History of Sorts

Although designed and built for commercial transatlantic passenger, air freight, and mail service, at the behest of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda , Hindenburg was first pressed into use by the Air Ministry as a vehicle for the delivery of Nazi propaganda

And in the 1930’s it must have been an awesome sight,indeed it still would be quite a site in the skies nowadays. Below is just an indication how big the Hindenbirg was compared to a boeing 747

Hindenburg made appearances at public events such as the 1936 Berlin Games and the Nuremberg Party rally, and Hindenburg’s first major flight, after test flights were completed, was a 74-hour propaganda flight in support of Hitler’s remilitarization of the Rhineland.

When boxer Max Schmeling defeated African American boxer Joe Louis,on June 18, 1936, at the famous Yankee Stadiumin Bronx, New York , the Nazi government arranged for Schmeling to return to Germany on Hindenburg.

After its basic test flights in early March, 1936, Hindenburg was scheduled to make a series of endurance trials in preparation for its first transatlantic crossing on March 31, 1936.

Hindenburg made 17 round trips across the Atlantic in 1936—its first and only full year of service—with ten trips to the United States and seven to Brazil. The flights were considered demonstrative rather than routine in schedule. The first passenger trip across the North Atlantic left Frankfurt on May 6 with 56 crew and 50 passengers, arriving in Lakehurst on May 9

With the success of Hindenburg’s 1936 season, eighteen round-trip flights between Germany and the United States were scheduled for 1937, and a companion ship, LZ-130, was nearing completion at the Zeppelin Company construction shed in Friedrichshafen.

On Hindenburg’s first North American flight of the 1937 season, under the command of Captain Max Pruss, the Hindenburg crashed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 13 of the 36 passengers, 22 of the 61 crew, and a civilian member of the ground handling team, and the era of transcontinental passenger .

In New York City, funeral services for the 28 Germans who lost their lives in the Hindenburg disaster were held on the Hamburg-American pier, on May 11, 1937. About 10,000 members of German organizations lined the pier. Seems to be a mixture of Nazi Germany, American, and German-American Bund flags.

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