HIGH AND MOBILE

Today in Berlin: April 13, 1927

On this day in 1927 a German aeroplane “Made in Berlin”, Rohrbach Roland Ro VIII under Captain Willi Polte, became the first machine to fly over the Alps from Munich with landing in Milan.

Three such Rohrbach machines were bought by a Spanish airline Iberia.

Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland was a thriple-engine aeroplane capable of carrying up to ten passengers on board. This full-metal machine produced in a small factory established by Adolf Rohrbach (formerly working for Zeppelin) in Berlin-Wedding, was ordered in 1926 by Deutsche Luft Hansa as a comfort class flying machine.

So comfy it was that for the 1932 election campaign Hitler’s team hired a Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland from Deutsche Luft Hansa and used it for the two first series of campaign flights: in March and July. The machine was christened Immelmann after the German First World War pilot and a convenient hero to the NSDAP, Max Immelmann.

Official poster for the election campain of Hitler in 1932 with a Rohrbach Roland VIII featured as his means of transportion.

In the same year, 1927, a Rohrbach Roland broke another record: world record in a non stop flight. The machine spent 14 hours and 21 minutes up in the air with a cargo of 1,000 kg on board, covering the distance of over 2,300 kilometres. Soon afterwards it went one-up by flying with 2,000 kg of cargo over 1,750 kilometres.

Rohrbach factory in Sprengelkiez in Berlin-Wedding in 1928 (aerial map of Berlin via Histo Map Berlin.

Rohrbach Metallflugzeug Fabrik established in 1922 had its main seat in Berlin-Wedding and… in Copenhagen. The former “pretended” not to be building war-worthy aeroplanes (Germany was banned from doing that by the Versaille Treaty and other restrictions that followed), while the latter did not have to worry about such any limitations.