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Welcome to Nordjyllands Historiske Museum (The Historical Museum of Northern Jutland)Nordjyllands Historiske Museum works with research, collection, preservation, documentation and presentation of local and cultural history in the municipalities of Aalborg, Mariagerfjord, Rebild and Jammerbugt. At 14 different museums, "Present history" is introduced to you. |
New exhibition: Messerschmitt wreckage and the pilot’s life story
In 1944 a German warplane, a so-called Messerschmitt Bf, crashed near Birkelse North of Aalborg. In 2017 a young schoolchild and his father found the wreckage and the remains of the pilot, when an old family history of the plane crash was investigated.
A new exhibition at Aalborg Historical Museum tells the exciting story of the founding of the plane and the museum's subsequent work. There are also eyewitness reports, descriptions and statistics of the many crashes of Messerschmitt fighters during the war.
At the wreck, a number of Pilot Hans Wunderlich's personal belongings were found. These were subsequently cleaned at the conservation center Nordjylland and are now exhibited at the Aalborg Historical Museum together with the story of his short life.
The museum's exhibition shows both debris and personal belongings of the 19-year-old pilot. Among other things, you can see his watch, his soldier papers, a purse of coins, cigarette papers, condoms, food tickets and a calendar. In addition, some of his clothes are displayed - including the uniform coat with airwaff marks.
Hans Wunderlich was born in Neusorg, Bavaria, on 22nd July 1925. He was unmarried and had no children. The German authorities have reported that his parents died several years ago, and in 2006, his only sister passed away, also leaving no children.
The exhibition also tells about the presence of German soldiers in Aalborg during World War II.
In addition to the remains of the German pilot, a small diary was found, the Luftwaffe-version of “Der Soldatenfreund”. It is both a calendar and a guidebook, in which the pilot has kept all manners of information, eg. data on English planes (drawings of silhouettes), military ranks etc. In the book, the pilot has written his name: Hans Wunderlich. There are no entries for 10th October 1944, the day the plane crashed. The last entry was made on 24th September. All flights in 1944 are possibly registered in the book. The name Hans Wunderlich occurs in both service records and papers from the canteen at the Aalborg base, just as his initials are visible on the watch.
(Photo: © Nordjyllands Historiske Museum)
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The pilot’s watch was found together with other personal items. The watch is broken, and its hands are missing. Apparently, it has stopped at the time of the crash. What is left of the hands indicate that the time of the crash was approximately 2 pm. The museum is in no doubt that the watch belongs to the pilot, as his initials are etched on the back of the watch: HW – Hans Wunderlich. The watch does not appear to be a military watch, but a personal watch, with extra digits added to the dial later. The purpose of these digits is unclear, but perhaps they were useful for the pilot. The museum would like to hear from anyone who might have an explanation. The “W” visible on the front of the dial indicates the make of the watch, Wagner. The watch factory, which was located in Pforzheim in the southwest of Germany, was bombed on 23rd February 1945. Pforzheim is located approximately 340 kilometres southwest of the town where Hans Wunderlich was born. |
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