Lilly Steinschneider

Lilly Helene Steinschneider-Wenckheim (13 January 1891 – 28 March 1975), more commonly known as Lilly Steinschneider, was the first Hungarian woman to qualify as a pilot.

Early life Lilly Steinschneider was born in Budapest on 13 January 1891, the second child of Irma Wohr and Bernát Steinschneider, a wealthy Austrian-Hungarian-Jewish family. Her father owned of a quilt factory which provided quilt covers for the House of Habsburg in Austria, and her mother had Czech origins. Lilly was the second child born in the Steinschneider family, with an older brother called Hugó. Little is known about the first eighteen years of her life.

When Louis Bleriot flew over Budapast in 1909, Steinshneider was inspired to learn to fly. In 1911, as part of her preparation, she earned her driving license in six weeks, having pawned some of her jewellery to find the 200 crowns to cover her costs.

Steinschneider was the first Hungarian woman and second woman from the Austro-Hungarian empire to qualify as a pilot (the first was aviator Božena Laglerová). Steinschneider received pilot's license number four in Hungary. She flew an Etrich Taube. On 6 October 1912 she took part in the air show held at Nagyvárad over the heads of a crowd of 2000 people, and was given a hero's welcome.

She caused a stir as a woman at the flight meeting at Aspern airfield in 1913. Steinschneider experienced a crash landing at the event but walked away from the accident, and later went up as a passenger with Maurice Chevillard, who flew upside down at 1000 metres. and older brother of Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi. Civilian flight was banned during the First World War, and Steinschneider worked as a nurse on the Eastern front, caring for typhoid patients.

In 1927 she gave birth to her daughter, Maria Electa Thecla Elisabeth Christina Helena Sophia Coudenhove-Kalergi, known as Marina, who was delivered by caesarean section.