Airships in International Political Competition, 1924–28

Abstract

The arrival of airship ZR3 in America produced a wave of zeppelin excitement, and almost at once Eckener and his officers began a crowded schedule of receptions and addresses in the major cities of eastern America. After the initial celebrations in Washington and New York, the airshipmen mixed business, politicking and pleasure in Akron, Cleveland and Detroit. The mayor of the Motor City praised the German commander: ‘[Since 1918] a barrier of ice has lain between the American and German people, which you and your airship have now smashed!’ Thereupon followed four days in Chicago, with another fortnight in Washington and New York. Returned to Germany, Eckener was overwhelmed with attention from newsmen and politicians of every persuasion. In contrast to the American acclaim for German technological prowess and the prospects for intercontinental airship travel, Germans celebrated the end of their postwar international political ostracism and claimed a moral victory over the mean spirit of Versailles. At his tumultuous welcome in Berlin the same Scherl publishers who had first advertised Count Zeppelin in 1903 now committed Eckener to six further exhausting public appearances Germany-wide. Thus the now-renowned airship commander stood in the glare of worldwide publicity, which he would intemperately bear for the next fifteen years.¹