Karen Blixen - Isak Dinesen home

Question 62: Hans von Blixen-Finecke as pilot and horseman?

Q.  Can you explain whatever happened to Hans von Blixen, the man that Karen Blixen was originally in love with? I keep reading that he died in 1917 but I don't know how.

Also, there is a Hans von Blixen who is an Olympic champion. Is he a relation?

A. Hans Blixen, who was a soldier, horseman, and gifted sportsman, died in the crash of his own airplane on September 26, 1917. (He would sometimes fly from one horse event to the next.) His only child, also Hans von Blixen-Finecke, is the author of several books on horse training. He won the Olympic Gold Medal for the three-day equestrian event in 1952. His grandfather, Frederick von Blixen, was also a talented rider.

In a Christmas letter to his parents in 1917, Bror wrote--according to his mother--that Hans "was not only his twin brother, but his best and only friend, who always understood him and with whom he could talk about everything--it was as if he had lost a part of himself." [Bror Blixen: En Eventyrer by Tonni Arnold (in Danish)]

 
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