Born in Landshut, Bavaria on February 26, 1893, Otto Kissenberth studied at Grenoble University before completing an engineering degree in Munich. Soon, he was working for the Gustav Otto aircraft works as a mechanical engineer.
With his interest in aircraft design, Kissenberth joined the Fliegertruppe air service of the German Army in 1914. After training as a reconnaissance pilot with Fliegerersatz-Abteilung (Replacement Detachment, better known as FEA1) at Schleissheim, Vizefeldwebel Otto Kissenberth was posted to Bavaria’s Feld-Flieger-Abteilung (Flier Detachment) 8b. On March 21, 1915 while on a sortie over the Vosges Mountains, he was wounded in action. Upon his recovery on July 8, 1915, Kissenberth joined another Bavarian unit: Flieger-Abteilung 9b. FA 9b was stationed in the South Tyrol at Toblach (Dobbiaco) in the Dolomite Alps. The unit served in Italy and conducted a daring bombing raid on Cortina d’Ampezzo on July 31, 1915. FA 9b also fought on the Vosges front in France.
In 1916, FA 9b morphed and became known as Kampfeinsitzerkommando (Combat Single-Seater Command) Einsisheim. The main reason for the change was that the German Army was struggling to find a tactical formation for its fighters.
While flying with this reformed unit, Otto Kissenberth was credited with his first three victories on October 12, 1916. An Anglo-French bombing raid of some three French squadrons, twenty-six aircraft from the Royal Naval Air Service, and a contingent of four from the Lafayette Escadrille attacked the Mauser Rifle Works at Oberndorf am Neckar. Kissenberth blunted the assault, downing two of the invaders on his first sortie, and one more on his next sortie. For those efforts, he was awarded Württemberg’s Friedrich Order, Baden’s Order of the Zähringer Lion, and the Bavarian Military Merit Order. Otto became one of the few flying aces (along with pioneering fighter pilot Leutnant Kurt Wintgens) to wear spectacles in air combat.
However, Kissenberth would not record another score until May 26, 1917. KEK Einsisheim formed the basis for yet another new fighter squadron: Royal Bavarian Jagdstaffel 16. As a member of Jasta 16b, Kissenberth downed two SPADs and flamed a balloon during the summer of 1917, bringing his count to six. He was then transferred to Royal Bavarian Jasta 23 on August 4, 1917 and named commander.
In a span of just under two months (August to October 1917), Otto Kissenbertb scored twelve more aerial triumphs. Most of them were against the highly successful French-made SPAD S.VII. Kissenberth himself flew an Albatros D.V with a yellow and white Edelweiss insignia painted on its fuselage. He scored over a dozen victories with this aircraft. However, Kissenberth recorded his twentieth and final victory on May 20, 1918 while flying a captured Sopwith Camel! The triumph made him eligible for the coveted Pour le Merite (a.k.a. the “Blue Max”).
But nine days later, Kissenberth was seriously injured when he crashed the British fighter. After convalescence, Otto did not return to his squadron. Instead, the Oberleutnant served as commanding officer of the Schleissheim flying school until the end of the war.
The decorated flying ace lived a very short life in postwar Germany, On August 2, 1919, Otto Kissenberth was killed in a mountaineering accident in the Bavarian Alps. He was just twenty-six years old.