Luftwaffe ace Count Heinrich von Einsiedel has died. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/news/2007/09/19/db1902.xml Descendent of Bismarck; one of the men who shot down Eugene Esmonde and his flight of Swordfish, POW of the Russians, then changed sides several times. Man of Principle; "Vicar of Bray" type who was out to save his skin, or muddled eccentric?
Naive seems to be an apt description. However, his case seems to highlight the issue of "disciple complex" quite well - he seemed to have had a desire to follow two different totalitarian systems, and I wonder whether that is symptomatic of his own personal upbringing (being brought up as a Bismarck must have been strict), or a wider Germanic trait of that time? Though he changed sides during the war, there were plenty of ex-Nazis who thrived under the post-war communist regime in East Germany.
