[longjack]

Yahoo - Germany picked this up from the German press service [dpa]. The "Süddeutsche Zeitung" [Southern Germany Newspaper], out of Stuttgart, is a reputable newspaper, not a boulevard newspaper or scandal sheet.

I thought this was interesting enough to translate.

longjack

[NavyCaptain]

Sort of adds a new twist to the term "Lucky Lindy!"

[hoosiermama]

Thanks for the translation.

[ValerieUSA]

This is interesting. Did the father of these children ever visit them, or did he just visit their mother long enough to impregnate her three times?

[RightWhale]

Except for travel expenses, it wouldn't have been hard to support a family in Bavaria those days. Amazing. Wonder if Lindy went to the Oktoberfest. Probably.

[onedoug]

And I've long suspected that the author of Lindbergh's The Spirit Of St Louis was Anne Morrow. The Lone Eagle didn't write that well.

[RetiredArmy]

Well, he did admire Hitler.

[longjack]

German Ping.

Süddeutsche Zeitung Article.

"Süddeutsche Zeitung"....Der Amerikaner und die Hutmacherin

longjack

[Cachelot]

Not especially surprising to see another dark side to this Hitler-worshiper.

[YaYa123]

Charles Kuralt, we know was a two timing scoundrel, but Charles Lindbergh? tsk tsk But threads like yours rev up my curiosity and I get to find out how much I didn't know, this time about the Lindberghs.

________________________________________________________

"Lindbergh, Charles Augustus, 1902-74, American aviator who made the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight; b. Detroit. An air reserve officer, he astounded the world on May 21, 1927, by landing in Paris after a flight from New York in his Spirit of St. Louis. In the U.S. he received unprecedented acclaim. After the kidnapping and murder of their son in 1932, he and his wife moved to England.

In 1936, Lindbergh collaborated with Alexis CARREL in inventing a perfusion pump (artificial heart). In 1938-39 he advocated U.S. neutrality in a European war; when his speeches were branded as pro-Nazi, he resigned his commission, but later flew combat missions in the Pacific.

His wife, Anne Spencer Morrow Lindbergh, 1906-, b. Englewood, N.J., is a writer. Her works include North to the Orient (1935) and Listen! the Wind (1938), accounts of flights made with her husband; Gift from the Sea (1955), a poetic study of women's problems; and volumes of diaries and letters."(The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1995 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.)

__________________________________________________________

Anne Morrow Lindbergh Biography Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the widow of aviator and conservationist Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr., was a noted writer and aviation pioneer.

Born June 22, 1906 in Englewood, New Jersey, Anne Morrow Lindbergh was the daughter of businessman, ambassador, and U.S. Senator Dwight Morrow and poet and women's education advocate Elizabeth Cutter Morrow. Her family spent summers at the seashore: Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and later on the island of North Haven off the coast of Maine. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in 1928, and married Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr., on May 27, 1929.

Six children were born to the Lindberghs -- Charles A., III (deceased, 1932), Jon, Land, Anne (deceased, 1993), Scott and Reeve.

Much time during the early years of the Lindberghs' marriage was spent flying. Anne served as her husband's co-pilot, navigator and radio operator on history-making explorations, charting potential air routes for commercial airlines. They made air surveys across the continent and in the Caribbean to pioneer Pan American's air mail service.

In 1931, they journeyed, in a single-engine airplane, over uncharted routes from Canada and Alaska to Japan and China, which she chronicled in her first book, North to the Orient. They then completed, in the same single-engine Lockheed "Sirius," a five-and-one-half-month, 30,000-mile survey of North and South Atlantic air routes in 1933 (the subject of Anne Lindbergh's book, Listen! the Wind). Charles characterized this expedition as more difficult and hazardous than his epic New York-to-Paris flight in 1927 in the "Spirit of St. Louis."

The National Geographic Society awarded its Hubbard Gold Medal to Anne Lindbergh in 1934 for her accomplishments in 40,000 miles of exploratory flying over five continents with her husband. A year earlier, she had been honored with the Cross of Honor of the U.S. Flag Association for her part in the survey of transatlantic air routes. In 1993, Women in Aerospace presented her with a special Aerospace Explorer Award in recognition of her achievements and contributions to the aerospace field.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh was also the first licensed woman glider pilot in the United States.

In addition to North to the Orient and Listen! the Wind, Anne Lindbergh is the author of 11 other published books. They include Earth Shine, in which she wrote of being at Cape Kennedy for the first moon-orbiting flight and how that Apollo 8 flight and the pictures it sent back of Earth gave humankind "a new sense of Earth's richness and beauty;" The Steep Ascent, a novel that tells the story of a perilous flight made by a husband and wife; the inspirational and widely read Gift from the Sea, perhaps her best-known work; and five volumes of diaries and letters from the years 1922-1944.

Smith College, Amherst College, the University of Rochester and Gustavus Adolphus College have all presented honorary degrees to Mrs. Lindbergh. In addition, she has also been inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, the National Women's Hall of Fame, and the Aviation Hall of Fame of New Jersey. She is also a recipient of the Christopher Award for the fifth volume of her diaries, War Within and Without.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh died February 7, 2001 at her second home in Vermont. "

[nathanbedford]

Of all people on earth, Lindberg would have seemed to be among the least likely of candidates to lead such a "double life."

It is all the more remarkable because it appears to have been not a fling but an enduring love affair lasting half a lifetime consisting of not one unanticipated pregnancy but in three children whom he loved and provided for, if this account is to be believed.

It has been said on this thread that Lindberg was an admirer of Hitler but I do not think this was strictly true. In any event, he rendered his country courageous if unacknowledged service in active duty, as a civilian out of uniform, against the Japanese. His exploratory flights around the world advanced the commercial air age.

[Bedford Forrest]

Most interesting. Is the woman still alive? Mayhap Anne Morrow was spending too much time writing books - not to be construed as mitigation of the Lone Eagle's sin against her - merely an observation.

[Atlantian]

I highly recommend Scott Berg's Lindbergh. It mentions Anne Morrow's affair with her doctor. It seemed to have lasted a number of years.

I also recommend books written by their daughter, Reeve Lindbergh, Under His Wings about her father and No More Words about her mother. Anne suffered with Alzheimer's for many years. Her daughter writes a very touching book about mother's mental decline and the years of caring for her. Anne died in her 90's.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Be easy to test the DNA. I would tend to think the story is not based upon fact.

[freepatriot32]

DNA Proves Lindbergh Had Secret German Family

BERLIN (Nov. 28) - Genetic tests have proven claims by three Germans that the American aviator Charles Lindbergh was their father and led a secret double life for almost two decades, a family adviser said Friday.

Anton Schwenk, media consultant to the Germans, said DNA tests conducted by the University of Munich in October proved with 99.9 percent certainty that Dyrk and David Hesshaimer and their sister Astrid Bouteuil were Lindbergh's children.

"It's a delightful moment for them because they now have a feeling of belonging," Schwenk told Reuters. "They knew all along he was their father because they spent time with him growing up. But it's good to have an iron-clad confirmation."

Lindbergh, who also had six children with his U.S. wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, became famous for his daring 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 33 hours.

Lindbergh started a romance with Munich hat-maker Brigitte Hesshaimer in 1957 when he was 55 and she was 32. They had three children: Dyrk, now 45, Astrid, 43, and David, 36.

A restless world traveler, Lindbergh spent five to 14 days with his family in Munich up to three times a year until he died in 1974. Lindbergh and Hesshaimer kept the relationship a secret and the children knew the tall visitor only as "Mr Careu Kent."

The Germans said they did not discover the true identity of the mystery visitor until later. They described him as a loving man who devoted much time and energy to them, setting up trust funds and helping to buy a family house.

FROSTY SILENCE AT FIRST

The Germans first revealed the secret in August, two years after their mother died and despite promising her to keep quiet. They said they only wanted to set the record straight and had no interest in Lindbergh's estate or tarnishing his legacy.

Their claim was initially met by frosty silence from the Lindbergh family. But Morgan Lindbergh, the aviator's grandson, came forward to say he believed the Germans were his relatives because they looked "hauntingly familiar" in photos.

He said he was willing to take a DNA test and had a warm meeting with the three Germans in Europe. But other family members were hesitant, wary of past hoaxes.

Schwenk said there had been "amiable meetings as well as regular contacts with letters and calls" between his clients and the Lindberghs.

"There are also meetings planned for next year in the United States," he added.

"They never had any doubt they were Lindbergh's children," he said. "I'd say it's not a happy end to the story but a happy beginning."

Bouteuil said she only discovered the true identity of her father in the early 1980s after she found dozens of letters from Lindbergh and an article about him and confronted her mother.

Despite his huge popularity in 1927, Lindbergh's reputation later suffered because of his pre-war sympathy for Nazi Germany and getting an award from Luftwaffe leader Hermann Goering. He was later rehabilitated and remained a celebrity until he died.

According to his biographer, A. Scott Berg, Lindbergh's marriage was in trouble in the late 1950s when the affair began.

Schwenk said a book and a television documentary were being planned about Lindbergh's double life and his Munich love story.


11/28/03 10:53 ET