Paul Bäumer


 * This article deals with Paul Bäumer the pilot. For the fictional Paul Bäumer, see All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul Wilhelm Bäumer (11 May 1896 – 15 July 1927) was a German fighter ace in World War I.

Background
Bäumer was born in Meiderich.

Involvement in World War 1
Bäumer learned to fly before the war but joined the infantry and was wounded in the leg in 1915. He transferred to the air service as a dental assistant before being accepted for military pilot training. In 1917, he gained experience on two-seaters with FA7 before acceptance as a noncommissioned fighter pilot.

Bäumer joined Jagdstaffel 5 in June 1917, scoring three victories in July before going to the elite Jasta Boelcke. Bäumer claimed heavily, reaching 18 victories by year end. He was commissioned in April 1918. On 29 May Bäumer was injured in a crash, breaking his jaw, and he returned to the Jasta in September. With the arrival of the Fokker D.VII he claimed even more success, including 16 in September. Nicknamed 'The Iron Eagle' and with a personal emblem of an Edelweiss on his aircraft. He was one of the few pilots in World War I whose lives were saved by parachute deployment, when he was shot down in flames in September. He received the Pour le Mérite shortly before the Armistice and was finally credited with 43 victories, ranking ninth among German aces.

Post-War Career
After the war, Bäumer worked briefly in the dockyards before he became a dentist, and reportedly one of his patients, Erich Maria Remarque, used Bäumer's name for the protagonist of his antiwar novel All Quiet on the Western Front.

Continuing his interest in flying, he founded his own aircraft company in Hamburg. Bäumer died in an air crash at Copenhagen on 15 July 1927, age 31, while test flying a Rohrbach Rofix fighter.