Evening star., 1945-07-26
Henry
Continued From First Page.)

Ill COIlneCUlOn WIN Jne business
partnership is not clear, although it
is known that the two always were
together and that the baroness di-
vorced her husband, a prominent
textile manufacturer, before she
made the down-and-out Willy her
protege. The professors closest as
sociateS here claim to know nothing
of Messerschmitt's personal rela-
tions but, they say, the baroness
nearly always was with him and
was, most asuredly, ''the boss"
She spent most of her time in the
various factories. She handled all
financing and sale arrangements
the only customer, of course, being
the Reich. She had a keen techni-
cal knowledge of airplane design
and was hard-boiled with her bril-
liant partner In his more visionary
moments. She had her finger on
every detail of the business and it
was largely to her that the Luft-
waite owed the large-scale produc-
ton of the various Messerschmitt
designs.
Started on Small Scale.
The professor actually was
a teacher in technical high school
in Munich which would rank with
junior college in the United States
started business in a small way with
shop at Bamberg, employing about
10 men. This small force turned out
complete airplanes. AS one of his
technical experts said today: Mes
serschmitt would draw out the shape
of the parts on boards. Then the
men would cut them out and glue
them together Then they would
stick in an engine of some sort.
That was an early Messerschmitt. "
For several years Willy barely
made ends meet. Then he Joined
hands with another small-scale air.
plane manufacturer, Ernst Udet,
German ace in the first World War.
They got considerable financial
backing but soon were in business
difficulties. The impractical Mes
serschmitt was ahead of his time as
a designer and insisted on making
planes which the firm could not sell.
Some Of his ideas were altogether
too radical for the rather conserva-
tive Luftwaffe. The firm went into
But at about this time Baroness
Michel-Raulino took the professor
under her wing. She financed
new factory. She became his hard
boiled business manager and chief
salesman. She was able to put over
some points with the Luftwaffe and
at the same time to persuade her
protege to modify some Of his more
visionary conceptions. She was not
a scientist, but the scientists who
became associated with Messer-
schmitt admit they held her opinion
in high respect.
Defrauded japanese.
Both the professor and the baron
ess, records from his Office show,
always stood high in the regard OF
both Hitler and Goering. Willy's
more fantastic schemeS-some of
them probably highly practical al
though they still are untested-I
appealed to the Fuehrer. The abil-
ity of the baroness to produce the
goods appealed to the more busi-
nesslike Goering.
Records from Messerschmitt's
safes are revealing much which
cannot be published until after the
defeat of Japan. 1t is by no means
certain that Germany supplied her
ally with knowledge of all the new
weapons in her possession. In fact,
one record shows. she demanded a
stiff price for everything she gave
Japan. At the Messerschmitt fac
tory here. for example, new fuel
was designed for jet-propelled
planes. For the formula, the Luft-
waite demanded from the Japanese
a ton of platinum to be landed by
submarine at a Baltic port. Pre-
sumably 1t was delivered on sched-
ule.
There is accumulating evidence
that a fairly regular submarine
traffic was conducted between Ger
many and Japan throughout the
war. But the catch in this case,
the Messerschmitt scientists say
with smiles, was that Japan actually
was given in exchange the formula
for an inferior fuel which the Luft-
waite considered out of date and