Beate was fascinated by the story, and by the idea of flying—so much so that she gathered chicken feathers and glued together some wings and jumped from her parents' veranda.

During a trip to Berlin, her father met a Mr. Sachsenberg, a lecturer on motor sports from the German Aero-Club (a nonprofit organization dedicated to flying), and complained to him of his "flying-crazy" daughter and the "nonsensical" concept of a female pilot.

she performed a stunt as a double for German actor René Deltgen, in which she flew through a balloon barrier and simulated an uncontrolled dive.

Beate fell in love with her stunt-piloting instructor, Hans-Jürgen Uhse, but repeatedly rejected his proposals of marriage.

In her small home in Rangsdorf, she felt claustrophobic, so she accepted an offer by the Luftwaffe to work in an aircraft ferrying unit.

After the birth, she was permitted to continue flying because she was in a role considered vital to the war effort, and she received permission to hire a nanny.

In October 1944, she was promoted to the rank of captain and was assigned to Ferry Squadron 1 (German: Überführungsgeschwader 1) based in Berlin-Staaken.

Uhse made her way through the ravaged city to her house in Rangsdorf and picked up her son and his nanny, but when she brought them to the airport, her unit had already left, along with her airplane.

With her son and the nanny, together with four other passengers, two of whom were injured, she left embattled Berlin flying northwest, finally landing in Leck in North Friesland.

She was selling products door-to-door and met many housewives and learned of their problems: former soldiers returning from the war were making their wives pregnant, not caring that there was "no apartment, no income and no future" for any children.

She searched for information on the Knaus-Ogino rhythm method of contraception, and put together a brochure which explained to the women how to identify their fertile and infertile days.

By 1947, she had sold 32,000 copies of "Pamphlet X" via her "Betu" mail order company, and began to expand to larger cities such as Hamburg and Bremen.

In 1951, with four employees, she started the Beate Uhse Mail Order Co., offering condoms and books on "marital hygiene."

In 1962, in Flensburg, she opened her "speciality store for marital hygiene" largely focused on sexuality, thus considered as the first sex shop.

Soon the police began acting against the items in her store which supposedly served to "inflame and satisfy lustful desires in a manner contrary to decency and morality."

Three years later, in 1999, her company, Beate Uhse AG, was listed on the German stock exchange and was met with great interest in the financial community.