This website owes its existence to the work of Heinz Birkholz.
The dedicated reader of this blog will have noticed recurring references to some of the pioneers of German aviation research of the 1919 to 1945 period: Hans Redemann, Karl Ries, Karl R. Pawlas, J. Richard Smith, Eddie J. Creek, Thomas Hitchcock, or Heinz Birkholz. It is Heinz Birkholz in particular who ranks among the earliest writers to make a dedicated effort to confront misinformation, myth, and previously uncharted territory by means of publishing serious research and prime source material. Moreover, in the course of his decades of activities as a journalist and editor, Birkholz managed to bring together an illustrious group of contributors consisting of period protagonists on one hand and fellow experts of German aviation on the other. This included notables such as Karl Kössler, Günther Ott, Roy Nesbit, Günter Frost, Richard Chapman, and many others.
Born in 1922, Heinz Birkholz served in World War II as one of the German Luftwaffe's
schwarze Männer (i.e., as a member of the ground crew), in his case as a technician assigned to Jagdgeschwader 5 in Norway. In 1944, he was transferred to
Flugzeugführerschule [pilot school] A/B 23 in Kaufbeuren, Bavaria, where, like many others, he underwent training to become a pilot in an attempt to replenish the staggeringly mounting personnel losses of the Luftwaffe. The war ended before he flew a first operational mission, however, and Birkholz re-entered civilian life as a journalist with the
Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper.
But it really was his continuing interest in aviation which was to define Birkholz' life. In the 1960s, he became one of the very first European journalists to regularly cover the hobby of plastic modelling in the press, by writing for
Modellbau-Revue magazine. Moreover, he contributed to other specialist periodicals, such as the renown aviation magazine
Flug Revue.
Before long, Birkholz' column about plastic kits in
Modellbau-Revue became increasingly popular, and the idea for a magazine solely dedicated to plastic modelling gained traction. This finally became reality in March of 1970, when
Plastik Modell was launched. Heinz Birkholz was the magazine's creative director and chief editor. But
Plastik Modell wasn't simply a magazine covering plastic kits. Not only did it feature detailed articles that illuminated the histories and technical details of the actual full-size aircraft that were the subject of the kits, but it also contained an innovative readers' letters forum in which readers, photo collectors, and fellow researchers exchanged further information and contributed rare photos. This was the prototype of a highly successful and prolific concept Birkholz would henceforth apply to all of his subsequent publications.
In 1974, Birkholz established a dedicated pictorial extension to
Plastik Modell by creating
PM Foto-Revue. This was a photo album-type publication which contained further previously unpublished pictures of historic subjects, submitted from the private collections of both writers and readers of
Plastik Modell. Regrettably, the publisher, G. Schmidt-Verlag, ceased operations just as
PM Foto-Revue was launched.
But instead of giving up, Birkholz and his editorial team professionalised their efforts and went on to found the new periodical
Modell Magazin, which, starting in 1975, covered both scale models and aviation history, and subsequently became one of the most important and influential publications within the growing Luftwaffe research community. In 1976, following the earlier example set with
Plastik Modell,
Modell Magazin introduced
Modell Magazin Foto Archiv, its own softcover photo album offspring. Published sporadically until the early 1980s,
Modell Magazin Foto Archiv again featured period pictures submitted by the writers and readers of the magazine and thus exposed extraordinary treasures to a wider audience.
When
Modell Magazin eventually changed direction and content in the mid-1980s, Birkholz left and established a new magazine,
Flugzeug, dedicated entirely to aviation, both in scale and history. In 1988,
Flugzeug continued the tradition of its predecessors by launching an infrequently published offspring softcover photo album,
Flugzeug Archiv. One final time, history repeated itself when Birkholz, after internal disagreements, left
Flugzeug to establish
Jet & Prop in 1991. The by now inevitable offspring photo periodical,
Jet & Prop Foto Archiv, was first published in 1992.
By the end of 2000 and aged 78, Heinz Birkholz felt it was time to transfer
Jet & Prop's reins into younger hands. The magazine still exists to this day, and for a while after his "retirement", Birkholz was still a contributor to both the magazine proper and
Jet & Prop Foto Archiv.
The importance of Heinz Birkholz' near life-long efforts with regard to the Luftwaffe research community cannot be overstated. Generations of young readers first came in contact with the topic through his magazines, uncounted researchers and collectors were able to first publish their findings in the pages of his publications, and the readers' letters forum was a crucial pre-internet age platform for the exchange of information, new discoveries, or the placement of specialist questions or requests for research assistance. And Birkholz' dedicated photo publications were an inexhaustible source of unpublished photos.
For decades, Birkholz' specialist magazines were the place where one would frequently find spectacular historic German aviation research discoveries and hitherto unknown images of elusive aircraft types. One might remember the ground-breaking articles on the Junkers Ju 88 H, the Heinkel He 176, the Henschel Hs 132, or the Fieseler Fi 168, to name but a few of so many.
Last but not least, the author of this blog was himself one the aforementioned young readers when, in 1975 and at age 12, he first discovered
Modell Magazin und from then on religiously followed everything and anything published by Heinz Birkholz, eventually beginning to build his own dedicated library and photo collection. And, many years later, this blog.
Heinz Birkholz passed away on March 20, 2016, at age 93. He is buried, anonymously, at Hamburg-Öjendorf cemetery.
Header photo of Heinz Birkholz originally published in Modell Magazin 4/1984.
