The history of aviation in Luxembourg is not told at the Findel Museum, but right in the heart of the Bad Mondorf thermal spa complex – and for good reason: for in the very place where people now recuperate from ailments both minor and major, the country’s first pilots once took to the skies – and put their own lives at risk.
Although functional architecture lines the streets of Mondorf, the town still effortlessly exudes a sophisticated charm when you visit. On a lush, warm June day, you immediately realise that this is a particularly good place to relax, in and around the thermal spring area.
What one would certainly not associate with the place now, however, is bustling aviation activity: strolling through the green spaces after a massage, whilst rattling engines slice through the steel-blue sky above and possibly even lightly coat your freshly moisturised skin with kerosene, is a rather bizarre notion. Yet that is indeed how things used to be here, even with the blessing of the local council and the state. The “Aviation Museum”, which has no doubt surprised many a visitor in the middle of the grounds, tells this story too. In fact, however, Luxembourg aviation has its cradle here – and not at Findel or in Esch-sur-Alzette, where there was also once an important airfield.
This story is closely linked to the sanatorium, in the person of Charles Bettendorf. “As director of ‘Eaux de Mondorf’, he had made his fortune from the sale of the healing water and was also a ‘technology enthusiast’,” explains Jean-Claude Jacoby, president of the ‘Fligermusée’ association, which aims to keep the memory of Luxembourg’s aviation pioneers alive and was commissioned in 2012 to fit out the newly created museum, covering more than 200 square metres.
A trailblazer takes flight
Among the genuine artefacts and models on display are panels explaining, among other things, what Bettendorf organised in Mondorf in 1910: the country’s first air show. “He had been in Reims the previous year with other Luxembourgers at the ‘Grande Semaine d’Aviation de la Champagne’, the first major air show in Europe. People there were so enthusiastic that it was decided to organise something similar here.”
Text and photos by Frank Göbel