Original text and detailed historical commentary by Bernd Lukasch. The first edition of the book by Otto Lilienthal from 1889 is now considered one of the bibliophilic treasures of the highest rank, as it was one of the few books that anticipated and spurred significant technological developments. The reason for its current popularity lies primarily in the fact that Lilienthal, with his book, not only established the physical principles of the phenomenon of "flying" that are still valid today, but also became a successful practitioner of his theory just a few years later, thus becoming the first "flying human." The book marks the beginning of the technical history of the airplane, which, like few other technical disciplines, has a centuries-old prehistory, the cultural history of the Icarus dream. The annotated reissue sheds light on its significance and history of creation.