Mix fought as an infantryman in
World War I before he trained as a fighter pilot and posted to
Jagdstaffel 54, where, as an
Unteroffizer from June 1918 until the end of the war, he scored three aerial victories (and one unconfirmed balloon) of
Jasta 54's total of 22 victories, for which he was awarded both classes of the
Iron Cross. After the war, he studied law at the
University of Greifswald and made a career as a leading administrative official. In 1934, he became Mayor of
Tilsit (now
Sovetsk, Russia) in 1934-37, later of
Wiesbaden in 1937-45 and 1954-60. In his first term as mayor of Wiesbaden, most of the Jewish community of Wiesbaden, some 2,700 people in 1933, were murdered and their synagogues were burned, under Mix's leadership. (However, he was again elected mayor in 1954, and he was buried in the honorary section of the Wiesbaden graveyard till 2014.) In 1935, he started flying again, training as an observer and then as a fighter pilot in 1937. Serving as technical officer with I./
JG 53 at the outbreak of World War II, Mix claimed three French
Morane fighters over
Saargemünd (now
Sarreguemines, France) on 21 September 1939, and four more on 22 November 1939 over
Saarbrücken. Appointed to command III./
JG 2 in March 1940, he claimed three more Moranes on 21 May 1940, although Mix was shot down and forced to land in a field near
Roye on 21 May in Bf 109E-3 W.Nr.1526. After being hospitalized, Mix returned to III./JG 2 on 19 June. He left France with his unit and relocated to Frankfurt/Rhein-Main on 1 July. On 27 July, the unit returned to Évreux-West until 4 August. Mix claimed a
Hawker Hurricane on 4 September. Mix remained
Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 2 until 24 September 1940, when he became one of the older commanders dismissed by a frustrated Goering in favour of the younger, up-and-coming aces of 1940; in Mix's case, Hpt.
Otto Bertram. Mix's final claim was a
Bristol Blenheim over
The Hague (Den Haag) in July 1941, while commanding
JG 1. He later served as
Jafü Bretagne ( Fighter Leader, Brittany) from April 1943 onwards. During
World War II, he claimed eight (potentially 13) aerial victories. ==References==