Gabriele von Lutzau (née Dillmann; born 15 August

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

) is a German

heroine A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

and

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

. She is remembered as the "Angel of

Mogadishu Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...

" for her courageous actions as a

stewardess A flight attendant is a member of the aircrew whose primary responsibility is ensure the safety of passengers in the cabin of an aircraft across all stages of flight. Their secondary duty is to see to the comfort of passengers. Flight attenda ...

during a notorious

aircraft hijacking Aircraft hijacking (also known as airplane hijacking, skyjacking, plane hijacking, plane jacking, air robbery, air piracy, or aircraft piracy, with the last term used within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States) is the Crime, ...

. She is also noted for her abstract

beechwood Beechwood may refer to: Plants * Beech wood, the wood from any of ten species of beech trees * Malay beechwood, tree ''Gmelina arborea'', and its wood * Willow beechwood '' Faurea saligna'', and its wood Places Canada * Beechwood, Ontario ...

sculptures. Through marriage, she became a member of the Russian-German Lutzau family, who were ennobled in

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

Mogadishu hijacking

Gabriele Dillmann worked as a flight attendant for

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

. In

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

, she was serving on

Lufthansa Flight 181 Lufthansa Flight 181, a Boeing 737-230C jet airliner (reg. D-ABCE) named ''Landshut'', was hijacked on 13 October 1977 by four militants of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine while en route from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Fr ...

when it was hijacked by

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

s from the

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

(PFLP). During the ensuing protracted captivity, she was a pillar of support and hope for the other hostages and was lionized by the German press. She was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

for her role in the affair. She later married her fiancé, Lufthansa pilot Rüdiger von Lutzau, who had piloted the plane carrying the German

GSG 9 , formerly , is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei). The unit is responsible for combatting terrorism and violent crime, including organized crime. In addition to its headquarters location in Sankt Augustin-H ...

commandos for the rescue mission. They had two children and were married for 44 years until his death on 2 August

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

. Two German-language films of the hijacking were made: ' (1997), in which she was played by , and '' Mogadischu'' (

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

), in which

Nadja Uhl Nadja Uhl (; born 23 May 1972) is a German actress. Uhl grew up in the town of Franzburg, near her birth city of Stralsund. She lived with her mother in a three-generation house, shared with aunts and her grandparents, who had moved in sh ...

plays her. Peter H. Jamin has made a short film ''Der Engel von Mogadischu'' (The Angel of Mogadishu) about Lutzau, covering both her role in the hijacking and her later life as an artist.

Artistic career

From 1984 to 1995, Lutzau studied art under Walther Piesch at the art school of the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

. Her works are mainly "guardian figures" carved in wood, predominantly beechwood, but also from

black locust ''Robinia pseudoacacia'', commonly known as black locust, is a medium-sized hardwood deciduous tree, belonging to the tribe Robinieae of the legume family Fabaceae. It is native to a few small areas of the United States, but it has been widely pl ...

. Her sculpting tools include the chainsaw and flamethrower. She describes her work as "sentinels, wings, and life signs" crafted from "discarded wood - unwanted, sometimes grown under hard conditions - gnarled and twisted and finally felled." Although her original work is always in wood,she often has sculptures cast into bronze or steel. For her "guardians" and "life signs", she also uses

thuja ''Thuja'' ( ) is a genus of coniferous tree or shrub in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are five species in the genus, two native to North America and three native to eastern Asia. The genus is monophyletic and sister to ''Thujopsis''. M ...

trees, often called the "tree of life", due to their frequent planting on graves. Lutzau has exhibited at the ALP Galleries in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

(a gallery dedicated to German artists), in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

(Shanghai Spring Art Salon 2003), numerous galleries and shows in Germany. Since

11 September 2001 The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

, Lutzau has coloured her guardian figures black (they had previously been blue). Lutzau is a member of the German Federal Association of Visual Artists (BBK). In

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

she was received the Aisch Art Prize of the Art Association of

Höchstadt Höchstadt an der Aisch, commonly known as Höchstadt (), is a town in the Erlangen-Höchstadt district, in Bavaria, Germany. Geography Höchstadt is situated on the river Aisch, 18 km northwest of Erlangen and 22 km south of Bamberg. O ...

, She also served as a jury member for the Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

and for the BBK in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

. She now lives and works in

Michelstadt Michelstadt () in the Odenwald is a town in the Odenwaldkreis (district) in southern Hesse, Germany between Darmstadt and Heidelberg. It has a population of 28,629 people. Geography Location Michelstadt is the biggest town in the Odenwaldkre ...

in the

Odenwald The Odenwald () is a low mountain range in the Germany, German states of Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Location The Odenwald is located between the Upper Rhine Plain with the Bergstraße Route, Bergstraße and the ''Hessisches Ried' ...

References

External links

Gabriele von Lutzau's website
* (Article about the Mogadishu hijacking, including statements from Gabriele von Lutzau.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lutzau, Gabriele von 1954 births Living people People from Wolfsburg People from Michelstadt Flight attendants German people taken hostage Hijacking survivors Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany German sculptors University of Strasbourg alumni Lufthansa people