Gunther Plüschow

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The German Army assigns Gunther Plüschow to Tsingtau, a German colony in China. He arrives there in 1914 and proceeds to construct a make-shift runway at the Tsingtau racetrack. A Taube airplane is shipped in crates by boat from Germany. He assembles it and begins his duties as an aerial observer. On August 2 war is declared between Germany and Japan and Plüschow became a target for the Japanese. The situation in Tsingtau proves untenable, and on November 5 Plüschow flees in his Taube, with a packet of secret documents, bound for Hai-Daschou because he runs out of gas. He lands there, burns his airplane so that it cannot be used by the enemy, and sets off for Germany on foot.

An endless escape

He walks to the city of Daschou, where the local mandarin gives a party for him. He manages to finagle a passport to cross China as well as a junk, which he uses to journey down a River, passing dozens of colorful towns along the way, finally arriving safely at Nanking. He soon feels he is being watched, even by officials friendly to Germany. After almost being arrested, he leaps in a rickshaw and speeds to the railway station, where he bribes a guard and slips on a train to Shanghai.

In Shanghai, he meets the daughter of a diplomat he knew from Berlin, and she obtains papers, money, and a ticket on a ship that is leaving for America.

During the voyage to the United States, Plüschow hides in his cabin, pretending to be sick. He lands in Los Angeles, but feels unsafe, so he takes a train up to San Francisco, and in January 1915 journeys across the country to New York. He is afraid to approach the German consulate there, for fear of being arrested. Worse, he reads in the newspaper a report that he is presumed to be in New York.

His luck not to mention his female friends save him again: he meets a lady from Berlin who manages to get him tickets for a ship that leaves on January 30 for Italy, from where he hopes to reach Germany. However, a storm forces his ship to land at Gibraltar, where the English arrest him, suspecting he is an enemy alien. They soon discover he is the famous aviator from Tsingtau.

The blond Dragon escapes from London!

On July 1 is sent to a prisoner-of-war camp in Ireland, but three days later during a storm he escapes and heads for London. Scotland Yard issues an alert, asking the public to be on the lookout for a man with a dragon tattoo his arm.

Now disguised as a worker, Plüschow feels so safe that he takes photographs of himself as a souvenir in the docks of London. He occupies himself reading books about Patagonia, and at night hides inside the British Museum. For security reasons, there are no published notices announcing the departure of the ships but a lucky encounter with Kitty, another one of his many lady friends, allows him to obtain the necessary information to get on board the Princess Juliana, bound for Holland. He arrives safely and from there he quickly gets himself to Germany.

Return and glory in Germany

Gunther Plüschow is acclaimed as "the hero from Tsingtau," decorated, and named commander of the marine base at Libau in Germany. In June 1916, in an airplane hangar at Libau, Plüschow and Isot are married. There he also writes his first book "The Adventures of the Aviator From Tsingtau", which sells more than 500,000 copies. In 1918, his son Guntolf is born.

The year is also one of crisis in Germany. The Kaiser flees and leaves the nation in chaos. In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles is signed, and several military and civil revolts take place, but Plüschow declines to participate. Instead, at age 33, he resigns from the Navy.

[edit] Info about Gunther Plüschow

Include link to videos from Pluschow’s films 1928 and a new book about his life, the book include a DVD with an original Gunther Plüschow’s film about its expedition of 1928. The DVD duration are 127 minutes. DVD and book are in English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. ISBN 987-21760-1-9

http://webpages.charter.net/ralphcooper/