Empires of the Sky

by Alexander Rose

  11. De Syon, Zeppelin!, pp. 45, 63.

  12. See letters reproduced in H. G. Knäusel, Zeppelin and the United States of America: An Important Episode in German-American Relations (Friedrichshafen, Germany: Luftschiffbau Zeppelin, 1981), pp. 26, 170.

  13. Freud’s comment appears in his Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (London: Allen & Unwin, 1929), p. 155. A sixteen-year-old, diagnosed by Oskar Pfister with obsessional neurosis, dreamt that “I saw a Zeppelin airship and went after it. It landed in H. on a meadow. Then there was something with maps in the car or somewhere else. Then I went off and was finally in C. near the station there. I asked for directions how to get home and was led to a house. There were various dried fish and thick green seaweed, out of which, a white worm came. Then, I finally came home. Everything was full of laundry in great disorder. Then the Zeppelin flew directly over our house and made a kind of salt hail. Then someone said to me, that is a trial of a method by which it could destroy all crops in case of war.” O. Pfister (trans. C. R. Payne), The Psychoanalytic Method (New York: Moffat, Yard, and Company, 1919), p. 283.

  14. Fritzsche, A Nation of Fliers, pp. 17, 20.

  15. The New York Times ridiculed the pseudonymous “Rudolph von Elphberg,” author of that December 1906 article devastatingly lampooning Zeppelin as a bankrupt fool, in “Zeppelin’s Strenuous Career,” July 25, 1909.

  16. H. Kaufman, “Learn to Believe in Yourself,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 30, 1908. See, similarly, “Compensation,” The Youth’s Companion, September 3, 1908. For a summary of changing views of Zeppelin, see G. de Syon, “Searching for the German Hero: Biographies of Count Zeppelin, 1908–1938,” in Memory, History, and Critique: European Identity at the Millennium, ed. F. Brinkhuis and S. Talmor, Proceedings of the Fifth ISSEI Conference at the University for Humanist Studies, Utrecht, The Netherlands, August 1996 (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998).

  15. Kings of the Sky

  1. “Zeppelin Tells How His Airship Was Destroyed,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 6, 1908.

  2. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 66.

  3. Fritzsche, A Nation of Fliers, p. 25. For a fuller excerpt, see Italiaander, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, p. 96.

  4. G. De Syon, “Bangs and Whimpers: The German Public and Two Zeppelin Disasters,” in R. B. Browne and A. G. Neal (eds.), Ordinary Reactions to Extraordinary Events (Bowling Green, Oh.: Popular Press, 2001), pp. 173–74.

  5. “The Zeppelin Airship Disaster,” Scientific American, August 15, 1908; “The Wreck of the Zeppelin IV,” Scientific American, Supplement, September 5, 1908, p. 149.

  6. As early as 1906, Eckener had proposed building a network of safe “airship harbors” throughout Germany. Eckener’s article, dated October 14, 1906, is quoted in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 52.

  7. “Tragic End for Monarch of Air,” Boston Daily Globe, August 6, 1908.

  8. McCullough, The Wright Brothers, pp. 152–53, 160.

  9. McCullough, The Wright Brothers, pp. 155–73, 210; The Observer, August 16, 1908; “The Wright Aeroplane Tests,” Scientific American, August 29, 1908. For Wilbur as man of the year and century, see George Prade’s article in Les Sports, January 1, 1909, cited in R. Wohl, A Passion for Wings: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1908–1918 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994), p. 33.

  10. A. Gollin, No Longer an Island: Britain and the Wright Brothers, 1902–1909 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1984), p. 291.

  11. McCullough, The Wright Brothers, pp. 183–92; Gollin, No Longer an Island, pp. 371–72.

  12. McCullough, The Wright Brothers, p. 174.

  13. Advertisements in Current Literature, July 1909, p. 115; Smart Set, November 1, 1909.

  14. The Youth’s Companion, October 20, 1910, p. 575; M. Cutler, “New Christmas Toys,” Harper’s Bazaar, December 1909, p. 1223.

  15. “Zeppelin in Berlin; Welcomed by Kaiser,” The New York Times, August 30, 1909. See also the report in the Tägliche Rundschau, printed in Italiaander, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, pp. 110–11.

  16. Quoted in G. De Syon, “Airplane or Airship? The Cultural Dimensions of a Transatlantic Debate,” paper presented at the 4th International Airship Convention and Exhibition, Cambridge, England, July 31, 2002, p. 2.

  17. “Count Zeppelin Praises Wright,” Atlanta Constitution, August 14, 1908.

  18. “Wright Sees No Hope in Zeppelin Airship,” The New York Times, September 4, 1909.

  19. “Wright Makes Balloon Trip,” The New York Times, September 16, 1909.

  20. “Wright 1,600 Feet Up in Berlin Flight,” The New York Times, October 3, 1909; “The Record Flights of Orville and Wilbur Wright,” Scientific American, October 16, 1909, p. 274.

  21. For Wilbur’s views, see Gollin, No Longer an Island, pp. 299–300.

  16. Zeppelin City

  1. For a compilation of aircraft developers in 1909, see Gibbs-Smith, Invention of the Aeroplane, Appendix 1, pp. 268–87. For the later numbers, see “Aviation as a Business,” The Washington Post, August 27, 1911.

  2. McCullough, The Wright Brothers, pp. 252–58.

  3. Machinery, June 1, 1909, p. 795.

  4. For these vignettes, see Lehmann, Zeppelin, pp. 117–18.

  5. On Colsman, see H.-O. Swientek, “Alfred Colsman (1873–1955): Ein Leben Für Die Deutsche Luftfahrt,” Tradition: Zeitschrift für Firmengeschichte und Unternehmerbiographie 10 (1965), no. 3, pp. 112–26. Much of the following information is drawn from this key source, as well as from Italiaander, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, pp. 97–98. On his physical appearance, see Price, “How It Feels to Fall into a Forest,” Literary Digest, p. 218.

  6. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 41; “School of Aeronauts,” The Washington Post, July 2, 1908, reporting on a speech by Zeppelin to the Assocation of German Engineers.

  7. “Zeppelin Building Factory,” The New York Times, September 7, 1908; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 42.

  8. Swientek, “Alfred Colsman,” p. 122.

  9. Lehmann, Zeppelin, p. 142.

  10. For Eckener’s comment, see Swientek, “Alfred Colsman,” p. 117.

  11. Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 73, 113; E. L. Kuhn, “Zeppelin und die Folgen: Die Industrialisierung der Stadt Friedrichshafen,” undated transcript of a seminar talk, in the Henry Cord Meyer Papers, Box 3, Folder 2, p. 23. On women employees, see De Syon, Zeppelin!, p. 65.

  12. Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 113–16; H. Vissering, Zeppelin: The Story of a Great Achievement (Chicago: Henry Vissering, 1922), pp. 41–42; Meyer, “Building Rigid Airships: Three Communities and Their Changing Fortunes,” in Airshipmen, Businessmen, and Politics, pp. 99–100; Kuhn, “Zeppelin und die Folgen,” pp. 19–20 (there had been threats of a strike in 1911). Such model villages as Zeppelin’s were not uncommon in Germany, though by this time they were usually run by municipalities rather than by private firms. See, for instance, F. C. Howe, “Düsseldorf: A City of Tomorrow,” Hampton’s Magazine, December 1, 1910. Krupp, the industrial concern, originated the concept of a company town serving as a state within a state in the early 1860s. Zeppelin’s opinion on the matter is encapsulated in a diary entry of June 1896: “I too see in the advanced state of discontent among agricultural and industrial wage-earners and of many of the petty bourgeoisie and small farmers a great and imminent danger to the existing political and social order. I share the view that the authors and disseminators of this discontent must be the more energetically opposed, the less real ground there is for discontent or where it exists, as in a general trade depression—the less the government and employers are able to remedy it. I do not base my opinion, like others, upon the right of self-preservation—no one has a moral right to preservation at the cost of his betters—but upon the unconditional duty of defending the existing weal of the whole community against forces which merely destroy without
being able to create anything valuable.” Quoted in Eckener, Count Zeppelin, pp. 202–3.

  13. Quoted in Meyer, “In Search of the Real Count Zeppelin,” in Airshipmen, Businessmen, and Politics, 1890–1940, p. 41.

  17. The Wonder Weapons

  1. See I. F. Clarke, The Great War with Germany, 1890–1914: Fictions and Fantasies of the War-to-Come (Liverpool, U.K.: Liverpool University Press, 1997), pp. 233–47; R. Wohl, A Passion for Wings: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1908–1918 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994), pp. 76–79.

  2. Quoted in Fritzsche, A Nation of Fliers, p. 40.

  3. Quoted in Meyer, Count Zeppelin, p. 55.

  4. Quoted in De Syon, Zeppelin!, p. 76.

  5. Meyer, “In Search of the Real Count Zeppelin,” in Meyer, Airshipmen, Businessmen, and Politics, p. 42.

  6. Meyer, “In Search of the Real Count Zeppelin,” pp. 40, 45.

  7. In an interview with the Daily Mail, July 11 and October 9, 1908; A. M. Gollin, “England Is No Longer an Island: The Phantom Airship Scare of 1909,” Albion 13 (1981), no. 1, pp. 46, 48; Wohl, A Passion for Wings, pp. 80, 296, n. 37. Martin may have flattered himself, or liked to boast, that he had the kaiser’s ear, but he was in fact dismissed from his Statistical Office position by a disciplinary hearing around the time of the interview.

  8. D. Clarke, “Scareships over Britain: The Airship Wave of 1909,” Fortean Studies 6 (1999), pp. 39–63.

  9. For an early mention of the concept, see “Lines of Airships,” Los Angeles Times, July 9, 1908.

  10. De Syon, Zeppelin!, p. 78. Moltke only kept those three, Colsman claimed, because he trembled at the thought of the public backlash that would ensue if the army yet again “ignored” St. Zeppelin. Colsman, cited in Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 62.

  11. “Zeppelin Airships No Longer in Favor,” The New York Times, May 23, 1909.

  18. The Lucky Ship

  1. O. C. von Verschuer, “Airship Anchorages,” Scientific American, June 17, 1911, p. 384.

  2. Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 91–92.

  3. On the Reichshalle, see Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 52.

  4. “The Aeronautic Exposition in Frankfort,” Scientific American, Supplement, no. 1755, August 21, 1909, pp. 121–22.

  5. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 52; Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 112.

  6. “Riding on the Air Flyer,” Kansas City Times, June 23, 1910.

  7. Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 93; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 55. See also “The First Aerial Liner,” Literary Digest, July 2, 1910, pp. 3–4.

  8. G. Ward Price, “The Psychology of Air Travel,” Daily Mail, July 5, 1910.

  9. C. Dienstbach, “The Wreck of the Deutschland,” Scientific American, July 9, 1910, p. 26.

  10. “The Deutschland’s Fall,” Literary Digest, July 23, 1910, p. 129.

  11. “Deutschland’s Fall,” p. 129.

  12. Price, “The Psychology of Air Travel.” On the crash, see Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 55.

  13. Quoted in Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 93.

  14. For the contract between Eckener and the DELAG, dated August 1911, see Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 114.

  15. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 56; Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships, pp. 61–63; Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 115.

  16. On the average wage, see Duggan and Meyer, Airships in International Affairs, p. 38. On promotional materials, see Robinson, Giants in the Sky, pp. 56–58. On weekly fatalities between 1910 and 1914, see B. Williams, “The War Aeroplane Here and Abroad,” Scientific American, November 4, 1916, p. 412.

  17. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 58.

  18. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, pp. 58–59. Eckener mentioned the 150-trip rule in a 1913 speech, printed in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 117.

  19. “Wind Statistics for Aeronauts,” Scientific American, April 30, 1910.

  20. Zeppelin had previously cited Hergesell’s work in an article, probably drafted with Eckener’s help. See “Dirigible Airships,” Scientific American, Supplement, December 22, 1906, pp. 25886–25888.

  21. Lehmann, Zeppelin, p. 45.

  22. T. R. MacMechen and C. Dienstbach, “Over Sea by Airship,” The Century, May 1910, pp. 120–22.

  23. Charles C. Turner, “Flying in the Future,” Scientific American, Supplement, no. 1783, March 5, 1910, pp. 154–55; MacMechen and Dienstbach, “Over Sea by Airship,” pp. 120–21; “How to Find Your Way in the Air,” Scientific American, July 8, 1911, pp. 24–25. Eckener discussed the creation of the weather-information network in his memoirs, quoted in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 115.

  24. On Dürr, Arnstein, Jaray, and the relationship between design and analysis, see Topping, When Giants Roamed the Sky, pp. 34–43.

  25. De Syon, Zeppelin!, pp. 84–85.

  26. C. Dientsbach, “A Journey in a Passenger-Carrying Zeppelin Airship,” Scientific American, June 29, 1912, pp. 580, 591–92. Parts of this section are based on his follow-up article, “A Journey in a Zeppelin: Impressions of a Trip in the Airship Viktoria Luise,” Scientific American, May 17, 1913, pp. 449–50, but the circumstances were identical. See also W. Kaempffert, “How It Feels to Fly: From Châlons to Vincennes in a Biplane,” The World’s Work 16 (1910), October, pp. 515–18; and T. Baldwin, “How It Feels to Fly,” The World’s Work 15 (1910), January, pp. 127–30. The poet Hermann Hesse described similar experiences, printed as “A Jaunt in the Air,” printed in Italiaander, Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, pp. 120–22. For menus and beverages, see D. Robinson, “Passenger Flying in the Big Zeppelins,” unpublished essay, in the Robinson Papers, Box 10, Folder 4, pp. 2, 4; G. de Syon, “Is it Really Better to Travel Than to Arrive? Airline Food as a Reflection of Consumer Anxiety,” in Food for Thought: Essays on Eating and Culture, ed. L. C. Rubin (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2008), p. 200; on stamps and postcards, see Robinson, “Passenger Flying in the Big Zeppelins,” in Robinson Papers, Box 10, Folder 4, p. 4; on Heinrich Kubis, see facesofthehindenburg.blogspot.com/​2008/​12/​heinrich-kubis.html.

  19. The High Priests

  1. Undated 1912 letter to Colsman, printed in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 121.

  2. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 356.

  3. Undated 1912 letter to Colsman, printed in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, p. 121. On the movie, see De Syon, Zeppelin!, p. 63.

  4. T. R. MacMechen and C. Dienstbach, “The Greyhounds of the Air,” Everybody’s Magazine, September 1912, p. 295.

  5. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 61.

  6. Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 67, n. 18; Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 103–4.

  7. MacMechen and Dienstbach, “Greyhounds of the Air,” pp. 300–301.

  8. C. Dienstbach, “A Study of the Giant Airship of the Future,” Scientific American, August 26, 1911, pp. 185–86.

  9. MacMechen and Dienstbach, “Over Sea by Airship,” pp. 127, 129.

  10. MacMechen and Dienstbach, “Over Sea by Airship,” pp. 115–16; E. Alt, “By Air Across the Atlantic Ocean,” Scientific American, Supplement, no. 1800, pp. 13–14; W. Warntz, “Transatlantic Flights and Pressure Patterns,” Geographical Review 51 (1961), no. 2, pp. 192–96.

  11. Anon., “Proposed Transatlantic Airship Flight,” Scientific American, October 1, 1910, pp. 259, 264–66; “Wellman Airship Is Safely Launched,” The New York Times, September 25, 1910; “Wellman Tells of His Record Airship Voyage,” The New York Times, October 20, 1910; “Sailor to Pilot Wellman Airship,” The New York Times, September 6, 1910; J. Christopher, Transatlantic Airships: An Illustrated History (Ramsbury, U.K.: Crowood Press, 2010), pp. 20–27.

  12. Duggan and Meyer, Airships in International Affairs, pp. 38–40; De Syon, Zeppelin!, p. 80.

>   13. Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships, pp. 68–69; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 80; Belafi, The Zeppelin, p. 122.

  14. C. Dienstbach, “Lessons of the Disasters of the L-II,” Scientific American, November 1, 1913, p. 340; “Expert Report on the Last Zeppelin Disaster,” Scientific American, November 22, 1913, p. 395; E. Forlanini, “Causes of Accidents with Airships,” Scientific American, Supplement, no. 1998, April 18, 1914, pp. 255–56; Belafi, The Zeppelin, pp. 123–24. The composition of the crew is given variously, but Belafi’s seems the most authoritative.

  15. Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships, pp. 68–71; Robinson, Giants in the Sky, p. 81.

  16. R. Holanda, A History of Aviation Safety: Featuring the U.S. Airline System (Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, 2009), p. 25.

  17. Dienstbach, “Lessons of the Disasters of the L-II,” Scientific American, p. 340.

  18. See the 1915 edition of Yahrbuch der Schiffbautechrische Gesselschaft, published as “Zeppelin Airships: An Address, Historical and Descriptive, by Their Designer,” Scientific American, Supplement, no. 2091, January 29, 1916, pp. 77–79.

  19. Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships, Appendix 3, “DELAG Operations in Germany, 1910–1914,” p. 198.

  20. Memorandum, April 2, 1914, printed in Italiaander, Ein Deutscher Namens Eckener, pp. 182–83.

  21. On DELAG’s four-year revenue and expenditure, see Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships, Appendix 2, “Commercial Operations with Rigid Airships,” p. 194. Between 1910 and 1914, operating costs amounted to 4,260,000 marks.

  22. MacMechen and Dienstbach, “Over Sea by Airship,” pp. 126–27.