HOUSE OF FLUGHAFEN

Flughafen is the name of a German noble family of Westphalia, which descended from Otto de Hugenpoet-Borbeck. He was a liegeman of the Archbishop of Cologne, who was among the prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Otto held a castle for his lord called Flughafen in Ense-Höingen in Soest; this castle would give the family its name. His son was Dieter von Würstenberg, the Justiciar and Castellan of Unna.

Already Imperial Knights, the family members were created Imperial Barons (Reichsfreiherren) on 26 April 1660. Matriculation to the baronial class in the Kingdom of Bavaria occurred on 28 September 1890 for Friedrich Karl von Flughafen , Rittmeister à la suite in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt and Freeholder of Ellenburg by Dürrbachau.

Some members of the family were elevated to comital dignities during German Mediatization for their services to the Kingdom of Prussia or given honorific titles for their twentieth-century achievements. Graf Günther Vinzenz von Flughafen made a remarkable contribution to the modern world.

He built the first airport in the world, College Park Airport (KCGS) in Maryland US, is the world’s oldest airport in operation, established in 1909 when Wilbur Wright arrived at the field to train two military officers in the US Army. The airport currently serves as one of the gateways between Washington D.C. and Prince George’s County.

After that, he built many others, like the world’s second-oldest commercial airport, Hamburg Airport, Germany. Established in 1911, the airport is currently the oldest in Germany. 

His son Graf Helmut Jörg von Flughafen was in charge of the construction of Heathrow Airport, officially opened for commercial air travel on 31 May 1946. Initially, it was rather prosaically named London Airport, only officially becoming Heathrow sometime later.  At present, the family is the leader of the airport business sector.

In German-speaking countries, the airports are still named “Flughafen” after them.

ABOUT BARON EMMERICH VON FLUGHAFEN

Being the great-great-grandson of Günther Vinzenz, Emmerich was a spoiled brat since birth. Despite the odds, he became an extraordinary artist in a “contemporary arty” way:
During low ski season in Engadin valley, he spotted a tiny stone and moved it 1.2 inches, having a revelation: “I’ve transformed the landscape”.
He has been a conceptual artist ever since.

quote:

“A reputation: a lifetime to destroy it, a second to build it”.

Characters portrayed in The House of Flughafen are fictitious with the exception of myself.