Beate Uhse-Rotermund

Beate Uhse-Rotermund (; born Beate Köstlin , 25 October 1919 – 16 July 2001) was a German pilot, entrepreneur and sex shop pioneer. She was one of a number of female stunt pilots in Germany in the 1930s. During World War II she ferried planes for the German Luftwaffe and after World War II she started a sex shop. The company she started, Beate Uhse AG, is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Early life

Beate Dorothea Köstlin was born in Wargenau, a neighbourhood of Cranz, East Prussia (now Zelenogradsk, Russia). She was the youngest of three children of doctor Margarete Köstlin-Räntsch, (one of the first five female doctors in Germany) and farmer Otto Köstlin.

When she was eight years old, her older brother told her the myth of Icarus. Beate was fascinated by the story, and by the idea of flying—so much so that she gathered chicken feathers and glued together some wings and jumped from her parents' veranda. Beate was a wild child. Her parents did not try to control her; instead they encouraged their daughter in her interests and desires. They ensured she got a good education at progressive boarding schools, first "Schule am Meer" then "Odenwaldschule" where she graduated. Her parents informed their children about sexual matters early, and spoke with them openly about sexuality and contraception. At 15, Beate became the Hessian javelin champion. She repeatedly rejected Hans-Jürgen proposals of marriage and swore she would "never ever give up flying for a man". As Hans-Jürgen strongly supported her flying ambitions, she finally accepted, but her father resisted. For a whole year, her father refused to bless their union. Finally, a large wedding was scheduled for 10 October 1939. However, it had to be cancelled because of the beginning of the Second World War. On 28 September, Hans-Jürgen Uhse was posted to his military destination; the couple married quietly four hours before his departure. After the birth, she was permitted to continue flying because she was in a role considered vital to the war effort, and she received permission to hire a nanny.

In October 1944, she was promoted to the rank of captain and was assigned to Ferry Wing 1 based in Berlin-Staaken.

On 30 May 1944, her husband Hans-Jürgen Uhse died in an air crash, leaving Beate a 24-year-old widow with a year-old son.

In April 1945, Berlin was surrounded by Soviet forces. The commander of Uhse's squadron wanted to move the battalion west. Uhse made her way through the ravaged city to her house in Rangsdorf and picked up her son and his nanny, but when she brought them to the airport, her unit had already left, along with her plane. She found a small Siebel Fh 104 plane that did not have a pilot, and while it was being fueled she studied the plane's manual, as she had never flown this type of aircraft. With her son and the nanny, together with four other passengers, two of whom were injured, she left embattled Berlin flying northwest, finally landing in Leck in North Friesland.

There she was captured by British forces. After her release, she settled in Flensburg, in what would become West Germany, with her son.

Businesswoman

In the early postwar period, former members of the Luftwaffe were not permitted to fly, ending Uhse's aviation career. Initially, she made a living on the black market. She sold products door-to-door and met many housewives and learned of their problems: former soldiers returning from the war were making their wives pregnant, not caring that there was "no apartment, no income and no future" for any children. Many of the women resorted to visiting untrained abortionists to deal with unwanted pregnancies. Uhse remembered lectures her doctor mother had given her on sexuality, sexual hygiene and contraception. She searched for information on the Knaus-Ogino rhythm method of contraception, and put together a brochure which explained to the women how to identify their fertile and infertile days.

In 1962, in Flensburg, she opened her "speciality store for marital hygiene" largely focused on sexuality, thus considered as the first sex shop. Her lawyers had advised opening around Christmas to reduce to likliehood of attacks from outraged members of the public during the festive season.

In 1979, she divorced her second husband. In 1983, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, but survived. At age 75 she earned a diving licence. In 1996, she fulfilled a long-held dream, and opened the Beate Uhse Erotic Museum in Berlin. Three years later, in 1999, her company, Beate Uhse AG, was listed on the German stock exchange and was met with great interest in the financial community.

Uhse was one of the most important people for sexual liberation in the German-speaking world. In 1989 she received the Federal Cross of Merit .