The official death certificate of World War I ace pilot Manfred Richthofen has turned up in the Polish town of Ostrow Wielkopolski.
Richthofen was one of the most famous aviators of the 20th century.
A German fighter pilot, he was known as “The Red Baron” to the English because of the color of his plane. The English were quite familiar with his work: by the time Richthofen was shot down in 1918 he’d been credited with 80 kills..
Here’s the U.K. news story about the find. It says the certificate was sitting their in the town files, just like every other death certificate. It belonged in Ostrow Wielkopolski because that was the last official residence of Richthofen.
And here’s a postcard of Ostrow Wielkopolski, whose tourist bureau must be pretty happy today.