Melitta Schenk Gräfin[1] von Stauffenberg (née Schiller; 3 January 1903 - 8 April 1945[2]) was a German aviator who served as a test pilot in the Luftwaffe before and during World War II.
In 1944 she was arrested with other Stauffenberg family members on suspicion of conspiring with her brothers-in-law to assassinate Adolf Hitler, but she was later released to continue her test-flight duties.
Melitta started working for the Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt (DVL), an experimental institute for aviation, in Berlin-Adlershof in 1927.
[3]: 13–5 In 1936 she was forced from her job as Ingenieurflugzeugführerin (aeronautical engineer) because of her paternal grandfather's Jewish origins, despite her father having converted to Christianity at the age of 18.
On 11 August 1937 at Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Melitta married the historian Alexander Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, and on 28 October 1937, she was given the honorary rank of Flugkapitänin, or "flight captain", a rank reserved for test pilots in Germany at the time, and became only the second woman in Germany, after Hanna Reitsch, to achieve this.
She was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class on 22 January 1943; the medal was pinned on her by the chief of the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe himself, Hermann Göring on the 29th.
[citation needed] Melitta maintained contact with the incarcerated members of her extended family, even though they were imprisoned in concentration camps.
Her status, and the possibility that the prisoners might be useful in a bargain with the Western Allies when Germany finally fell, kept them moderately well looked after.
As research facilities in Berlin were dispersed to other locations ahead of the Soviet advance, Melitta's activities were moved to Wurzberg, where she found that a RAF raid had destroyed her house.
[3]: 311–2 An American F-6D reconnaissance airplane flown by First Lieutenant Norbourn Thomas, who was hunting Ju 87s, attacked her near Straßkirchen, Bavaria.
She was buried on 13 April in St Michaels Cemetery, arranged by Staubing airbase commander's assistant.