Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (2 May 1892 – 21 April 1918), known in English as the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories.

Originally a cavalryman, Richthofen transferred to the Air Service in 1915, becoming one of the first members of fighter squadron Jagdstaffel 2 in 1916. He quickly distinguished himself as a fighter pilot, and during 1917 became the leader of Jasta 11. Later he led the larger fighter wing Jagdgeschwader I, better known as "The Flying Circus". By 1918, Richthofen was regarded as a national hero in Germany, and respected by his enemies. He was kind and timid in nature, and at the same time a very strong and natural leader for whom his pilots would do anything.

Richthofen was shot down and killed near Vaux-sur-Somme on 21 April 1918. He was killed with one bullet, fired from the ground, by an Australian gunner, Sergeant Popkin. He was buried with full military honours.

Use the ChatBot to ask questions to the site in English, German, French and Dutch

based on 50+ sources (so far…)

Use a map to filter events based on location

Search and filter more than 700 events from his birth to his death and beyond

or browse through the events with a simple timeline

Come back everyday to see what events happened OnThisDay

Let the site choose an event for you and surprise you

a pie chart showing the percentage of people who use the internet

an extensive page with graphs and statistics

More than 450 pictures

  • an old photo of a man in uniform
  • an old black and white photo of a man in a fur coat
  • a black and white photo of a man in uniform

watch a collection of video’s and listen to some audio tracks

Get to know and honour the pilots he shot down

  • an old photo of a man in uniform

Bringing together all sources in one place. 99% of the texts are direct quotes from books, with click-through to the authors.

Work in progress…

Create a webshop

Create a community

Create a showroom page for artists

Implement a Pro search functionality

Implement more advanced filtering

German version of the site

Dutch version of the site

French version of the site

Other language versions of the site

Translate texts and excerpts

Include more books

More archive pages

Created with a lot of passion, and some money.

Hosting : 125€/year

Plugins: 370€/year

Victory paintings: 400€ one time

Books: 1000€ ongoing

Graphic Design: 200€ one time

You can help out by clicking on the button below and sending me some money. Greatly appreciated.

Back To Top