Werner Mölders
Schellmann was born on 2 March 1911 in Kassel, at the time in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau in the German Empire. He joined the military service in the "Reichswehr" of the Weimar Republic in 1930. As one of the few German pilots, he was selected for combat training at the Lipetsk fighter-pilot school in the Soviet Union. In October 1932, Schellmann attended the Military School Dresden. Among his classmates were Werner Mölders, Günther Freiherr von Maltzahn, Joachim Pötter, Hans-Henning Freiherr von Beust, Arved Crüger, Gerhard Kollewe and Hubertus von Bonin.