Rackwitz Erich - Journeys and adventures aboard the Zeppelin (1960) (Original edition)
Author: Erich Rackwitz · Subtitle: ‘Based on the experiences and memories of Dr Hugo Eckener’ · Publisher: Verlag Sport und Technik · Foreword: May 1960 (3rd edition), written in memory of Hugo Eckener, who died on 14 August 1954.
The book opens with a foreword in which Erich Rackwitz recounts his encounters with Dr Hugo Eckener, whom he had visited on the shores of Lake Constance whilst preparing a book on Zeppelins aimed at young people. Eckener, an elderly man who had recently suffered a stroke, had agreed to share his memories on the condition that he would not be portrayed as a hero: ‘I have never wanted anything more than what unites all mankind’. Death overtook him before the project was completed.
The first chapter, ‘The Mad Count’, traces the career of Ferdinand von Zeppelin: a career officer until the age of fifty-two, convinced since a 1874 lecture in Berlin that a rigid airship was feasible, he had to contend with the scepticism of engineers and the authorities. Following the establishment of a company and the construction of the LZ 1 in 1900 at Manzell near Friedrichshafen, and after the failures of subsequent airships, the LZ 3 proved a triumph in October 1906: the public fundraising campaign triggered by the Echterdingen disaster in 1908 raised six million marks, which enabled the founding of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH. The book then describes the early days of passenger transport before 1914, the military use of Zeppelins during the First World War — fifty-two airships lost out of seventy-eight — and the handover to Eckener, who believed in a peaceful future for the airship.
The central section follows the great flights of the ‘Graf Zeppelin ’ (LZ 127), built in 1928 thanks to a public subscription of 2.5 million marks and a Reich grant. The book recounts the first Atlantic crossing in October 1928 – storms, damage, but a triumphant reception in New York – followed by the cruises of 1929: the Mediterranean and Palestine in March, the round-the-world flight from August to September, funded in particular by the American press, and finally the journey to South America which began in May 1930, the first crossing of the equatorial zone. One chapter is devoted to the early days of Arctic aviation, from Andrée’s attempt in a free balloon in 1897 to the Zeppelin’s polar cruise in 1931.
The final chapter, ‘A Dark End’, describes the intensive use of the LZ 127 — over five hundred flights and two million kilometres between 1929 and 1936 — followed by its decline: the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 and the scrapping of the ‘Graf Zeppelin’ bring the epic to a close. The narrative, based on Eckener’s memoirs, combines a reconstruction of technical details with dialogue-driven scenes from the great voyages.
Notably, this book was written in the GDR in 1960, against the political backdrop of the time (Eckener was honoured in 1952 for his ‘pan-European’ commitment).
280 pages – This is the third, revised edition (“Dritte, verbesserte Auflage”), printed in the GDR in 1960 (marked “Gedruckt in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik”, licence no. 545’52/60) by Verlag Sport und Technik, Neuenhagen bei Berlin — with a dust jacket and binding by Günter Brandt.