Rittmeister’s memories

When I was very young about the age of three years old, I had dreams about being a World War I pilot.  All I remember of those dreams is that I flew a red plane. As I grew older I would tell my mother about my fanciful idea of being a WWI pilot and she asked me if I was Eddie Rickenbacker.  I thought about the name for a moment and finally replied to her that I did not think that I was Eddie Rickenbacker. It seemed close, but not correct.  As I grew older, I became aware that I probably was not an American pilot, but someone from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I also became aware of a woman with dark brown hair and creamy white skin. I knew that I had broken many girl’s hearts, but this one dark haired lady had me wrapped around her finger, and I would find myself looking for her in this present life.  I was hoping that she would turn up somewhere, and we could be together again. I had given up figuring out who I was since there were so many pilots, so I figured that I was probably just a good looking nobody.

That all changed about 1995 when someone gave me a replica of a Pour le Merite medal.  I had told this friend that I believed that I had lived during the First World War, and that I had started to suspect that I had been German.  Soon after I found the medal in my hand, I started to get strange memory flashes of being alive in a different time. I wrote them down and tried to notice as much detail as possible. I figured I might need clues to figure out who I was. I also started finding books about the German Aces and reading about the different pilots. Three pilots pictures gave me strong emotional reactions: Lothar von Richthofen, Werner Voss, Kurt Wolff.  These three men seemed extra special to me plus one unidentified female that was in a Voss family portrait.

The following memories are the collection of memories that I started to take notes on.  From time to time, the collection grows as I remember new incidents. I try and take special note of what my surroundings looked like and what kind of frame of mind that I was in.  The memories are divided up into four categories, so that you may read what you are interested in and not be bothered with other topics. But I have realized throughout the years that this format can be disorientating and lacks the cohesion to tell the story of my past life, so I decided to put the memories in chronological order along with memories of the other people on this website.  The manuscript will be available for reading as each section is edited and completed. Text may change in the future as I recall more memories or discover pertinent information through research.  I hope you enjoy my memories and please be warned that these are true to life and that there may be incidents discussed that may seem shocking or could be considered crude or vulgar.  Please read this first before allowing children to read.  Thank you.