1936: Swabian Roots & Gliders
Ernst Großmann left holding the glider, coat draped over his shoulder, on the Teckberg
Ernst Großmann was born on July 3, 1915, in Unterboihingen, a town in the Swabian region of southern Germany. He was one of nine children born to Adolf and Pauline Großmann. Following the early childhood deaths of two siblings, Max and Gertrud, he grew up alongside six surviving brothers and sisters: Hildegard, Heinrich, Elizabeth, Angela, Gerhard, and Irmgard.
Born during the First World War, Großmann belonged to a demographic cohort whose transition into adulthood directly coincided with the rearmament of the 1930s. Men of his generation were systematically conscripted into mandatory labor and military service, forming the backbone of the German armed forces throughout the Second World War, with almost 35% of German men born in 1915 killed during the conflict.
The "Air Sports Association" in Kirchheim unter Teck where Ernst learned to fly until he failed the eye test.
Großmann in Tubingen
Like many young men of his generation, Großmann’s path to the Wehrmacht began with the allure of flight. Kirchheim has always been a hotbed for gliders. Today gliders still swoop over Burg Teck, a castle overlooking the surrounding towns where Ernst learned to fly. In 1934, at age 19, he joined the Deutscher Luftsportverband (DLV), or "Air Sports Association." Ostensibly a civilian sports club, it was a covert training ground for the banned Luftwaffe. Gliding over the Swabian hills, he longed to be a pilot but his poor eyesight eventually kept him out of the cockpit and he would go on to destroy the things he loved when he eventually entered the anti-aircraft artillery.
Enter the Nazis
Ernst standing, fourth from the left
He went to school in Tubingen studying to be a dental technician but the Nazi party had other plans. 1936 started with driving school in Tubingen. He attended the National Socialist Motor Corps’ (Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrkorps or NSKK in German) driving school where he learned to operate cars and motorcycles. Next in his training and indoctrination was six months mandatory Reich Labor Service in the Reciharbeitsdienst (RAD), another paramilitary organization that provided young men with work and training in Nazi ideology. While there he worked, drank, attended classes, and participated in sports.
In 1936 at 21, he was drafted into the Luftwaffe and traded the glider for the 88mm anti-aircraft cannon and the Entfernungsmesser (rangefinder)—a complex optical instrument that required a steady hand and a sharp mathematical mind that he would master.
