Hans Baur

Hans Baur (19 June 1897 – 17 February 1993) was Adolf Hitler's personal pilot during his political campaigns of the 1920s and 1930s.

Johann "Hans" Peter Baur was born in Ampfing in Bavaria. Baur was called up to the Imperial German Army in 1915. From 1921 to 1923 he was a pilot for Bayrische Luftlloyd, and then Junkers Luftverkehr. Hitler was the first politician to campaign by air travel, deciding that travel by plane was more efficient than travel by railway. Baur first piloted him during the 1932 General Election. As a result of his combination of experience and capability to restart a plane engine in combat, which Hitler took as a sign of fate, Baur was personally selected by Hitler to be his official pilot in February 1933.

During the last days of the war, Baur was with Hitler in the Führerbunker. Baur had devised a plan to allow Hitler to escape from the Battle of Berlin; a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch was held on standby which could take off from an improvised airstrip in the Tiergarten, near the Brandenburg Gate. However, Hitler refused to leave Berlin. On 26 April 1945, the improvised landing strip was used by Hanna Reitsch to fly in Colonel-General Robert Ritter von Greim, appointed by Hitler as head of the Luftwaffe after Hermann Göring's dismissal. During the evening of 28 April, Reitsch flew von Greim out on the same road-strip and Hitler suggested to Baur that he evacuate himself and Martin Bormann the same way.

Baur stayed with him until Hitler committed suicide on the afternoon of 30 April. After Hitler's suicide, Baur found the improvised road-strip too pot-holed for use and overrun by the Soviet 3rd Shock Army. A plan was devised to escape out from Berlin to the Allies on the western side of the Elbe or to the German Army to the North. SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke, split up the Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker soldiers and personnel into ten main groups. Baur and Bormann left the Reich Chancellery as part of one of the groups. During his escape, after losing touch with Bormann, Baur was shot in the legs, and the wound was so serious that his right lower leg was later amputated in Posen on 10 June 1945.

Captured by the Soviets in a hospital, Baur was of great interest to his captors, who believed he may have flown Hitler to safety before the fall of Berlin. Baur returned to West Germany and in 1957 wrote his autobiography Ich flog mit Mächtigen, which liberally translates as "I flew with [the] mighty."

Baur died in Herrsching, Bavaria, of old age ailments in 1993.

In Downfall Universe
Hans Baur, played by the German actor August Schmölzer, can be seen in the Hitler Plans Scene room, behind Koller and Keitel, and has no lines. He is seen again in Goebbels's first speech from the scene, behind Keitel in the theatratical version. In the Extended edition his top bald head can be seen in the scene where Hitler says that will remain in Berlin (used for example in Hitler is informed by everybody).

He appears in all the parodies that use this scene, but so far he had no main role.

His name can be seen in the movie credits.