W. Ottersbach

[Daniel Murphy]

I have a grouping belonging to W. Ottersbach and have no biographical info on him, nor do I know his first name. Apparrently he was a Prussian administrative official (according to the buttons on the mantel) with the Eisenbahn in 1914 since the right picture was in a locket given to his lady Metika Berger in 1914. Later he transferred to the air service circa 1915 and the other picture he is shown as a pilot in the Turkish service c. 1916-17. I found a picture of him in the old Cross and Cockade series on the Ottoman Air Service and he was at Turkish Flieger Abt. 6 at Chanak Kale in 1917. Although the pictures look slightly different, I have compared the facial features of both pictures and am sure they are both the same man, just taken at different angles. The name was on the inside of his Turkish officers belt which I did not get when the group was split up. His Turkish officers boards which also went elsewhere appeared to be of the rank of Leutnant. The big question is, would an administrative officer of junior rank appear in the ranglists, and I understand German NCO's often recieved officer rank with the Turks, so would he show up there? I would greatly appreciate any help that you can give me on him. here are the pics.

Dan Murphy

[Guest Rick Research]

The Turks gave rank one higher than that previously held in their own service to Germans. So a German "Turkish" 2nd Lieutenant was most likely a German Offizierstellvertreter. The only "Turkish" German aviator I know of personally was of those ranks. (A German Oberleutnant was a "Turkish" Hauptmann and so on.)

That IS a German railways (civil, not military) uniform.

I do not find a "W." Ottersbach.

However, in my list of Reichsbahn officials of officer-equivalent ranks in 1934, I find

KARL Ottersbach, born 10 June 1879, date of entry in Reichsbahn service 19 February 1907

Rank title "Reichsbahnrat" with seniority of 1 June 1915

Rank title seniority of "Reichsbahnoberrat" 1 April 1927

in 1934 holding position of "Dezernat" for Technical Machinery at Reichsbahndirektion Breslau.

That is the entirety of what I turn up on the last name. I'm not even sure what precise level is indicated, since the titles changed under the Third Reich and I'm not familiar with what these older designations came out to.

I don't think the faces are that similar, so you may have two brothers, "W" the career NCO turned flyer, and "K" the career railwayman.

[Daniel Murphy]

Rick,

Thanks, I did not hold out much hope, but thought it was worth a try.

Dan Murphy