Airships - Germany: Books - History, Types and Construction

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.

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 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

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.

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.