Foreword: * 25. January 1897 in Brüx, Bohemia † 24. December 1982 in Freiburg im Breisgau After completing a civic school, the training as a technician took place on the Königshöhe in Teplitz. During the First World War he took part in the battle of Skagerrak as a war volunteer in the Kriegsmarine on the cruiser Lützow. At the beginning of 1917 he was transferred to the II. seapilot department. There a practical training took place at the Wilhelmshaven seafaring station on a 3-leg Friedrichshafen biplane with a 150 HP petrol engine. At the end Loose was used as a station pilot of the bomb school for observers at the Baltic Sea. In the spring of 1918 he was assigned as a front pilot at the North Sea flight station Helgoland, then to List on Sylt, where he flew naval reconnaissance until the end of the war and received the golden sea pilot badge. After his release from military service, Loose was with the North Sea Volunteer Airmen's Department in support of North Sea mine sweepers. At the end of September 1920, however, the Allies imposed a general ban on flying and destroyed the aircraft. In 1920 he got a job in Dresden in the motor vehicle department of the police headquarters. In his spare time he worked on the construction of the first glider of the Flugtechnische Verein in the workshops of the TH Dresden. This was called "Schweinebauch" and was a single-stemmed biplane. Fritz Loose soon became a flight attendant at this club and took part in the beginnings of gliding in Germany. Loose received the glider pilot's license No. 23, issued on June 17, 1922. So far Loose had only flown planes made of wood and canvas. The landing of the Junker pilot Wilhelm Zimmermann on the Elbe in 1922 with the all-metal Junkers F 13 aircraft inspired him to apply to the Junkers Air Transport Department. In January 1923, Loose received practical and extensive training as a pilot at the Junkers headquarters and passed the flight test to obtain a civil pilot's license in Berlin. His first cross-country flight took him from Dessau to Berlin in a Junkers F 13 with a Mercedes 160 hp six-cylinder engine. He worked as an experimental pilot on behalf of the Reichswehr and transferred Junkers machines to the customers. In Stockholm he received his Swedish aviation license. Further flights led to Izmir and Spain. He participated in wound transports for the Spanish Red Cross on the Moroccan front in the war against the Rifkabylen. After the merger (1926) of Junkers-Luftverkehr and Deutsche Luftreederei Aero Lloyd to form Deutsche Luft Hansa, Loose Werksflieger remained with Junkers. Demonstrations, flyovers, approaches and record flights of various types were among his tasks. He also flew as chief pilot of Professor Junkers personally in the F 13 directional aircraft with the registration D-282 (until 1929). On 1 March 1930 Fritz Loose was appointed flight captain of Junkers Flugzeugwerke. From the Aero-Club of Germany he was entrusted with a Junkers A 50 for the inspection flight of the Europa-Rundflug in 1930. The competition management denied him the right to participate in the actual 10,000 kilometre round flight, as he had already flown the route and was thus in an advantageous position. Afterwards Loose made a trip to the USA to participate in the National Air Races in Chicago on an airplane of the Italian Savoia-Marchetti-Werke. In 1931 Loose was employed as a pilot of the Junkers Aircraft Department (Jfa). In this function a Cierva-Autogiro C-19 Mk III gyrocopter approved in England was demonstrated by Fritz Loose on behalf of Deutsche Lufthansa at many flight days and caused a sensation. Altogether he flew this plane for about 30 hours and covered about 4500 km. It was the forerunner of today's helicopters. During the aviation advertising campaign The German Youth of Hajo Folkerts, the son-in-law of Prof. Junkers, he took over the leadership of the 6-seater Junkers F 13 from A. Grundke and carried out 12,000 take-offs and landings on more than 70 provisional airfields with more than 80,000 children and young people until 1933. In 1933 Loose became a training officer and flight instructor at the German Air Sports Association in Dresden. From 1934 to 1938 he built up a mission flight service for the Lutheran Church (ALC) with a converted Junkers F 13 in New Guinea. After his return to Germany in 1939, Fritz Loose was a pilot and flight operations manager at the Junkers plants in Dessau, Bernburg and Leipzig, which had since been nationalised, until 1945. There he flew in about 1000 Junkers Ju 88. Loose spent the time after the war with relatives in the Erzgebirge and fled to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1952. In 1955 Fritz Loose came to Bonn-Hangelar and took over the office of an airfield manager, which he held until 1968. He once again acquired the newly introduced private pilot's license. In addition, he was honorary representative of the air surveillance and member of the examination board for powered flight of the regional council in Düsseldorf. With his retirement he moved to Freiburg im Breisgau. The collection contains documents from his entire career (correspondence, photo albums, films) as well as some private documents. The estate was purchased by the family in 1998. It has a scope of 75 units of description with a duration of 1914-1988.
