Before she was fascinated with flying, Amelie Hedwig Beese (1886-1925) started a career as an artist, studying in Stockholm as a sculptor.
She got her pilot licence on her birthday, September 13, 1911 and became the first woman in Germany to do so. In January 1912, Beese opened a flying school at the Johannisthal’s airfield with financial assistance from her mother. That same year, she used her early training in architecture to design and patent a collapsible aircraft becoming the first woman to patent an aircraft design.