Ernst von Hoeppner Ernst Wilhelm von Hoeppner ( 14 January 1860 – 26 September 1922 ) was a German cavalry officer who served as the Commanding General of the German Air Service ( " Luftstreitkräfte " ) during World War I . Early life and military career . Ernst von Hoeppner was born in Tonnin on the island of Wollin in Pomerania on 14 January 1860 . He attended the Cadet School in Potsdam from 1872 and in 1879 he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 6th Magdeburg Dragoon Regiment . He attended the Prussian Military Academy in 1890 . From 1893 to 1899 , he was a member of the 14th Dragoon Regiment stationed at Colmar in Alsace , commanding a squadron . In 1902 von Hoeppner was appointed to the General Staff . He was appointed as a staff officer with the IX Army Corps in Altona in 1904 . By 1906 he was a lieutenant colonel and was commander of the 13th Hussars Regiment in Diedenhofen . Two years later he was appointed chief of staff of the VII Army Corps . In September 1912 he was made commander of the 4th Cavalry Brigade in Bromberg and the following year inherited his title of nobility . World War I . At the start of World War I von Hoeppner was Chief of Staff at the III Army Corps headquarters . He remained in this post until spring of 1915 when he took up command of the 14th Reserve Division . Later in 1915 he was appointed Chief of Staff of the II Army Corps and in 1916 he became the commander of the 75th Reserve Division . In October 1916 , General Ludendorff decided that the German Air Service needed greater unity of command with a general officer having authority over all the Army ' s aerial combat and anti - aircraft units both in the field and at home . Ludendorff chose von Hoeppner as the new air commander and it was at this time the Air Service was renamed from " Fliegertruppe " to " Luftstreitkräfte " . Von Hoeppner was given the title of " Kommandierender General der Luftstreitkräfte " ( Commanding General of the Air Service - sometimes abbreviated to Kogenluft in German ) , holding the rank of Lieutenant - General . He was directly responsible to Hindenburg at Supreme Army Command . Von Hoeppner reorganized the fragmented air services , greatly increasing the number of " Jasta s " ( squadrons ) and forming them into " Jagdgeschwader " ( wings ) . Priority was given to the development of strategies for massed air attacks . In 1917 he was awarded the Pour le Mérite even though as a senior commander he was not directly involved in air combat . The award was resented by some of his junior officers . Post war . After the war , the German Air Service was dissolved . The German War Ministry issued orders for Von Hoepppner ' s post to be disestablished on 16 January 1919 although he appears to have continued as Commanding General for a few more days . His final order to his Air Service personnel was issued on 21 January . He then took up command of the 18th Army Corps on 10 April 1919 but resigned from active service at his own request at the end of November 1919 . He retired as general of cavalry with permission to wear the uniform of the 13th Hussars Regiment . In 1921 he published " Deutschlands Krieg in der Luft " ( " Germany ' s War in the Air " ) , a study of the German Air Service from 1914 to 1918 . On 26 September 1922 von Hoeppner died in Groß - Mokratz on the island of Wollin in the Baltic Sea and was buried in his birthplace , Tonnin . In popular culture . In the 2008 biopic film , General von Hoeppner is portrayed by actor Axel Prahl .