Interwar Activity
The end of First World War found Keller in command of the Luftreederei, a logistics unit. In the years following the Armistice, Keller left the army and became first director/conductor of the "Abteilung Luftverkehr der Junkerswerke" (later part of Deutsche Luft Hansa) ground-air service of the German air shipping company, the first German airline founded by Hugo Junkers. In 1923 he changed direction of his business by offering air shipping company services and was a managing director in Danzig, offering air mail service in Germany for the first time. During 1925 Keller operated an air traffic control school in Berlin, but in 1928 moved it to Braunschweig. Here he began, as a means of resistance to Allied conditions of Armistice the secret training of new military pilots, and he would be one of the first men called by Hermann Göring to help in the reconstruction of the Luftwaffe, as soon as the Nazis had assumed power in 1933. With the organisation of the Luftwaffe, Keller was commissioned with the rank of Oberst (Colonel), and assumed the command of the first bomber squadron, during the winter of 1936, KG 154 “Boelke” (He 111B-1). Soon after he was appointed commander of the Air Force command East Prussia.
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Famous quotes containing the word activity:
“What have we achieved in mowing down mountain ranges, harnessing the energy of mighty rivers, or moving whole populations about like chess pieces, if we ourselves remain the same restless, miserable, frustrated creatures we were before? To call such activity progress is utter delusion. We may succeed in altering the face of the earth until it is unrecognizable even to the Creator, but if we are unaffected wherein lies the meaning?”
—Henry Miller (1891–1980)