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| Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin |
Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin (8 July 1838-8 March 1917) was a German general and later aircraft manufacturer, who founded the Zeppelin Airship Company.
Ferdinand was the scion of a noble family. Zepelin, the family's eponymous hometown, is a small community outside the town of Bützow in Mecklenburg.
Ferdinand had a nephew Baron Max von Gemmingen who was to later volunteer at the start of World War I, after he was past military age, to become a general staff officer assigned to the military airship LZ 12 Sachsen.
In 1853 Count Zeppelin left to attend the polytechnic at Stuttgart, and in 1855 he became a cadet of the military school at Ludwigsburg and then started his career as an army officer in the army of Württemberg.
By 1858, Zeppelin had been promoted to Lieutenant, and that year he was given leave to study science, engineering and chemistry at Tübingen. The Prussians mobilizing for the Austro-Sardinian War interrupted this study in 1859 when he was called up to the Ingenieurkorps, Prussian engineering corps, at Ulm.
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| The Graf Zeppelin Airship |
In 1863 Zeppelin took leave to act as an observer for the Union's Army of the Potomac in the American Civil War in Virginia.
Later, Zeppelin travelled to the Upper Midwest with a party that probably included two Russians. Led by Native American, probably Ojibwe, guides, they canoed and portaged from the western end of Lake Superior up the St. Louis River and across to Crow Wing, Minnesota on the Upper Mississippi River.
On reaching St. Paul, via stagecoach and hired carriage, Zeppelin encountered German-born itinerant balloonist John Steiner and made his first aerial ascent with him from a site near the International Hotel in downtown St. Paul on 19 August. Many years later he attributed the beginning of his thinking about dirigible light-than-air craft to this experience.
More information: Airships
In 1865 Zeppelin was appointed adjutant of the King of Württemberg and as general staff officer participated in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. He was awarded the Ritterkreuz, Knight's Cross, of the Order of Distinguished Service of Württemberg. In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/1871 a reconnaissance mission behind enemy lines, during which he narrowly avoided capture, made him famous among Germans.
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| The LZ-127 Graf Zeppelin |
From 1882 until 1885 Zeppelin was commander of the 19th Uhlans in Ulm, and was then appointed to be the envoy of Württemberg in Berlin. In 1890, he gave up this post to return to army service, being given command of a Prussian cavalry brigade.
His handling of this at the 1890 autumn manoeuvres was severely criticized, and he was forced to retire from the Army, albeit with the rank of Generalleutnant.
His handling of this at the 1890 autumn manoeuvres was severely criticized, and he was forced to retire from the Army, albeit with the rank of Generalleutnant.
Count Zeppelin died in 1917, before the end of World War I, therefore he did not witness either the provisional shutdown of the Zeppelin project due to the Treaty of Versailles or the second resurgence of the Zeppelins under his successor Hugo Eckener.
The unfinished World War II German aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, and two rigid airships, the world-circling LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, and LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II, twin to the Hindenburg, were named after him.
More information: History
It’s only natural that no-one should back me up,
because no-one dares to take a leap in the dark.
But my goal is clear, and my calculations are correct.
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin
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