The DZR was also a way to decrease the influence of Hugo Eckener, who had demonstrated his hostility to the National Socialist regime, and to reorient the airship away from Hugo Eckener’s internationalist vision. The establishment of the DZR may have also been partly inspired by the bureaucratic rivalry between Air Minister Göring and Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, and Goering’s commitment of 9 million marks to the zeppelin project, on condition of the creation of the DZR, came shortly after Goebbels offered the Zeppelin Company 2 million marks toward the completion of LZ-129 in the summer of 1934. In a speech marking the founding of the DZR, Göring commented: “I hope that the new ship will also fulfill its duty in furthering the cause of Germany… The airship does not have the exclusive purpose of flying across the Atlantic, but also has a responsibility to act as the nation’s representative.”
The DZR was created at the instigation of Air Minister Hermann Göring as a way to increase Nazi control over zeppelin operations, and can be see as part of the larger policy of Gleichschaltung, or coordination, which affected all aspects of German life in the years following Hitler’s assumption of power.Ĭonsistent with Nazi ideology, the airship was expected to be more than just a private commercial venture it was to be a public symbol of the new German nation. With the establishment of the DZR, airship activities were divided between the LZ, which would continue to build the airships, and the DZR, which would operate them. Prior to the establishment of the DZR, passenger zeppelins were built by the Luftshiffbau Zeppelin (the Zeppelin Airship Construction Company, known as the “LZ”) and operated by DELAG ( Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft, or German Airship Transportation Corporation Ltd), which was established in 1909 as an offshoot of the LZ and dominated by Hugo Eckener. The Deutsche Zeppelin-Reederei (the German Zeppelin Transport Company, or DZR) was established on March 22, 1935, to operate German passenger airships.
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