The machine technician and engineer Hermann Schreiber was one of the best glider pilots in Switzerland. When glider pilots from Switzerland, Austria, Yugoslavia and Germany gathered on the 7 September 1935 on the Jungfraujoch for a competition, Schreiber left with his S 18, a Swiss construction of 14.5 meters span, from the small town of Thun “to a point near the Jungfraujoch drag”, set off, received several low updrafts and landed in Bellinzona after 90 km (straight line) and a 5½-hour flight, making him the first to cross the Alps with a glider. For this achievement he was awarded a gold medal from the IOC with the consent of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. Schreiber set several national records in continuous flight and in 1937 became the first Swiss champion in this discipline. He not only cared about sporting matters, but also technical ones like airplane towing options, construction of transport carts, as well as organizational issues.
In Switzerland Schreiber made a career as a military pilot and instructor and authorized expert for airplane accidents. But he could not get used to a peaceful civilian life. In the 1960s he became a bush pilot and worked for relief organizations in the Himalayas, South Africa, Korea and Biafra (Nigeria). When he had to stop flying as a pilot he had been in the air for about 5,000 hours. In 1976 his family left him because they could not cope with his style of living any longer, so during his later life he continued to have temporary homes in the Alps and died on the Rigi Massif close to his birthplace. His daughter Sabin(e) (1962-2012) was a renowned historian and feminist.
Switzerland