Zeppelins - Germany: books - history and technology

Zeppelin : The History of German Airships 1900-1937

The man who turned the dream of human flight into a reality, in terms of creating a fully realized airship capable of carrying a worthwhile payload in safety, was a retired German army officer, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, whose name remains synonymous with airship travel.
Overcoming financial failure, his ambition and resourcefulness secured the necessary public support, and ultimately led to the realisation of his dreams.

"The Zeppelin" details the unique story of an invention that even today has the power to fascinate. Charting the first tentative steps at the end of the 19th century, through the golden age of airship travel in the 1920s and 1930s, this revealing book delves deep into the history and science of airship travel.
A remarkable picture of the important role airships played during World War I is provided, while the 1920s and 1930s heralded exciting developments in commercial passenger services. However, the unexpected and tragic loss of the Hindenburg brought an abrupt end to all commercial airship operations.

Illustrated with many previously unpublished archive photographs, this informative book gives a unique insight into one of engineering's most remarkable achievements.

German Airships - Parseval, Schutte, Lanz, Zeppelin

The development of non-rigid, semi-rigid and rigid airships in Germany. Designs from Parseval, Schutte, Lanz and Zeppelin, from pre-WWI to WWII.

Zeppelin : The Story of Lighter-Than-Air Craft

The author of this book, Ernst A. Lehmann, was close to the Zeppelin story from its early days and had great faith in the ever increasing success of the Zeppelin on international routes.
It is sadly ironic that this talented man and strong advocate of the Zeppelin should die in the Hindenburg disaster shortly after he had produced the draft for this book. He died following the fire that destroyed the Hindenburg on 6 May 1937; he survived the fire itself but was badly burned and died the following day.

Lehmann was a Zeppelin commander during the First World War bombing England on numerous occasions, and even met some of the supreme German commanders such as General Erich Ludendorff. He was well acquainted with Count Zeppelin and all of the designers and management of the Zeppelin Company.

After the war he worked for the Zeppelin Company under Hugo Eckener, who took over the management following Count Zeppelin's death in 1917. Lehmann was closely involved in the voyages of the Graf Zeppelin, including the famous round the world voyage, and pioneered services to the Unites States and the regular service to South America.

Lehmann makes his Nazi sympathies quite clear, but tactfully does not touch upon his differences with Hugo Eckener regarding the use of the airships for Nazi electioneering - for Eckener was strongly against it.
Nor does he touch upon Göring's manoeuvring which broke up the Zeppelin Company, thereby leaving Eckener as an outsider. He believes in the superiority of German engineering and beyond that the superiority of everything German.

Lehmann served as commanding officer on more than 100 of the flights of the Graf Zeppelin between 1928 and 1936. In 1935, when Hermann Göring created the Deutsche Zeppelin Reederei to increase Nazi influence over Zeppelin operations, Captain Lehmann was named director of the new airline. In 1936, he commanded 10 round-trip flights to Lakehurst on the new Hindenburg.

The text is well-written, approachable, and provides a comprehensive account of the Zeppelin story until the 1937 disaster which cost the author his life.

Zeppelin: the Story of the Zeppelin Airships

On July 2, 1900, Ferdinand Graf Zeppelin made the first ascent in an airship of his own design. The flight was initially viewed with skepticism, however public opinion changed after the destruction of his fourth airship at Echterdingen.
Zeppelin received so many donations that not only was he able to found his own companies for the purpose of building airships, but also production facilities for the development and manufacture of engines, transmissions, shells, gas cells, airship hangars and even the construction of aircraft.

All of these companies enjoyed a tremendous upswing during the First World War. After the war the Zeppelin airship company took some time to get back on its feet, but then produced its crowning achievements - the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and the LZ 129 Hindenburg - memories of which still remain alive and influence the present.

Author Hans Knäusel describes the Zeppelin story with a critical look at the economic and political effects of the period, from the beginning until the destruction of the Hindenburg in 1937. He also discusses airships built in other countries using the Zeppelin system, as well as the hangars and landing masts vital to operation of the big airships.

Zeppelins - German Airships 1900-40 (Osprey)

On 2 July 1900 the people of Friedrichshafen, Germany, witnessed a momentous occasion - the first flight of LZ 1, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin's first airship. Although deemed a failure, a succession of better craft (LZ2 to 10) enabled the Zeppelin to expand into the consumer market of airship travel, whilst also providing military craft for the German Army and Navy. The years of the Great War saw the Zeppelins undertake strategic bombing missions against Great Britain.

This title also covers the post-war fate of the Zeppelins, including the crash of the Hindenburg, and their use by the Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II.

Contents: Introduction - Forging the weapon: 1900-14 - Army and Navy Zeppelins at war: 1914-18 - Progress and failure: 1918-40 - Conclusion - Colour plate commentary.

Zeppelin Blitz - The German Air Raids on Great Britain During the First World War

In the early years of the First World War, German lighter-than-air flying machines, Zeppelins, undertook a series of attacks on the British mainland. German military strategy was to subdue Britain, both by the damage these raids caused and by the terrifying nature of the craft that carried them out. This strategy proved successful.

The early raids caused significant damage, many civilian casualties and provoked terror and anger in equal measure. But the British rapidly learnt how to deal with these futuristic monsters.
A variety of defence mechanisms were developed: searchlights, guns and fighter aircraft were deployed, the British learnt to pick up the airships' radio messages and a central communications headquarters was set up. Within months aerial strategy and its impact on the lives of civilians and the course of conflict became part of human warfare.

As the Chief of the Imperial German Naval Airship Division, Peter Strasser, crisply put it: 'There is no such thing as a non-combatant any more. Modern war is total war.' "Zeppelin Blitz" is the first full, raid-by-raid, year-by-year account of the Zeppelin air raids on Britain during the First World War, based on contemporary official reports and documents.

Zeppelins Over the Midlands : The Air Raids of 31st January 1916

On 31st January 1916 nine Zeppelin airships of the Imperial German Navy bombed the Midlands, opening a strategic bombing campaign designed to cripple British war production. It ended in total failure.

The main target was Liverpool but none of the Zeppelins reached it. On foggy Monday night several major Midlands towns were bombed and 70 people killed, 35 in the Black Country between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, 15 in Burton on Trent, 10 in Loughborough, 5 in Derby, 3 in Scunthorpe and 2 in Ilkeston.

A lot is known about the military aspects of the raids but much less is known about what happened on the ground. While the press produced many human interest stories and atrocity propaganda, wartime censorship prohibited publication of any information that could be useful to the Germans, including the towns hit and names of the victims.
Through intensive research the author has been able to identify many of the victims and give the full story of these events for the first time.

Zeppelin vs British Home Defence 1916-1918 (Osprey)

When Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin's rigid airship LZ 1 flew over Lake Constance in 1900, it was the most advanced and impressive flying machine in the world: a colossal, lighter-than-air craft capable of controlled flight.

In World War I, Zeppelins were first used in a reconnaissance role, but on 19 January 1915 Kaiser Wilhelm II authorised their use in bombing strategic targets in England. From then on, "Zeppelin" became synonymous with terror to the British, and indeed the airship's effectiveness was more psychological than material.
Still, their raids compelled the Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service to embark on a program of modernising their aerial defences, accelerating a process that would ultimately make the aeroplane, rather than the airship, the paramount flying machine of the war.

Using specially commissioned artwork, contemporary photographs and first-hand accounts, this book tells the fascinating story of Britain's first Blitz, from the airships who terrorised the public to the men who sought to defend the skies.

Maybach-Motoren und Automobile im Rhein-Neckar-Dreieck und der Pfalz

Der vorliegende Titel umfasst über den gemeinsamen Nenner Maybach-Motoren alle damit zu Lande, zu Wasser oder in der Luft in bzw. über der ausgewiesenen Region angetriebenen Fahrzeuge. Das Buch als solches ist als chronologische Dokumentation gestaltet, erweitert um ein ausführliches Literaturverzeichnis mit zusätzlichen Literatur- und Fotohinweisen sowie um ein detailliertes Sach-, Orts- und Personenverzeichnis.

Auslöser dieser Dokumentation war, dass am 4./5. August 1908 erstmals ein Luftschiff, das Zeppelin- Luftschiff LZ 4, besagte Region passiert hat und danach bis zum Jahre 1940 zahlreiche Überfahrten durch legendäre Luftschiffe erfolgt sind. Insofern stehen in den nächsten Jahren zahlreiche 100-jährige Jubiläen an, zu denen diese Dokumentation als Nachschlagewerk dienen und Informationen liefern kann, beteiligte Personen und die Vorgeschichte in Form von Ballonfahrten mit eingeschlossen.

Herausgestellt wird außerdem, dass der in Mannheim-Rheinau ansässige Luftschiffbau Schüttte-Lanz zu Zeiten des Ersten Weltkrieges zahlreiche Militär-Luftschiffe, die sog. SL-Luftschiffe, geliefert hat, auch für Aktionen von der Heeres-Luftschiffhalle Mannheim-Sandhofen aus.
In weiteren Kapiteln wird über die Verbreitung der hochwertigen, aber teuren Maybach-Automobile und deren Besitzer im Rhein-Neckar-Dreieck und der Pfalz zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen sowie über Exponate der Marke Maybach im musealen Bereich berichtet.

Ein ausführliches Kapitel gilt der Schienentraktion und dem Wahl-Heidelberger Franz Kruckenberg als maßgeblichem Konstrukteur des legendären Schienenzeppelins und weiterer Schienenfahrzeuge.
Mit zuletzt einem Anhang über anfangs 1920 bei Maybach gefertigten Motoren für ebenfalls exklusive MARS-Motorräder bestätigen sich auch in deren damaliger Verbreitung im Rhein-Neckar-Dreieck und der Pfalz die breit gefächerten Produktionsmöglichkeiten der Firma Maybach.