Gotthard Handrick

Gotthard Handrick was a German Olympic athlete and fighter pilot. Born on 25 October 1908 in Zittau, in the Kingdom of Saxony, he won the gold medal in the modern pentathlon at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. He later served as a Luftwaffe officer, commanding Jagdgruppe 88 of the Legion Condor in the Spanish Civil War, where he claimed five aerial victories, and then leading fighter units including Jagdgeschwader 26, Jagdgeschwader 77 and Jagdgeschwader 5 during the Second World War. He ended the war as an Oberst commanding the 8th Fighter Division in Austria and afterwards worked in Hamburg as a representative of Daimler-Benz. He died on 30 May 1978.