Lilly Steinschneider
Born(1891-01-13)13 January 1891
Budapest, Hungary
Died28 March 1975(1975-03-28) (aged 84)
Geneva, Switzerland
OccupationPilot
Spouse
Johann Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi
​
​
(m. 1914)​

Lilly Helene Steinschneider-Wenckheim (13 January 1891 – 28 March 1975), more commonly known as Lilly Steinschneider, was the first Hungarian woman to qualify as a pilot.

Early life

Lilly Steinschneider was born in Budapest on 13 January 1891, the second child of Irma Wohr and Bernát Steinschneider, a wealthy Austrian-Hungarian-Jewish family. Her father owned of a quilt factory which provided quilt covers for the House of Habsburg in Austria, and her mother had Czech origins. Lilly was the second child born in the Steinschneider family, with an older brother called Hugó. Little is known about the first eighteen years of her life.[1][2]

Flying career

She learned to fly from flying instructor Karl Illner in Wiener Neustadt in August 1912. She was the first Hungarian woman and second woman from the Austro-Hungarian empire to qualify as a pilot (the first was aviator Božena Laglerová). Steinschneider received pilot's license number four in Hungary.[3] She flew an Etrich Taube. On 6 October 1912 she took part in the air show held at Nagyvárad. She caused a stir as a woman at the flight meeting at Aspern airfield in 1913.[4] The French woman pilot Jeanne Pallier also flew that day and the two women placed third and fourth in the duration contest.[3]

Marriage and later life

Count Hansi with his wife, the aviation pioneer Lilly Steinschneider, portrayed by the painter Alfred Offner (1879-1947), who lived for a time in Ronsperg Castle, the couple's home.

In 1914, she married Johann (Hansi) Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi, of the Coudenhove-Kalergi family, son of Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi and Mitsuko Aoyama,[5] and older brother of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi.[1]

After her marriage, she stopped flying and lived with her husband in Ronsperg Castle in Bohemia area of the Czech Republic.[6]

In 1927 she gave birth to her daughter, Maria Electa Thecla Elisabeth Christina Helena Sophia Coudenhove-Kalergi, known as Marina.[7] In 1939 she and her daughter moved to Italy from the Czech Republic to avoid Nazi persecution for her Jewish heritage.[1]

She died on 28 March 1975 in Geneva.[2]

Lilly Steinschneider Gasse in Wiener Neustadt

Commemoration

Lilly-Steinschneider-Gasse in Wiener Neustadt in Austria was named in her honour.

The writer Bernhard Setzwein describes her life and marriage to Johann Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi in his novel The Bohemian Samurai, published in 2017.[8][9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The story of the first Hungarian airwoman". Daily News Hungary. 24 November 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  2. 1 2 FLUG-Informationen 59. Jg., Folge III+IV/2009
  3. 1 2 Lebow, Eileen F. (2003). Before Amelia : women pilots in the early days of aviation (1st paperback ed.). Washington, D.C.: Brassey's, Inc. pp. 88–89. ISBN 1-57488-532-4. OCLC 52305816.
  4. ↑ "Flughafen Aspern - Erinnerungen an eine vergangene Epoche der österr. Luftfahrt". 3 May 2011. Archived from the original on 3 May 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  5. ↑ "Aktuelles". 27 December 2015. Archived from the original on 27 December 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  6. ↑ Coudenhove-Kalergi, Barbara (2015). Zuhause ist überall, S. 69. Frankfurt: Fischer.
  7. ↑ "Marie-Electa Thekla Elisabeth Christine Helene Sophie Coudenhove-Kalergi von Ronspergheim". geni_family_tree. 22 June 1927. Retrieved 21 April 2021.
  8. ↑ Bernhard Setzwein, Bayerischer Rundfunk (21 May 2017). "Der böhmische Samurai: Ein Paradiesvogel im Nachkriegs-Regensburg" (in German). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ↑ Setzwein, Bernhard (2017). Der böhmische Samurai Roman. Haymon Verlag (1st ed.). Innsbruck. ISBN 978-3-7099-7286-1. OCLC 965632574.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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