Germany - Weimar Republic: Prussian State Mint Commemorative Medal for the Crew of the First Non-Stop East-West Transatlantic Flight of the Bremen 1928, silver.
Condition: some slight marks in field, very slight edge bruise, Good Very Fine.
Provenance: R.G.I. White Collection, Baldwin Auction 35, 13th-15th October 2003, Part Lot 1995.
Silver, obverse with the image of the Bremen flying low over the waves, the reverse with the names of the two pilots, Hünefeld and Köhl, and the Irish navigator, James Fitzmaurice. Rim stamped ‘Preuss. Staatsmünze Silver 900 Fein’, measuring 36 mm in diameter.
After Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic from West to East in May 1927, the idea of flying in the opposite direction, which is more difficult because of the prevailing winds, became more and more popular. The Bremen was a German Junkers W 33 aircraft that made the first successful transatlantic aeroplane flight from east to west on 12th and 13th April 1928. After weather delays lasting 17 days, the Bremen left Baldonnel Aerodrome, Ireland, on 12th April with a three man crew, arriving at Greenly Island, Canada, on 13th April, after a flight fraught with difficult conditions and compass problems.
