Lupine 21 (24 April 2009)
Lupine 21 (24 April 2009)
 | Hellmut Detjens, a fighter pilot of JG 4 and JG 7 was an exceptional person. It’s not easy to write the word “was”. Hellmut has passed away on Apr 29, 2009 at 4 pm. |
Many times he fought his way through numerous air combats in Bf 109 and Me 262's, but he lost the battle with his worst illness. A loss of any one of our veterans is always grievous and irreplaceable. But this loss is for us even more difficult. With Hellmut, we are not losing “just” a veteran, a participant of the Sept 11, 1944 battle, but mainly a soul of this Museum, one of the veterans from both sides who became to be strong parts of our Muzeum. It’s not easy to describe this feeling; however those who knew Hellmut understand what is on my mind.
I had an unbelievably nice opportunity to be a very close friend with Hellmut for more then ten years. From an original common interest in history, which he was a part of, this relationship developed into a large friendship. For him, it was 11 years, one eighth of his long and dangerous life – not such a short time. For us, it was more then one fourth of our existing lives. A bit of disproportion, but the time spent together was the same. It enriched our lives. Hellmut’s beautiful and boyish smile and good humor were part of our veteran’s reunions each September in Kovarska since 1998 where he arrived in the company of his wonderful and caring wife Helga. We went to see him in Hamburg many times. In spite of all he experienced during his life and despite his difficult and long lasting illness (or rather because of it), he always managed to fill our lives with enthusiasm and beautiful humanity. He liked our Museum very much and tried to help in any way he could. Hellmut was – and I think still is – a talisman.
On Hellmut’s wrinkled face were tired, but sparkly eyes, in them burned the same little flames, which I noticed in one of his wartime photos, in the eyes of this insolent twenty year old boy, who in spite of the war, wanted to live his life to the fullest and rather by bad than good coincidences fly above Europe in the most advanced fighter planes of that time…
I must repeat the same sentence from the beginning of this article – With Hellmut we lost a large soul of our Museum.
But we did not lose what he gave us and how he was able to enriche our lives. And it’s our obligation to maintain and create the Museum the way he liked it. Maybe then, Hellmut’s spirit will not disappear from here…
Jan Zdiarský,
May 1, 2009
During the 60th Anniversary of the battle in 2004,
together with his cobelligerent from Sept 11, 1944,
Hans-Günther Lemmer (Photo J. Riha)
Hellmut Detjens loved to live his life to the fullest, Hamburg, ca 1941
September 2004: With Petr Frank at the cemetery in Oberhof,
where are buried three pilots of III./JG 4 from Sept 11, 1944,
including Hellmut’s friend from training, Jakob Cryns
For me a very precious photograph with Hellmut
in the hangar of the Chomutov Aeroclub, in the background
is the L-13 Blanik OK-9711, which I flew in 1988-89
(Photo Peter Kassak)
DO NOT MISS
(in Czech and German language only):
An interview with Hellmut Detjens in the archive of the Czech national broadcast station. Kovarska 2006 
