 August 1907, died near Aleppo 28 May 1933, aged 25<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>First:<\/strong> Credited as the first woman hired to fly for an airline &mdash; 19 February 1928, for Deutsche Luft Hansa<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Her routes:<\/strong> Berlin&ndash;Breslau and Berlin&ndash;Stuttgart&ndash;Basel, on the Junkers F.13<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Licence:<\/strong> The second woman in Germany to gain a pilot&rsquo;s licence after the First World War, after Thea Rasche. She was 19<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Her aircraft:<\/strong> A bright yellow Junkers A 50ce &ldquo;Junior&rdquo;, bought in 1930 with her grandparents&rsquo; help<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Record flight:<\/strong> Berlin to Tokyo, solo, departing 18 August 1931 and landing at Haneda on 29 August &mdash; 11 days<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Also:<\/strong> The first person to send reports of the 1932 Siamese Revolution to Europe<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>The 2007 revelation:<\/strong> Research made public that she had agreed to carry out illegal arms deals<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Nobody would teach her<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/marga-von-etzdorf-portrait.jpg\" alt=\"Marga von Etzdorf\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Marga von Etzdorf. Orphaned at four, raised by her grandparents, and largely self-taught as a pilot because the national flying school would not admit women. Photo: Bundesarchiv \/ CC BY-SA 3.0 de<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Her father was a captain in the Prussian Army. Both her parents died in an accident in Sicily when she was four, and she and her sister Ursula were brought up by their grandparents &mdash; her grandfather a general in the same army.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule, Germany&rsquo;s commercial flying school, did not accept women. So she taught herself, with support from Melitta Schiller, then an engineer at the German aviation research establishment and later one of the most remarkable and most complicated figures in German aviation in her own right.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>By 19 she had a licence &mdash; the second woman in post-war Germany to hold one, after Thea Rasche. At 20 she was flying paying passengers between Berlin and Breslau, and Berlin, Stuttgart and Basel, in a corrugated Junkers F.13.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6NhWfwIrgnc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:-8px\">A German documentary portrait of von Etzdorf as an aviation pioneer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Eleven days to Tokyo in a yellow biplane<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/junkers-a50-junior-preserved.jpg\" alt=\"A preserved Junkers A50 Junior\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Junkers A50 Junior. Von Etzdorf&rsquo;s was painted bright yellow, and she flew it from Berlin to Tokyo alone. Photo: Wikimedia Commons \/ CC BY-SA 2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>In 1930, with her grandparents&rsquo; backing, she bought a Junkers A 50ce &mdash; the &ldquo;Junior&rdquo;, a small open two-seat sports biplane &mdash; and painted it bright yellow. Her first long-distance flight took her to Istanbul. Her second, an attempt on the Canary Islands, ended when a storm over Italy damaged the aircraft so badly it had to go back to the Junkers factory by train.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Then, on 18 August 1931, she set off east. Eleven days later, on 29 August, she landed at Haneda &mdash; the first foreigner to enter Japan through the newly completed airport. She had flown solo across Siberia. She was 24.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The journey home went badly. Taking off from a stop in Bangkok she lost height severely; the aircraft was damaged beyond repair and she was badly injured. Grounded in what is now Thailand, she became the first person to file reports of the 1932 Siamese Revolution to Europe. She got back to Berlin on 18 July 1932.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/marga-von-etzdorf-tokyo-decoration.jpg\" alt=\"Marga von Etzdorf being decorated in Tokyo\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Von Etzdorf in Tokyo after the 1931 flight. She was the first foreigner to arrive in Japan through Haneda, which had only just been completed. Photo: Bundesarchiv \/ CC BY-SA 3.0 de<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/c7OmGiz26tg\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:-8px\">A Junkers A50 Junior flying today &mdash; the type von Etzdorf took to Tokyo.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Aleppo<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Elly Beinhorn suggested Cape Town next. On 27 May 1933, attempting a stop near Aleppo, von Etzdorf lost control of her Klemm Kl 32 in heavy winds and crashed. She was not seriously hurt. She dealt with the formalities, asked for a private room, and took her own life. She died on 28 May 1933.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>For decades the explanation offered was professional despair: a second aircraft written off in eighteen months would have finished her. No manufacturer would have lent her another; no sponsor would have paid for another attempt. Her flying career would simply have been over, and flying was the whole of her life.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700\">What was in the luggage<\/p><p style=\"margin:0\">In 2007, research by the historian Evelyn Crellin made public a different and much darker layer. Von Etzdorf had entered into a secret arrangement to conduct illegal arms deals. A letter found in her final luggage from Ernst Heymann &mdash; a retired captain, employee of the Haenel arms company and an arms lobbyist with contacts in the NSDAP &mdash; showed that the submachine gun she carried was not simply for self-defence. It was a sample. With it came accessories, 100 rounds of ammunition, and German and English catalogues and price lists for Schmeisser submachine guns. She was to earn money from any sales she could arrange.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Carrying such a weapon privately would have needed the permission of every country she overflew. Trading in them broke fundamental provisions of the Treaty of Versailles outright.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>And she had come down in Syria, which France held under a League of Nations mandate. The German Foreign Office understood the danger well enough to send a diplomat to Aleppo. It is now generally assumed that fear of discovery by French officials, and of what the French government could do with the story, was among the reasons she did what she did. In the event France chose not to make anything of it after her death, and in Germany the arms smuggling went unpublished and undiscussed for decades.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U36nzLNul2E\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:-8px\">On the death of a flying pioneer, and what was found afterwards.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A grave that no longer exists<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>She was buried in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin, the old Prussian military cemetery where her grandfather&rsquo;s world lay. In the 1970s her grave was destroyed, because the cemetery sat against the Berlin Wall and the death strip needed the ground.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>What was written on the headstone survives in the record.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;Der Flug ist das Leben wert &mdash; flying is worth life&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Marga von Etzdorf&rsquo;s gravestone<\/strong> &mdash; Invalidenfriedhof, Berlin &mdash; the grave was destroyed in the 1970s<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>She is not a straightforward heroine, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. She was a genuine pioneer who did something extraordinarily difficult in an era that had arranged itself to stop her, and she was also, at the end, carrying a weapons catalogue for people who were about to make the world a great deal worse.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Both of those are true. The first woman to fly for an airline flew alone across Siberia at 24 and died at 25 in a room in Aleppo, and it took the rest of the century for anyone to say why.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700\">A note<\/p><p style=\"margin:0\">This article deals with a death by suicide, and covers it only as far as the historical record requires. If any of it resonates with something you are going through, please talk to someone you trust or to a local support service &mdash; and know that help is available.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Who was the first female airline pilot?<\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>Marga von Etzdorf is generally credited as the first woman hired to fly for an airline. She began flying commercially on 19 February 1928 for the German carrier that became Deutsche Luft Hansa, operating a Junkers F.13 nicknamed <em>Kiek in die Welt<\/em> on the Berlin&ndash;Breslau and Berlin&ndash;Stuttgart&ndash;Basel routes.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did Marga von Etzdorf learn to fly?<\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>Largely by teaching herself. The Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule, Germany&rsquo;s commercial flying school, did not accept women at the time. She received support from Melitta Schiller, then an engineer at the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt f&uuml;r Luftfahrt. She gained her licence at 19, the second woman in Germany to do so after the First World War, following Thea Rasche.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was Marga von Etzdorf&rsquo;s flight to Tokyo?<\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>She flew solo from Berlin to Tokyo in a bright yellow Junkers A 50ce &ldquo;Junior&rdquo;, departing on 18 August 1931 and landing at Haneda eleven days later on 29 August. She was the first foreigner to enter Japan through the newly completed airport, and the first woman to fly solo across Siberia. She was 24.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did Marga von Etzdorf die?<\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>On 27 May 1933 she lost control of her Klemm Kl 32 in heavy winds while attempting a stop near Aleppo, in French-mandated Syria, and crashed. She was not seriously injured, but took her own life shortly afterwards and died on 28 May 1933, aged 25.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was discovered about her in 2007?<\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>Research by the historian Evelyn Crellin made public that von Etzdorf had entered a secret arrangement to conduct illegal arms deals. A letter in her final luggage from Ernst Heymann &mdash; an employee of the Haenel arms company and an arms lobbyist with NSDAP contacts &mdash; showed the submachine gun she carried was a sales sample, accompanied by 100 rounds of ammunition and German and English catalogues and price lists for Schmeisser submachine guns. Trading in such weapons violated the Treaty of Versailles.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details><summary>What did her gravestone say?<\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>&ldquo;Der Flug ist das Leben wert&rdquo; &mdash; flying is worth life. She was buried in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin, but the grave was destroyed in the 1970s because of the cemetery&rsquo;s position against the Berlin Wall.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details><summary>What else did she do besides fly?<\/summary><div class=\"a\"><p>Stranded in Siam after crashing on the return leg from Tokyo, she became the first person to send reports of the 1932 Siamese Revolution back to Europe. She returned to Berlin on 18 July 1932.<\/p><\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who was the first female airline pilot?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Marga von Etzdorf is generally credited as the first woman hired to fly for an airline. She began flying commercially on 19 February 1928 for the German carrier that became Deutsche Luft Hansa, operating a Junkers F.13 nicknamed Kiek in die Welt on the Berlin\u2013Breslau and Berlin\u2013Stuttgart\u2013Basel routes.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How did Marga von Etzdorf learn to fly?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Largely by teaching herself. The Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule, Germany\u2019s commercial flying school, did not accept women at the time. She received support from Melitta Schiller, then an engineer at the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt f&uuml;r Luftfahrt. She gained her licence at 19, the second woman in Germany to do so after the First World War, following Thea Rasche.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was Marga von Etzdorf\u2019s flight to Tokyo?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"She flew solo from Berlin to Tokyo in a bright yellow Junkers A 50ce \\\"Junior\\\", departing on 18 August 1931 and landing at Haneda eleven days later on 29 August. She was the first foreigner to enter Japan through the newly completed airport, and the first woman to fly solo across Siberia. She was 24.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How did Marga von Etzdorf die?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"On 27 May 1933 she lost control of her Klemm Kl 32 in heavy winds while attempting a stop near Aleppo, in French-mandated Syria, and crashed. She was not seriously injured, but took her own life shortly afterwards and died on 28 May 1933, aged 25.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was discovered about her in 2007?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Research by the historian Evelyn Crellin made public that von Etzdorf had entered a secret arrangement to conduct illegal arms deals. A letter in her final luggage from Ernst Heymann \u2014 an employee of the Haenel arms company and an arms lobbyist with NSDAP contacts \u2014 showed the submachine gun she carried was a sales sample, accompanied by 100 rounds of ammunition and German and English catalogues and price lists for Schmeisser submachine guns. Trading in such weapons violated the Treaty of Versailles.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What did her gravestone say?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"\\\"Der Flug ist das Leben wert\\\" \u2014 flying is worth life. She was buried in the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin, but the grave was destroyed in the 1970s because of the cemetery\u2019s position against the Berlin Wall.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What else did she do besides fly?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Stranded in Siam after crashing on the return leg from Tokyo, she became the first person to send reports of the 1932 Siamese Revolution back to Europe. She returned to Berlin on 18 July 1932.\"}}]}<\/script><p><em>Sources: Evelyn Zegenhagen, <em>&ldquo;Schneidige deutsche M&auml;del&rdquo;: Fliegerinnen zwischen 1918 und 1945<\/em> (Wallstein, 2007); Christoph Gunkel, <em>Der Spiegel<\/em> (2021); Alice Bota, <em>Die Zeit<\/em> (2014); Lufthansa; Monash University Hargrave collection; Berlin Brandenburg Airport historical pages.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/sabiha-gokcen-first-female-fighter-pilot\/\">Sabiha G&ouml;k&ccedil;en: Daughter of the Turkish Sky<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/amy-johnson-solo-england-australia-1930-jason\/\">Amy Johnson: The First Woman to Fly Solo to Australia<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/adrienne-bolland-andes-crossing-caudron-g3-1921\/\">Adrienne Bolland: She Flew the Andes With 40 Hours<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>She flew for Lufthansa at 20 and solo to Tokyo at 24. She died at 25 in Aleppo, and it took until 2007 to explain the submachine gun in her luggage.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":21278024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21278276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marga von Etzdorf: First Woman to Fly for an Airline | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Marga von Etzdorf flew for Lufthansa at 20 and solo to Tokyo at 24. 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