Hugo Eckener - The Golden Age of The Rigid Airship

The Golden Age of The Rigid Airship

Refused funds by the impecunious Weimar government, Eckener and his colleagues began a nationwide fund-raising lecture tour in order to commence construction of Graf Zeppelin, which became the most successful rigid airship ever built.

The first flight to America was fraught with drama; on the outbound flight the airship was nearly lost after becoming caught in a severe storm. Fabric was ripped off the left fin. The ship was saved only by Eckener's skilled piloting and the courage of his son, Knut Eckener, and other crew members who climbed out onto the fin to repair the damage. Upon arrival in America, a country which Eckener grew to love, he and the crew were subject to the first of two New York ticker tape parades.

Eckener captained Graf Zeppelin during most of its record-setting flights, including the 1928 first intercontinental passenger airship flight, the 1929 flight around the world (the only such flight by an airship, and the second by an aircraft of any type) and the 1931 Arctic flight.

A master of publicity as well as a master airship captain, Eckener used the Graf Zeppelin to establish the Zeppelin as a symbol of German pride and engineering.

After these flights the public treated Eckener as a national hero. During the early 1930s, Eckener was one of the most well-known and respected figures in Weimar Republic Germany.

In the German presidential election, 1932 Eckener had intended to run against Hitler, and this angered the Nazi party. In supposed anger and fear of Eckener, Hitler's de facto deputy, Hermann Esser, once called him the "director of the flying weisswurst". He was encouraged to campaign for the presidency to oppose the National Socialist German Workers Party. Contrary to popular belief, Eckener accepted to campaign for president, but stopped when Paul von Hindenburg campaigned for President again.