the Bücker aircraft company in Rangsdorf as a test pilot and subsequently, at age 19, as a delivery pilot for the Alfred Friedrich aircraft concern in Strausberg, east of Berlin. Soon afterwards, she was asked by the UFA film company to work as a stunt double in films. She worked with Hans Albers, a film star she particularly admired, and with numerous others. In the German propaganda movie 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. She swore she would "never ever give up flying for a man." Since Hans-Jürgen strongly supported her ambitions, however, she finally accepted, but her father resisted. For one whole year, her father refused to bless their union. Finally, a festive wedding was scheduled for 10 October 1939. However, it had to be canceled because of the beginning of the Second World War. On 28 September, Hans-Jürgen Uhse was to be posted; the couple married quietly four hours before his departure. As a Luftwaffe transport pilot During the war, stunt piloting became impossible and Beate Uhse was grounded. In her small home in Rangsdorf, she felt claustrophobic, so she accepted an offer by the Luftwaffe to work in an aircraft ferrying unit. Thus, she was occasionally also able to fly combat aircraft that she otherwise would not be allowed to fly: the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and 110, the Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and at the end of the war even the Messerschmitt Me 262, the world's first operational jet fighter. Although attacked several times by allied aircraft she continued as she felt that after the war, with this experience, she would be able to have a career as a pilot. In 1943, her son Klaus was born. 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 () based in Berlin-Staaken. In 1945, her husband Hans-Jürgen died in an air crash, leaving Beate a 24-year-old widow with a year-old son. In April 1945, Berlin was surrounded by Soviet forces. The