Wilhelm Frankl Lieutenant Wilhelm Frankl , ( 20 December 1893 – 8 April 1917 ) , Pour le Mérite , Royal House Order of Hohenzollern , Iron Cross , was a World War I fighter ace credited with 20 aerial victories . Personal life . Wilhelm Frankl was born the son of a Jewish businessman located in Hamburg , on 20 December 1893 . He later moved to Frankfurt am Main , and then to Berlin . Wilhelm Frankl graduated from school , and pursued an interest in flying by attending Germany ' s hotbed of prewar aviation at Johannisthal . His instructor was Germany ' s first female pilot , Melli Beese . Frankl earned pilot ' s license number 490 on 20 July 1913 . The outbreak of World War I sparked Frankl ' s volunteering to fly for his country . His flying ability and his personality both commended him to his superiors . While his professional life took off , so did his personal life . He fell in love with the daughter of Austrian Naval Kapitän zur See Edmund Stroll . Frankl converted to Christianity and married his love in early 1917 . His religious conversion was controversial . Even at that time , Jews ' opportunities were curtailed compared to Christians . Even if Frankl converted for the sake of love , he thus seemed opportunistic . Aerial victories . Frankl began his career of aerial victories early in the war , before the concept of the synchronized machine gun firing safely through the plane ' s propeller became a practical reality . While flying as an observer in FFA 40 , he used a five - shot carbine to shoot down a French Voisin , on 10 May 1915 . He was awarded an Iron Cross First Class for this feat . It took exactly eight months for his second triumph ; on 10 January 1916 , while flying a Fokker Eindekker with KEK Vaux , he downed another Voisin ; this one was armed with a 37mm Hotchkiss cannon . By 1 February , his victory total stood at four . Three months later , on 4 May , he finally became an ace . On 16 May , he was promoted from " Vizefeldwebel " into the officer ' s ranks as a " Leutnant " . He scored once more in May , on the 21st He was awarded the Knight ' s Cross with Swords of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern during late May , followed by the Hanseatic Cross . By this time , Frankl was one of only eight aces in the German flying service . Frankl ' s gallantry earned him the Pour le Merite after his eighth confirmed victory ; the Blue Max was awarded on 16 July 1916 . His guns then rested until 2 August , when he tallied a Morane - Saulnier L . A double victory followed on 10 August . On 1 September 1916 , he then transferred to Prussian Jagdstaffel 4 as it was formed from KEK Vaux , to fly Halberstadt D . V s . On 1 January 1917 , he succeeded to command of the squadron . Four wins in September and two in October made him a triple ace . In late December 1916 , Frankl succeeded to command of Jasta 4 . Then , after a six month hiatus , he scored a quadruple victory on 6 April 1917 , and his twentieth win on the following day . Killed in action . His end came the day after that . While battling Bristol F . 2 Fighter s of No . 48 Squadron RFC on Easter Sunday , 8 April 1917 , Frankl ' s Albatros D . III lost its lower wing under the stress of combat manoeuvres , and he and his collapsed craft fell 800 meters to his death near Vitry - Sailly , France . Wilhelm Frankl was buried in Berlin - Charlottenburg . His legacy . Despite his conversion to Christianity , the Nazis considered Frankl Jewish . As in the case of Fritz Beckhardt , Frankl ' s heroic service to his country was suppressed from the 1930s through the end of World War II . His name and exploits were expunged from " Pour le Merite Flieger " , a 1938 account of World War I fliers who won the Blue Max . After the end of World War II , Frankl ' s name was restored to the roll of German aces . In 1973 , the Luftwaffe named a barracks and a squadron after Frankl as a memorial .