FLUG REVUE August 2006: FLUG REVUE evolves over 50 year history

August 2006

FLUG REVUE IS 50

By Karl Schwarz

For a number of years after the Second World War, flying and aircraft construction were prohibited in Germany. As a result, an aviation specialist press was slow in developing, and the first titles to appear bore names like Segelflug-Modellbau (“Gliding model construction”) and Thermik (“Thermals”). In 1949 Wolfgang Wagner founded Flugwelt (“Aviation world”), while Walter Zuerl brought out Der Flieger” (“The Pilot”). When Lufthansa commenced flying operations on 1 April 1955 and the new Luftwaffe was formed in 1956, it was high time to become established in this growth market.

Thus FLUG-REVUE (still written at that time with a hyphen) set itself the goal similar to other publications in the Motor-Presse publishing group of “recording things as a whole... Aviation exerts a fascination precisely on account of its many different facets, and we see our publishing function as to glean the essentials in every area of it,” as the first edition, dated 25 October 1956, stated. You can read the full text as an insert to this month's issue. In this way, the initially small editorial team presented a fascinating cross-section through the rapidly developing world of aviation from “Gliding to Stettiner Haff” (on the Baltic coast) through to “The advent of nuclear aircraft”. Naturally “the pick” of the Luftwaffe's aircraft were also covered. Two special issues were devoted to this subject, in 1959 and 1961.

Georg Brütting inaugurated a series of pilot tests starting with the Aero Commander 560A. Editor-in-chief Mano Ziegler contributed his memories of flying with the Me 163 rocket fighter during the Second World War in the first of a new series called “The Kraftei and I” which was carried in the 12/1956 issue. Detailed historical/technical reports on aircraft of that epoch, which is not actually so long ago, became the trademark of FLUG REVUE from issue 3/1958, when Gert W. Heumann introduced his vivid three-page drawings first as a freelancer and later as a member of the editorial team.

The subject of spaceflight made its debut in issue 8/1957, that is, even before the launch of the sputnik in October of that year, with an account of how the Russians were using “Dogs as space researchers”. Issue 12/1957 went on to present detailed “Thoughts on Soviet rocket technology”.

The Russians proved a recurring topic. In 1960 it was the subject of a heated debate between Mano Ziegler and Wolfgang Wagner of the rival publication, Flugwelt. According to Ziegler, Wagner was disseminating a “big red lie” with unsubstantiated allegations and “was boosting his circulation on a massive scale by selling stories about Russia”. It was not until July 1962 that the dispute was laid to rest.

Peace was restored in the mid-1960s, and even the “Log book of a stewardess” found its way into FLUG REVUE, which in the meantime had added the word “International” to its name. From issue 8/1960 readers could read about “New patents from aviation”, while at the end of 1962 the “blue pages” became a new, regular feature, containing detailed technical discourses on aerospace technology, often written by well-known experts from the industry.

With Mano Ziegler's departure in mid-1962, the fate of the magazine lay for over a decade in the hands of Günther Molter. The thickest issues, 216 pages long, were produced under his management for the airshows in Hanover in 1968 and 1970 – in both cases, filled with over 100 pages of advertisements from companies like Fiat Aviazione, Heinkel, Siebelwerke-ATG, Decca, Sperry, Hawker Siddeley and Hughes, which today one knows only from history books. Issue 5/1968 was the first edition following the acquisition of Krauskopf Verlag's Flugwelt.

Following the death of Gert W. Heumann in June 1967, his role as an outstanding illustrator and specialist in aircraft documentation was taken over by Hans Redemann, who had previously worked as an engineer with Entwicklungsring Süd and continued in this role through to 1991.

Soon it was the turn of Molter to bid farewell. “I believe,” he wrote in his final issue, “that it is now time to hand over to the younger generation: on 1 January 1974 the editorship of the magazine will pass into the hands of my colleague of many years' standing, Dietrich Seidl, and newcomer Peter Pletschacher, who joins us from the press department of Dornier”. Over the next few years FLUG REVUE opened itself increasingly to the general public, but without losing its technical flavour. From April 1974 more space was devoted to General Aviation under the heading of “Air sports”, including a series on the subject of “How do I build a sports plane?”

Layout man Walter Rottiers gave the magazine a new, modern face, especially after the change to the smaller format that is still commonly used today, commencing in issue 1/1975. A colour poster was introduced, and soon there were colour pictures throughout the magazine, which up to then had been in black-and-white apart from the cover page and a few exceptions. Once the makeover was complete, the editorial team turned to an ambitious project: “Aircraft 76”, the FLUG REVUE catalogue, was launched on the market in the spring of 1976 with 220 pages. It contained type descriptions of over 500 modern military, commercial, sports and touring aircraft, along with an extra section on gliders and motor gliders.

During the second half of the 1970s and early 1980s recurring themes included the Cold War, with “secret photos” of Russian jets from East Germany, and the development of the space shuttle, which at that time represented the pinnacle of progress.

Shortly after the magazine's 25th anniversary in the autumn 1981, a radical change of concept was introduced. “If FLUG REVUE was hitherto intended to be a specialist aircraft magazine which presented the aircraft as objects and described their applications, then from 1/82 something new will be presented: a magazine which has flying in every form, that is, the full ambit of aerospace, as its general theme and makes this the common denominator of all reader interests.” But the readers wanted their “old” FLUG REVUE back again, so under the new editor-in-chief, Klaus Müller, the previous emphasis was restored.

In the 1980s, Motor Presse Stuttgart began increasingly to expand abroad. Thus in June 1982 a magazine entitled AVION REVUE was launched on the Spanish market, and since 1983 a licensing agreement has existed with Italian publisher Editoriale Domus, which brought out the magazine VOLARE. Another acquisition was the specialist airport magazine, Airport-Forum, which had been around since 1971 but was now relinquished.

Meanwhile FLUG REVUE aroused a lot of attention with a special coup when in issue 11/1985 it published the first photograph of the Su-20 “Fitter-C”, which had been tested in Manching. In 1989, as Klaus Müller approached retirement, he decided to “Go West” and exchanged his post of editor-in-chief with the job of a correspondent in Los Angeles – an exciting choice, as there were many new US programmes around at that time.

In Europe too, the fall of the Wall triggered a flurry of activity. Soviet aircraft were now to be seen for the first time in the West and provided plenty of material for stories. Then, a spate of mergers got under way in the industry. This had almost been anticipated by Motor Presse. In 1992 it bought aerokurier and Luftwaffen-Forum from the Dr. Neufang-Verlag and from September 1993 concentrated its aerospace magazines in Bonn. In 1995 Luftwaffen-Forum was integrated into FLUG REVUE and Wolfdietrich Hoeveler took over the job of editor-in-chief from Götz Wange, who moved to Dasa to take up the post of press spokesman in spaceflight matters. Hoeveler himself and his successor, Norbert Burgner, today work as public relations directors in leading companies within the German aerospace industry. Since April 2000, the FLUG REVUE team has been led by Volker K. Thomalla. The aims of this German language aerospace magazine which is now 50 years old remain unchanged: to provide information on every aspect of the industry both to the trade and the public.

From FLUG REVUE 8/2006

Last updated 14 July 2006

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