- BERLIN (Reuters) -- Genetic
tests have proven claims by three Germans that the American aviator Charles
Lindbergh was their father and led a secret double life for almost two
decades, a family adviser said Friday.
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- Anton Schwenk, media consultant to the Germans, said
DNA tests conducted by the University of Munich in October proved with
99.9 percent certainty that Dyrk and David Hesshaimer and their sister
Astrid Bouteuil were Lindbergh's children.
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- "It's a delightful moment for them because they
now have a feeling of belonging," Schwenk told Reuters. "They
knew all along he was their father because they spent time with him growing
up. But it's good to have an iron-clad confirmation."
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- Lindbergh, who also had six children with his U.S. wife
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, became famous for his daring 1927 solo flight across
the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 33 hours.
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- Lindbergh started a romance with Munich hat-maker Brigitte
Hesshaimer in 1957 when he was 55 and she was 32. They had three children:
Dyrk, now 45, Astrid, 43, and David, 36.
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- A restless world traveler, Lindbergh spent five to 14
days with his family in Munich up to three times a year until he died in
1974. Lindbergh and Hesshaimer kept the relationship a secret and the children
knew the tall visitor only as "Mr Careu Kent."
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- The Germans said they did not discover the true identity
of the mystery visitor until later. They described him as a loving man
who devoted much time and energy to them, setting up trust funds and helping
to buy a family house.
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- FROSTY SILENCE AT FIRST
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- The Germans first revealed the secret in August, two
years after their mother died and despite promising her to keep quiet.
They said they only wanted to set the record straight and had no interest
in Lindbergh's estate or tarnishing his legacy.
-
- Their claim was initially met by frosty silence from
the Lindbergh family. But Morgan Lindbergh, the aviator's grandson, came
forward to say he believed the Germans were his relatives because they
looked "hauntingly familiar" in photos.
-
- He said he was willing to take a DNA test and had a warm
meeting with the three Germans in Europe. But other family members were
hesitant, wary of past hoaxes.
-
- Schwenk said there had been "amiable meetings as
well as regular contacts with letters and calls" between his clients
and the Lindberghs.
-
- "There are also meetings planned for next year in
the United States," he added.
-
- "They never had any doubt they were Lindbergh's
children," he said. "I'd say it's not a happy end to the story
but a happy beginning."
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- Bouteuil said she only discovered the true identity of
her father in the early 1980s after she found dozens of letters from Lindbergh
and an article about him and confronted her mother.
-
- Despite his huge popularity in 1927, Lindbergh's reputation
later suffered because of his pre-war sympathy for Nazi Germany and getting
an award from Luftwaffe leader Hermann Goering. He was later rehabilitated
and remained a celebrity until he died.
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- According to his biographer, A. Scott Berg, Lindbergh's
marriage was in trouble in the late 1950s when the affair began.
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- Schwenk said a book and a television documentary were
being planned about Lindbergh's double life and his Munich love story.
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