Did one have to be a party member to fly?

[Igo kyu]

For Nazi Germany?

http://thedesertpeach.com/ (a gay (at the very least a gay friendly) comic)

Rommel wasn’t a Nazi party member. Because of that, he couldn’t get an official pilot’s license — but he flew anyway.

That puts a strange perspective on the Luftwafe, was it true?

[von Brühl]

Pilots in the LW didn't have to be in the Party, especially later on, when they were trying to get anyone they could into the cockpit.

If you weren't a LW member, perhaps that rule applied.

[5./JG27.Farber]

It was the forties, WW2... He was a Field Marshall. He doesnt need a piece of paper... I read a book on him and he flew a Storch all the time in Africa.

Originally Posted by von Brühl

Pilots in the LW didn't have to be in the Party, especially later on, when they were trying to get anyone they could into the cockpit.

If you weren't a LW member, perhaps that rule applied.

I disagree. Flying and gliding clubs In the 30's and 40's in Germany where proberbly a bigger past time than in any other country in Europe.

[WTE_Galway]

No the LW did not have to join the NSDAP. Though many pilots of course did choose to be party members.

As a case in point, during the Battle of Britain, when the commandant of JG53 had problems with Goering over his marriage to a jewish girl, the entire squadron removed NSDAP party insignia (in particular the swastika on the tail) from all JG53 aircraft as a protest.

[Kongo-Otto]

Originally Posted by WTE_Galway

No the LW did not have to join the NSDAP. Though many pilots of course did choose to be party members.

As a case in point, during the Battle of Britain, when the commandant of JG53 had problems with Goering over his marriage to a jewish girl, the entire squadron removed NSDAP party insignia (in particular the swastika on the tail) from all JG53 aircraft as a protest.

The Luftwaffe had the highest percentage of party members in the Wehrmacht, but that comes not because of the flying personal, but because of the Fallschirmjägers.
The least amount of party members were to find in the Kriegsmarine.

Hermann Göring as the thug he was, said once "Wer Jude ist betimme ich (I decide who is a Jew) he helped some of his former men from the Jastas which were Jews to leave Germany and some Jews were kept in the Luftwaffe like the later Generalfeldmarschall Milch or General Helmuth Wilberg.