Template:Did you know nominations/Theodor Rowehl

Theodor Rowehl

 * ... that initially Theodor Rowehl`s high-altitude flights were Germany's only strategic aerial photoreconnaissance after World War I?
 * Reviewed: Maria Pinto (fashion designer)

Created/expanded by Yngvadottir (talk). Self nom at 16:11, 11 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Symbol question.svg Well sourced detailed article, offline sources AGF. I am less happy with the hook. I don't find the exact thing in the article and think that "aerial photoreconnaissance" is a complicated term. If such a thing is wanted, how about "first stereophotography"? "One-man show? Or something about from free-time photos to payroll of Abwehr? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 13:06, 23 March 2012 (UTC)


 * Thanks for reviewing it! You did notice that most of the references include links, right? There were only a couple of pages of Kahn to which I was unable to pin a GoogleBooks link; but we may differ in how much we can see there for geopolitical reasons. Myself, I think "one-man re-start of German strategic aerial reconnaissance" is pretty near equivalent in meaning to the quote in the reference, "[When Conrad Patzig was appointed head of the Abwehr on 7 June 1932], its strategic aerial photoreconnaissance was still little more than Theodor Rowehl's one-man show." But I've made the claim in the hook a tad more limited because I don't know exactly when he got other pilots and stopped being a one-man show, and the reference specifies photo-reconnaissance so it is barely possible someone else was doing purely eyeball aerial reconnaissance by then. That's also the reason for the mouthful phrase (although it's no less of a mouthful in German). Kahn was my primary source and is very discursive - it's a large book telling a lot of stories. I could provide snippet quotes connecting the dots in his book, for example on the context of German military reconnaissance being entirely shut down by Versailles, but I believe the article makes that clear, with that one-sentence quote substantiating the logical implication that for a while after the Abwehr hired him, he was the only one doing this for Germany. The underlying problem of course is the politics. This was a violation of Versailles that he did for reasons of patriotism and in view of World War II, that patriotism becomes a very bad thing in many, perhaps most people's view. So I think it unwise to have a hook emphasizing the technical accomplishments as that might imply praise. (Also, there are similar claims made for aerial reconnaissance by Brits and Americans; national pride comes into such claims and they are hard to substantiate, not least because things were or are secret.) And the guy vanished from history after his retirement, especially if you can't see the latest version of the book on the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients, and I can't. (I'd also like to respect his privacy, hence I didn't simply copy his place of death from de.wikipedia.) So this seems to me the best hook. Can you see the pages of Kahn online? Looking at those may make the hook claim more believable. .... It does occur to me now that his renting the record-breaking plane would be a possible alt? Not sure I could squash it intelligibly into 200 characters, though. Yngvadottir (talk) 18:58, 23 March 2012 (UTC)
 * Pictogram voting keep.svg following your explanation, although "photoreconnaissance" still has the qualities of a German compoundnoun ;) --Gerda Arendt (talk) 21:54, 23 March 2012 (UTC)