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Anthony Fokker: een vervlogen leven
Het leven van Anthony Fokker (1890-1939) was kort, maar overvol. Auteur Marc Dierikx beschrijft hoe de luchtvaartpionier vele ongelukken overleefde, voordat hij – met dank aan de Eerste Wereldoorlog – een belangrijk vliegtuigfabrikant werd.
De Duitsers, met vliegenier Hermann Goering voorop, droegen Fokker op handen, en zijn machines werden gevreesd door de geallieerden. Dat Duitsland de oorlog verloor stond een nog grotere carrière niet in de weg. In de jaren twintig ontwikkelde Fokker zich tot de belangrijkste vliegtuigbouwer ter wereld. Op verschillende locaties in de Verenigde Staten verrezen Fokkerfabrieken. Door ruzie in de top van de onderneming en door een spectaculair ongeluk met een van zijn toestellen spatte zijn Amerikaanse droom in 1931 uiteen en namen de zaken een neerwaartse wending.
Ook Fokkers privéleven, dat zich afspeelde op drie continenten, kende vele ups en downs. In de liefde kende hij weinig geluk. De zelfmoord van zijn tweede vrouw tekende in 1929 zijn leven en kostte hem uiteindelijk zijn zakenimperium. Een geschiedenis die zich laat lezen als een roman.
De Duitsers, met vliegenier Hermann Goering voorop, droegen Fokker op handen, en zijn machines werden gevreesd door de geallieerden. Dat Duitsland de oorlog verloor stond een nog grotere carrière niet in de weg. In de jaren twintig ontwikkelde Fokker zich tot de belangrijkste vliegtuigbouwer ter wereld. Op verschillende locaties in de Verenigde Staten verrezen Fokkerfabrieken. Door ruzie in de top van de onderneming en door een spectaculair ongeluk met een van zijn toestellen spatte zijn Amerikaanse droom in 1931 uiteen en namen de zaken een neerwaartse wending.
Ook Fokkers privéleven, dat zich afspeelde op drie continenten, kende vele ups en downs. In de liefde kende hij weinig geluk. De zelfmoord van zijn tweede vrouw tekende in 1929 zijn leven en kostte hem uiteindelijk zijn zakenimperium. Een geschiedenis die zich laat lezen als een roman.
416 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 18, 2024
Tony Fokker is an interesting pioneer (not the nicest man) and I learned some new things about the start of aviation. With his planes, he had a big influence on the WW1 and after that on commercial flights.
Even though planes are really bad for the environment, I love them.
Factually I enjoyed what was written, but not so much how it was written. At first I thought it was a bad translation, but later I found out it was written in Dutch. Jammer.
Even though planes are really bad for the environment, I love them.
Factually I enjoyed what was written, but not so much how it was written. At first I thought it was a bad translation, but later I found out it was written in Dutch. Jammer.
May 19, 2018
Disclaimer: I received this book as part of the GoodReads FirstReads program.
This is the biography of a remarkable pioneer in the field of aviation. Anthony Fokker was a contemporary of Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh, the Red Baron, and many, many others in the early days of manned flight. While in his early 20s, he started his airplane production company, and guided it initially to great success, though his lack of innovation eventually led to his downfall. He perfected the mechanism, though he didn't invent it, that allowed WWI pilots to shoot at others without shooting off their own propellers. Though Dutch, he set up a factory in Germany before WWI, and during the war his planes were dominant. After the war, he managed to get himself, and much of his money, back to Holland, where he was instrumental in building up the Dutch airline industry. After visiting the US, and seeing the potential there, he started an airline construction company there. Eventually, the largest shares of stock in that company were acquired by GM, who pushed him out of his own company. Along the way, he became a multimillionaire. On the eve of WWII, he died at the age of 49 in the US, leaving his mother his fortune. Unfortunately, thanks to the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands, this money was left in contention until the mid 1950s.
This is a fascinating story of a fascinating person who personally knew many fascinating people during a fascinating time in the history of the world. I highly recommend it.
This is the biography of a remarkable pioneer in the field of aviation. Anthony Fokker was a contemporary of Eddie Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh, the Red Baron, and many, many others in the early days of manned flight. While in his early 20s, he started his airplane production company, and guided it initially to great success, though his lack of innovation eventually led to his downfall. He perfected the mechanism, though he didn't invent it, that allowed WWI pilots to shoot at others without shooting off their own propellers. Though Dutch, he set up a factory in Germany before WWI, and during the war his planes were dominant. After the war, he managed to get himself, and much of his money, back to Holland, where he was instrumental in building up the Dutch airline industry. After visiting the US, and seeing the potential there, he started an airline construction company there. Eventually, the largest shares of stock in that company were acquired by GM, who pushed him out of his own company. Along the way, he became a multimillionaire. On the eve of WWII, he died at the age of 49 in the US, leaving his mother his fortune. Unfortunately, thanks to the Nazi occupation of The Netherlands, this money was left in contention until the mid 1950s.
This is a fascinating story of a fascinating person who personally knew many fascinating people during a fascinating time in the history of the world. I highly recommend it.
January 27, 2020
As others have noted this is as much, if not more so, a biography of Fokker the businessman, rather than of Fokker the aviator, and as a businessman Fokker was always on his own side. This was of particular annoyance to Dutch authorities, who saw Fokker as a potential national resource who should have been serving Dutch national interests, in exchange for being taken back into the fold with no questions asked after World War I. The small problem here was that Fokker was both too practical and too ambitious and, frankly, too individualistic to be a good little Dutchman serving the interests of the Dutch government. In fact, you can say that Fokker's greatest business success after creating the first real fighter plane was as a sales agent for Douglas & Lockheed, as America came to be the dominant factor in European civil aviation. If this work seems a little dry, considering how "colorful" a life Fokker led, it's because a lot of official documentation has been lost and Fokker was not one for putting his inner thoughts on paper, as much as he always had an opinion he was prepared to vent. Dierikx credits the revolution of online sources of information as a goad to wanting to revisit Fokker twenty years after his first book on the man.
Originally written: January 21, 2019.
Originally written: January 21, 2019.
January 29, 2023
Dierikx biography of Anthony Fokker was an unexpected pleasant read. Thourougly researched and well written it paints a good picture of the man, but also the extraordinary times he lived in. In that regard the first part is excellent, while the second part, from is American days onwards, gets more bogged down in business and financial details, getting a bit boring in the end.
But overall a very good book from which I learned a lot about a complicated man who's not that much admired in the Netherlands as he probably should be. But that has probably to do with his German past during Ww1 and his problematic relation with Plesman, the big man of KLM, who has more standing here while the KLM is considered something of a national pride.
But overall a very good book from which I learned a lot about a complicated man who's not that much admired in the Netherlands as he probably should be. But that has probably to do with his German past during Ww1 and his problematic relation with Plesman, the big man of KLM, who has more standing here while the KLM is considered something of a national pride.
February 19, 2019
Very good narration of Anthony Fokker's life, pioneer aviation, and aircraft manufacturer. The book is more enjoyable in print. I listened to the audio version and sometimes was confused with the timeline. Marc Dierikx successfully offers a detailed image of Fokker while putting him in the context of aviation business ecosystem in its early years.
July 18, 2019
A comprehensive biography of the renowned aviation pioneer. Contains much information on aircraft development, commercial airline beginnings, business dealings, and politics that were unfamiliar to this World War I aviation buff. Fokker was a perfect example that, shaky ethics aside, success is partly inspiration, but mostly perspiration.
December 15, 2020
I was happy to learn of the details regarding machine gun synchronization (and the resulting lawsuits) in the rise to the 'Fokker Scourge' in WWI and equally disappointed to learn of Fokker's ham-handed approach to managing people as well as his overbearing ego.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews