Selected Events 2008    

Consul for Public Affairs Attends 80th Anniversary Ceremonies for First East to West Transatlantic Flight

Consul Mark Wenig delivering his speech

April 12, 2008. Consul for Public Affairs Mark Wenig was one of several invitees delivering a greeting before an audience of 150 in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, at an event honoring the three man crew of the first fixed wing flight to successfully cross the Atlantic from east to west. The two Germans and one Irishman crossed the Atlantic on April 12-13, 1928 - a year after Charles Lindbergh’s historic flight in the other direction - in a Junkers Type W 33 aircraft called the "Bremen," which was manufactured in Dessau. Fighting fierce headwinds which forced the plane to often fly just a few hundred feet above the waves, the three flew from Ireland to Newfoundland, Canada, in 36.5 hours. With the help of a group associated with the Technical Museum "Hugo Junkers" in Dessau, the venue for the ceremonies, the plane was brought back to Germany in 1996 from the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, and is now on permanent display in Bremen.