BERLIN ( Nov. 28 ) - Genetic tests have proven claims by three Germans that the American aviator Charles Lindbergh was their father and led a secret double life for almost two decades, a family adviser said Friday.
Anton Schwenk, media consultant to the Germans, said DNA tests conducted by the University of Munich in October proved with 99.9 percent certainty that Dyrk and David Hesshaimer and their sister Astrid Bouteuil were Lindbergh's children.
"It's a delightful moment for them because they now have a feeling of belonging," Schwenk told Reuters. "They knew all along he was their father because they spent time with him growing up. But it's good to have an iron-clad confirmation."
Lindbergh, who also had six children with his U.S. wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh, became famous for his daring 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic from New York to Paris in 33 hours.
Lindbergh started a romance with Munich hat-maker Brigitte Hesshaimer in 1957 when he was 55 and she was 32. They had three children: Dyrk, now 45, Astrid, 43, and David, 36.
A restless world traveler, Lindbergh spent five to 14 days with his family in Munich up to three times a year until he died in 1974. Lindbergh and Hesshaimer kept the relationship a secret and the children knew the tall visitor only as "Mr Careu Kent."
The Germans said they did not discover the true identity of the mystery visitor until later. They described him as a loving man who devoted much time and energy to them, setting up trust funds and helping to buy a family house.
The Germans first revealed the secret in August, two years after their mother died and despite promising her to keep quiet. They said they only wanted to set the record straight and had no interest in Lindbergh's estate or tarnishing his legacy.
Their claim was initially met by frosty silence from the Lindbergh family. But Morgan Lindbergh, the aviator's grandson, came forward to say he believed the Germans were his relatives because they looked "hauntingly familiar" in photos.
He said he was willing to take a DNA test and had a warm meeting with the three Germans in Europe. But other family members were hesitant, wary of past hoaxes.
Schwenk said there had been "amiable meetings as well as regular contacts with letters and calls" between his clients and the Lindberghs.
"There are also meetings planned for next year in the United States," he added.
"They never had any doubt they were Lindbergh's children," he said. "I'd say it's not a happy end to the story but a happy beginning."
Bouteuil said she only discovered the true identity of her father in the early 1980s after she found dozens of letters from Lindbergh and an article about him and confronted her mother.
Despite his huge popularity in 1927, Lindbergh's reputation later suffered because of his pre-war sympathy for Nazi Germany and getting an award from Luftwaffe leader Hermann Goering. He was later rehabilitated and remained a celebrity until he died.
According to his biographer, A. Scott Berg, Lindbergh's marriage was in trouble in the late 1950s when the affair began.
Schwenk said a book and a television documentary were being planned about Lindbergh's double life and his Munich love story.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited
