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Demythologizing the Red Baron

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Demythologizing the Red Baron Joachim Castan. Der Rote Baron: Die ganze Geschichte des Manfred von Richthofen. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 2007. 360 S. EUR 24.50, cloth, ISBN 978-3-608-94461-7. Reviewed by Richard Byers Published on H-German (July, 2008) Few fgures of aviation history rank higher in clan from the beginning of the twentieth century popular consciousness than Manfred von into the First World War and beyond. Richthofen, the greatest air ace of the First World Many aspects of this work warrant praise. War, forever immortalized in Western culture as Castan's documentary background makes him the "Red Baron." Historian and documentary pro‐ keenly aware of the importance of the role played ducer Joachim Castan, with assistance from by the German government and media in trans‐ Richthofen's surviving descendants, has written a forming Manfred von Richtofen from an un‐ new biography of the air ace due to the need, in known airman into a national celebrity. With the the author's view, to confront the mythological death of the previous air "idol," Oswald Boelcke, memory of the Red Baron, replete with "gross ex‐ in late 1916, German military officials embraced aggerations, vulgar clichés, wishful thinking, pure and cultivated Richtofen as Boelcke's heir and fantasy, beloved legends and bright shining lies" successor. As a result, Richtofen's meetings with (p. 15), with the "complete" history of his short but higher officials and the kaiser were carefully illustrious life. The work that results from this ap‐ choreographed to maximize their potential as proach is a richly-detailed, more nuanced assess‐ propaganda, both for internal and external con‐ ment of Richthofen than earlier works, which Cas‐ sumption. Castan is at his best here, as he nar‐ tan rightly asserts based their arguments on pop‐ rates the growth of the Red Baron's fame and ular mythological assumptions rather than docu‐ transformation, by 1917, into wartime Germany's mentary evidence. Castan's access to Richthofen's most recognized hero. Additionally, Castan's con‐ personal papers and family archival holdings, cit‐ cluding chapter on the use of Richtofen by the ed extensively throughout his account, reinforce Nazis, and the development of the "Cult of the Red his theses and provide a wealth of information for Baron" during their reign, is a valuable contribu‐ interested scholars and non-scholars, particularly tion to our knowledge of the air ace's posthumous into the family relationships of the Richthofen legacy, and will be of interest to scholars of the H-Net Reviews propaganda and mythology of the Third Reich. war possessed the same detached, perhaps patho‐ When he moves into contemporary discussions of logical attitude toward their actions. Richtofen's utility as an example for the Bun‐ Despite these criticisms, however, this impor‐ deswehr and NATO, however, he is on less solid tant work furthers our understanding of the First ground. World War's most recognizable fgure. It also en‐ More problematic, though, are Castan's at‐ courages scholars of German military history to tempts to analyze the Red Baron psychologically, a consider a re-evaluation of the conflict and its theme that recurs throughout the work. Correctly protagonists, in line with recent research on the confronting the partisan nature of previous litera‐ conduct and motives of combatants in the Second ture, which uncritically accepted wartime repre‐ World War, and to take the ideological atmos‐ sentations of Richtofen as a paragon of Prussian phere of the First World War seriously. More simi‐ and German chivalry and honor, Castan draws larities may be found between the two conflicts in from Richtofen's 1917 autobiography and unpub‐ these terms than previous scholarship has sug‐ lished family documents to paint a different pic‐ gested. Additionally, his astute analysis of the ture of the air ace as a cold, amoral aerial preda‐ problematic nature of German military heroism, tor who sought to hunt and kill his opponents in a and its legacy for present and future generations manner reminiscent of a game hunter. In Castan's of German military personnel, is worth serious view, Richtofen never viewed his enemies as hu‐ consideration. man; instead, he viewed them as "targets" to be shot, and their aircraft debris as trophies to be displayed at the squadron mess hall, like the pre‐ served heads of vanquished game. Castan repeat‐ edly attempts to explain these realities by resort‐ ing to psychological analysis of Richtofen's child‐ hood, adolescence, and family relationships. This process does yield some interesting insights, such as the recognition that Richtofen never developed a normal maternal bond with his mother, but in my opinion Castan's approach never materializes into a convincing case that helps explain Richtofen's actions and motivations. As many readers will recognize, psycho-historical ap‐ proaches are useful as a tool to help explain the actions of historical actors, but they rarely achieve this aim in isolation from other method‐ ologies. Castan's approach is no exception. At times these sections become repetitive, lessening the impact of the overall narrative, and they tend to minimize the importance of the brutal wartime environment on Richtofen and his contempo‐ raries. Castan correctly points out that Richtofen's perspective on aerial combat was hardly unique; nearly all of the most successful "air aces" of the 2 H-Net Reviews If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-german Citation: Richard Byers. Review of Castan, Joachim. Der Rote Baron: Die ganze Geschichte des Manfred von Richthofen. H-German, H-Net Reviews. July, 2008. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14763 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.
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