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((Short description|German aviator (1886–1925)))
((more citations needed|date=April 2021))
((Infobox person
| name               = Amelie Hedwig "Melli" Boutard-Beese
| image              = File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1983-0617-302, Melli Beese vor Flugzeug.jpg
| caption            = Melli Beese in front of the Poulain monoplane by Beese and Charles Boutard in December 1911
| other_names        = Melli Beese
| birth_name         = Amelie Hedwig Beese
| birth_date         = 13 September 1886
| birth_place        = [[Dresden]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date         = 22 December 1925
| death_place        = [[Berlin]], [[Weimar Republic|Germany]]
| occupation         = [[aviator]]
))
[[File:Melli Beese 1915.jpg|thumb|Melli Beese on a [[Etrich Taube|Rumpler-Taube]] in 1911]]

'''Amelie Hedwig Boutard-Beese''' (13 September 1886 &ndash; 22 December 1925), also known as '''Melli Beese''', was the first female German pilot, and airplane engineer [[women in aviation|female aviator]].

==Early life==
Amelie Hedwig Beese was born in [[Dresden]] on 13 September 1886 to Alma Wilhemine Hedwig Beese and Friedrich Karl Richard Beese, an architect and stone artist. She had a younger brother Edgar, and two half siblings from her father's first marriage, Hertha and Kurt. The family were comfortably off.<ref name=":1">((Cite book|last=Lebow|first=Eileen F.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52305816|title=Before Amelia : women pilots in the early days of aviation|date=2003|publisher=Brassey's, Inc|isbn=1-57488-532-4|edition=|location=Washington, D.C.|oclc=52305816))</ref>

In 1906 Beese decided to pursue a career as a sculptor; however, she had to leave her native [[Germany]] to study, as German art schools did not admit female students. She studied instead at [[Stockholm]]'s Royal Academy from 1906 until 1909, and created a number of works including a bronze bust of the painter [[:sv:Allan Egnell|Allan Egnell]] which has survived. She won a prize for a group sculpture, ''The Soccer Players''.<ref name=":1" /> During this period, she learned to sail and developed an affinity for skiing.<ref name=":1" />

When she returned to Dresden in 1909, her father built her a studio at the family's new home in [[Blasewitz]]. They discussed flying which was becoming known to the public in Germany, inspired by [[Louis Blériot|Louis Bleriot]]'s much publicised flight from Calais to Dover in September 1909.<ref name=":1" />  It was during this period where she developed a desire to become a pilot.<ref name=":0">((Cite web|last=Biographie|first=Deutsche|title=Beese, Amelie - Deutsche Biographie|url=https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/ppn123213177.html|access-date=2021-04-20|website=www.deutsche-biographie.de|language=de))</ref> Her father encouraged her to attend Dresden's Politechnic School in preparation for becoming an aviator (hoping she would become bored by it) and she began studying mathematics, shipbuilding, and aeronautic engineering. Less than a year later, she had persuaded her father of her seriousness and he agreed to fund her studies and living expenses at a Berlin flying school.<ref name=":1" />

==Interest in aviation==
In November 1910 she traveled to [[Johannisthal Air Field|Johannisthal]], the first airfield to open in [[Berlin]], managed by Georg von Tschudi. Here she encountered aviators from a variety of nations, and early aircraft building companies such as [[Rumpler]], and began to search for an instructor. The students at Johannisthal gathered in the Cafe Senftleben and Beese joined them, although she was less welcome on the flying field itself where she struggled to get anyone to agree to teach her how to fly.<ref name=":1" /> Eventually [[Robert Thelen]], the Norwegian chief of construction at a small start up aeroplane building company called ''Ad Astra'', agreed to take her on as a student in any spare time he had. She was to work in the engineering shop for the rest of the time. In December 1910, Beese took her first flight with Thelen demonstrating how to fly. On 12 December, Beese' older sister Hertha von Grienberger came to watch her fly but a chain broke on the machine when in flight and there was a crash which horrified Hertha and left Beese with a badly injured foot, broken ribs, nose and leg bones. Beese let her parents know about the accident but her father died very soon afterwards of a heart attack and she returned to the family home. Beese was encouraged to give up flying by the family but returned to Johannisthal in January, although Thelen avoided her.<ref name=":1" />

In 1911, regulations pertaining to the flight test were made more stringent, and Beese, at that point an inexperienced flier, found it increasingly difficult to persuade more experienced aviators to teach her.

Nevertheless, in May of that year she found a new instructor in [[Weimar]], Robert Von Mossner, who allowed her to take complete control of an airplane for the first time, flying his [[Wright brothers|Wright]] machine. Beese, encouraged by this flying experience, but disappointed at the time spent fixing up the old plane rather than flying it, sought to gain more flying time, and spoke with the director of Johannisthal to this end, returning there to an updated flying field. The director of Johannisthal [[:de:Georg von Tschudi|Georg von Tschudi]] persuaded aircraft designer [[Edmund Rumpler]] to take Beese as a student.<ref name=":1" />

Both men anticipated a stir in publicity if they allowed a female aviator to participate in the upcoming flight display, and so at the end of July 1911 Beese was allowed to fly unaided. She encountered several setbacks, including sabotage of her aircraft by other participating aviators who were concerned that women pilots would steal their thunder. However, she did participate in the flight display, flying a [[Etrich Taube|Rumpler-Taube]], becoming the first female pilot in Germany on 13 September 1911, her twenty fifth birthday, and was awarded the German pilot's license No. 115.<ref>((Cite web|title=Berlin-Treptow - Hightech im Anflug auf Meyers Park|url=https://www.bz-berlin.de/berlin/treptow-koepenick/berlin-treptow-hightech-im-anflug-auf-meyers-park|access-date=2021-04-20|website=www.bz-berlin.de|date=4 August 2020 ))</ref><ref name=":0" />

==Flying school and aircraft development  ==
1912 was an eventful year for Beese. Beese opened a flying school, the Melli Beese Flying School at Johannisthal airfield,<ref>((Cite web|last=kaupertmedia|title=Charles-Boutard-Straße in Berlin - KAUPERTS|url=https://berlin.kauperts.de/Strassen/Charles-Boutard-Strasse-12487-Berlin|access-date=2021-09-12|website=berlin.kauperts.de|language=de))</ref> with financial assistance from her mother and a Dresden businessman, Karl A. Lingner, and in partnership with Frenchman Charles Boutard and Hermann Reichelt. They bought three planes and Adolph Ludwig joined them as the school's mechanic. Boutard gained a German flying license on 4 April 1912<ref>((Cite book|last=Luftfahrer-verband|first=Deutscher|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_XJIAAAAMAAJ&q=Boutard,+Charles&pg=PA110|title=Jahrbuch des Deutschen luftfahrer-verbandes|date=1913|language=de))</ref> and helped Melli with teaching her pupils.<ref name=":1" /> The school had a good safety record but wasn't able to attract enough pupils, so Beese let Reichelt go.

In 1912, the German government developed a National Flying Donations scheme to raise money to develop aviation technology and training, having decided that aeroplanes had a military use and felt challenged by the fact that all the significant aviation records were held by the French. Beese hoped to benefit from this funding to develop her work, but as Boutard was French, their company could not legally be given work connected with the military.<ref name=":1" /> She felt that a new cutting edge plane would help attract pupils and used her early training in architecture to begin to design and patent a collapsible aircraft.<ref>((Cite web|title=Early Aviators|url=https://www.earlyaviators.com/ebeese1.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606115142/http://www.earlyaviators.com/ebeese1.htm |archive-date=2011-06-06 ))</ref><ref name=":1" />[[File:Sterndamm_82_-_84_Johannisthal.jpg|thumb|Sterndamm 82 - 84 Johannisthal, the home of Melli Beese and Charles Boutard]]

== World War I ==
She later worked with Charles Boutard on plans for a flying boat. Her relationship with Boutard became close, and the two married on 25 January 1913. The couple lived in the Trützschler Villa in what was then Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse 3–4 in Berlin-Johannisthal (today Sterndamm 82).<ref name=":2">((Cite web|last=mdr.de|title=Melli Beese - die Flugpionierin aus Sachsen ((!)) MDR.DE|url=https://www.mdr.de/zeitreise/weitere-epochen/zwanzigstes-jahrhundert/melli-beese-pilotin-aus-sachsen-100.html|access-date=2021-09-12|website=www.mdr.de|language=de))</ref>

After marrying Boutard, and despite their remaining in Germany, Beese became a [[French nationality law|French national]] as a woman took on her husband's citizenship and lost her own when marrying a foreigner under German law at the time.<ref name=":1" /> This made her ineligible to work on German airfields or aircraft during the [[First World War]]. She was eventually arrested with her husband and tried as "undesirable aliens". Charles Boutard was interned and they moved to [[Wittstock]] for the duration of the war.<ref name=":0" />

After the [[Armistice of 11 November 1918|armistice]] between Germany and the allies was concluded, the Beese-Boutards filed suit on claims of compensation for goods confiscated upon Charles' internment. The lawsuits continued for most of the rest of her life, although the value of the claimed compensation decreased with the [[hyper-inflation]] that Germany suffered during the [[Weimar Republic|Weimar]] period. Despite the troubles suffered due to the ongoing lawsuits and the economic troubles suffered throughout Germany, Beese-Boutard planned to make a film documenting her flying. Some pieces were shot and still survive, and were included in a film made by Walter Jerven in 1940.<ref name=":1" />

==Death ==
[[File:Melli-beese-geburtshaus-birth-place-05010001.JPG|thumb|Commemorative plaque at the birthplace of Melli Beese in [[Dresden]]-Laubegast. The inscription reads "Birthplace of the first German female airplane pilot."|225x225px]]
[[File:Friedhof Schmargendorf - Grab Melli Beese.jpg|thumb|204x204px|Melli Beese's grave]]
Beese's marriage deteriorated. By 1925, the couple had separated and Beese was living alone in [[Schmargendorf]]. Beese had an unfortunate accident the same year, crashing the airplane she was flying when she reapplied for her pilot's license. On 22 December of that year, she shot herself in her Berlin flat. She is buried in the cemetery at [[Schmargendorf|Berlin-Schmargendorf]].<ref name=":0" />
==Legacy==
Johannisthal airfield, where Beese began her career as an aviator, has disappeared beneath the changing landscape of Berlin; there is no trace of it other than local street names such as Pilotenstraße and Segelfliegerstraße.
There is a small memorial park named after her in [[Wilmersdorf]], at the corner of Storckwinkel- and Schwarzbacherstraße.<ref name=":2" />

In 1992, Straße 19 in [[Treptow]] was renamed ''Melli-Beese-Straße''. Also, there is an exhibition dedicated to her in the Heimatmuseum in Treptow, in the eastern suburbs of Berlin.

There is a ''Melli-Beese-Straße'' in Frankfurt - Bockenheim.

In 1993, the flying club ''Aeroclub Mellie Beese'' was formed in Berlin.<ref>((Cite web|title=Aeroclub Melli Beese e.V. ((!)) Start|url=https://aeroclub-melli-beese.de/|access-date=2021-09-14|website=aeroclub-melli-beese.de))</ref>

In 2004 the [[Tempelhof]] district of Berlin decided to name a path between Hoeppnerstraße and Hessenring the ''Melli-Beese-Promenade''.<ref>((Cite web|last=Zeitung|first=Berliner|title=Weg wird zur Melli-Beese-Promenade|url=https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/weg-wird-zur-melli-beese-promenade-li.59704|access-date=2021-09-14|website=Berliner Zeitung|language=de))</ref>

Beese's life was the inspiration for [[Aris Fioretos]]'s 2020 novel ''Nelly B.s Herz''.<ref>((Cite news|last=Gropp|first=Rose-Maria|title=Roman von Aris Fioretos: Die bittere Kälte der Sweetness|language=de|work=FAZ.NET|url=https://www.faz.net/1.6841643|access-date=2021-04-20|issn=0174-4909))</ref>

Near The Johannisthal airfield lays a school named after her.<ref>((Cite web|title=Melli Beese Schule|language=de|access-date=2023-01-03|url=https://www.melli-beese-schule.de))</ref>

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Has a Melli-Beese Ring road to the East side of the terminal building <ref>Google Maps </ref>

== Literature ==
* Sehn, Dietmar: ''Dresdner Straßengeschichten. Wissenswertes, Unterhaltsames und Kurioses.'' Wartberg Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2006, ((ISBN|3-8313-1620-1)).
* Spitzer, Barbara: ''Melli Beese. Bildhauerin, Pilotin – eine ungewöhnliche Frau.'' (Begleitband zur Ausstellung „Melli Beese, Bildhauerin, Pilotin – eine ungewöhnliche Frau“. 2. Juni 1992 bis 20. September 1992 im Heimatmuseum Treptow und 2. Oktober 1992 bis 13. November 1992 im Verkehrsmuseum Dresden, Berlin). Bezirksamt Treptow, Dresden 1992.
* ((NDB|1|738||Beese, Amelie|Peter Supf|123213177))
* Wittmann, Livia Käthe, Zibler, Barbara: ''Melli Beese und die „Flügel am Horizont“. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Pilotin.'' Trafo-Literaturverlag, Berlin 2009, ((ISBN|978-3-89626-814-3)).

==Film==
''Die tollkühne Fliegerin Melli Beese – Das Schicksal der ersten deutschen Pilotin aus Dresden'', TV-Dokumentation von Jörn E. Runge, MDR-Produktion (Lebensläufe, Folge 87), 2005.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0880194

== References ==

<references />

== External links ==
((Commons category-inline|bullet=none|Melli Beese))
* [http://www.earlyaviators.com/ebeese.htm Early aviators entry]

((Authority control))

((DEFAULTSORT:Beese, Amelie))
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1925 suicides]]
[[Category:1925 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Dresden]]
[[Category:People from the Kingdom of Saxony]]
[[Category:German women aviators]]
[[Category:Aviation pioneers]]
[[Category:People from Treptow-Köpenick]]
[[Category:German women in World War I]]
[[Category:Suicides by firearm in Germany]]
[[Category:Suicides in Germany]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in 1925]]
[[Category:People with acquired French citizenship]]

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