Katharina “Käthe” Paulus was a German exhibition parachute jumper and the inventor of the first collapsable parachute. At the time, the parachute was named, 'rescue apparatus for aeronauts' in 1910. The previous parachutes were not able to fit in a case like apparatus worn on the back, thus Paulus' invention became of paramount importance for the Germans in World War I and she produced about 7000 parachutes for the German forces. During World War I Paulus created approximately 125 parachutes a week. Paulus was also credited with inventing the drag 'chute, an intentional breakaway system where one small parachute opens to pull out the main parachute. Paulus was an avid aeronaut herself and logged over 510 balloon flights and over 165 parachute jumps in her lifetime. She was the first German to be a professional air pilot and the first German woman aerial acrobat. Despite the fact that hot air balloons are currently known as a sort of tourist attraction, during the final decades of the 19th century, these hot air balloons were at the time, were on the cutting edge of technology, and were popular before the invention of airplane.
Life
Paulus' was born in Zellhausen, today part of Mainhausen, near Frankfurt, Germany into a working class family. Her father worked as a day laborer and died when she was nineteen years old. After his death, Paulus picked up her mother's trade of seamstressing to help support the family. At 21, Paulus married Hermann Lattemann, a well-known balloonist, and began working as his assistant to repair the balloons with her skills as a seamstress. Paulus and Lattlmann begun to develop their professional and personal relationship, until Paulus began to parachute herself, and the two eventually got married. They had a son, Willy Hermann Paulus, who later died of diphtheria. In 1895, the couple were on a joint jump when Lattlemann's parachute failed to deploy. Paulus watched him fall to his death. While grieving the death of her husband, Paulus stayed in bed for months. That being said, during this time thousands of fans mailed letters of support to Paulus to request she continue her career of being a ballooner. Paulus then bought four new parachutes and set off on a tour of Europe using the stage name, Miss Polly. She performed theatrically, using acrobatic feats and even riding a bicycle suspending from a hot air balloon's basket. Paulus became an international success. Paulus completed her last balloon jump at age 63.
Death
Paulus died at the age of 67 and is buried in a cemetery in Reinickendorf.
Honors
in 2006, a street in Berlin was named after Paulus, titled, "The Katharina-Paulus-Straße" it was formerly titled Lehrter station. It is located between Europaplatz in the north and Old Moabit in the south.
Paulus was the first German woman to parachute out of a hot air balloon.
In 1917, Paulus received a Service Cross of Merit after twenty balloon German troops parachuted to safety.
