Melli Beese – The first female German pilot
Melli Beese with her full name Amelie Hedwig Boutard-Beese was the first woman in Germany to get a pilot`s licence (1911). In 1912 she and her husband opened a flying school. She was also aircraft constructor and inventor.
Amelie Hedwig “Melli” Beese was the first female German pilot. Even as a small girl, she dreamt of flying. At the time, people were heavily prejudiced against a woman in the cockpit of a plane. Nevertheless, she completed her pilot’s training and opened her own flying school. Her dream of flying around the world was shattered when the First World War broke out. She was banned from flying and forced to close her flying school. Her husband was French, so she was considered an enemy alien. She committed suicide in 1925 at the age of just 39.
